Commentary: Palestinian and Israeli children are endangered by ‘us vs. them’ narratives
“What do you want to do when you grow up?” I asked Muhammad, an 8-year-old boy. “I want to kill Israeli soldiers!” he replied proudly. This was in 1998, when I was teaching English in Shatila, a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut. I’d come to Beirut to study abroad and explore my Arab roots, but as an American who’d never left the U.S., I was unprepared for the deep anger toward Israel that I ...
“What do you want to do when you grow up?” I asked Muhammad, an 8-year-old boy.
“I want to kill Israeli soldiers!” he replied proudly.
This was in 1998, when I was teaching English in Shatila, a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut. I’d come to Beirut to study abroad and explore my Arab roots, but as an American who’d never left the U.S., I was unprepared for the deep anger toward Israel that I encountered.
My young students provided history lessons I’d never gotten. in the 1980s, facilitated by Israeli soldiers. They told me about the , when many of their grandparents had been displaced and rendered stateless during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
