Struggles abroad renew worries at home
Despite the ceasefire that ended Operation Protective Edge in late August, violence between Israel and Palestine has persisted. In the past week, several people were killed, including two minors with American citizenship, a fourteen-year-old Palestinian boy, and a three-month-old Jewish girl.
For students who have family in Israel and Palestine, the struggles abroad have renewed worries at home.
Jason Krastein, senior, and his sister Karina Krastein, junior, have close ties to the struggle, as almost their entire maternal extended family lives in Haifa, Israel (located approximately 90 miles from Jerusalem and 110 miles from the Gaza strip).
“Pretty much anytime there’s a conflict in Israel, there is a lot of tension at home, no matter how far away from the conflict they are,” Jason said. “That brings a lot of worry and anxiety.”
Junior Fatima Salah, who supported Palestinian rights this summer by attending marches and protests, believes that students don’t know enough about the conflict. “Be open-minded (and) research both sides,” Salah said, as she spoke of her ties to the land through her grandmothers and aunts currently living in the West Bank.
Both Jason and Karina have supported Israel by donating to the Israeli Defense Forces numerous times this past summer. However, both agree with Salah, and stress the importance of understanding both sides of the conflict; they attribute the escalating tensions in the United States to lack of knowledge of the conflict.
“People should watch different media sources, read different things, and not just (believe) what they’re told,” Karina said.