OPINION: How 7 October changed my perspective as a Palestinian from Gaza

In the painful year since the October 7 massacre in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and hundreds taken hostage, I have made more connections with Israelis and Jews as a Palestinian from Gaza than I have in the entirety of my life.

I’m no stranger to dialogue groups between Palestinians and Israelis/Jews in the diaspora outside the Holy Land. After all, my first time meeting Israelis who were not at a military checkpoint or a border crossing was in California, soon after I left Gaza as a teenage exchange student in 2005. In fact, I had grown tired of dialogue groups because  I was truly interested in building upon the conversations and engaging in direct action.

The Israel and Palestine discourse has devolved so much that I yearn for the days of simple dialogue. Both the pro-Palestine and the pro-Israel communities are in complete, ideological and philosophical opposition to each other. Neither wants to acknowledge the legitimate grievances or humanity of the other.

I grew up in the Gaza Strip and experienced firsthand the various elements of the Israel and Palestine conflict, especially during the second Intifada. I saw Hamas’s gradual rise to political power and prominence in the Gaza Strip and realised the horrors that awaited my people at the hands of this fraudulent, suicidal, terrorist organisation that hijacked the Palestinian narrative. I came to the United States one month before the withdrawal of Israeli settlements from the coastal enclave, a time of immense uncertainty and hope.

The Gaza Strip is unlike the West Bank in a variety of ways, culturally and politically. Gaza has generally been much more isolated, and it is a lot more difficult to leave, enter, or visit. This made me of interest to many in the Jewish and Israeli communities who were genuinely interested in understanding Gaza through a Palestinian who was from there with family still on the ground.

My entire immediate and extended family remained in Gaza even as I was unable to return once I finished my year of high school cultural exchange in the United States. I applied for political asylum, for which my interview was on the very day that Hamas violently and fully took over the Gaza Strip on 14 June 2007.

Throughout my time in the United States, my family, friends, and community experienced the horrors of life under Hamas’s incompetent and nefarious rule, which entailed periodic wars with Israel and a choking blockade that, at times, made life truly miserable.

They also experienced the consequences of a nefarious strategy by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in which Hamas’s rule was allowed to grow and fester in an effort to keep the Palestinians politically divided and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.

I grew up in the Gaza Strip and experienced firsthand the various elements of the Israel and Palestine conflict, especially during the second Intifada. I saw Hamas’s gradual rise to political power and prominence in the Gaza Strip and realised the horrors that awaited my people

In 2015, I launched an organization to advocate for an internationally run, Israeli-approved airfield in the Gaza Strip. While working on this effort, I connected with a broad spectrum of Israelis and diaspora Jews who were vital partners in making critical introductions to help build a proposal and socialise the concept.

That experience was invaluable in helping connect with people with whom I may not have fully agreed but nevertheless shared common ground in wanting to see Gaza developed, stabilised, opened up to the rest of the world, and provided with alternatives to isolation and war. I wrote for Israeli and Jewish media outlets and held numerous meetings and gatherings that were condemned by some in the “pro-Palestine” community as a form of “normalisation” with Zionists and mainstream Jewish audiences.

This experience reinforced for me the need to connect with new Jewish audiences who were not just anti-Zionists or on the far left. I was stunned that basic communication was vilified simply because of who I was talking with.

All of these different threads came together after the horrendous attack of October 7 and the ensuing war on Gaza that has destroyed both of my childhood homes and killed over 31 of my immediate and extended family members.

I was regularly faced with the choice of preaching to the choir and avoiding talking with those with whom I disagreed, or taking a leap of faith and actually building new bridges and alliances in pursuit of the slightest of common ground across our differences. The tragic death of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, including family members, tested my ability to stay true to this principle and has required a daily commitment to this ethos.

The war on Gaza has destroyed both of my childhood homes and killed over 31 of my immediate and extended family members.

That I have emerged as one of the most consistent anti-Hamas voices within the Palestinian community has created immense interest in what I have to say from many in the Jewish and Israeli communities.

The problem, however, is that at my core, I am extremely pro-Palestine and deeply committed to advocating for Palestinians’ right to freedom, independence and sovereignty.

When I criticise the Israeli government’s actions and those of Netanyahu and the far-right ministers that have exacerbated settlements in the West Bank and the military occupation, the same allies and friends who were willing to engage in dialogue often turn against me and quickly dismiss all the common ground that I thought we had previously established.

Some act as though any criticism of Israel is perfectly off-limits and that Israel is somehow a perfect entity that can do no wrong.

This very quickly makes me think that many of these allies may not be as authentic as I had hoped they would be. Worse, it makes me feel as though I am merely being tokenised as a Palestinian who is against Hamas and that some of my “convenient” views are of interest while the rest are immediately shut down.

This dynamic is precisely why so many Palestinians, especially in the English-speaking diaspora, do not speak out against Hamas and Palestinian internal problems and mistakes because they don’t want their words to be tokenized by the Jewish community for a very narrow end and goal.

I am pleading with my Jewish and Israeli friends and allies who are interested in engaging Palestinians to please be cognisant of this. The goal should not be to agree 100% of the time; instead, it is to create a space where healthy, respectful, sincere, and detailed exchanges can take place unhindered.

Most importantly, getting more Palestinians to speak out requires Jewish allies to be sensitive and aware of their actions and how they are not inadvertently or carelessly pushing away potential Palestinian friends who could be vital partners in forging a different path forward based on empathy and mutual recognition.

The goal should not be to agree 100% of the time; instead, it is to create a space where healthy, respectful, sincere, and detailed exchanges can take place unhindered.

I implore the Jewish community to grow more comfortable in hearing Palestinian critiques around Israeli policies regarding the military occupation of the West Bank, settlements, policies around Gaza, and the conduct of the war, dehumanisation, and abuse that Palestinians have endured for generations.

Of course, there have been numerous mistakes committed by the Palestinian national project and Palestinian leadership. There have also been horrendous terror acts and crimes committed against Israelis by Palestinians, and many within Palestinian society want to stand against these persistent failures.

Yet it is incumbent upon my Jewish brothers and sisters to be part of the empowerment of moderate Palestinian voices who are there and ready to be part of a better future but need some nurturing and support. This will require agreeing to disagree and not having to say something every time you hear an opinion with which you disagree.

A better future awaits all of us if we will it and work towards it. Dialogue and conversations must always be a two-way street, even when they are uncomfortable and unpleasant.

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib is a resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and writes extensively on Gaza’s political and humanitarian affairs