My Experience in Israel and Palestine

This is long, and I apologize for the length, but this is the simplest way I could explain my lived experience and personal perspective on the conflict in Israel and Palestine right now. The opinions expressed here are my own, are not political in nature, and not of my employer.

As the conflict between Israel and Palestine flares again, I see a lot of people commenting making the case to support one side or the other. I see very smart people vilifying Israel for the segregation and occupation of Palestinian land, and I see people I know, some Israelis, dehumanizing Palestinians as a group of people. Whatever your thoughts on the conflict, I can promise you one thing, it is not as simple as right and wrong, and not as easily solved as splitting up the land. It is impossible to understand the complexities of this conflict without knowing some about ancient history, modern history, politics, psychology, religion, anthropology, and geography. I am no expert on any of these topics, but I have been to Israel, and I have been to Palestine. I have met people in the governments of both countries, and I have met coalitions of people from both sides who are working towards building a better understand and one day to find peace. I have met people from both sides who have suffered unimaginable loss, and I can tell you from first-hand experience that I cannot emphasize this enough – no matter what you think you know about this conflict, it is far more complex than you think it is.

Let me start by making two key points. First, is Israel completely innocent? No. Of course not. Which nation in the world is completely innocent of any wrongdoing? I would argue, none. Do I believe that Israel has a fundamental right to sovereignty and self-government and has an inalienable right to exist? Absolutely. Second, are all Palestinians part of Hamas? No. Absolutely not. Just like not all Americans are members of the KKK or Proud Boys, not all Palestinians are part of or support Hamas. However, Hamas is the ruling militia in Gaza which means their politics and beliefs are the “ruling” ideology of this part of Palestine. Hamas is an Islamic extremist group and does not represent the whole of the Islamic religion – I want to make that clear. They are extremists and millions of people of the Islamic faith actively condemn the actions of Hamas. One of the core principles of Hamas is written in their preamble to their mission/covenants which states, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” To make matters worse, they don’t consider Israel just the land – they consider Israel the PEOPLE. If a Jew were to be living in Paris, Hamas believes they have the extreme religious calling to go to Paris and murder that person because that person is Jewish and therefore is “Israel” (here is where the religious studies and ancient history studies come in.)

This is where things get a little simpler for me to “pick sides” in this fight. I cannot believe that Israel has a fundamental right to exist AND believe that Hamas has a right to carry out its actions. On one hand, an imperfect nation of people who want the right to live and simply exist. On the other hand, a ruling militia in another country has written in their core beliefs that all Jews should be murdered and that an entire ethnic population does not have the right to exist. Let me be clear again – Hamas is not Palestine, it is a ruling militia in Gaza and not all Palestinians support Hamas.

So why doesn’t the government of Palestine rise up and kick out Hamas, you ask? Good question. And this is where things get incredibly complicated again. Hamas and the Palestinian government(s) over time have formed mutually beneficial relationships that have waxed and waned. Israel has also over time exacerbated the need for Palestinians to find desperate allies through periodic uprooting and evictions of people who have settled on land that was at one point agreed upon. Like I said before, Israel is not completely innocent when it comes to Palestine, however they are completely within their right to defend themselves against Hamas. Do you see how instantly complicated this gets when you can’t tell one day from the next who is trying to eliminate your right to simply exist and who is not? Or when you can’t depend on the government of the neighboring country to eliminate Hamas because as Palestinian governments shift so do the relationships with Hamas?

From my time in Israel and my day in Palestine, I can tell you a couple of my thoughts and observations. First, there MUST be eternal hope for peace. Meeting with a long-time peace negotiator Tal Becker, we asked him why he still has hope for peace between Israel and Palestine. He said is holding on to “the permanent possibility of the presently unimaginable.” This means as long as you believe that you have not exhausted all avenues toward a solution, you still have hope of finding a solution. The solution is there, someone just hasn’t thought of it yet, or the right people haven’t been in the room. I personally believe we are closer to a resolution when the youth are more involved now, and as they grow. The older generations I met on both sides had no hope for peace. The sense of victimhood on both sides by the older generations was so deep that it was literally a part of their identities. One older Israeli told me that he couldn't imagine life without conflict because being a victim was such a part of his personal and cultural identity he wouldn't know who he was anymore if he lost that. They also had little desire for it if they were honest.

I can also tell you that when meeting with one of the former leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the internationally recognized leaders in Palestine, they admitted that they had the ability to provide power and water to all citizens of Ramallah, but it didn’t fit their PR image of Palestine being a victim to Israel. They also directly to my face refused to condemn Hamas and their actions. Rather than condemn Hamas, they shifted the blame on Israel for the “need for Hamas.”

I am sympathetic to the people in both nations. I feel a gut-wrenching fear and despair for them when I contrast their lived experiences with what could be possible for them. I can’t even begin to imagine having a “missile room” or bunker in my home, and for that to be such a normal thing in life that it is required by law to be installed. There is all of this and yet we haven’t even mentioned the Syrians, Ethiopian Jews, Egyptians, or other neighbors to Israel who are wrapped up in this mess as well.

Based on what little I truly know, and the experiences I have had with both the Israeli and Palestinian people, I can tell you that both sides are suffering. And both sides have a fault and blame to go around. But if one thing is certain for me in all this complex and millennia-long history of conflict of this war-torn region it is this – If I must choose sides, I will choose the side of the people who are fighting for their right to simply exist over the side of the people who are working to irradicate them or the side of the people who turn a blind eye and let it happen. I will always side with the people who are just trying to stay alive. What is the solution outside of that? If you know the answer to that with any kind of certainty, you are a million steps ahead of me, and you should be at the UN right now with the people who have devoted their entire lives to studying and working to resolve this conflict.

Like I said before - this is an incredibly complex issue. It is a people issue - not a nation issue. And we have to remember that there are people on all sides who are dying and hurting because of this.