“Some of the sentiments we heard included ‘Palestinians are unlawfully pushing back’, ‘they are killing a lot of our people’, ‘they are perpetuating violence.’” - Haas MBA iTrek Attendee
“A common critique by attendees was that there were no Palestinian speakers on the trip… It can be difficult to find Palestinians to share their perspective freely in Israeli held areas.” - Cornell MBA iTrek Attendee
“A lot of us throughout the trip were just Googling on our own certain political facts that were brought up…I’m going to be dead honest, after a certain point, I would just pull my headphones out and do my own Googling of the area and see where we were visiting in much more depth, and a few other people did that too, because it just felt overwhelmingly one-sided.” - Haas MBA iTrek Attendee
"Asking about settlements…[the iTrek Guide] would be like ‘yes, that wasn’t Israel’s territory at this point, but then this war happened and it’s claimed and now these people have lived here for 50 years' and that would end up being a book shut type of thing.” - Haas MBA iTrek Attendee
“I feel blindsided…If I wasn’t exposed to the gaps in [the iTrek organizers’] stories, I would have thought that Israel is a victim and everything it’s doing is to protect itself, either that or the country would die.” - Haas MBA iTrek Attendee
“Part of my motivation [for going on iTrek] was to gain a better understanding of the conflict. This was not discussed up front and center and felt like the elephant in the room… I wish the organizers stated more clearly that this was not going to be focused on.” - Cornell MBA iTrek Attendee
“There was not a single point that ever acknowledged that the Israeli government could have done something better…I don’t remember a point on the trip where I heard [the organizers] say anything about regrets regarding what Israel did.” - Haas MBA iTrek Attendee
“The part I liked least was the Tel Aviv part of the trip. It was not super representative. People take away that ‘Israel is so cool’ because of Tel Aviv…I wished there was more emphasis on the whole situation and more education on the broader political context.”