Stranger in Zion (2020) Full Documentary Film on Israel, Palestine, & Birthright
Olam Films
42,861 views Sep 24, 2020
Stranger in Zion is a full documentary film about Taglit Birthright, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This documentary explores the issues of Jewish identity, Zionism, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the story of an American Jew on a Taglit Birthright trip to Israel.
Directed by Ben Grayzel https://www.bengrayzel.com/
Produced by Olam Films: https://www.olamfilms.com/
Distributed by 7th Art Releasing http://www.7thart.com/films/Stranger-...
00:00 Introduction
01:40 Before Trip
08:45 In Israel
25:35 In West Bank
37:40 Conclusion
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Chapter 1: Introduction
0:055 seconds[Music]
0:1010 secondsin an ancient holy city deep in the west bank of palestine i found myself witnessing a parade of
0:1717 secondsisraeli settlers escorted by dozens of armed soldiers this so-called settler tour which had
0:2525 secondscrossed into a palestinian neighborhood in the segregated city of hevron suddenly brought the israeli-palestinian
0:3232 secondsconflict into direct view this is not what they wanted me to see on my birthright trip
0:3939 seconds[Music]
0:4040 secondswhere do i stand in this situation with my people reclaiming their lost holy land or with the palestinians
0:4848 secondslooking on as their home is slowly taken by an occupying force
0:5757 secondsthis is the greatest thing that the glee does it's a discovery today we reaffirmed the unbreakable bond of friendship
1:031 minute, 3 secondsbetween the citizens and the united states
1:241 minute, 24 seconds[Music]
Chapter 2: Before Trip
1:421 minute, 42 secondsgood morning listeners you're listening to one land many voices on kboo portland my name is leila cannon and on today's
1:491 minute, 49 secondsshow i interview filmmaker and creative storyteller ben grazel ben has an upcoming project he's working on about american jewish identity
1:581 minute, 58 secondsand its connection to israel and i thought that he could provide a different perspective on the show here's ben with us okay boo thanks for coming ben yeah thank you for having me
2:062 minutes, 6 secondslaila um so just give us a little bit of background who you are where you grew up what you what your religion is what you identify as
2:142 minutes, 14 secondsright so i grew up right here in portland i was raised jewish and i had a bar mitzvah and i still identify as jewish but
2:222 minutes, 22 secondsthe religious aspects are certainly not a part of my life and the ethno-religious identity is not a significant part of my identity
2:302 minutes, 30 secondsat this point either i went to hebrew school once a week and we'd have shabbat dinner celebrate the major holidays but other than that you know i really
2:382 minutes, 38 secondsfeel like if i was to just like describe my identity to someone i would say i'm a filmmaker i i'm a student i like
2:452 minutes, 45 secondsto go outside and i don't think that uh when i think about who i am my jewishness comes first but i think it's interesting because
2:532 minutes, 53 secondsthis is what birthright for instance and a lot of these programs are really concerned with is people like me who their jewish identity isn't a
3:013 minutes, 1 secondsignificant part of their life and that's really threatening to a lot of people right so speaking of birthright can you tell us about the upcoming
3:083 minutes, 8 secondsproject that you're working on yeah so uh advertisement came up on my facebook page for an organization called birthright and they were saying you should come on this
3:173 minutes, 17 secondsfree trip to israel and i was thinking about i'm like that could be a really interesting documentary project to make like i have this kind of complicated
3:243 minutes, 24 secondsrelationship with my jewish identity and to the state of israel and it could be really interesting to explore that through a film project for a month
3:313 minutes, 31 secondsand see what happens so what are you expecting
3:383 minutes, 38 seconds[Laughter]
3:423 minutes, 42 secondsyou are so sweet and funny hello my dear hey how you doing nice to see you oh honeybunch
3:503 minutes, 50 secondsgood to see you didn't expect that that's what's called a an ambush i think
3:573 minutes, 57 secondsright now i need to
4:004 minutespull out some chocolates for you
4:164 minutes, 16 secondsbig selection here help yourself germany invaded poland on september 1st
4:264 minutes, 26 seconds1939 very quickly the orders that were issued that limited
4:344 minutes, 34 secondsjewish people's civil rights and freedom to move destroyed the dignity of people
4:424 minutes, 42 secondswith the abuse that was heaped on us exposed many to death by shooting or beating it all started very soon
4:504 minutes, 50 secondsand ended up in us being herded into a ghetto where conditions deteriorated even
4:584 minutes, 58 secondsfurther hunger cold most of my family was sent off to a killing camp called
5:055 minutes, 5 secondstreblinka my grandparents aunts uncles cousins and extended family as well
5:135 minutes, 13 secondsat one point the children were all gathered up and sent to their death
5:205 minutes, 20 secondsincluding my four-year-old sister dorka then my father was sent away we didn't know where or whether we'd ever see him again
5:295 minutes, 29 secondsand then eventually my mother and i were sent to auschwitz which i suppose people know
5:375 minutes, 37 secondsthat it's really the epitome of all horrible extermination camps
5:455 minutes, 45 secondsand we managed to survive there for seven months which is practically unheard of and then we were
5:535 minutes, 53 secondsliberated by the russian army when we came into auschwitz i was
6:036 minutes, 3 secondstattooed at the end of the processing sometimes i catch myself now getting a glimpse of it and there it is
6:116 minutes, 11 secondsstill so it's really part of me now
6:216 minutes, 21 seconds[Music]
6:236 minutes, 23 secondswe knew that we had to leave poland because there was no future for jewish people there that we could see all our relatives
6:316 minutes, 31 secondspractically had been murdered there our town our community was wiped out completely
6:386 minutes, 38 secondsit was just too difficult to stay there and i began to learn about zionism i was very enthused
6:486 minutes, 48 secondsabout the idea of a jewish homeland especially having just gone through
6:546 minutes, 54 secondsthis horrible destruction of the majority of our people in poland
7:017 minutes, 1 secondand europe in general and none of the countries had stepped up to protect the
7:087 minutes, 8 secondsjewish populations in those places and that was very painful and it
7:147 minutes, 14 secondsconvinced me it made me realize that we needed to have our own homeland our own country
7:217 minutes, 21 secondsso i became an arden zionist and i really wanted to go to palestine and help set up a jewish state
7:307 minutes, 30 seconds[Music]
7:327 minutes, 32 secondsmy parents they made a very interesting suggestion they said well we've applied to go to palestine
7:407 minutes, 40 secondsand whichever visas come first that's where we'll go our american visas came up
7:487 minutes, 48 secondsand we were processed for immigration to the united states
7:597 minutes, 59 secondsbut it's just so interesting to think that like that family lineage could like it wouldn't be me obviously but me as the
8:078 minutes, 7 secondsthe grandson of my grandmother would be living in israel right now you know it could have happened so easily i've never been to the area so i don't want to make any
8:148 minutes, 14 secondsclaims about what it's like there until i go but i'm really curious to see how these narratives about israel have heard i guess one extreme narrative being that
8:228 minutes, 22 secondslike the whole state of israel is a settler colonial imperialist organization that's inherently you know evil and genocidal and then one
8:328 minutes, 32 secondsbeing that israel is a peaceful democratic liberal nation that's just trying to live in peace but its neighbors are just too unfriendly and they have to defend
8:408 minutes, 40 secondsthemselves right so i'm curious to go to all these places and talk to people and see
8:448 minutes, 44 secondswhat do i actually think
Chapter 3: In Israel
8:548 minutes, 54 seconds[Music]
9:009 minutesbirthright has a strict policy against any filming during an official tour therefore all the filming for this project was done outside of my actual
9:099 minutes, 9 secondsbirthright trip but here's what happened we landed in israel to our birthright
9:189 minutes, 18 secondsguide welcoming us home we went out clubbing in the vibrant city of tel aviv we visited the western wall and the
9:279 minutes, 27 secondshotel the holiest site in judaism we traveled the tiny country from north to south learning about the history of
9:359 minutes, 35 secondsthis land and its importance to our people it was a powerful and moving experience but most of all it was really fun
9:429 minutes, 42 seconds[Music]
9:479 minutes, 47 secondsso i just got off birth right off tagli as they call it here in israel and i was so critical going in
9:579 minutes, 57 secondsi thought it would be absolute propaganda and there was propaganda or i don't want to say propaganda but it was it wasn't a fair
