I have had such a struggle with this terrible and complicated challenge of the Israel-Hamas war because the history of Israel and its surrounding nations is enormously complex. The Jewish people inhabited the area 3,000 years ago. We just had a remembering of this fact when we celebrated Passover. But Arab/Palestinians also inhabited this area, and they recently remembered the Nakba when they left or felt forced to leave the area in which they lived.
Both have suffered loss and are in deep pain.
As I struggle with this awful, centuries-old conflict and refuse to simplify it to “War is wrong, so ceasefire must be right,” I have tried to figure out how to show that I care deeply about what innocent Palestinian victims have been going through for eight months, while also caring about what the country of Israel has been going through for eight months.
Because I care about both!
A friend suggested that, while wearing a “Bring Them Home Now” tag for the hostages, we might also wear a keffiyah, the traditional symbol of Palestinians. What do you think of that? I am not Palestinian, but I do empathize and support efforts to avoid harm to innocent Gazans and to Palestinians in the West Bank. I challenge those who ask for a ceasefire, or who teach, protest or lobby for one, and who also abhor terrorism, to wear both a keffiyah and a “Bring Them Home Now” tag or some other symbol to show you also care about Jewish victims and eschew terrorism.
But … I now hesitate, worried about appropriating a symbol that is not mine. So what to do to show I care about both groups who are suffering and scared?
I challenge you to care about both and to protest leaders (and their followers) who seem to value less the lives of those on “the other side.”
And then to answer: How do we show we care about Palestinians and Israelis? How do we speak up for both? How do we empathize with both stories?
Can we, please, talk — and listen — to each other?
Phyllis Rubin
River Forest