Musings on Israel Palestine

(as reposted from Twitter)

Photo by Dave Herring on Unsplash

When a Palestinian (and no, not all Palestinians) hears or sees the word 'Zionist,' she naturally recoils. The only experience of a Zionist that she has ever known is as a source of oppression. A source of checkpoints and restrictions in movement, a source of what is effectively a corrosive, soul crushing surveillance state. This is the only dimension through which she has been exposed to the term. So this negative impression that she as a Palestinian has with the term 'Zionism' makes sense.

Similarly, when an Israeli (and no, not all Israelis) hears or sees the word 'Palestinian,' she recoils because in her case, her only experience of a Palestinian has been an experience of terror. An experience of suicide bombings and stabbings and hate. This is the only dimension through which she has been exposed to the term. So this negative impression that she, as an Israeli has with the term 'Palestinian' makes sense. Now of course the opposite is true for each of these terms. Israelis take pride in the term 'Zionism' and Palestinians take pride in a phrase like 'Free, Free Palestine.' Each phrase is a source of pride and strength and even resilience for each community.

So in a way, Israelis and Palestinians are caught in a kind of a tragic trap. They have come to define each other and yet each one sees the other as an existential threat. You can see how Shakesparean this conflict is from a certain vantage point; how elegant and how deeply tragic it is.

I remember a line from Jay Z's autobiography Decoded, where he describes how two characters can be "living in two different dimensions of the exact same reality." I thnk that in a way, that's true of Israelis and Palestinians.

Just stop and think for a minute about the insane fact that Israelis who were protesting their own government's corruption and brutalities for a year were just brutalized by Hamas. There is no easy solution to this, and the traumas and the wounds at the depths of this conflict are both recent and ancestral. We need to really be humble in approach.

I think if we want to show up as compassionate allies of both peoples, one thing we can do is try and clearly perceive each community from their own perspective, from their own lens, and through their own eyes. This is a really difficult practice because it requires us to put ourselves in someone else's shoes.

There's a vulnerability in this.

Why would I want to put myself in someone's else's shoes and see from their perspective, especially if I perceive that someone else as a monster? If you identify as pro-Palestinian, it's easy to put yourself inside that perspective. It's hard to put yourself inside the shoes of an Israeli. If you identify as pro-Israeli, it's easy to put yourself inside that perspective. It's hard to put yourself inside the shoes of a Palestinian.

Because if you do this, you might discover what influences humans to do things, how humans adapt to their environment (we're actually one of the most skilled species at doing that), and it's total chance that you happened to be born into a particular family, or a lineage, or a story that led to you identify with the "side" you're currently identifying with.

Btw, it's so dehumanizing to call these communities of people "sides."

Anyway if you do this, you might discover that you, given the right circumstances, have the capacity to act in monstrous ways.

We all do.

We all have it in us.

Every single one of us.

And this fact might terrify you.

It might fill you with terror and fear because you won't know what to do with this new knowledge, and you might start to let your fears control you.

But there is also a really beautiful wisdom you'll find if you let yourself see yourself and your fellow man in this multidimensional way.

You'll discover that all human beings suffer and that this universal experience of suffering is something that can be a source of connection for us. Dr. King talked about this. The Greeks called suffering "pathos" and Socrates pointed out how all human beings experience it. This is why James Baldwin wrote, "You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, and then you read."

So I think if enough of us got quiet enough and courageous enough to honor our own suffering, we could honor each other's suffering, and we could learn how to be with each other in our suffering, no matter who we are, no matter what our tribe is, or our party affiliation, or our gender, or our race, or our political views. It may sound naive but hey, these are some very dark times so now is the time to pitch some moonshots.

I think if each one of us in our own communities could learn how to hold space for each other, and to really listen to each other and behold each other and give each other our sustained presence, this might give us some space to mourn our wounds; to mourn the ways we've inflicted pain on each other and the ways we've been oppressed by each other.

And that practice of mourning is important. It's critical. It's the kind of release that people need to thrive. Crying, mourning, lamenting are all incredibly underrated in our society which is crazy because the experience of crying can actually help us feel moments of grace. And we need that. We need grace right now more than ever.

I think if we could tune into this need that we all have, we might actually learn how to be with our pain and carry it and transform it instead of projecting it onto others as a defensive mechanism, as a way to cope.

This shift is really hard to make and I revert all the time. It takes tremendous practice and is basically a recipe for lotttttts of ego deaths lol. But it's also a portal to learning how to love, and I personally don't see any other point to life. If you've gotten this far in the thread, thank you, lol. I see you and I appreciate you taking the time to read this. Just wanted to share with you something that's been stirring in my heart for a long, long time.

I'm wishing all the beautiful innocent souls in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, in Jerusalem, in Hebron, in Nablus, in Jericho, in Bethlehem, in Shilo, in Silwan, in Tiberias, in Ashdod, in Beersheva, from the river to the sea, healing, healing,healing, blessings, blessings, blessings!