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SOME 60 students are rounding off a 10 day Union of Jewish Students-Birthright trip to Israel.
Hailing from all over Britain, for the majority of students it was their first visit to Israel as part of an organised educational programme and many commented on what an emotional journey and eye opening experience the trip had been.
The students' full programme included a visit to the Wadi Ara region near Hadera in central Israel with Jewish Telegraph correspondent Lydia Aisenberg.
On a bitterly cold day the students - who had visited the snow-covered Golan Heights the previous day -toured the former border with Jordan (Green Line).
They were also able to follow the path of the security fence in that area from a vantage point on the Amir mountain range overlooking a large section of the West Bank.
Organised by the International Department of the Givat Haviva Jewish-Arab Centre for Peace, the tour enabled the students to learn about the Arab citizens of Israel and their relationship to the Palestinian people whom in the Wadi Ara area live in very close proximity to each other.
"This was a good opportunity to look at the situation on the ground for themselves and not just rely on the media reports - even the little balanced reporting that we see," said tour leader and Union of Jewish Students chairperson Jonathan Levy a few days later.
"Basically seeing the news face-to-face was a good opportunity for the students to examine the situation from close quarters and make up their own minds," he said.
"Already many of them have commented that they didn't realise just how close Jews and Arabs live to each other in Israel, or of the close proximity to the Green Line some of the West Bank Jewish settlements are situated as in the Amir mountain area where six settlements were just a few minutes down the road."
Jonathan, a Manchester University management studies graduate, added: "The students keep referring back to that particular tour as they learned so much.
"It would seem that the majority of them had no idea of the size of the Arab population inside Israel or the fact they lived peacefully in the country as this is never reported."
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