Prejudice and peace … is it possible?

“Peace.” Every one of us claims that we want peace. There are right wingers, centrists, left wingers and all of them claim that they want to achieve peace. When I was growing up, people around me didn’t just dislike but hated the State of Israel because they thought Israel is the reason why there’s no peace in the world and I always used to get confused and ask myself why we are so many against that State? Is it because they now exist on a piece of land in the Middle East? If yes, then what about those North African Berber-Lands which have been invaded by the Arabs? Several questions came into my mind. People of my ancestral Stateless region called “Balochistan/Baluchestan” divided among Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan are suffering and are getting oppressed every day when they open their mouth against the government. Especially, the Pakistani government which has been slaughtering; oppressing; throwing Balochs into torture cells … the policy is to kidnap-torture-kill-dump (if it’s a woman then rape before dumping her in some trash area) , this is how Balochs suffer every day for demanding a “Free Independent State”.

Thousands of Balochs have been abducted and tortured to death. I still remember when my aunt was talking to me about what is happening in our region, she said “These people claim that they are Muslims and kill Balochs who are also Muslims, what if Balochs weren’t Muslims, I wonder what would they do to us”. Soon, I started educating myself about States that got independence and freedom and Israel was one of them. Also, I started learning and researching about Jewish Exodus from Arab/Muslim Lands, about the Holocaust, plus, how Palestinians had to leave that land. Holocaust was never taught to us at school, well, in fact nothing related to the Second World War was taught in our school.  My maternal grandmother is Persian and she’s from Mashhad, Iran. It might surprise you that a girl who also has Persian blood considers Anne Frank, one of Hitler’s best known victim to be her hero. The reason I am saying ‘surprise’ is because as a Persian I have never supported, the ex-President of Iran, Ahmedinejad and the words that came out of his mouth, he was a total embarrassment. Ahmedinejad was an Anti-semite and proudly claimed that denying the “Holocaust” is one of his greatest achievements. I would like to say that before generalizing all Persians, which I have seen a lot on the internet, I want people to know that when you generalize people because of the government they are stuck with today then honestly speaking, you’re ‘racist’ and also ‘ignorant’ because you haven’t tried to get to know the history.

When I was young and used to recite the Quran with my Qari (the person who teaches Quran) I used to see/read the word “يا بني إسرائيل”, “Ya Bani Israel” a lot in the Quran and as I didn’t know Arabic (just understood some words in the Quran as Persian and Arabic have some similar words, but didn’t understand Arabic totally) I used to get surprised “What? Is this verse talking about the ancestors of those Israeli people living in Israel today? Or is it something else?” I started researching the Quran and see what it says about the Israelites (Bani Israel). What I found out, was a total surprise because Quran relates the words by which Moses ordered the Israelites to conquer the Land:

And [remember] when Moses said to his people: ‘O my people, call in remembrance the favor of God unto you, when he produced prophets among you, made you kings, and gave to you what He had not given to any other among the peoples. O my people, enter the Holy Land which God has assigned unto you, and turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin.'” [Qur’an 5:20-21]

The Quran refers to the return of the Jews to the Land of Israel before the Last Judgment – where it says:

And thereafter We [Allah] said to the Children of Israel: ‘Dwell securely in the Promised Land. And when the last warning will come to pass, we will gather you together in a mingled crowd.'” [Qur’an 17:104]

I was surprised, and I was like, “What are we talking about when the Quran ITSELF supports the Jews to live there and dwell there until the Day of Judgment? Then why can’t Muslims just get along with them?” I can write a whole book about how many people have I argued with on this topic and have heard racist, disgusting, disrespectful things from them just because I found something in the Quran and tried discussing it with them. Sometimes, I was in tears after getting humiliated and insulted repeatedly.

Now, coming to Judaism;

Leviticus 19- God commanded to the Jewish people:

When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.”

The Talmud (Baba Metzia 59b) points out that the requirement to treat the foreigner who lives among you as fully equal is repeated no less than 36 times in the Torah. More times than any other commandment.

Exodus 22:21:

Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.

Often people ask me whether I am for “One-State” or “Two-States” or something else. My answer is, Two States for two peoples. Large Settlement Blocs will remain of Israel, they are not going anywhere, so the Palestinians have the right to have an equal size piece of land carved out for them and there will be land swaps. Geneva Accords which were negotiated by Palestinians and Israelis themselves states ” Israel will annex the large settlement blocs”. Now, why do I support Two States for Two Peoples? Arabs and Jews lived under one regime in Palestine before 1947. The result was repeated violent clashes from 1886 to 1947, which in December 1947, exploded into full scale civil war. That is the war for which we are still seeking a solution. The level of mutual fear, lack of acceptance, animosity and outright hatred is even greater today than it was in the past. If Israel and Palestine become One-State then that is going to result in another war and probably another “Nakba”.

