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As Israeli Apartheid Week wraps up, I’m left wondering what effect it had on the general population. Most of us are apathetic on every issue, ever more so on controversial issues like this conflict.
I’ve never taken anything out of these awareness weeks. Both sides rant their propaganda and pretend that all the fault belong solely to the other side.
Thankfully, at McMaster, the peace is kept. Last year’s incident, in which accusations of hate speech were levelled at demonstrators and the police were called, was the result of bus loads of Torontonian radicals coming into this campus and trying to destroy the civility they so despise.
The very title of the week sparks heated emotion on both sides. However, it is this very title that draws so much attention from both sides. They understand what brings media coverage to this story; the controversy itself and there is one thing that both sides value more than anything else; a monopoly on victim status.
The media isn’t interested in an Israeli-Palestine information week. The controversial title is necessary for the pro-Palestinian side to gain attention. To the Western media, myself included, the conflict is old news. In the Middle Eastern media, it remains on the front page.
Every day while I was in the Middle East recently, I awoke to newspapers with front-page stories on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The crisis was caused by Israel’s botched operation against Hamas. I supported the operation at first. Now that we’ve seen the results, I strongly regret that position. I’ve seen how right-wing the Israeli leadership as become in the past decade.
The civilian toll is horrendous. The Israelis failed to executive their operation properly. Yes, I hold Israel to a higher standard than I do Hamas. One is a democratic nation which is recognized around the world and the other is a terrorist organization which is isolated from the world.
The Canadian and American governments both stood by and gave tacit support. But we have a responsibility to support the rebuilding of the civil infrastructure of Gaza. We have a responsibility to make the West Bank vibrant.
I had the opportunity to drink coffee with a Palestinian in a Qatari market last week. It was one of the most enlightening conversations of my life. I left the conversation with a greater understanding and appreciation of his culture.
We discussed religion for over an hour. He had a great understanding of Christianity, a better understand than mine as a Christian. We spoke of Judaism, and he had a great deal of respect for its roots and lamented that, in his opinion, that a once great religion had become an oppressor. I did not detect any anti-Semitic feeling from this person.
On the topic of Jerusalem, he wished it to be an open city that served as the capital of both peoples. He doesn’t want Israel wiped off the map, he just wants the ability to raise his family in peace and stability. For as long as we in the West continue to allow Israel to act recklessly, we will continue to suffer from this conflict.
The Middle East dislikes Hamas just as much as we do, however they are not able to do anything about the political situation in the occupied territories while the humanitarian situation remains so dire. Let’s be clear, we need to find a two-state solution; but this can’t be achieved while people are starving on one side of a border being drawn by the other side.
Maybe if we had simple merchants making the decisions instead of career fighters, the Middle East would not be the source of some much conflict and pain in the world.
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