The Immigration Nation Tour!
Overview of the Jewish Law of Return and
Immigration of Jewish Communities from Around the World
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Background: Common accusations we hear on campuses these days include statements such as “Israelis are occupiers from Europe…”; “Jews are white colonialists …” ; “Israel is a racist state…” and the list goes on. The most recent example comes from an article written by a Professor at Columbia University in response to SSI’s “Hebrew Liberation Week” event, and goes as far as stating that “Suggesting, as the [SSI] posters do, that Jews have been driven out of their land (like indigenous people) and have finally returned to Israel–a trajectory that all indigenous people should unite behind–is a crude and cynical manipulation of (Jewish) history and a vulgar fabrication that not only makes no sense, but is also offensive in its use and abuse of indigenous peoples’ histories of oppression.”[1]
In addition, while it should be clear that sovereign countries have the right to define their own immigration laws, Israel is constantly being criticized for the right of return it provides for Jewish people to the Jewish homeland. Moreover, questions are raised as to why those who are considered by UNRWA to be Palestinian refugees are not also given the right of return to Israel. All these accusations and critiques are being voiced while completely ignoring the unprecedented miracle of immigration absorption on a mass scale that happened in Israel, where people from many different backgrounds were successfully able to come together as one nation and create a new identity, the “Israeli”. [1] http://contendingmodernities.nd.edu/theorizing-modernities/forget-pinkwashing-brownwashing-time-self-orientalizing-us-campus/ |
Contact us to host the event on your campus:
*This campaign is also open to non-SSI Israel campus groups!
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This campaign brings together a panel of 3-4 speakers, Israelis from diverse backgrounds such as Ethiopian, Russian, Iraqi and Yemenite... each speaker will present the story of their community immigrating to Israel and of other communities not represented on the panel. Some of the stories include the over 1 million people who came from former USSR republics, Operation Solomon to bring Jews from Ethiopia and Operation Magic Carpet to bring Jews from Yemen and much more! Following the community story, personal accounts of assimilation into the Israeli identity are shared.
The presentation starts with an overview of the Jewish law of return, its historical significance, how it fulfills the idea of Zionism and a Jewish homeland, and why having a country that defines itself as Jewish is not a topic for debate but an existing fact, and that questioning it means applying a double standards towards Israel. In addition, the goals of the presentation are to show how diverse the Israeli, and especially the Jewish community is, to show how phenomenal it is that a new country was able to absorb such a large amount of immigrants, and contrast the issues of Palestinian refugees as opposed to Jewish immigration returning to Israel.
The presentation starts with an overview of the Jewish law of return, its historical significance, how it fulfills the idea of Zionism and a Jewish homeland, and why having a country that defines itself as Jewish is not a topic for debate but an existing fact, and that questioning it means applying a double standards towards Israel. In addition, the goals of the presentation are to show how diverse the Israeli, and especially the Jewish community is, to show how phenomenal it is that a new country was able to absorb such a large amount of immigrants, and contrast the issues of Palestinian refugees as opposed to Jewish immigration returning to Israel.
VIDEO:
"The amazing story about the Jewish immigration to Israel is that
i'ts not an immigration - It's homecoming!"
- Watch a few moments from the presentation of panelist Naor Bitton, Israeli political and community leader born to parents of Moroccan and Algerian decent: