Letter to a Jewish friend

I know that this time is trying for both of us, that it prevents us from freely exchanging and conducting our in-depth political dialogues on world affairs, because although we differ on a few points, we agree on many. others. I know that you share my strong criticism of the state of colonization and occupation, guilty of deprivation of rights, expulsion and murder of indigenous populations, all within the framework of a plan of ethnic cleansing implemented since 1948. I know that you face insults and threats of physical attack from Jewish extremists who unfairly project their racism and hatred onto the entire Jewish community. I know that, conscious from an early age and supported by your family which defends the rights of peoples, all peoples, you rejected the absurdities of the extremists of your faith, as I did with mine, and that you chose secularism as a compass for your life and your relationships with others, just like me. I know that, while being attached to your secularism, you are a believer, practicing the rituals of your religion, far from all fanaticism and extremism.

I know that you are engaged in awareness-raising initiatives related to the problems of the countries of the South, the same nations eroded by colonialism and continually exploited by the tyranny of profit. I also know that you are a member of numerous civil organizations that confront Israeli arrogance and Western blindness in the face of the crimes of the last colonial state in the world.

I know all this, my friend, and much more, which places you among those who are closest to my ideas and my convictions. I still remember all these beautiful stories that you told me about the coexistence between religions in Andalusia, because this historical period is at the heart of your research and you even made it the subject of your thesis. As for me, I have often told you my family's stories about an almost ideal coexistence between Jews, Muslims and Christians in the Jamiliyah district of our beautiful city of Aleppo. Your eyes filled with tears when I told you about my mother who went to her Jewish neighbors in the same neighborhood on Saturdays to help them with their forbidden tasks on this sacred day of Shabbat. And how much we laughed at the absurdities of this young Syrian poet who, in order to earn a few coins and promote his modest talent to the extremists of Western racism and supporters of the Zionist movement, falsely claimed that we had been raised from a very young age in hatred of Jews in Syria and other Arab countries.

Neither you nor I had ever considered that sacred texts hold title to land. We have always considered that the historical existence of a people in a given place does not confer, centuries later, legitimacy on their descendants to appropriate the lands of those who live there in the present. I have constantly witnessed the time, energy and money that you have invested in promoting the boycott of products from the colonies of the Occupied Territories, which has earned you insults, for example calling you " Self-hating Jew” and who have been the subject of calls for your social and professional ostracism. Your reading recommendations on the horror of the Holocaust remain vivid in my memory, as well as your clear and honest moral and principled distinction between this abominable genocide and the fallacious claim of the Zionists to occupy the lands of others, to kill them and move them.

You very quickly introduced me, my friend, to the work of the new Israeli historians who explicitly revealed the falsification of Zionist stories about the founding of the state and documented the massacres committed against the Palestinian people. Recently, we were shocked by the withdrawal by a major French publishing house of the 2008 book by prominent Israeli historian Ilan Pappé on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. We also jointly condemned the cancellation by a French municipality of naming a public square in the name of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh who was deliberately murdered by an Israeli soldier, before the eyes of the world.

You agreed with me when I pointed out that the Palestinians, whose rights are violated, refer to the Israeli occupiers when they speak of "Jews." And that the minority of extremists among Muslims, shouting loudly “Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews” during demonstrations denouncing the Israeli occupation, do not represent the majority who disavow them.

Today, faced with Western blindness regarding the situation of the Palestinian people, the complicit silence of Arab countries, the intimidation in the West towards those who dare to criticize Israel, labeled anti-Semitic, and the legislation of the American Congress equating anti-Zionism to anti-Semitism, to France following the same path, to the exclusion of sympathizers of the Palestinian cause, I really fear, my friend, that extremism in the Arab world is increasing. The accusation of anti-Semitism risks being misused, serving more as a diversion or means of repression than a real call for justice and understanding. I therefore fear, my friend, not only the rise of despicable anti-Semitism, but that it will become a news item in comparison with what awaits us in the not very distant future.

Salam Kawakibi

Politist, director of the Arab Center for Research and Political Studies in Paris