The 'Jews And Arabs Refuse To Be Enemies' Movement Proves Love Is Stronger Than War
Amid unrest in the Middle East, some interfaith couples are determined to prove love is stronger than war.
By Sadho Ram — 23 Jul 2014, 05:00 PM — Updated over 10 years ago
After two weeks of violence between Israel and Hamas, which has claimed over 550 Palestinians and 27 Israelis so far, people from both sides are pleading for an end to the bloodshed
Earlier this week, several people participated in a demonstration in Haifa, Israel, dubbed Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies. Now the same phrase has evolved into a hashtag, and it's being used by thousands of people in an international social media movement calling for peace.
bustle.comThis is Sulome Anderson, a journalist. She is half Lebanese. She's kissing her Jewish boyfriend in this viral photograph posted on Facebook and Twitter, part of an explosive social media campaign spreading the message: "Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies."
'He calls me neshama, I call him habibi. Love doesn't speak the language of occupation #JewsAndArabsRefuseToBeEnemies,' Sulome Anderson tweeted.
Image via nydailynews.comThe controversial image shows Sulome Anderson and her American-Israeli boyfriend kissing. The picture was posted in reponse to a social media campaign called: “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies.”
alarabiya.netAnderson is the daughter of Terry Anderson, the former Middle East bureau chief for the Associated Press who was held prisoner by the Islamic militant group called Hezbollah for seven years. She's writing a book about what happened to her father.
"When we started dating we would argue a lot about politics and slowly but surely, we started coming to some consensus," Anderson told ABC News about her relationship. "We still argue sometimes, but we're coming closer to understanding each other's perspectives. When it comes down to it, we're people and we love each other and that's what matters most," she added.
go.com"I've had a pretty intimate experience with how much hate can wreck lives in the Middle East," said Anderson, who splits her time between New York and Beirut.
nydailynews.comHer love life has been tested, too. Anderson's boyfriend, who has dual citizenship in America and Israel, grew up strictly Orthodox and his family is "decidedly uncool" with their relationship, she said.
But his family has more of a problem with her not being Jewish than with her being Arab, Anderson added.
alarabiya.netShe hopes the "Jews And Arabs Refuse To Be Enemies" campaign helps people understand what's really at stake during war: people
"What really excites me is that there are people whose perspectives I don't share, from the pro-Israeli side, who have retweeted our picture and others, and that's what's really important to me," she said. "Not so much that people agree with us, but that people who don't agree with us are sharing this message."
go.comThe campaign #Jews and Arabs Refuse To Be Enemies" was launched by Abraham Gutman and Dania Darwish, both students at Hunter College in NY, shortly after the Israeli military launched Operation Protective Edge on 8 July
Dania Darwish and Abraham Gutman started the campaign with this photo in New York's Washington Square Park.
Image via nydailynews.comDarwish, a Brooklynite of Syrian descent, and Gutman, an Israeli from Tel Aviv, became close friends on campus, but were disheartened when they noticed their social media feeds becoming increasingly more hateful.
nydailynews.com“Every post was hate, just pure hate,” he recalls. He was taken aback by the offensive language of Facebook friends from right and left alike; and the aggressive replies he received from his own close circle of friends and family shook him to the core. When Gutman realized Darwish was facing the same atmosphere within her social network, the two decided to act.
“We’re not asking everyone to agree and sing 'Kumbayah,'” Gutman told The News. “But we do want to have an underlying agreement of mutual respect.” The pair took a photo of themselves standing in Washington Square Park, started a Facebook group—and were soon flooded with photos from around the world. The page now has more than 5,000 fans.
“We’re not diplomats, we don’t have a solution to this conflict,” Darwish told The News. “But what we can do is create a platform where people can discuss divergent political ideas and not incite hate.”
nydailynews.com"The campaign exists in a sense in Israel, the slogan has been alive for years in Hebrew," Gutman told ABC News. "We wanted to use that same slogan, to strengthen it, to show the international community that we don't have to be enemies."
Gutman, from Tel Aviv, Israel, says he doesn't always agree with Darwish, who is Syrian, when it comes to Middle Eastern politics, but that the two are good friends. "We never felt that our discussion became rude or had a tone of hate," the 23-year-old said. "But with Israel and Gaza, it seems that the tone online and on social media is harsher and harsher and people are using more violent words. We wanted to produce a voice that counters that. We can disagree, but we must be able to diffuse the hate."
bustle.com
Darwish, 21, hopes the campaign gives both Arabs and Israelis a safe forum to talk about political issues. "We are trying to send the message that hate should not be part of the dialogue," she said. "We should watch our language, we should watch what we say to others. There's a lot of pain, a lot of tension in the Palestine-Israel conflict, but we're trying to create an online community where people with different opinions can talk in a respectful and productive way."
go.com
Some, however, point out that the hashtag, while admirable in its promotion of peace, encourages a reductive view of the conflict
"Confused by the hashtag #JewsAndArabsRefuseToBeEnemies it implies a leveled playing field & relegates the conflict to petty racial tensions." - Farah A S فرح السويل
twitter.com
The Facebook page, Jews & Arabs Refuse To Be Enemies, have since tried to explain their stand:
