It’s impossible to have a conversation about Israel and Palestine without someone referring to the situation as “complicated.” In many ways, this is an accurate characterization. The history of both the Palestinian and the Jewish peoples? Complicated. The Balfour Declaration? Complicated. The definition of indigeneity as it applies to the Levant? Complicated. Zionism (past and present)? Complicated. Palestinian governance and authority? Complicated. The role that religion plays (or doesn’t play) in the conflict? Too complicated for words.
But for as complicated as the overarching conversation about Israel and Palestine is, what is currently happening isn’t complicated at all. On Oct. 7, the Islamic Resistance Movement (more commonly referred to as Hamas), broke through Israel’s border and slaughtered what the Jerusalem Post identified as 1,200 Israeli citizens, most of them civilians and foreign nationals, and took roughly 240 as hostages. Later that same day, Israel declared war on Hamas and began carpet bombing the Gaza strip. Hamas representatives have told the media that they are fighting to liberate the Palestinian people from Israeli occupation and oppression. Israel’s spokespeople have said that the nation is defending itself from aggressors and working to destroy an extremist terrorist organization. There are glimpses of truth in both of these claims, just as there are glaring differences and gaps in the stories being told by both sides. The only consistency is that thousands of innocent people are being collectively punished for the perceived crimes of their governments, no matter which side of the so-called ‘Iron Wall’ they reside on.
As always happens when conflict reaches a fever pitch in the Holy Land, the violence of this war hasn’t been isolated to the Levant. Rumored calls for a “Global Day of Jihad” on Oct. 13 terrified Jewish communities and villainized Muslim ones. An Israeli-American family’s home in Los Angeles was invaded by a man who yelled “Free Palestine'' whilst being arrested, and a Palestinian-American child who was murdered and his mother grievously injured by their landlord because of their country of origin. Dozens of pro-Palestine protesters in Australia chanted “gas the Jews'' outside of the iconic Sydney Opera House, and a group of men in Brooklyn were arrested after attacking three Palestinian men whilst waving Israeli flags. The Daily Tarheel reported an account of a Muslim student at UNC-Chapel Hill being attacked with a knife by someone they said was wearing an Israeli flag. ABC News shared a story of how a mob of pro-Palestine protesters in Russia’s Dagestan region stormed an airport chanting antisemitic slogans and looking to attack passengers on a flight that had just landed from Tel Aviv. Some pro-Palestine protesters around the globe are using Holocaust revisionism and perpetuating extremely antisemitic stereotypes to support their side, and some pro-Israel demonstraters are downplaying the humanitarian crisis in Gaza to support theirs. Jewish and Muslim communities around the world have reported increasing harassment, intimidation, vandalism and attacks. All of these incidents make up only a small fraction of the myriad of hateful events that have happened in the four short weeks since the beginning of the Israeli-Hamas war.
Save the Children reported that Israeli airstrikes obliterated more Palestinian children in the first three weeks of war than the total number of children killed in all global conflicts over the past three years. The Economist found that Hamas militants executed more Jews in 8 hours than have been killed in one day since the Holocaust. If we observed the traditional Islamic mourning period for all of the Palestinians murdered in Gaza in the first three weeks of Oct., we would mourn for 65 years and nine months. If we sat Shiva for every Israeli who was killed on Oct. 7, we would sit for 30 years and six months. If we held just a moment of silence for each of the victims, regardless of their nationality, we wouldn’t speak for six and a half days. Combined, we would mourn for nearly a century. 100 years of mourning for those lost in just the first 21 days of violence. The human cost of this conflict is insurmountable, and it only gets worse by the second.
And still, in the midst of such overwhelming violence, bigotry and pain, I have hope. That hope is personified in all of my Jewish and Muslim friends, who show up each and every day despite intensifying hate and violence against both communities. In Meredith's Muslim Student Association (MSA), who have been raising awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza for weeks. In NC State’s chapter of Hillel, who have provided community, educational opportunities and safety for Jewish students at State and at Meredith. In the polite, earnest and productive conversations I have had with Jews, Muslims, Democrats, Republicans, Israelis and Palestinians in recent weeks. In the persevering respect for human life I have found that we all hold dear, regardless of whatever else we may or may not believe.
Clearly, I don’t have a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If I did, someone much smarter than me would’ve thought of it by now and enacted it decades ago. And while I, like all of us, have my own beliefs about the Balfour Declaration, Levantine indigeneity, Zionism, Palestinian authority, religion and every other complicated piece of this puzzle, in the current context no one’s personal opinions matter. If we don’t act now to end the cycle of violence being carried out by and inflicted upon people on both sides of the Iron Wall, there won’t be an Israel or a Palestine left to forge peace between. The longer we allow the violence to fester, the more children grow up believing that the people on the other side of the border are the root cause of their pain. In 1897, British author H.G. Wells famously wrote that “if we don’t end war, war will end us.” 126 years later, the phrase only rings more true. War without end will bring about the destruction of us all.
No amount of antisemitism will bring back the 8,000 Gazans that have been bombed to smithereens over the past few weeks or return the 5,200 Palestinian prisoners to their homes. No amount of islamophobia will revive the 1,200 innocent Israelis who were murdered and brutalized on Oct. 7 or return the approximately 240 currently being held hostage. Call your representatives, protest and make your voice heard, talk with (and listen to) people on all sides of the conflict and donate to the dozens of humanitarian organizations currently working to protect and support innocent people in Gaza and in Israel if you feel so led. That is how I believe we can truly make a difference. But enmity, no matter how justified someone may believe it to be, will never bring an end to this war. Hate will never make us whole again.
By Clary Taylor, News Editor.