We are living in an era when Soviet Union broke up into a dozen different states and border fences went up between them. East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) which also had the same religion as West Pakistan (now Pakistan) fought and became an Independent State. Yugoslavia broke up into 4 states, and border fences went up between them. . Czechoslovakia broke up into two states. Kurdistan wants Independence from Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran though they have the same religion.  Balochistan, a region which has a majority of Muslims also wants to be separated from the Islamic Republics; Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.  Palestine broke up into a Fatah ruled West Bank and a Hamas ruled Gaza strip even before it became a state. Iraq and Syria also look unstable and might break. If someone looks at the facts of history and current events, he can never think that the solution to the Arab-Jewish conflict would be to take down the border between Israel and Palestine and demand that Israel, the West Bank and Gaza should be “One large State”. If I am free to dream, I want to see the world without borders and all of us should be global citizens but if I am realistic, I have to keep all these facts in mind and so it means borders between Israel and Palestine are more likely to be among the last than the first to come down.

I know what it feels to wish or fight for having your own State, I am also from a Stateless region where people are tortured to death and dumped for wanting their own State. “Palestinians do not deserve to live like that” said my Israeli friend yesterday, I totally agree with that statement and I also believe that neither Jews nor Palestinians should be Stateless and therefore everyone should find possible ways of solving this issue and instead of dreaming about something impossible. We should keep the history, current events and everything in mind. 50.2% of the Israeli population today are Mizrahic/Sephardic Jews, they’re the estimated 850,000 Jews living in the Middle East who were forcefully driven out of their homes (in Arab/Muslim countries) around 1948 with absolutely nothing but the clothes on their backs and only one place to go: Eretz Israel. Now to think that “Jews should go back to Poland/Europe” is stupid because 50.2% of the Israeli population did not move to this land from Poland or from somewhere in Europe, Jews from Europe learned in a brutal way that they belong nowhere else but Land of Israel, also, Jews from Arab/Muslim lands learned that they belong nowhere else but Israel and to say “Make Jordan Palestine” is also very offensive because neither the Jordanians nor the Palestinians want that and therefore- Palestinians should have their own State but Palestinians should also stop blaming Israel over everything and should ask “What have their own politicians ever done for them?” Plus, they should increase their level of tolerance, not letting Jews pray on the Temple Mount/ Al-Sakhrah and Al-Aqsa area is racist and every Muslim who is educated and moderate is against this. If Jews worship the God of Abraham and so do you then why don’t you just get along and let them pray? Such hate is never going to solve anything, but rather increase animosity, just like, building more settlements have never helped but has made things worse.

Meeting people and talking to them about this conflict has opened my eyes and I’ve learned a lot by listening to people from both sides and being unbiased. Unfortunately, many people who claim they are supporters of Palestine hate Jews or have a problem with Jews having their own State. Some of these supporters have become Muslim because they think it validates their hate for Jews. Similarly, there are people who claim they are supporters of Israel but soon you realize when you debate/talk to them that they have a problem with Muslims and/or their faith. Leaders and politicians have in my opinion failed. So-called leaders like Ahmedinejad are good for nothing, they just know how to increase more problems in the Middle East. Iran and Israel are enemies and I have noticed people disliking Persians but they forget that Cyrus The Great helped the Jews back to Jerusalem and gave the order to build the second Temple, when he conquered the Babylonians. Jewish Queen Esther ruled over Iran centuries ago, she’s buried in Hamadan, Iran next to her uncle Mordechai.

Daniel’s tomb is in Susa (Shush), Iran. Iran has a rich Jewish history but unfortunately today things aren’t the way they should be. I hope peace will come soon in this world. I once read of an American who attended a Friday sermon in Iran in 1995,in which the then-President Rafsanjani delivered an Anti-American/ Anti-Israel sermon. He spoke of talking to the Iranian sitting next to him, who after finding out he was American, welcomed him to Iran with a big smile. In this American’s opinion, the Iranians are not as blind we think, but rather well educated to what is going on. Iranian concern for the Palestinians is a political game. How does this help, the way the Politicians are dealing with things? It hasn’t helped the Palestinians so far, on the contrary. I know many Arabs who don’t really like Persians, especially Arabs from Iraq who still think Iran is responsible for the Iraq-Iran war (and not Saddam Hussein) and also some Lebanese, etc. I was watching a video where a Persian Jew living in Israel says good things about Persians and a guy says to him “But Iran hates us?”  The old man is like “So what if they hate us? Everyone hates us!” I was thinking not many in the Middle East like Iran just the way they don’t like Israel. It’s funny, both these countries … so-called “enemies” today … have so much in common.

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” –Anne Frank