2023-10-30 15:38:00
“What we want to avoid is that events over there transform into tensions here. Our common point in the collective is that we are all very affected by what is happening over there, either because we have loved ones who are affected by the conflict, or for other reasons. Even if it is difficult, the message we want to send is that we must get away from a partisan logic which refuses to see the problems encountered by the other camp”, explains Mehdi, one of the founders of the collective.
Hamas attack in Israel: debates burst into our schools
“In our respective communities, we are accused of having blinders on the conflict. But this is exactly the criticism that we address to them as well. The greatest suffering is to respond to barbarism with barbarism and to close completely with our eyes on the camp that we are assigned to. It is very complicated to live with realizing that around us, there is a sort of premium on inhumanity,” adds Jonathan Moskovic, another member of the collective.
All members of the collective therefore claim their right to remain critical of the actions of each camp. “Criticizing is not betrayal. We have the right to be critical of what we want without it being perceived as a betrayal. However, this is what is happening at the moment: criticizing the The Israeli government’s policy towards Gaza can be seen as disloyalty. “At a time when there is an injunction to be hyper-binary, it is difficult to assert nuance. “, he says.
“Another principle is we are together against anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. There are clichés between communities, I don’t think there are stronger clichés among Muslims against Jews than outside Muslims or the opposite but both communities are victims of racism. And yet, it is rare to see solidarity initiatives. It is not because we fight against Islamophobia that we cannot also fight against anti-Semitism. We are not saying: the Arabs are anti-Semitic and the Jews are Islamophobic so we are going to resolve this problem, but rather that we are two communities victims of racism and that we want to recreate solidarity. That may seem pretentious but we hope to open the way. Other collectives are emerging.”
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