Israel-Palestine: Passive Observation of Discussions on the Topic


                     Israel-Palestine: Passive Observation of Discussions on the Topic
Ben Heller


    Lately, I’ve been hearing and seeing a lot of opinions and discussions about the Israel-Palestine conflict, and thought it would be nice to put pen to paper and pass on some observations I’ve made throughout this time.

As a Jew, I’ve heard heaps and heaps of stuff about this topic and never thought to consider that there might be a second side to this, one not just about the glory of our homeland, Israel. A disclaimer is important, as I am a Zionist and love Israel (a bias). Becoming exposed to new, albeit somewhat unreliable sources on tiktok has made me see a human face to both sides of this conflict. It seems that whenever the topic of Israel-Palestine comes up in a Jewish setting, we feel the need to demonize the other side and act the part of the altruistic victim. In reality, the conflict is a complex geopolitical situation that has been unfolding for the past 70 years, encompassing 4,000 years of history and the story of a people: The Jewish people. This last sentence was a strictly zionist point of view, but in order to see both sides of the situation, we have to take ourselves out of it and realize that everyone involved in this situation is a living, breathing, human being, who is affected by these ongoing wars. 


In Jewish spaces, we tend to forget this, and often fall back on stereotypes that can be harmful and patently false. Occasionally, we find people who demonize arabs the way that some Palestineans demonize Jews in their antisemitic rhetoric. We have to realize that if there have been issues for the past 70 years, there are two sides to blame. Some might even say that Israel bears the greater responsibility to end this conflict due to its superior strength in comparison to Hamas and similar Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations that are allowed to exist in the current Gaza and West Bank. 


I write this not to blame any one side, but because most of you are like me, Jews who’ve forgotten that the “other side” is comprised of people as well. People who are just like us. Eventually, we are going to have to find a path back to negotiation and friendship, because we and our cousins have forgotten that we’re all sharing the same land with the same hope: to live on and with a land that holds crucial significance for us as a people and a nation.


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