Starting in 2016, a group I founded, the Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees, delivered more than $400 million worth of aid, most of it directly into Syria, to help nearly 4 million victims of that country’s civil war.
Our dedicated partner during the early stages of this effort? The Israeli Defense Force.
Yes, you read that right. Israelis and Syrians have, technically, been in a state of war since 1948. Yet both sides rose above hatred and mutual suspicion to work together to alleviate this terrible suffering. The aid we provided was funneled through the Israeli side of the Golan Heights. As a result, during that time, the southwest was the only part of Syria working.
The medical facilities and pita bakery we supported, along with all kinds of emergency goods and supplies, helped to stabilize the region and prevented extremists from taking over. A subsequent agreement forced the closure of the Golan channel, but we expanded our delivery area to northeast and northwest Syria. In those areas, we installed Israeli Watergen technology to convert moisture in the air into clean water. Each system provides clean water for 800 people per day in a water-starved area.
Through it all, we saw hearts and minds change because people treated one another as human beings. Indeed, when Al Jazeera branded the Syrians who worked with Israelis as traitors, Arabs from all over the Middle East jumped to their defense and acknowledged that Israel was providing help while many of their governments were not.
In the wake of the barbaric, unprecedented attacks on Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7 of last year, and the subsequent violence breaking out throughout the region, you may believe such days of cooperation between sworn enemies to alleviate suffering are long gone — that you can’t be both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine at the same time.
Yet I am a pro-Israel American Jew who has worked on interreligious understanding and humanitarian relief in places like the Middle East for decades. And I can tell you that there is no contradiction in these positions. History has shown that humanitarian aid builds bridges between sworn enemies. This idea has been at the heart of much of my work because I have seen how it cuts through divisions.
Sadly though, we have allowed the public debate about the Middle East conflict to be framed by a false dichotomy that allows for no nuance, discourages dialogue, and ultimately prevents resolution of the current conflict.
We will get nowhere if the labeling of “pro-Israel” or “pro-Palestine” locks out constructive thinking to advance solutions. On both sides, it is a form of jingoism, pushing the narcissistic vision that one’s faction holds a monopoly on truth. This apocalyptic thinking divides the world into children of light and darkness, dehumanizing people via hateful invective, and ultimately leading to more violence.
As for me: I support the Jewish State, although I don’t support many of the policies of its government — especially those that needlessly make life more difficult for Palestinians.
I also support a state for Palestinians and am pained by the decades of suffering people have endured. Frankly, it is suffering that could have been alleviated by Israel — but also by the United Nations, other Arab governments, and by their own cynical and corrupt leaders.
That said, I distinguish between barbaric terror attacks that ruthlessly target civilians and civilian casualties of war. I also make a distinction between the Hamas terrorists and the many Palestinians who want only to live normal, everyday lives. They are also victims of Hamas.
The first step in conflict resolution is to acknowledge the pain of the other. That means sitting down and listening to the other rather than screaming at each other.
The simplistic slogans, shouts and labels embraced by the media, politicians, college campus demonstrators and other activists only divide and dehumanize. They imply the two positions are mutually exclusive, and lock people into polarized positions that do not allow them to seek creative solutions.
Whether on college campuses, in government or elsewhere, we should demand leaders do more. They should be put in a quiet room and taught active listening and constructive engagement. Such skills lead to a search for solutions, rather than a perpetuation of conflict.
A colleague and friend, who left Hamas and became an anti-extremism activist, recently sent me this email:
You have been on my mind and I didn’t feel I have the right words to describe how I felt and feel since Oct. 7. The terror and fear so many families went through and are still going through is unbearable… I feel the conflict is transforming to become a religious clash between Muslims and Jews, which should never happen. I hope your family and friends in Israel and everywhere are safe.
That kind of empathy is precisely what’s needed. It is neither pro-Israel nor pro-Palestine, yet it is both. It is pro-humanity.
Georgette F. Bennett, Ph.D., is the founder and president of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding and founder and chair of the Multifaith Alliance. She is the author of “Thou Shalt Not Stand Idly By: How One Woman Confronted the Greatest Humanitarian Crisis of Our Time,” and the co-author with Jerry White of “Religicide: Confronting the Roots of Anti-Religious Violence.”