10:0610 minutes, 6 secondsrepresentation of the land and i was conscious of it the whole time but somehow i still feel more in touch
10:1410 minutes, 14 secondswith my jewish identity i feel more connected to this land and i tend to sympathize with israel more than i did
10:2210 minutes, 22 secondsbefore the trip yeah i just a lot of my friends who have done birthright have talked about how
10:3110 minutes, 31 secondsmuch propaganda there is like they'll take them to the graveyards of idf soldiers and they'll you know tell them to look
10:4010 minutes, 40 secondsat all the fallen soldiers that have been killed by palestinians and birthright just seems like such a
10:4610 minutes, 46 secondsum such a one-sided thing to me
10:5010 minutes, 50 seconds[Music]
10:5310 minutes, 53 secondsthe way that birthright is set up it tends to make from what i've seen at least it tends to make people fall in love with the state and
11:0111 minutes, 1 secondmaybe it is intentional but why wouldn't it be if you're sending five to five thousand dollars six thousand dollars for a participant to go
11:0811 minutes, 8 secondsyou would hope that they would fall in love with the with the country but i don't think it's like any type of like malicious agenda of any sort
11:1611 minutes, 16 seconds[Music]
11:1811 minutes, 18 secondsbirthright is a life-changing experience and i i hope you can testify on that
11:2511 minutes, 25 secondsfor yourself you can live in israel you can live in the states you can live in egypt you can live in in ethiopia you still belong here
11:3311 minutes, 33 secondsbecause this is the jewish homeland all of who we are coming from this land all of our identity coming from here all of the
11:4211 minutes, 42 secondsthe the question and the struggle that we are facing until today coming from this land and birth was
11:5011 minutes, 50 secondsestablished to give every jewish person the ability and the chance to make the journey to his identity
12:0012 minutesto explore his identity but i mean there is no agenda that
12:0612 minutes, 6 secondsbut to explore of the jewish identity the jewish life is about tikkun ulam so
12:1412 minutes, 14 secondswe have to bring the ultimate goodness of god into the reality how do you do it that's the idea of tikkun
12:2212 minutes, 22 secondsto make the world a better place and the state of israel when the states of israel was born that's one of the main goal
12:3012 minutes, 30 secondsof tikkun we get to israel everyone is already excited just because it's a new
12:3712 minutes, 37 secondsexperience you're meeting new people you're getting into a new place and the first couple days it was all about having good times and good vibes
12:4512 minutes, 45 secondsnothing really politically or religious or anything and then after that came this period of
12:5212 minutes, 52 secondssort of the the gravity and weight of what is happening in israel from a very israeli standpoint and what
13:0113 minutes, 1 secondhas happened to jews where it sets in and we have this jam-packed tragic day of going to yad vashem the holocaust museum
13:0913 minutes, 9 secondsand going to mount herzl to this israeli memorial where we have these israeli guides and soldiers that we as
13:1813 minutes, 18 secondsbirthright participants have just become close with and you hear their very moving stories which they are very moving and valid
13:2713 minutes, 27 secondsand sad about either things that they've experienced or witnessed or friends that they have lost
13:3413 minutes, 34 secondsafter that i felt more of a heavy recruitment to come to israel and then at the end of our trip it was just like riding that roller coaster
13:4113 minutes, 41 secondsback up and it was just like fun fun fun it's ten days of like this emotional rollercoaster
13:5013 minutes, 50 secondssleep deprived journey of just like powerful experience which i think
13:5713 minutes, 57 secondsis all well manicured to make american jews or other jews from around the world
14:0414 minutes, 4 secondshave this bond with israel
14:1414 minutes, 14 secondsi grew up in a very reformed household i went to jewish day school and everything but it was just something i did it wasn't something that was like
14:2114 minutes, 21 secondsnecessarily meaningful to me and then as i got older i decided that birthright was something i wanted to do because
14:2814 minutes, 28 secondspersonally i love traveling and um this was kind of just a reason to travel somewhere else and then you know it's a free trip essentially so
14:3614 minutes, 36 secondswhy not take advantage of it i went into the trip expecting a fun time free trip you know
14:4314 minutes, 43 secondsmaking some friends but when i got to israel
