Monday, April 03, 2006

Birthright Unplugged

Several years ago, I got into a disturbing conversation with a zionist tabler at my school. She was trying to recruit for the local jewish organization and I, as I tend to do, asked what their position on Palestine was. She said some not-so-hip things and I was a bit taken aback. Newsjunkie that I am, I had recently read a number of incredibly disturbing articles about children and farmers getting shot up in the olive fields. The conversation was a bit heated by this point, but her response couldn't be excused by any level of emotion. She said: "Well, they're just going to grow up to want to kill you anyway." This is not anywhere near the kind of comment I respond well to. The sonic boom that resulted knocked a helicopter off course.
Needless to say, I've taken a pretty calloused view of this sort of thing and am always on the look out for positive Jewish contributions to the Palestinian liberation struggle. For years, people have talked about "birthright," the program that sends, free of charge, international jewish youth to Israel for "Educational" tours. For years, I've complained about it. But, ah, now there is something else to send people to, besides the International Solidarity Movement (What? You think I'd forget?). Birthright Unplugged. Check it out.


Also, because it is important to understand the context of Israel/Palestine, a great book is Primo Levi's "If Not Now, When?" Levi's writing captures a slice of Zionism when it was still largely an idea and helps contemporary readers understand the historical basis for the movement.

1 Comments:

Blogger Sunrise Dancer said...

Hi.

There's no place on your site with your email address, and I can't find the mail you sent. So ...

You're doing a great job. And you actually got the Zinn book up.

mazel tov

2:46 PM  

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