In
2013, author-activist Nani Ferreira-Mathews participated in a popular
free ten-day “birthright” trip to Israel offered by the
Taglit-Birthright organization in an effort to explore and reconnect
with her Jewish heritage. This day-to-day account of the daily
programs, activities, and dating games—as well as the tour guides’
stubborn refusal to discuss or even acknowledge Israeli occupation of
Palestinian territories—reveals an agenda animated by racism,
heterosexism, colonialism, and militaristic nationalism.
Drawing upon her experience as a person of both indigenous
Hawaiian and Jewish heritage, Ferreira-Mathews interrogates the
meaning of “birthright” within a settler-colonialist nation where
national identity is so fundamentally invested in the systematic
displacement of native peoples.