14:4814 minutes, 48 secondsit was like something just like clicked
14:5814 minutes, 58 secondsliterally two weeks after i got back i knew i had to go back so i applied to staff birthright birthright works you know people go on
15:0615 minutes, 6 secondsthe trip people like me i'm a birthright participant who came into it looking for a free trip and ended up falling in love and
15:1415 minutes, 14 secondsstaffing it and i think that that's the small success story but then you see people who move to israel you see people who make aliyah
15:2515 minutes, 25 secondshi i'm jennifer i'm ben's cousin i live here in jerusalem i've lived here for about
15:3215 minutes, 32 secondsfour years um i'm from the states originally and i'm living here now i came to israel
15:4015 minutes, 40 secondsas a tourist i came on to gleet five or so years ago and after the trip was over i decided
15:4715 minutes, 47 secondsto travel around by myself for a couple of weeks and while i was there i asked someone for directions and the long story short is i asked him
15:5615 minutes, 56 secondsfor directions and he asked me out and when i finished school i decided to come back here and he and i stayed together and
16:0516 minutes, 5 secondsnow here we are four years later and we're still together so
16:1516 minutes, 15 secondson my first day off of birthright i took the bus across town to meet up with my grandmother's friend naomi this is my granddaughter sharon and
16:2416 minutes, 24 secondshusband john it's a wedding they met in taglit in israel and five years later they got married
16:3116 minutes, 31 secondswhen he finished school and she finished school and also have a little girl and they are very very happily married
16:3916 minutes, 39 secondsso how great works huh the glit works definitely it's a wonderful program she was so happy she came the
16:4716 minutes, 47 secondssecond time as a leader and she recruited close to 20 students to come and participate in taglit
16:5516 minutes, 55 secondsto me naomi represents the israeli counterpart to my diaspora grandmother having immigrated to palestine as a child before the holocaust
17:0417 minutes, 4 secondsand before the establishment of the state of israel what does herzl represent to you it's a danish movement he was a founder
17:1317 minutes, 13 secondsbecause of him we live here in israel and we were saved because all my mother's relatives were taken to auschwitz
17:2117 minutes, 21 secondsmy grandparents my uncles of aunts and cousins we are the only ones that
17:2917 minutes, 29 secondscame here to live here
17:4017 minutes, 40 secondsagainst israel and so forth they realize that they actually really hate jews but they don't want to say it because it's not in to say it then they say how
17:4817 minutes, 48 secondsisrael you and israel they're not supposed to do yes people say yes but i believe that your generation sees
17:5517 minutes, 55 secondsthat you know if you don't support the israeli policy you're against israel your anti-semitist
18:0318 minutes, 3 secondsand so on and i i don't believe it you know rockets from gaza to to the jewish settlements on gaza area
18:1118 minutes, 11 secondsthey will only talk about the israeli airplanes that bombed gaza but not why but do we tell ourselves and we do we tell
18:2018 minutes, 20 secondsthe americans our you know our american brothers jewish brothers why the the arabs in gaza bombed us
18:2918 minutes, 29 secondsfrom the first place because they are desperate they have no they they have no hope they have no signal of hope
18:3818 minutes, 38 secondsthey get so much money from all over the world and they build those tunnels right no legitimacy to violence
18:4518 minutes, 45 secondsi agree with you but we control their life we control the electricity we control the waters supplement
18:5218 minutes, 52 secondswe control the medical supplements let's face it israel is the stronger side
19:0019 minutesmuch stronger side when when the palestinians bomb us
19:0619 minutes, 6 secondsthey get it back
19:1219 minutes, 12 seconds[Music]
19:1419 minutes, 14 secondsas u.s and israeli officials celebrate the opening of the u.s embassy in jerusalem at the same time in gaza jerusalem
19:2119 minutes, 21 secondsthe internal undivided
19:2519 minutes, 25 seconds[Applause]
19:3619 minutes, 36 secondsoh after a night of drinking out with some other birthright participants
19:4419 minutes, 44 secondsand an israeli birthright tour facilitator i decided to pull out my camera when the conversation took a political turn
19:5119 minutes, 51 secondsfor us and it is israelis we always call it a neighborhood inside of the jungle this is what is israel
