Raja Shahadeh

But I understand that it's a political device in order to scare people into not attacking Zionism and calling them anti-Semitic if they do.

I had several very good friends amongst Israelis.

And their friendship is very important to me.

And the important thing is to be clear and open.

And that, I think, can be the basis for a relationship between Israelis and Palestinians.

Openness and clarity and attention to the suffering of the other.

So I would not accept somebody as a friend who doesn't understand that the right of return is a right that should be upheld.

Because to deny that the Palestinians exist is so profound and painful that a friendship based on a denial of that would not be a good friendship, would not endure.

Oh, they were.

They were.

And actually, now with the genocide, it's a very big challenge because I expect the Israeli friend to speak out and condemn and be attentive to my suffering as a Palestinian, seeing that part of my people are being murdered wholesale, like in Gaza.

Yes, I think that is true because also the suffering at the time of the Holocaust is always used as that we suffered most and nobody can suffer as much.

And every suffering is a suffering and it shouldn't be underestimated.

But to use that as a justification for causing more suffering to people is untenable, is wrong, is immoral.

And that is why when this friend was starting to tell me that they are in trauma and justifying what is happening in Gaza because of trauma, I did not accept it.

I thought it was very disappointing of that friend to tell me this.

But there's a lot of it in Israel, I think.

And there's this double consciousness of knowing and not knowing.

Well, on the one hand, they know what they're doing in Gaza.

And on the other hand, they're blocking it and pretending not to know.