Hi Rodaina. I’m glad you’re doing well. I’ve wanted to ask you for a long time now why you decided to unfollow me [on Instagram] and remove me from your following, and whether it has something to do with “be’er sheva” in my bio (ie you have a problem with me being in Israel) and my ✡ story highlight where I repost informative slides with sources and context regarding the Jewish people and our history, including our history in the levant. I’ve been afraid of confronting you about this because I truly valued our friendship and you have always been so, so kind and welcoming to me; it seemed a shame to lose a friendship that has meant a lot to me in the past.
Unfortunately, it has come to my attention that you are publicly supporting a terrorist organization that has put the lives of me, my mother, and my friends, in danger. You have shared posts that rationalize the rape, beheading, brutalization, and murder of men, women, and children — innocent people. And before you say that Israel has been doing this for a long time — no it has not. Whenever Israel has retaliated in response to rockets from Gaza, they have passed out pamphlets, sent text messages, and done what they could to warn civilians to take shelter and evacuate their homes. Anyone who says they don’t have shelters is lying; it is not Israel’s fault that Gaza leadership uses its civilians as human shields when Israel targets the extremists who want to violently wipe out Israel’s existence. Any individual Israelis who have in the past committed violence or sexual assault against Palestinians have been condemned by Israeli law, and I would challenge you to find evidence of Israelis decapitating Palestinian babies the way that Hamas has done to Israelis. Hamas, the leadership of Gaza, organized an attack on civilians; they infiltrated via air, land, and sea. Israel left Gaza in 2005; this wasn’t about occupation, and if it were about the blockade, then they would have been mad at Egypt, as well.
I feel terribly for the the innocent civilians of Gaza and I hope they can stay safe, but I feel terribly for my people, too, and Israel did not start this war. If Israel laid down its weapons, or tried to de-escalate the situation, there would be no Israel, there would be no recognized same-sex marriage in the Middle East, and the percentage of Jews in the world would go from 0.2% to 0.1%.
I don’t understand how someone who has gone through [our particular university program] and has studied ancient history can be so hostile to the prospect of Jews having autonomy in their ethnic homeland, and can pretend that history started in 1948. The Israeli government is far from perfect, I will be the first to admit; but ruthlessly killing the very same people who have actually been protesting that government, and who were literally attending a festival for peace — there’s no justifying these atrocities, there’s no way one can claim that this is liberation, that these things are justified. If you truly stood for the human rights of Palestinians, you would condemn Hamas and these brutal attacks, and the way that Hamas has treated its people, robbing them of international aid, keeping them in poverty, and more, for the last 15 years.
I am truly sorry to say this, but I can’t associate with you anymore. As a woman stocking her bomb-sheltered bedroom with food in Israel, as a Jew, as a person, I morally cannot have anything to do with you. Thank you for the love and support you have offered me in the past, and for being a true friend whom I loved and cherished. But you are not my friend if you support crimes against humanity. You are not my friend by associating yourself with this cause right now, when swastikas are being waved and “gas the Jews” is being chanted at pro-Palestinian rallies around the world. You are not pro-human rights.
I earnestly wish you the best for your life in Egypt, and though I hoped to maybe visit you there someday, those hopes have been squandered not only by our now-severed friendship, but also by the murder of Israeli tourists in Egypt.
I’m sorry to do this. I will miss our friendship, but I cannot and will not regret blocking people who, for all intents and purposes, are okay if I die, and who will say that in the event I’m raped, tortured, or mutilated, I deserved it.