Shared Voices: Telling Your Story 2
As part of our Shared Voices campaign, we aim to raise awareness about the importance of inter-faith dialogue and finding unity in divisive times.
Since October 7th and the subsequent ongoing Israel – Gaza conflict, young Jewish and Muslim individuals have been facing increasing levels of antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate. As the conflict's repercussions reach Europe, a growing number of communities feel threatened and have become vulnerable to instances of offline and online hatred. GTTO, in its aim to monitor and respond to instances of religious discrimination have teamed up with FODIP – the Forum for Discussion of Israel and Palestine – to commission two articles – one by a young Jewish person and one by a young Muslim person, to share their perspectives on how the ongoing conflict has impacted their lives and livelihoods.
Our second publication features an article by a young Jewish individual discussing the current conflict and its impact on their life. It is important to recognise that this article represents just one perspective among many.
Erev Simchat Torah 2023 was incredibly fun, as per. The night that Jews celebrate Moses receiving the Torah at Mt Sinai on his exodus from Pharaoh's Egypt to the Land of Israel. On Simchat Torah we celebrate, and I did just that - I waltzed through the front door at nearly 3AM and went to bed, ready for a day of recovering afterwards. Normally I would wake up the morning of a holiday and find lovely little holiday messages lying unread on my phone, but this Simchat Torah was much different. Instead, I woke up to a WhatsApp message from my friend:
"Hey, I have just seen the news coming out of Israel, I hope everyone you know is OK x"
First I'm hearing of this, what's going on? Has a rocket found its way over Gaza or Lebanon border, or has there been ethnically divided riots in Jerusalem (again)? Neither of those, but nothing could have prepared me for the things that I saw being livestreamed and broadcast from the Gaza Envelope, and even more so for just how much it wreaked havoc on me and on all of my friends. In a few hours, several people around me had lost friends and family in the attack with even more having survived the atrocities to tell the story of what happened to them on the 7th of October.
But still, nothing could have prepared me for what it at best apathy for Israelis and Jews, and it's worst a bloodlust. It felt like the biggest kick in the teeth to see people that I was on good terms with before then so eager to post videos of people enduring what no human should have to, proclaiming that there is context to this, that the wholesale slaughter of people before the world's eyes cannot be blamed on the people doing the slaughtering by either overtly or just implied by the fact that they were Israeli Jews or that they were just in Israel. "Would you not do the same if your whole family had been killed?" - No actually I wouldn't, and neither did anyone else in my family do the same when they experienced the same dehumanisation. During WWII my grandmother lost her whole family at the hands of German soldiers alas this didn't give her motivation nor justification to partake in massacring Germans after the war. On the other side of my family, my grandfather's family was made into refugees by the Irish Civil War, with plenty more of my forefathers being made into refuguees and persecuted at different points in history like in the Great Hunger, Alhambra Decree, Edict of Manuel I and the Edict of Fontainebleau. But nonetheless, I and my ancestors never felt the need to seek retribution through the blood of innocent people. So many people willing to make excuses for the murder of your own really affects you, especially knowing that those same excuses wouldn't be made and are not made by those very same people when the victims don't have an Israeli or Jewish element to them.
It hurt to see people close to me calling for Israeli Jews to leave, but then making excuses for and celebrating the attack of Israelis and Jews abroad, like at Makhachkala Airport. It hurt to see people employ double standards for us that they wouldn't have for anyone else of a different background. It hurts that wherever we go, it's never good enough. In or out and it's not good enough for people to care about Jewish issues.
One theme common amongst these types of thinkers is that they can't possibly be antisemitic because this is all just directed against Israelis specifically and not Jews, because Israel is an occupying state or that Israel serially abuses human rights and it pains me when people with these views can't see their own bias, it hurts when you can tell so easily that their views come from underlying antisemitic prejudices but they're just not aware nor willing to admit that part - because they would never excuse the murder and harassment of Han Chinese people for the role that the PRC plays in the Uyghur Genocide, nor would they try to justify attacks on Russian civillians because of Russian crimes against humanity in Ukraine but when it comes to Israel, it seems like these universal humanitarian values go out the window and it really makes me think about which characteristic of Israel justify these attitudes - might it be the fact that Israel is culpable for Genocide? Well, no, because then why would they not say the same about Chinese people? Might it be because Israel continues a military occupation? Well, no, because then where are the calls for and justification of reprisals against Russian civilians? Is it because Israel is a perceived outsider that doesn't belong and is founded on settler-colonialism? Well then, I have yet to see anyone call for the same kind of action against Australians, or Americans. I really do wonder what characteristic about Israel really sets it apart from every other state in the world, from every other country that abuses human rights as state policy, I wonder if there is a characteristic about Israel that has historically been used to justify violence against a group of people for millenia that seems so conveniently to try and present itself just as criticism of Israel after the formation if the state in 1948.
When it's the people who champion their passion for social justice, equality, and unlearning prejudices and biases that espouse these views about you and your people, it really makes you feel uneasy about your being, and makes you question your welcome here. I have lost count of the number of conversations that I have had with different people who I previously were really good friends with, trying to help them see how what they're sharing and saying on social media harbours prejudice towards Jewish people, and it's even more saddening to ruminate on how most of our concerns and plight go unheard and ignored.
I should specify that I would very confidently call myself pro-Palestian, I yearn for the day when Palestinians can be free from oppression and occupation and everything that the Israeli state and its branches subject them to. I will call out disenfranchisement and dehumanisation where I see it. I have made plenty of enemies for myself in not contorting my opinion to fit within the mainstream pro-Israeli mindset, but for a number of the people that knew it, it still wasn't enough. I recently lost a friend in May, a friend that I considered myself very close with, and it wasn't that I harboured hatred and prejudice against Palestinians, in her words "my issue is your sympathy for the Israelis". It seems like it was never about championing human rights and equality for so many people, and it hurts especially that they are the people that we should trust to turn to in our times of need.
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the FODIP or GTTO.
---
About FODIP is a registered charity, governed and supported by Jews, Christians and Muslims. It takes no political position, other than a concern for the rights and well-being of all the people of the region. Their mission is to promote community cohesion by enabling positive and informed conversations in the UK between Jews, Christians and Muslims on difficult issues, specifically those relating to Israel/Palestine. FODIP has been facilitating programmes that bring together young people from diverse perspectives, a practice established before October 7th. FODIP's aim is not to draw equivalence between ongoing events but to acknowledge that pain is pain, regardless of its source, and that true understanding arises from listening to individual experiences.
