{"id":83723,"date":"2023-11-26T02:16:25","date_gmt":"2023-11-26T02:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.estaql.com\/british-palestinian-and-british-jew-discuss-how-israel-gaza-conflict-affects-them-world-news\/"},"modified":"2023-11-26T02:16:25","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T02:16:25","slug":"british-palestinian-and-british-jew-discuss-how-israel-gaza-conflict-affects-them-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/british-palestinian-and-british-jew-discuss-how-israel-gaza-conflict-affects-them-world-news\/","title":{"rendered":"British Palestinian and British Jew discuss how Israel-Gaza conflict affects them | World News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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British Palestinian and British Jew discuss how Israel-Gaza conflict affects them | World News<\/h2>\n

British Palestinian and British Jew discuss how Israel-Gaza conflict affects them | World News<\/p>\n

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We decided to bring together a British Jew and a British Palestinian who have felt themselves deeply affected by conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Mohamed Aboukhachab is an accountant in his early 20s. He is a Muslim whose family came to Britain, via Lebanon, from the Palestinian<\/strong> “nakba” in 1948.<\/p>\n

Deborah Lyons, 37, lives in north London and works in the fashion industry. She is Jewish and was born and raised in the UK.<\/p>\n

Like Mohamed her family has suffered in the long conflict – her grandfather was killed by a bomb in Israel<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Follow live: Israel-Gaza latest <\/strong><\/p>\n

We know their interaction has no relevance to the war itself, but it does have relevance here in Britain: the distant thunder of the guns is creating divisions here, stripped of complexity, which it’s in all our interests to explore.<\/p>\n

“I’m here to talk to you about ways in which, hopefully, at least, you and me, can come together to talk about how we can make things better – rather than things that push us further apart,” says Deborah.<\/p>\n

“I agree,” says Mohamed, adding: “I want to display that there is a generation, and generations, of Palestinian people who can genuinely live in peace.”<\/p>\n

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It is not the narrative that we have most commonly seen in the news media since 7 October, when Hamas invaded southern Israel<\/strong>, murdering, raping and kidnapping its citizens.<\/p>\n

But Deborah and Mohamed have agreed to come to Sky News and talk about their different perspectives and to see if they can find some common ground.<\/p>\n

Since the October attacks and Israel’s retaliatory action on Gaza, there has been a rise in Islamophobic offences of 140% while antisemitic offences have risen by 1,353%, according to the Metropolitan Police.<\/p>\n

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Deborah thinks the recent pro-Palestinian marches<\/strong>, which have seen hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating on Britain’s streets, are a reason for this recent sharp rise in reports of antisemitism.<\/p>\n

She has particular concern about the chant “from the river to sea, Palestine will be free,” a chant which Mohamed freely admits that he uses.<\/p>\n

The chant refers to the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, an area which contains all the Palestinian and Israeli territory.<\/p>\n

It was first used in 1948, calling for a free Palestinian state for both Palestinians and Jews.<\/p>\n

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For some, it is a call to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, but to others, including many Jewish groups, it is an antisemitic slogan.<\/p>\n

“Calling ‘from the river to the sea’ rather than calling for a two-state solution? That, for me, is truly problematic,” Deborah says.<\/p>\n

“And then when I’m walking around London, seeing swastikas all over the street or ripped down hostage posters. Does it make me feel very targeted here? Very isolated and afraid?<\/p>\n

“Yeah, 100%.”<\/p>\n

“I think it’s unfair to say that the Palestinian marches and the protests are all defined by swastikas,” Mohamed says.<\/p>\n

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Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n

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‘From the river to the sea’ explained<\/span>
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Read more:
Israeli forces fire tear gas at West Bank crowds
Footage shows convoy transporting hostages through the Rafah crossing
Who are the first 13 Israeli hostages released by Hamas?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I can’t speak about being Palestinian because when I speak about being Palestinian, when I go to a pro-Palestine march, you say I walk among people who are antisemitic. And it’s really unfair to put those connotations on someone who’s simply marching for the freedom of his people.”<\/p>\n

He goes on to explain that, for him, “from the river to the sea”, is not an anti-Israeli or antisemitic slogan, simply a call for an end to what he describes as “occupation”.<\/p>\n

“I believe in a two-state solution,” he says.<\/p>\n

Deborah remains unconvinced by this defence, insisting “it causes more divisions, it causes more harms,” but neither can convince the other.<\/p>\n

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\n Mohamed and Deborah hug before parting ways
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Their disagreement is amicable.<\/p>\n

Mohamed then says: “As a Muslim, I’ve seen a lot of what’s happened to my community and how we’ve been marginalised.<\/p>\n

“And (for) the Jewish community, I’ve seen a lot, and it’s been horrific. We have no problems between each other and that’s what we need to show… one people.”<\/p>\n

“Let’s hope,” says Deborah.<\/p>\n

“We can hope,” Mohamed replies.<\/p>\n

Mohamed and Deborah parted on warm terms.<\/p>\n

Friends would be overstating it, but they recognised a shared citizenship within each other which policymakers will need to build on, even as the horrors of this war continue.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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British Palestinian and British Jew discuss how Israel-Gaza conflict affects them | World News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

British Palestinian and British Jew discuss how Israel-Gaza conflict affects them | World News British Palestinian and British Jew discuss how Israel-Gaza conflict affects them | World News We decided to bring together a British Jew and a British Palestinian who have felt themselves deeply affected by conflict in the Middle East. Mohamed Aboukhachab is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7678],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-estaql"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83723\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}