Since Dec 27th, the fateful day when Israel's air raids against Gaza started... my life has changed. I've lost hope that peace could ever be achieved and I've slowly worked to find inner peace again and regain that hope. For if our idealism is lost completely, what else is left? I also find myself in the situation of having very, very close friends on both sides of the conflict. I continuously hear two sides to this narrative and this is important in my search for objectivity, truth, justice and equality. The most important tool in negotiating between two parties is building trust and remaining the objective third party. If you lose that, then you lose sight of hope. In these past weeks, I've lost hope and slowly regained it.
I want to focus on yesterday's experience. The LSE PalSoc (Palestinian society) put forward a petition to the student union, aimed at condemning the Israeli attacks on Gaza. The resolution was passed by over 200 votes to close to 150, but Howard Davies, Director General of the LSE has refused to meet either of the requests: issue a statement condemning the Israeli massacre in Gaza, and to divest from the arms company BAe Systems.
At the UGM (General meeting), preceding this meeting, students heard stories from both the Palestinian society, the Israeli society and a student who called upon others not to vote. Something said by AR from the Israeli society, and confirmed to me by DD, an Israeli colleague, who attended the UGM with me... surprised me greatly. Israeli students on campus had been on the receiving end of racist remarks since the beginning of the semester on Monday. Some of them were afraid of attending classes and had started using English instead of Hebrew names. Do two wrongs make a right? And why is any student on my campus afraid to attend classes at one of the top universities in the world? I can no longer look on at the attacks on Gaza than I can look on and see fellow colleagues harassed. Thanks to CK and DF, I refuse to see this happen on my campus. I spent a lot of time listening and talking yesterday- of course I've been friends with all those in the Palestinian society for a while through the Islamic Society.... but I talked yesterday to many Jewish and Israeli students who are pro-dialogue and pro-reconciliation at LSE. We talked about different ways to initiate this dialogue. God willing, it will happen and it will create transformation on a personal level and then within the student community.
Simultaneously to this I called MA to check on her and found out that the Al Quds hospital had been bombed by Israel- 500 people. Her family home was ten meters away. She was devastated... but Alhamdudillah I was able to be there for her and talk things through... to continue to talk about hope, when it seems like everything had been lost.
In the same day, yes the day continues... I met NN... a former Israeli LSE student, who had come from Tel Aviv for a few days to interview students. Before coming she had interviewed people in Israel and upon her return she would travel to the West Bank to interview Palestinians. She was creating a documentary to show to mainstream Israeli society different perspectives from across the world. What a great idea! We had a deep heart to heart conversations and we plan to meet again at the end of this month.
With the growing violence in the rest of the world surrounding this conflict, I realize why I've spent so much time studying and learning about both sides in detail. This conflict, unlike many others, has the potential to divide the rest of the world. Many many people belong to one of the three monotheistic religions: Islam, Judaism and Christianity and so they can potentially get drawn into this conflict.
I had to write... writing lets me think... it's like breathing... letting it all go. NN asked me, Asiya how do you build trust? That question remains with me... I'm still thinking about it and I'll continue to contemplate on it for a long time to come. What I do know is that it's better to throw one starfish back into the ocean than not to try at all.
1 comment:
Asiya, somehow i have found myself reading through your posts...was looking up some info on google and somehow i saw a link to your blog....
I am so impressed by this... if i could give anything in return it would be to read through every other day. Thank you so much for sharing your views with the world and they will surely ignite everyone who reads through to re-evaluate and where possible re-think their own ways how they lead their lives. Change begins with the individual, and there is no way we can dream of changing the world without changing ourselves first.
Thank you so much Asiya.
Dvd K- Belgium
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