“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

The post Prejudice and peace … is it possible? first appeared on thrumyeyes.

Hello beautiful members of PAX Nation. I thought it would be nice if I introduce myself because usually in all groups that I’ve joined people often get confused who the hell am I… My name is Niyah (Nee-yah) and I immigrated to the United States permanently in June 2011. The first time I came here was in June 1994 when I was a year and a half but I wasn’t a permanent resident I had to go back but I used to come and go back often… back and forth. I am of mixed race, Baloch, Persian and Afghan (in case you’re wondering who are Baloch people, Balochistan is a Texas-sized Stateless region divided among Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, people from there are called Baloch . Citizen of 3 third-world countries; Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. So I guess that equals one first-world country…no wonder I live in US now haha.

I just wanted to say that I am Pro-Peace, I support Israel’s right to exist, I strongly believe that Jews, Muslims, Christians and Druze etc should live peacefully like brothers in that region and religion should be a personal thing not a reason for having disputes. Most Israelis I have met or am friends with are beautiful people and knowing them has made me love their country, get interested in their history and culture even more but that does not mean I am biased and I don’t feel bad about what’s happening with the Palestinians. I know checkpoints, settlements, refugee issues and everything. I will stand against anyone who would generalize all the Arabs for not wanting peace just like I would if I see someone spewing Jew-hatred or you can say being a total Anti-semite.

The first time I got to know about the Holocaust was when I was 10 and I asked my uncle (who lives in Holland and came to visit us) if there’s someone very famous from Holland and he said “Anne Frank”, I have a habit that when I hear about someone or something new I go and research, when I researched about Anne Frank and read about her life I couldn’t stop crying for 3 days and I kept asking G-d what can I do to bring her back. The other day I was reading some parts of her diary and I couldn’t stop crying, I just stopped. I can’t stand people who say “the Holocaust never happened”. Sometimes, I see people making fun of Anne Frank, praising Hitler or denying/making fun of the Holocaust, what did she or other Jews who died in the Holocaust have to do with Israel other than being Jewish? Well, I can understand good-heartened people caring about the situation Palestinians are in BUT it saddens me to see when people deny something that is so well documented I don’t know if we should keep such atrocities happening, because we refuse to learn from the past. To be honest, “Peace in Israel-Palestine” and “Peace in the Middle-East” is why I am on active on the internet most of the time. I am not interested in other people’s life or about celebrities, etc. I feel I actually don’t need to be remembered when I die. If I managed to teach someone something that actually affected the future in a positive way, then I have lived a good life. It does not really matter if anyone knows I did it or not.

I know what war is. There was a time when my elders used to tell me that “don’t worry if we die from terrorist target-killing or get abducted and killed, we will go to heaven for getting slaughtered without any reason like the Balochs before us”. I remember my 19 year old neighbor, Farooq, in Quetta, Balochistan who was protesting for the missing people of Balochistan and was kidnapped by the Pakistani Army later they found out his  mutilated corpse dumped with another Baloch’s body… their teeth, eyes, nails were plucked out, joints were drilled, also drilled under the eyes then he was shot in the ear his mother is not normal she doesn’t talks to anybody. My cousin died in a bomb blast his mother has attempted suicide many times, many of my relatives are missing, some people say that they are dead. I remember seeing blood on streets in Balochistan.

My friend in Afghanistan went outside and there was a bomb blast her whole body was burnt and injured she was alive for several hours kept begging the doctors to save her, she told them she wants to live but they couldn’t save her, she was 16. I know what war is but if you compare Israel with what Pakistani Army and ISI, how they treat Balochs or what Taliban is doing in Pakistan and Afghanistan then seriously that’s nothing, no comparison.

While 100,000 have been killed in Syria, about 50,000 people brutally tortured to death and abducted in Balochistan, people dying in Egypt…. the world seems to enjoy the luxury of being concerned with Jews in Israel and Palestine. Sometimes I really don’t understand people or why they find some topics more interesting than other topics. I have met Palestinians who are sick and tired of war and they just want a serious “PEACE” solution they keep saying we want peace, we don’t want to throw Jews in the sea or kill all Jews or anything we want to coexist with them like good neighbors and brothers. They call Hamas a terrorist organization and accuse it for making them all look bad. When I meet them I have a strong hope that there will be peace one day but when I see these groups I feel peace is merely just a dream. I know Israelis who want to have peace and would do anything for it but in groups all the time I see Palestine supporters pointing fingers at Israel supporters and vice versa.

Do you guys really think that blaming each other or making fun of each other’s beliefs is the solution of peace? Before doing that think what if you were born in Gaza, Palestine? or what if you were born in Shoham, Israel? Honestly speaking, the way I see people arguing, hating, remembering past events or massacres I don’t think anyone is serious about peace. This is the age of enlightenment and reasoning. Why is war in this era? War is the symbol of dark age. We are all one. We bleed red. We are all the children of Adam and Eve or if you’re an Atheist then I’d say we are all Homo Sapiens so come on people PLEASE for heaven sake start loving each other. Stop fighting about who created the WORLD!!! Fight against the people who are destroying it! I’m not an activist or a politician, but I care passionately about equal rights. I care about human rights and animal rights. “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other”- Mother Teresa. Be realistic forget about the past, past is past it’s not going to comeback even if you keep remembering it and blame each other, just think of  the solutions now. Stop perverting the word Zionism because I could show you many Zionists who work for peace and are actively working for Palestine to get it’s own State and THEY call themselves Zionists and also stop making fun of Islam or say it’s violent because in every religion and Holy Scriptures there are violent or homophobic passages which will make you uncomfortable.. What gets me is, how people can generalize like this when they have not met every Muslim on the planet? or every Jew/Israeli on the planet? Let’s stop painting everyone with the same brush! Look at the similarities instead of looking for the differences.

“Whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land – it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one – it is as if he had saved mankind entirely.” [Quran- 5:32]

“Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.” Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 4:1 (22a)”

I would also like to quote Anne Frank (my role model) here…

“It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.”

The post A never ending war? first appeared on thrumyeyes.