19:5819 minutes, 58 secondswe all around within the middle east yeah because all around we are not don't have democracy i mean egypt is not really democracy uh
20:0720 minutes, 7 secondsjordan the same syria it's all broken lebanon is not it's controlled by hezbollah
20:1420 minutes, 14 secondsiran is total italian regime in saudi arabia it's uh it's like a kingdom so all of us it's i mean we are
20:2220 minutes, 22 secondsdemocracy inside the jungle in israel we don't have the option to fail because if we will fade we will die so you're kind of saying it's about the
20:3020 minutes, 30 secondsuncertainty like you already know that we are electing netanyahu isn't going to lead you to the destruction of israel like israel is surviving under netanyahu's
20:3820 minutes, 38 secondsi don't want to leave i can promise you one thing as a jewish you are jewish okay we are i i it's so it could sound
20:4620 minutes, 46 secondsbad especially in a videotape jewish and i say it about myself to be a jew for me
20:5420 minutes, 54 secondsit's all it's like a rat it's always to find or to think about the way to escape
21:0221 minutes, 2 secondsfrom some catastrophe who can happen in your life it's a way of life because this is the jewish way
21:0921 minutes, 9 secondswe don't have any other option because we know that if we're gonna be weak then someone will kill us this is the mess this is the
21:1821 minutes, 18 secondsit's x it's it's equal to y i don't know it's if you'll be weak you can die you will be die i wonder what you think about the fact
21:2621 minutes, 26 secondsthat anti-semitic hate crimes have risen significantly in america since trump's election i mean you can talk about correlation
21:3321 minutes, 33 secondsversus causation there and everything but yeah the fact that because of the happiness no but it's it falls under you want to say he
21:4221 minutes, 42 secondsis a fail because he disagree or we can agree to accept each other's opinions and learn from them
21:4921 minutes, 49 secondsyeah yeah and i'm still glad i could be a jew who's visiting israel right now i'm glad regardless of whether i agree with
21:5821 minutes, 58 secondsyou know israeli politics or anything i came on the lgbt trip in general in my
22:0522 minutes, 5 secondsexperience i would say it was a lot more balanced and less like super nationalistic like go israel than i thought it would be i
22:1422 minutes, 14 secondsthought it would be like a lot of propaganda sort of that i'd have to like you know sort through on my own
22:2022 minutes, 20 secondsbut i feel like our tour guide did a very good job of presenting the nuances of more issues the most
22:2822 minutes, 28 secondsnegative part of my birthright experience was the mega event so it was thousands and thousands of people all on birthright trips from
22:3622 minutes, 36 secondsall around the world it was basically like kind of a giant like concert party sort of thing but with a very very like pro-israel agenda
22:4522 minutes, 45 secondsit was very nationalistic very much not the kind of nuanced perspective that i had been getting from the rest of my trip
22:5222 minutes, 52 secondsand i i left that event feeling more uncomfortable like with being a zionist
23:0023 minutes[Music]
23:0223 minutes, 2 secondsit's also a tension within me thinking about having a jewish state does that imply jewish supremacy is that the equivalent of white nationalism
23:1023 minutes, 10 secondsi think that's what made me so uncomfortable about the birthright mega event is that it really did feel more nationalist and more like you know we're jews this is our country
23:1923 minutes, 19 secondswe're seeing this as a state that is explicitly a safe haven for jews who have not had that sort of place
23:2723 minutes, 27 secondsthroughout history to have a jewish state is important
23:3623 minutes, 36 secondsto have a homeland is important i feel like most cultures have a place that they can call home
23:4323 minutes, 43 seconds[Music]
23:4423 minutes, 44 secondsand that brings a sense of security to a people the holocaust wasn't that long ago and even now we have
23:5223 minutes, 52 secondsmuslims in concentration camps and this idea of eugenics of making a pure race is not in the past
24:0124 minutes, 1 secondthese things aren't gone like how are we going to be safe that's a big issue we begin in france where a
24:0924 minutes, 9 secondssurge in anti-semitic violence sixty percent of antioxidant anti-semitic incidents of
24:1624 minutes, 16 seconds57 anti-semitism is on the rise in america spiking dramatically over just the last two years
24:2724 minutes, 27 secondsi don't like personally i don't like the linkage anti-semitic in the states of israel it's something that i don't like because we're here because this is our homeland
