Intesar’s Story
My home country is Lebanon, the petite darling of the Middle East. I am also a proud Arab who strives to represent all the sons of Ishmael who cannot speak out but have so much to say. Although I cannot show my face, I am here to express myself, even if I fan the flames of controversy with viewpoints that go against the grain of my culture’s accepted attitudes — as they do on the subject of Israel and Palestine.
Support for Palestine is a deeply rooted part of Arab identity. It’s extraordinarily difficult to grow up Arab and not be pro-Palestine. That being said, many Arabs I have known recognize that Jews are not inherently bad, nor Judaism inherently evil. Granted, there are also many who think otherwise.
When it comes to the conflict over Palestine, I make a clear distinction between being critical of Israel and being anti-Jewish. I am not anti-Jewish, and I am not ashamed of that fact. But when it comes to things like peace with Israel, I am usually cautious about voicing my opinions because they could mark me as “suspicious” to some (Arab) people and government bodies. My viewpoints could be used to support accusations against me of being a traitor, a secret agent, or whatever other exclusionary label the authorities choose to tar my opinions as unacceptable. I believe that Arab governments ultimately just want to keep the arms sales flowing.
I say this because it is in the interest of warlords on both sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict to keep the hostilities ablaze. This is why the distinction between “Jew”, “Israeli”, and “Zionist” is seldom clarified by both sides. Many Jewish or Israeli people oppose some of the actions taken by the Israeli government on both religious and moral grounds while many evangelical Christians unconditionally champion Israeli leadership, especially on religious grounds. The real enemy, however, is not any particular religion, but a stubborn fundamentalism embedded in the belief that a certain piece of land should only be inhabited by a particular group of people. This is nationalism. This is racism. This is at the root of most conflicts in the world: a belief that “I am born superior to X, Y, or Z.”
Those who are anti-Jewish are also anti-Semitic. Arabs are Semitic as well, so it is in my best interest as an Arab that anti-Semitism be extinguished. But there are weapons to be sold and money to be made. Rhetoric designed to incite tribal animosity is constantly broadcast across the Middle East as an investment toward ever-increasing war profiteering.
This is not to say that I regard both sides as equally wrong. I think the hardliners who believe a religious book gives them the right to a piece of land and justifies any means necessary to evacuate legally residing “undesirables” is unequivocally wrong. But that doesn’t mean Arabs and Jews must necessarily be at odds. One can be both Jewish and Arab, after all.
Hebrew and Arabic are very similar languages. We are like cousins. In fact, we are cousins scripturally, since Isaac and Ishmael were brothers. Being Jewish is not mutually exclusive to any human quality, and the same goes for being pro-Palestine. It seems obvious to me that to be anti-Jewish is both ridiculous and dangerous. In the end, I believe it would serve us much better if we all focused on each other’s shared sense of humanity, instead.
Artist Notes
“I chose a sandy background in this illustration to represent the Middle East. In the centre, I included Hamsa, which is an amulet regarded as sacred by both Muslims and Jews, to symbolize that members of these two faiths are cousins. I chose to fill in the Hamsa with symbols of abundance to be savoured by these cousins, who are represented by the birds in the top of the page. On the right there is an oasis, which represents Intesar’s pro-Palestine—yet not anti-Jew—view. Several times, Intesar mentions that a person can be both Jewish and Palestinian, and both Jewish and Arab. He also notes that Hebrew and Arabic are very similar languages, which I represented using the small spheres connected by a rope, symbolizing consanguinity. ”
Published May 1, 2020
Updated Oct 25, 2022
Published in Issue VI: Identity