Your turn: Former Galesburg resident shares insight on Middle East conflict from Egypt

Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and the Israeli invasion of Gaza have brought Israel and Palestine to the fore of the American consciousness. This topic has always been present in the minds of those in the Middle East.

After moving to Cairo in 2021, conversations about Palestine have been a regular part of my life. And in the months since Hamas’s brutal attack and Israel’s terrifying response, both of which should be condemned, the differences between the way Israel and Palestine are discussed by those in the Middle East and those in the West have struck me as integral to perpetuating the conflict.

Reminders of the war in Gaza are everywhere in Cairo. There are solidarity songs played in taxis, reminders to donate to Gaza on shopping apps, bracelets bearing the Palestinian flag sold on street corners.

Starbucks and McDonalds are emptied by a boycott on Western businesses and, although there is still the Cairo chaos I love, people are sad. There is a pall over the city as the violence grows.

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When we talk about Palestine, Egyptians typically show me grace. They usually disapprove of the U.S.’s unilateral support of Israel but understand that I am not my government.

Similarly, although the rights of Palestinians are supported throughout Egypt, I have not heard support for Hamas.

Hamas, who has built miles of tunnels and not a single bomb shelter for citizens, who has forbidden elections in Gaza for the past 15 years and has tortured Palestinians who oppose it, is not, from what I've heard, regarded as a representative of the Palestinian people.

Westerners generally approach this topic with less nuance. An American friend of mine recently lamented that he didn’t understand the reason for the conflict when Islam and Judaism have so many similarities.

As the spikes in Islamophobic and antisemitic attacks throughout the U.S. indicate, this conflict is often seen as an issue of Muslims versus Jews that can be shoehorned into antisemitic or Islamophobic sentiments.

While it is possible to be antisemitic and pro-Palestine, the two are not synonymous. And while Israel is important to the Jewish faith, not all Jewish people support the oppression of Palestinians.

The truth is that two deeply traumatized groups—a Jewish population that has been affected by the Holocaust and generations of marginalization, and the Palestinian population who has been displaced from their land, whose movement is highly controlled, whose homes are often raided, and often do not have access to what they need to survive—have been failed by their leaders, who are not committed to creating peaceful futures for their peoples.

U.S. leadership has contributed to these failures. It was only months into what multiple U.S. officials have called a “classic example of genocide” that the U.S. began to sanction Israelis who have built illegal settlements in the West Bank. This could have been done years ago.

The U.S. consented when a population roughly the same as Chicago’s was forced into Gaza, an area smaller than the smallest county in Illinois.

The U.S. has failed to rebuke their allies for the thousands of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army before the Oct. 7 attack, or when human rights groups like Amnesty International labeled Israel an Apartheid state.

The U.S. has continually used its spot on the UN Security Council to protect Israel from international criticism. As I wrote this, the U.S. vetoed another UN cease-fire resolution as Gaza’s death toll approached 20,000.

When discussing Palestine, no Egyptian has held me responsible for America’s actions—should they? It is not my job to know how to resolve this conflict.

However, as citizens in a democracy, we can hold our elected officials accountable. I urge you to call your representatives and communicate that you support a ceasefire and for the U.S. to change how it approaches Israel, and that upholding a state that carries out human rights abuses is unacceptable.

I also urge you to ask your representatives what they are doing to support their Jewish, Muslim, and Arab constituents at this time.

Catherine Johnson is a Galesburg native who has lived in Cairo, Egypt since 2021. She graduated from Galesburg High School and has a degree in political science.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Your turn: Galesburg native shares insight on Middle East conflict