I worked in Gaza and The West Bank as a Jewish Woman AMA

[Wflwer]

I worked with an education charity making the journey to Gaza once in 2019 and to The West Bank in 2018 and 2022.
I speak Hebrew and Arabic and we were groups of educators working in schools (group were about 5/6 teachers ranging from primary to secondary educators from Europe)

The West Bank is not "ex Jordan" that's far too clear cut. As you said yourself, land borders from history can be blurred. However other than the perimeters of the West Bank, most of it is and always has been Palestine. My family still has land deeds from British mandate, as well as historical customs (food, dance, dress, language styles) which are very specifically Palestinian not Jordanian.

Sadly the land deeds is for the family farm in a Palestinian village which was first identified in the book of Samuel and then throughout history, but which was ethnically cleansed and destroyed by Israel to plant a forest over it and pretend it was never there and that Palestine is pretend. Lots of pro Israelis keep up the myth today, even as people still live who remember the ethnic cleansing.

@Wflwer

You say you went to Gaza once, in 2019
that's 5 years ago

and the West bank in 2018 and 2022
so 2 years ago min.

Why start such a post in 2024 ?

Thank you for your answer. I did mean the people of Israel, as opposed to it's government. I should have been more specific. Isn't what you have described sympathy rather than empathy?

@quantumbutterfly it’s often referred to as ‘reverting’ rather than ‘converting’ to Islam by Muslim people because it’s seen as returning to Allah.

Maybe she started it because, as is clear from the many people engaging in the thread, people are interested? Do you never converse about anything that happened in the past?

I wasn’t on mumsnet then and I think considering the current conflict it’s a conversation that should be had.

Do all Muslim people believe that?
Judaism is older than islam, shouldn't we be returning to yahweh.
people of the book and all that.

Tbh I’m an atheist so I don’t believe anyone is returning to any god. I was just relaying what Muslim friends have explained about why they use the term ‘revert’ where other faiths would say ‘convert’. AFAIK Jewish people don’t actively encourage people to convert the same way other religions might so it seems kind of a moot point.

Allah is God. Yahweh, Allah are different words to refer to the same God

looking at the theological expositions around the concept of God, Islam and Judaism are extremely close

Both differ with modern day Christianity due to the concept of trinity

Muslim converts call themselves revert as the idea is to return to the original state of innocence at birth. Islam is described as the faith of fitrah (the natural state) in theological texts and hence it also refers to the return to a humans natural state.

tbh revert is a relatively new term and doesn't necessarily have a theological history. also all the original Muslims were converts

Good thread

Yes very good thread.

It will be hard for people to refute you when you were actually there and have witness things with your own eyes.

I can see the that people are struggling to derail this thread like they have done with the threads in the other section.

So your just getting some random push back of why are you posting this, your being insensitive..?

Thank you for sharing your story.

Pushback? Hard to refute?
When asked about public celebrations of Gazans parading victims of 7/10 I was told that Gaza is a big place and not everyone would see or know what was going on.

It's helpful that this poster is sharing her story.

Thank you for answering my questions op, I appreciate you taking the time.

Yet people refute Israelis lived experiences all the time. Or the experiences of Jews who aren't anti-Israel. But this person's experience? This you take as The Truth as it perfectly fits your narrative.

OP - did you ever hear of any positive interactions between Palestinians and Israelis?

I think many displaced peoples have deeds of one sort or another to ancient properties. You're not alone.
So would Palestinian tradition Vs Jordanian tradition be akin to Welsh tradition Vs English tradition. Part of a whole but different. Could you give an example? Food or clothing for instance.

I don't understand your first point, about not being alone.

As to examples of specific regional culture:

Palestinian tatreez (embroidery) differs from village to village, city to city. There are very specific motifs, and motifs used in tandem, that signify where the wearer is from specifically, particularly if they are wearing their bridal thobe.

Palestinian food is a bit different to Jordanian (though there's some similarities). Different cities and regions are famous for specific food. For example Nablus is famous for its knafeh made out of cheese specific to Nablus, the region my family lives is very famous for its 'msakhan' and a stew made out of a particular type of leaf that only grew (historically) in that area in Palestine. Then in Gaza seafood and hot spice is common (close to the ocean and Egypt), while it's not so common inland. All Arabs would consider the food I just described as Palestinian whereas food like hummus, waraq 3nab, etc is common across the region generally.

They're just two examples. But lots is more intangible of course- stories passed down from grandparents which were passed down from their grandparents, wedding traditions and greeting styles specific to towns, just the idiosyncracies of centuries of a culture developing and being perpetuated through generations.

That was quite a long answer, and so I'm really hoping your question was in good faith..

Very interesting thread and responses. I definitely agree that British schools are not taught much about Judaism beyond the holocaust and I don’t think that is helpful. Among my British friends, there isn’t an in depth understanding of the difference between Israel as a country and Jews as a race and the presence of African Jews etc. I think this probably leads or equates to antisemitism in some discussions when it’s ignorance rather than prejudice.

I taught RE for 20 years and I taught Judaism as well as other Abrahamic faiths, in addition of Hinduism. Sikhism and Buddhism. It is taught in schools in RE.
The Holocaust is taught in History.

Agreed, my ds is 15 and this is his experience, he has definitely been taught about Judaism along with the other big faiths. The holocaust was not part of RS.

Thanks. The Holocaust encompasses the millions who were also murdered along side Jewish people such as Roma and Sinti, people with physical and learning disabilities, Poles, Jehovah's witnesses to name a few. I believe that it is why it is part of the History curriculum and not RE.

It's also factual. It happened.

Religious beliefs are not probable.

Even if the victims of the holocaust were solely Jewish, it would still be taught in history and not RE.

No, the reason is that the Holocaust was a hugely significant historical event/ catastrophe with multiple causes that are intricately linked with other events in European and world history around that time (treaty of Versailles, great depression, etc). The main targets of the Nazis were Jews, for their ethnicity (their faith was secondary). Other groups were also targeted, as you rightly say, but that's not why it's not part of the RS curriculum. RS is the study of religions and religious beliefs. History is the study of..well, history.

Or I could have saved myself some time and said what @Comedycook said!

Exactly.

I'm baffled by that posters reasoning

Sorry I meant to say provable.