It’s hard to put into words what this year has been like. A tremendous amount of bloodshed on October 7th. Of my people – the Jewish people. A drastic rise in Antisemitism, and the end of the conflict feeling further away than ever. Oct. 7th wasn’t the first time the Israel/Palestine conflict was on my mind. So this particular date represents a double tragedy for me. Not just a day of barbaric violence against my people, but a tragic regression in the effort for peace.
I remember those next few days, when my roommates and I would come home and cry, then all be dragged back into a grueling conversation about how devastated we were. For those few days, I intentionally surrounded myself only by my community. I couldn’t face the crowd that believed the Jewish State ought to be violently taken down, ought to never exist. It wasn’t until the third or fourth day that I ventured back online and faced my coworkers, my classmates, and my friends becoming aware of the conflict. Everyone was falling prey to the propaganda of extremists, intentionally fueling the fire with hate.
Extremists gave my peers the impression that hate speech about Zionists is encouraged, even if we’re sitting right next to each other. Extremists gave my community the impression that every Palestinian person is a vessel of Hamas, of terror. We are all falling prey to it because it confirms the very biases we have had for generations. After one year of this torturous screaming match where nobody was heard, I wonder how we can change our course.
How do we direct ourselves toward peace in a way that might actually get us there? We first must accept a few truths. To support Israel in the fullest sense must mean to be honest with ourselves about Israel. When a mother loves and supports her child, she has to be willing to honestly confront the uncomfortable and painful parts of their childhood, in order to properly support them. In my mind, Israel is the same. Israel is the fruit of my ancestor’s labor, refugees from foreign lands, returning to their homeland for safety. I care about preserving that history, so I have to be willing to learn the other parts of history as well. To be earnest in my strive for peace, I must learn the whole truth, and be willing to share it. After all, there will always be someone criticizing Israel. It might as well be us, not our enemies.
And along my journey to learn that history, I realized that Israel’s safety is intertwined with others’ safety as well. The safety of Palestinians is linked to the safety of Israel, and the safety of Jews across the world. After that realization, it’s much harder to engage with the extremists who preach divesting, who preach ignorance. On both sides, the people that urge us to further divide our communities are anti-peace. Calls for divestment, for the expulsion of Arabs or Jews from the land, or anything that drives a wedge instead of building a bridge, are anti-peace.
As I reflect on this past year, I find that platforms truly working towards sustainable peace are very rare. And for those of us that desperately search for those platforms, this may resonate with you. Sometimes we find ourselves being the ‘flip-flopping advocate’ – the one who among certain people is the voice for Israel, and among others is the voice for Palestinians. Finding yourself on the fringes of two groups, not feeling understood by either could break your heart. It’s broken mine. How can the rational, loving people advocating for peace be the ones without community? How is it that we’re in the minority? How is that solution-oriented advocacy isn’t mainstream?
This is because it’s uncomfortable to stand in the middle. To open yourself up to the pain of two communities means feeling twice as much pain. To learn about the histories and perspectives of two communities means to learn twice as much history. To consider the plights of both Israelis and Palestinians means finding a group of like-minded people will be that much harder. We will have to pave our own path towards peace, but once it’s there I am confident that many will walk along it. I believe that eventually, people will see the light of true peace and reconciliation. I have to believe that people will accept peace. But for this to happen, we will need patience.
It goes without saying that this type of peace is not going to happen just one day after the war ends. It will be a long-term process of de-radicalization in various communities, disarmament, rebuilding infrastructure and relationships. It will take resources, collaboration, and time. Remember that we are in for a long journey, and it’s in our best interest to begin as soon as we can. So if I may offer a blessing, I pray that we only engage in what will actually bring us closer to peace, to the attainable peace.