24:3624 minutes, 36 secondsand yes this is a safe place to the jewish people but a safe place it's like a buy side to um to the idea of the states of
24:4524 minutes, 45 secondsisrael and our connection to this land the dream of coming to the states of israel didn't start from 1917 in the balfour
24:5424 minutes, 54 secondsdeclaration every passover when you're doing the ceremony and you remember and you mentioned the the time that you made the exodus
25:0225 minutes, 2 secondsfrom ed from egypt the last paragraph is next year in jerusalem the idea of
25:1025 minutes, 10 secondsdreaming of jerusalem and coming to the homeland and was always there so you don't have to support the states of
25:1925 minutes, 19 secondsisrael you don't have to speak hebrew you don't have to be zionist but you always have to be a spot
25:2825 minutes, 28 secondsbecause it's your home it's as much as it's mine
Chapter 4: In West Bank
25:3625 minutes, 36 secondsafter 20 days in israel 10 on top elite and 10 on my own i was feeling more connected to the idea of zion than ever before
25:4425 minutes, 44 secondsbut i also felt that something was missing something was being left out of the frame i was ready to see the other side
25:5425 minutes, 54 secondsi was told in israel that the west bank was extremely dangerous for jews an islamist jungle filled with terrorists that wanted to kill me simply
26:0226 minutes, 2 secondsbecause of my ethnic background
26:1226 minutes, 12 secondsafter i had crossed through the checkpoint to the other side of the wall the physical fault line in a grand clash of civilizations
26:1926 minutes, 19 secondsi felt scared and vulnerable that is until i spoke to someone the very first person i approached
26:2726 minutes, 27 secondsasking for directions happened to be an english-speaking student who upon learning about my project took me out for dinner and gave me a
26:3426 minutes, 34 secondstour of his home city of ramallah me and my friend we saw you as a jew who was trying to find the truth and we were actually excited
26:4326 minutes, 43 secondsnot like scared or threatened or tried to threaten you we were excited to show you our side of the story and i think every palestinian if they saw
26:5226 minutes, 52 secondssomebody from the birthright they would for sure try to talk to them and like tell them their story
27:0127 minutes, 1 secondall throughout the west bank i found the same story again and again the reason i am in this part of the world in israel
27:0827 minutes, 8 secondsis because i actually came on birthright and i'm an american jew
27:1327 minutes, 13 seconds[Music]
27:1627 minutes, 16 secondsyeah i didn't know that before but okay yeah there's no problem with being like i said it's not about religion
27:2627 minutes, 26 seconds[Music]
27:3327 minutes, 33 secondsdo you think that there'll ever be a day when you can like be friends with you know jewish people
27:3927 minutes, 39 seconds[Music]
27:4127 minutes, 41 secondsi i want to like just say something something about like it's not about jewish people they're still humans like
27:4927 minutes, 49 secondsyou cannot like hate them like or not being friend with them so i'm actually jewish too
27:5827 minutes, 58 secondsso this is cool like as i told you like it's not about like being jewish or something it's about like what
28:0528 minutes, 5 secondswhat you're fighting for
28:1928 minutes, 19 secondsone of my friends that i gave tours to bethlehem area where i took him to the refugee camp the wall
28:2728 minutes, 27 secondsthe separation wall and banksy's hotel after that i decided to invite him for kinefi
28:3628 minutes, 36 secondsand i saw him really afraid and shaking he said what's wrong say danny
28:4228 minutes, 42 secondsi want to tell you something say what say i'm a jew i said wow this is great i'm so happy
28:5128 minutes, 51 secondsto be able to take you on this tour and then i told him no in fact i would love
28:5828 minutes, 58 secondsto see people and meet people like you and take them to the same tour so they will understand
29:0629 minutes, 6 secondsthe conflict many people on the other side and people from the west do not understand the
29:1329 minutes, 13 secondsreality of occupation in terms of checkpoints in term of the wall as we are approaching the wall actually right now
29:2329 minutes, 23 secondsso we'll have some time to park and to walk beside the wall and to see some graffiti
29:3129 minutes, 31 secondsthis is the tear gas canisters that israel use in fact there is another one if you can
29:4029 minutes, 40 secondsthere is one that's made you can see that it's made in the usa and there is a telephone number
