More than Meets the Eye

The Group

I have learned that the world isn’t black and white. You get handed to you how to advocate for Israel. You won’t get handed to you what your views should be about Israel. If you want the easy way out you can hide behind others but if you really want to have an impact on the world it’s going to take work.

In the past three weeks we have traveled all over. We’ve been to some touristic sites but also to historical places and informational sites. At all these places we would listen to lectures either by the professional in that department or by our tour guide. But all we learnt was factual.  And half way through the trip I was getting upset that I wasn’t being given something to be able to go back home and advocate for Israel for.

Then when having a conversation with people from different groups in Israel I realized that at times the factual things are what people need to hear. Even though the fact that Israel has a community building mud houses won’t solve the issues in the Middle East, it will enlighten people that Israel is more than just a war zone. Israel has so many great things happening that don’t have to do with the fighting at all. Being in Israel during a conflict as big as what is happening now has really shown me that. In America when listening to the news all you hear it how many missiles have been shot today and how many people have died. No one takes a step back to see the whole country, to see people are still going to work and are still living their lives.
This trip to Israel has been a trip completely different than any one I have ever taken or will ever take. I was with 12 kids, each with completely different backgrounds and knowledge of Israel. We visited places I would have never visited with my family or with a tourist group. We had conversations that made me think outside of the box and I hope I gave insight to other people’s thoughts. Overall I learnt a lot about Israel and I believe that I can go home and teach people that Israel is more than just a disputed land.

Coming into this program, I didn't know really what to expect. I thought we would be making a documentary and didn’t actually think we would be doing a blog. I thought it would be lots of lectures about how to advocate for Israel and for the organization to shove their view down our throats. Yet these past three weeks have been completely different then what I expected.
     
   --Hadas Ben-David