The most obvious reason was that I have never actually done the introductions for anyone, let alone for two such distinguished speakers as we have tonight. The second reason, this one on a much deeper level, has to do with the fact that I am a Palestinian.
My first exposure to the concept that people would be treated differently based on their ethnicity occurred when I was ten years old. It was early one morning and I assembled with my fellow students outside my school, which was in East Jerusalem. As we listened to the announcements delivered by our principal, our noses began to itch and our eyes began to water from what I later learned was tear gas. In that moment I felt that I was the only boy in the world who didn’t know what was going on.
Everyone around me was saying, “The intifada has begun!” I remember asking myself: What in the world is the intifada? We were all dismissed fro school and sent home. That day, my father explained to me, in a way that a ten-year-old boy could understand, the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
As I got older and learned about the Second World War and the genocidal policies of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime towards the Jews, I began to realize that many of those whom I had deemed “enemies”, and whom I thought had no concept of what it was like to live under the oppression of a powerful state, as my people were living under, had actually only recently been the victims of a system of unprecedented hatred, racism and injustice.
Was I broken for them? Not just broken, but devastated. Was I confused in terms of what my people were facing at the hands of the Israeli government? How could I but be confused?
I’m not sure how many Palestinians in the past have done the introductions for forums against anti-Semitism. I can’t say that standing up here tonight makes me the most popular Palestinian. But I will tell you why I am here.
- I am here as a human because I believe in the sacredness of all humanity.
- I am here as a theist because I believe that all humans are made in the image of God and that our worship of God means nothing if we have no regard for the sacredness of humanity.
- I am here as a Christian because I believe in Christ’s message of love, justice, mercy, and peace, and seek to condemn what has been done in the name of Christ against Jews, and any other people.
- I am here as a Palestinian because I believe that European anti-Semitism did not stop with the Jews in Europe, but has reached with its consequential talons of fear, brokenness, pain, and scars all the way to Palestine.
We live in a world where the voices of the oppressed, unfortunately, are not as loud as the voices of those who speak on behalf of the oppressed. Perhaps my voice, as a Palestinian speaking out against anti-Semitism, may make more eyes see, ears listen, mouths speak out an hands take action concerning what seems to be an escalation in violence against Jews in the world today. I pray that in doing so someone else will one day stand on behalf of my own people and call out for mercy. Allow me to be the first tonight to say “Never again!” as we stand hand-in-hand with our Jewish brothers and sisters in their struggle against racism, hatred, and injustice.
SARI ATEEK is an Episcopalian M.Div. student at Fuller Theological Seminary.
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