What follows is a Facebook post by Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib:
Chag Pesach Samaech: For Passover, I wanted to share a message that I wrote for Encounter, an educational organization committed to informed, courageous, and resilient Jewish communal leadership on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
IN THE LAND WE ALL CALL HOME: As my Jewish friends and allies prepare to commemorate the passing from slavery into freedom during Passover, I am pained by the fact that my people remain unfree, trapped in a cycle of violence, the price of which is being borne most heavily by ordinary civilians, including my own family.
Over the past 18 months, my people have experienced what it is like to flee in a moment’s notice — like the Jews fled from Egypt, with no time for the bread to rise. My family has lost so much. Many of our immediate and extended relatives are dead or facing life-altering injuries, our belongings crushed under the rubble of our home and the homes of our relatives. Our mementos, our histories and keepsakes — all gone, diminished to ash and dust. There is nowhere to go back to; the only way to go is forward, and the only way to get to a better place is together.
Today, the people of Gaza have endured hardship that is almost unimaginable to those of us living in relative peace and safety in the West. And yet, they have continued to persevere. Despite immense loss, many have taken to the streets and to social media — risking their lives to protest for their freedom from Hamas’s terrorism and tyrannical rule over them. It is this unrelenting desire to preserve life, and the hope for a future beyond violence, that has driven so many people of Gaza to speak out, hoping the world will hear their cries and support their just and urgent aspirations for freedom.
In this season of reflection on freedom, I hope you can hold space for the people of Gaza – and for the entire Palestinian nation – alongside your concern for your own people. They, too, long for safety, dignity, and the chance to live without fear. May we all find a path toward freedom and an end to the violence. May this be the last time my people, and yours, must pay the cost of war and oppression with their lives. And may there be peace — in the land where we all belong.