You know what would be the best way to know whether the Levantine conflict is over land or religion? Through a control group. If, hypothetically, the British Mandate for Palestine drew out a map for both Israel and Palestine, and then a third state (the control group), a state that was not Palestine but still Muslim, then we would have the following: 1 Muslim state (Palestine) 1 Muslim state (Not-Palestine) (Control) 1 Jewish state (Not-Palestine) Now, if this was about land and not religion, there would be a problem with both of the latter two states, neither of which being Palestine. On the other hand, if this was about religion, there would be a problem only with the last state (the Jewish state) because it is not a Muslim state. We have the control group. The control group is Jordan. Nobody has a problem with it. It is not about land. It’s about religion. I’m so tired of those of us from Muslim countries/backgrounds being told by westerners that antisemitism isn’t deeply entrenched in the Muslim/Arab world. You aren’t from here and you’d have no idea. The disdain towards Jews dates back to the times of the Abrahamic prophets. During the Prophet Muhammad’s lifetime, the Jewish tribes that lived in Arabia and nearby Yemen (yes, Jews are and always have been Semites from the Middle East, not “Europeans from Poland” or “Brooklyn,” contrary to what Miranda from Queers4Jihad says) were expelled or enslaved. The Prophet Muhammad feared that the Jews would consort with his enemies and conspire to overthrow him, but they were swiftly subdued. From this time onward, and more pointedly during the second Caliph’s rule, Jews were reduced to (and written about) as inferiors and “dhimmis.” Living as slave-adjacent. Their threat was, however, never taken seriously because there was no clear and present danger that they would one day rise up, take back their power, reclaim statehood, and return to the sovereignty they once enjoyed before more than a millennia of barbaric conquests, massacres, enslavement, and exile. Well that day has come. The Jews are a sovereign people again, an unprecedented reality that has rocked the Arab/Muslim world which simply cannot accept the ascension of those once undermined and considered inferior. I am proud to stand up with my Jewish brothers and sisters in their right to statehood and sovereignty that all free peoples are entitled to. The Middle East will never again be a “Jew-free” or “Jew subdued” place. It will be a place where our Jewish brothers and sisters are honored and respected amongst us, and I, as a Middle Eastern woman who believes in the dignity of all people in our lands, will not tire until that day comes.
See Tweet