A slight update
I've been having an amazing summer in Israel. The trip I was on was called Hasbara and it was an Israel advocacy program for college students. How to do effective Israel advocacy: programs, speakers, etc. It was almost exclusively based in Jerusalem with the exception of 2 days, out of the 2 1/2 week trip, that was spent up North hiking in the Golan. Our program was full day after day with speaksers and then the nights we all went out to the main street and hung out at differnt bars, restaurants, etc. It was awesome. We lived in the Old City! Literally 3 minutes walk from the Western Wall.
We had political speakers like Raanan Gissin- Advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Ilan Schtulman- Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Daniel Pipes-Director of Middle East Forum, Danny Seaman- Dir. of Israeli Gov. Press Office. David Becker- IDF Spokesperson, Ishmael Khaldi- Israeli Bedouin, Justice Weiner- Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Dr. Dore Gold- Ambassador: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, David Becker- IDF Spokesperson.
Activism Speakers (how to run effective events on Campus)Itamar Marcus- Head of Palestinian Media Watch, Michael Weinstein and Shraga Simons- Heads of Honest Reporting, David Olesker- Jerusalem Center for Communication and Advocacy Training, Michael Eglash- Head of upstartactivist.com, neal Lazarus- Head of awesomeseminars
And other amazing speakers like Dr. Zangen-Chief Medical Officer of Jenin. Sherry Mandel- mother of Koby Mandel who was stoned to death by terrorists when he went on a hike one day. He'd ditched class to go with a friend hiking and both were killed. Caroline Glick- Managing Editor Jerusalem Post.
etc... (believe it or not that was not all of them). Lots of speakers, but it was good. We learned a lot. We got to see the fence and where it was wall- from close and from afar to see the overall picture and we learned why: the legistics of everything.
The trip ended on Tuesday and now I'm just hanging out with friends, going around from Tel Aviv, back to Jerusalem- Old City, to the outskirts of Jerusalem, back to the Old city... etc. Now I'm in Tel Aviv again, tomorrow probably in Netanya, and after that in Karmiel (a small city up north which once a year holds the international dance festival- I am so excited!!) and then back home :-( on Friday.
We had political speakers like Raanan Gissin- Advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Ilan Schtulman- Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Daniel Pipes-Director of Middle East Forum, Danny Seaman- Dir. of Israeli Gov. Press Office. David Becker- IDF Spokesperson, Ishmael Khaldi- Israeli Bedouin, Justice Weiner- Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Dr. Dore Gold- Ambassador: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, David Becker- IDF Spokesperson.
Activism Speakers (how to run effective events on Campus)Itamar Marcus- Head of Palestinian Media Watch, Michael Weinstein and Shraga Simons- Heads of Honest Reporting, David Olesker- Jerusalem Center for Communication and Advocacy Training, Michael Eglash- Head of upstartactivist.com, neal Lazarus- Head of awesomeseminars
And other amazing speakers like Dr. Zangen-Chief Medical Officer of Jenin. Sherry Mandel- mother of Koby Mandel who was stoned to death by terrorists when he went on a hike one day. He'd ditched class to go with a friend hiking and both were killed. Caroline Glick- Managing Editor Jerusalem Post.
etc... (believe it or not that was not all of them). Lots of speakers, but it was good. We learned a lot. We got to see the fence and where it was wall- from close and from afar to see the overall picture and we learned why: the legistics of everything.
The trip ended on Tuesday and now I'm just hanging out with friends, going around from Tel Aviv, back to Jerusalem- Old City, to the outskirts of Jerusalem, back to the Old city... etc. Now I'm in Tel Aviv again, tomorrow probably in Netanya, and after that in Karmiel (a small city up north which once a year holds the international dance festival- I am so excited!!) and then back home :-( on Friday.