29:4729 minutes, 47 secondsfor it actually one of the biggest problems is the continuous support from the american government
29:5529 minutes, 55 secondsto the state of israel with three weapons and not millions but billions of dollars
30:0330 minutes, 3 secondsto fund the occupation all the jewish people around the world should come here
30:1030 minutes, 10 secondsnot only to support israel blindly but also to see to see the wall to see the reality here to see the occupation
30:1930 minutes, 19 secondsvisit people talk to people you need to come to bethlehem or like hebron hebron is the best place to understand
30:2730 minutes, 27 secondsthe conflict actually
30:3930 minutes, 39 secondsto live in palestine and especially in hebrew it means that you live without your basic human rights i am as a palestinian i am
30:4730 minutes, 47 secondsunder the israeli military law which means i'm not allowed to practice any kind of general assembly i'm not
30:5630 minutes, 56 secondsallowed to protest peacefully i'm not allowed to express my opinion against the occupation i don't have any kind of freedom of movement in my own city and
31:0531 minutes, 5 secondsin my own country we live in the same area with israeli settlers
31:1331 minutes, 13 secondsi am under the israeli military law and israeli settlers who are living in the same area are under the israeli
31:2031 minutes, 20 secondscivil law two sets of law for different people in the same area that is completely
31:3031 minutes, 30 secondsinsane i suffer from israeli secular violence israeli soldiers violence and aggression they can arrest
31:3931 minutes, 39 secondsme whenever they want detain me whenever they want without any kind of accountability for the israeli settlers or soldiers
31:4631 minutes, 46 secondswho are violating the international law and even the israeli law and even violating the jewish morals and
31:5831 minutes, 58 secondsprinciples shortly after my interview with isa i
32:0732 minutes, 7 secondscame face to face with the settler tour a group of israeli settlers being escorted through palestinian streets
32:1432 minutes, 14 secondsby armed soldiers where was the jewish moral principle of tikkun olam here
32:2032 minutes, 20 seconds[Music]
32:2532 minutes, 25 secondsi felt angry looking at the occupying israelis seeing the clear asymmetry in power as they marched down the palestinian streets
32:3432 minutes, 34 secondsbut i also felt empathy for these soldiers knowing that if my grandmother had received her visa for palestine it would be me out on the streets
32:4232 minutes, 42 secondsfulfilling my mandatory army service i don't blame the people of israel at
32:4932 minutes, 49 secondsall in the contrary when i let me say other is my pain i know that they should know what i'm talking about because they suffered
32:5832 minutes, 58 secondsthey know what it means to be a refugee they know what it means to be without any rights or to be stateless to be checked in the streets
33:0733 minutes, 7 secondsto be you know completely and violently attacked they know so when i talk to them i want them to understand
33:1533 minutes, 15 secondsand i'm suffering now as a palestinian from what they suffered in the past all the jews in the world should come and see the real truth of israel
33:2333 minutes, 23 secondsis it what they want is it what they support i am not equal with you now that is a part of judaism it's completely not in
33:3233 minutes, 32 secondsbirthright you don't see that
33:4933 minutes, 49 seconds[Music]
33:5733 minutes, 57 secondsso since birthright i have come to ramallah which is where we are now um
34:0534 minutes, 5 secondswhich is in palestine the west bank i'm here to just spend time on the other side of the wall um
34:1234 minutes, 12 secondsand to get another narrative that the other side of the coin so to speak the story that i get and the things that
34:2134 minutes, 21 secondsi hear over here are historically different than what i get from birthright which has to be expected sparsing out
34:2934 minutes, 29 secondsbetween the two of those is like something that i'm trying to figure out because it is a very complicated mess of things but certainly there are
34:3834 minutes, 38 secondsdifferent things that come into my vision and awareness just being in palestine that i would never hear
34:4534 minutes, 45 secondsin israel or that birthright would look to skirt around so that you don't know these facts
34:5234 minutes, 52 secondsi've been here for almost two weeks and i'm certainly comfortable saying and having it be documented that i'm
35:0035 minutesmore pro-palestinian and like a palestinian empathizer than i am a supporter of israel um
