Farah Stockman Profile picture
Jun 11, 2019 6 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Over 20 years, free #Birthright trips 2 #Israel have become a rite of passage for
American Jews. But over the past year, they have also become a target of Jewish protesters who say the trips "hide" the occupation.nyti.ms/2IwIzn0
Progressive Jewish groups, including @IfNotNowOrg and @jstreetu have asked Birthright to include more information about Arab Israelis and Palestinians. Some walked-off trips last summer to visit Palestinians.
Eric Axelman, director of Israelism, told me: “I’ve never heard of any person who has had any conversation with a Palestinian about politics on a Birthright trip.” His trip visited a Dead Sea resort but the guide didn't talk about the fact that they were in the West Bank.
It's not just @jstreetu. Princeton started its own trips to Israel 8 years ago after students complained about #Birthright. “Kids want to see both sides of the story, however supportive they are of Israel,” said fmr US ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer who leads Princeton trip
I wanted to know what it was like to be on a #Birthright trip that had a walk off. I interviewed 6 pple from that trip, some who walked off and some who didn’t. Biggest take away: Even those who didn’t agree with the walk-off expressed an interesting in hearing from Palestinians
I’d love to hear from readers about their own #Birthright trips. What was the best part? The worst part? Do you feel you learned enough about the conflict on the trip, or are you happy with the experience? tinyurl.com/y2a6usys

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More from @fstockman

Aug 26, 2021
My heart is breaking for Afghanistan. But let's not forget: Kabul has been rocked by explosions and unacceptably violent attacks for many years. If you think the past 15 years has been relatively peaceful there, you weren't paying attention.
Another thing people should know: the liberal order that folks are talking about -- of women working, choosing their spouses, etc. -- simply did not exist for millions of ordinary people even under the US-led occupation. I have been to Gardez, Kandahar, Jalalabad.
I was always the only woman on the street. The only place outside Kabul that I saw lots of women driving, shopping, working was Herat, where many Afghans had been refugees in Iran, a more liberal place than Pashtun parts of Afghanistan. Americans seem oblivious to the fact that
Read 5 tweets
Sep 30, 2020
My latest piece is about a photographer who's spent the last 4 months with "black bloc" anarchists in Denver, Portland, Seattle, Tulsa, Rochester and DC. He joined them to better understand who was setting fires/looting outside racial justice protests. tinyurl.com/y777xj2u
He hung out in chatrooms with the Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front, who don’t accept anyone over 25. In Rochester, “black bloc” seemed a teenage fashion fad. In Tulsa, he saw BLM protesters + Trump supporters pray together.
I got interested in his story because I’d investigated the looting/arson in Minneapolis that unfolded after George’s Floyd’s death. I felt sure that the destruction would distract from and derail the urgent demands for racial justice. But I was wrong, at least in the short term.
Read 6 tweets
Sep 26, 2020
I’m rephrase a tweet since it’s been misunderstood: A businessman told me once “Trump always goes for the jugular.” I thought of it today when I saw that he attended a black economic empowerment forum and released a plan he said will increase Black capital by $500 billion.
Do you believe him? No. But the jugular in this election is the black vote. Trump doesn’t have to peel away all that many black votes to win - maybe 7 %. There’s been a campaign for more than a year among black activists to vote down ballot unless Biden supports reparations.
I don’t know if this ballot campaign will work. But I’m worried. I sense a lack of enthusiasm among young black voters. I think Biden needs to come with a strong message tailored to them, and not just about social safety nets.
Read 5 tweets
Aug 12, 2020
I'm amazed to hear a speech that is as relevant today as it was when it was given: "The withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone."
"More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment."
Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. . . Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply."
Read 6 tweets
Nov 8, 2019
A couple of years ago, my sister, who follows black social media more closely than I do, asked me what I thought of #ADOS. “What’s that?” I asked. nytimes.com/2019/11/08/us/…
“ADOS stands for the American Descendants of Slavery,” my sister said. They believe that black Americans should have their own ethnic category, distinct from African and Caribbean immigrants. “What do you think?”
She said it was controversial because ADOS believes that well-off black immigrants take affirmative action slots at jobs and schools that should be for the descendants of slavery. “I’ll check it out.” I said. It turned out to be the most polarizing subject I’ve ever covered.
Read 22 tweets
Jul 1, 2019
The story of a woman arrested for putting her fetus in harm’s way on the day she got shot showcased a huge divide in the country. Pleasant Grove police department received hate mail from around the country. One man told me: They don’t think it's a baby. nyti.ms/2X8Pubm
In Alabama, it's clear that most people do believe that a fetus is a baby with the same rights as a child who has already been born. I interviewed black women, and white women and white men and even a guy from Bahrain who had settled in Pleasant Grove. They said similar things.
From what I could tell, the talk of the town was that #MarshaeJones was irresponsible to start a fist fight in place where so many people carry guns, and doing so put her unborn baby in harm's way. No black woman I interviewed thought she could go to prison for it, but men did.
Read 6 tweets

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