Stanley Barkan (originally Bub) grew up in Cape Town in the 1950s and 60s in the deepest shadows of the apartheid era. He joined Habonim as a Shtil and left as a Shomrim madrich. Three key experiences politicized him: the smell of dagga in a dark lane a street away from his house, the death of Justice, gardener for a building his father owned, from sleeping in a windowless tool room with a paraffin lamp, and participating in the UCT 1968 sit-in.

Stanley immigrated to Israel in 1970 and after completing an MSc during a year's respite at Manchester University, returned to a variegated career ending in the high-tech sector. Since retiring, he has pursued his hobby of growing olive trees on a quiet moshav near Zichron Yaakov and producing his own ambrosia (extra virgin Frantoio olive oil for the knowledgeable).

In his political life, a few personal experiences characterize the background to Stanley's present opinions: A history of outings to the deep West Bank, in army uniform and without, the " Around Us – – لناِوْحَ من שלנו בסביבה "project, organized by him and his wife together with some like-minded Carmel Coast residents, which brought groups of Jewish Israeli and Arab Israeli kids together in a weekly extracurricular day in the years immediately prior to Covid, and living through the latest Netanyahu administration.