By: Alexis Schwartz, Tulane University, Hasbara Fellow
Getting inside peoples’ minds to better understand why they feel the way they do about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been a challenge I am in the process of tackling, and well, probably will be forever. Nonetheless, this is the challenge I have chosen to face since stepping back on my campus this semester, following my experience with Hasbara Fellowships.
Throughout the two weeks we spent throughout cities such as Jerusalem, Hebron, Rawabi, and Sderot to name just a few, where we had the chance to explore this ever-so complex issue – one which is often painted as extraordinarily black-and-white on college campuses. Following speaking with some unique figures throughout the worlds of government, entertainment, business, and much more, Hasbara Fellows were given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain a more well-rounded perspective of the conflict – truly on all ends of the political, racial, economic, and religious spectrum.
When returning to my campus this fall, I soon noticed the Middle Eastern conflict is not a topic that many other college students ever get the chance to delve so deeply into throughout the course of their college experiences, or even their lives. While I acknowledge how unbelievably fortunate I am to have engaged with people who possess strongly differing opinions from that of my own, I must also note how useless all my new knowledge would have been had I not chosen to come back to my campus and seize the opportunity to share what I learned in a meaningful way.
What truly made my Hasbara experience is how well-rounded I feel my perspective on the issue has become. While seeing both sides can easily make one hypercritical of the State of Israel (which it has), I continue appreciating the necessity for a Jewish state, particularly Israel, and even better understand why I, as an American Jew, will unfailingly defend the state until the day I die.
Looking around me at school on a day-to-day basis, I often wish everyone else could better comprehend how unbelievably complex of an issue the conflict truly is. However, I recognize that as college students, Americans, and even American Jews, not many people have the chance to gain such a comprehensive perspective of Israel’s reality from the ground. With that said, we must educate. From the dozens of conversations I’ve stricken since returning to the US about 5 months ago, I have gathered it is my [our] duty, as pro-Israel activists, to make the most of our time here on my [our] campus[es]. While Israel is not perfect, no problem can be solved without civil discourse and a willingness to understand. Sympathize, put yourself in someone else’s shoes, if even just for a moment, and realize the importance of peace. Every conversation we have, even as 19, 20, 21-year-olds, has the potential to make a huge impact on the conflict at large.
And, that is why I, Alexis Leah Schwartz, defend Israel. Whether financially, politically, or on the ground in Israel, we are all fighting for something important…something greater than us. The conflict is complex, but we have the opportunity to make that clearer; to make our voices heard in the struggle for peace.
