Israel, you have my heart

If you haven’t talked to me about Israel since I’ve returned from spring break, then you frankly haven’t had a full conversation with me because all I can think, speak, or breathe since returning is Israel and its conflict with Palestine.

This conflict tears at my core because I have never felt such deep sympathy for both sides. I spent an entire morning, immersing myself in the pain and memories of the holocaust at Yad Vashem (the Holocaust memorial in Israel) and spent the next day in the West Bank hearing the cries of Palestinians for peace. As a proud, opinionated young woman, I have never felt so conflicted, so torn about a dispute so focused on by the international community.

Yet, as much as I thought our world was aware of this issue, I also learned just how much we don’t know. Of course, every issue is nuanced, but I have never found one more frustrating than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. People could barely seem to agree on the facts, let alone their policy proposals. I have never walked away from learning so much, feeling like I know so little of what is true and right and the way forward.

But, this is exactly what made me fall in love with Israel. Its inexplicable relationship with history, its seemingly contradictory relationship with its Jewish and democratic nationhood, its fascinating history and establishment. This conflict is also what made me fall in love with Palestine. Its heart-wrenching removal, its cries for peace, attention, and ceasefire, its yearning for a better political economy.

I don’t have many, or even a few, answers for this conflict. All I have are questions — definitely more so than I did upon arriving in Jerusalem— and I think that is exactly what we need to push the dialogue forward.