Palestinian-Israeli activists fighting antisemitism, Islamophobia

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This article was published 01/04/2024 (915 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Amira Mohammed and Ibrahim Abu Ahmad have a message for everyone around the world taking vociferous sides regarding the Israel Hamas War that began after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in Israel.

Don’t add to the polarization!

Mohammed and Abu Ahmad are two courageous, articulate and wise beyond their years Palestinian Israeli peace activists and the creators and hosts of the podcast, Unapologetic: A Third Narrative.

They were also the recent guest speakers on a webinar held on March 17 during Ramadan. The webinar, Refusing narrow tribalism: Two young Palestinian-Israelis making a difference in the post Oct. 7 environment, was hosted by Canadian Friends of Peace Now (CFPN).

CFPN is an arm of the Israeli-founded organization, Peace Now/Shalom Achshav, and currently has branches in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. A Winnipeg branch of the organization disbanded years ago.

CFPN is committed to supporting the values enshrined in Israel’s Declaration of Independence — including the assurance of complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex — as well as to the pursuit of a viable, peaceful solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict and the promotion of a two-state solution.

As Gabriella Goliger, CFPN’s national chair, explains, the organization typically hosts webinars featuring Israeli Jewish academics and peace activists. Mohammed and Abu Ahmad were invited to speak precisely because of who they are.

“Amira and Ibrahim offered a different perspective because they are Palestinian and Arab as well as Israeli and because they are young and because they redoubled their peace building efforts after Oct. 7, when most people around them succumbed to polarization or despair,” Gabriella says.

As they do in their podcast, Mohammed and Abu Ahmad spoke eloquently on the webinar about the horrors of Oct. 7, Israeli’s incursion into Gaza and how Palestinian-Israelis are uniquely suited to help dissect, articulate and resolve the current and continuous conflict.

“We are part of two things at the same time,” Abu Ahmad said. “We are part of the Palestinian people and at the same time we are part of the Israeli society. We are the only community within this conflict that has both realities, both a Palestinian and an Israeli reality simultaneously. We are the only ones in this conflict that speak both languages, and that had both upbringings, that can see and understand both realities. We have the keys to this conflict in that sense. We can bridge the gap. Because we’re both.”

Bridging the gap, for Mohammed and Abu Ahmad, means, in part, demonstrating that there is another narrative that goes beyond one side being right and the other being wrong. That narrative allows room to have conversations, respect others’ lived experiences and feel both pains.

While Mohammed and Abu Ahmad had long been immersed in various peace building activities, they had always talked about creating a podcast to promote their idea of an alternative narrative. Starting their podcast immediately after Oct. 7 was a natural, and arguably courageous, step to take.

“We realized we were steady strong in our shoes and beliefs like we were before October 7 and nothing had changed,” Mohammed explained during the webinar. “When you are a peace activist, when you have devoted your life … and you put your heart and soul into it and it’s in the midst of the bloodiest and most polarizing time of your lifetime, at least for myself, and you don’t do anything … you feel like you’ve lost your purpose.”

Seeing the immediate rise in antisemitism, Islamophobia and what people were doing and experiencing beyond Israel and Gaza in the name of Israelis and Palestinians reinforced for Mohammed and Abu Ahmad the importance of getting their message out.

“Our goal was to dissect what was actually going on for the west,” Abu Ahmad explained. “It was directed to the English speaking west. People of all ages are kind of experts on the Middle East at this moment, so we wanted to make sure to address fake news and misinformation that’s going on.

“We saw how invested the international community was in our conflict, but we saw that that was a polarized investment.”

The entrenched narrative was either Israel is bad and Gaza is good or the opposite.

“The international community is like football fans and we’re the game and the international community is supporting either Israelis or Palestinians to defeat the other and cheering for one or the other,” Abu Ahmad said.

Instead of doing that, he argued, there is a much more critical and helpful role for the international community to play.

“It is a role of pushing their governments not just to end the war, because there will be other wars, and not just to end the occupation, because there will be other occupations, but to end the conflict all together and provide a final ending to this conflict with a real resolution.”

It is a role that sets an example by demonstrating empathy, creating dialogue and encouraging co-existence.

“Amira Mohammed and Ibrahim Abu Ahmad are looking for solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rather than victory for one side or the other,” Goliger asserts.

“They seek a win-win situation for both sides. Because they are Palestinian Israelis and peace activists, they feel empathy for both peoples but also criticize bad leadership and societal failings on both sides. They are incredibly brave to go against the tide of ardent nationalism and blame-the-other on both sides. They promote the two-state solution, and they promote it as something that must be worked on now rather than in some fuzzy future — exactly the mission of Canadian Friends of Peace Now.”

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