35:0835 minutes, 8 secondsbut that being said i think that i'm still caught up in a very like activist mindset where
35:1635 minutes, 16 secondsi want to be a palestinian supporter but it's heartbreaking and i think terribly wrong and unjust
35:2435 minutes, 24 secondsto suppress an entire group of people and have their movements and rights and
35:3235 minutes, 32 secondsnatural freedoms completely restricted and constrained so that they can't go see family or
35:4035 minutes, 40 secondsgo to a different country or do so many simple things
35:5035 minutes, 50 secondsthe birthright movement the thing is really funny to me and ironic because most of my cousins are palestinian
35:5835 minutes, 58 secondsand maybe 90 of my cousins cannot enter palestine if you're palestinian
36:0536 minutes, 5 secondsyou're mostly a refugee you're lucky if you can enter valsan and live here i was born in jerusalem so to me
36:1436 minutes, 14 secondsmy birthright is for me to be able to enter jerusalem but for somebody who's american his
36:2236 minutes, 22 secondstheir parents are american like they've never even came close to the middle east if that's their birthright that doesn't
36:3036 minutes, 30 secondsmake sense
36:4036 minutes, 40 secondsas an american and as a jew you have a very important role we want you to be our messenger
36:4936 minutes, 49 secondsgo around see what is happening here in palestine understand the truth take it back home and inform the
36:5636 minutes, 56 secondsamerican people especially the jewish americans about what is happening here i believe too that the change will come from
37:0537 minutes, 5 secondsthe jews outside palestine and israel when the diaspora jews come and tell them israel must be accountable for human rights violations
37:1337 minutes, 13 secondsviolence must not be justified from anyone and occupation is violence
37:1937 minutes, 19 secondsdiscrimination is violence apartheid is violent so let's live in peace and live in equality and live
37:2837 minutes, 28 secondsin justice altogether
37:3537 minutes, 35 seconds[Music]
Chapter 5: Conclusion
37:4037 minutes, 40 secondsdo you feel it's important for me to have a situation today well um at this point
37:4737 minutes, 47 secondsit is your decision you're an adult now whether you want to accept that heritage
37:5537 minutes, 55 secondsor not and which part of it you accept and which part you don't and i think everybody
38:0338 minutes, 3 secondsin any culture or nationality has those choices to make
38:1238 minutes, 12 secondsmy month in zion was coming to a close it was my last night in israel before my flight home to the diaspora
38:1938 minutes, 19 secondsit was a rainy night in jerusalem unbelievably my time in israel and the west bank had made me feel closer to my jewish
38:2638 minutes, 26 secondsidentity i had always believed that holding on to ethnic and religious roots was holding humanity back from understanding what we
38:3438 minutes, 34 secondsall share in common and where we're all going together but after my experience in this strange land i felt it was important to hold on to
38:4238 minutes, 42 secondscertain parts of my heritage you're young and as you grow remember that it's your responsibility to assure the future
38:5138 minutes, 51 secondsof the jewish people it's your home it's as much as it's mine i am not equal with you now
38:5838 minutes, 58 secondsthat
39:0239 minutes, 2 seconds[Music]
39:0739 minutes, 7 secondstattoos are forbidden according to orthodox jewish law in this way i was actively choosing to reject aspects of judaism
39:1539 minutes, 15 secondswhich no longer seemed relevant in the modern world as i marked the phrase tikkun olam on my arm in the same location as my boobies
39:2439 minutes, 24 secondstattoo from auschwitz to me this jewish moral principle was something i could take forward to enable
39:3139 minutes, 31 secondsme to connect not only with those like me but those who had been taught to think of as other the tattoo was a reminder to carry
39:4039 minutes, 40 secondson the legacy of my family and my people but more than that it was a reminder to be on the right side of history fighting
39:4839 minutes, 48 secondsfor all people being dehumanized in our precarious world for the indigenous peoples of my home country of the united states
39:5639 minutes, 56 secondscontinually resisting colonization for uyghurs being detained and stripped of their rights in china
40:0240 minutes, 2 secondsand for palestinians living under military occupation in the west bank of palestine
40:1140 minutes, 11 seconds[Music]
40:3640 minutes, 36 secondsdo
40:4240 minutes, 42 seconds[Music]
40:5640 minutes, 56 secondsyou
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