Day 3

Love wipes away all fear,

                                Fear is overcome by courage.

with my class in the middle of the desert

From the moment I started this summer course ‘Coexistence in the Middle East’ at Hebrew U, I retreated to my natural introverted self because I only knew one person prior and fearing of not being so academically inclined enough, I never spoke up about my opinions or asked questions. It was not until the end of the course, when I finally had the courage to take the initiative to share my own experiences because finally love for the others defeated my fear of self. 

love for the others is are no longer being selfish but selfless

From media’s perspective, Palestinians are portrayed as selfless mainly as suicide bombers*. However, Palestinians are almost nothing what you see in the media as I had first hand experiences in the Palestine territories such as Ramallah, Taybeh and Bethlehem. Ramallah is the central hub for Palestine, where a Muslim girl told me of her personal choice to wear the hijab**because she believed in dressing modestly in covering the beauty of hair away from men. That would probably shock any typical Westerner and Taybeh is the only all Christian village in all of the Holy Land-not to mention 1% of Israel-Palestine is Christians. I can’t explain to you the generosity I received in being invited to a pre-wedding party, had traditional Arabic food offered to me every 2 hours and being welcomed into my friend’s home. Lastly, Bethlehem was a simple charm, as a Palestinian invited me (and friends) into his Olive Wood Factory and was probably the nicest salesman in giving each of us a gift, despite not all having bought something.

Despite the media’s perspective of being brutally selfish as Palestinians,

I saw their selfless love for the others.

*Fundamentalists who have literal interpretations of the Qu’ran indicating the jihad “holy war,” which is fought at all costs against all non-Muslim namely Jews, Christians, etc.

**head covering for Muslim women