Dozens of people gathered at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, an Orthodox synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, on Tuesday night to hear from three pro-Israel, Arab activists in an event billed as “voices of change.”
The panel consisted of Fatema Al Harbi, Gulf affairs director of the nonprofit Sharaka; Lebanese-Israeli, Christian activist Jonathan Elkhoury, who fled Lebanon at 9-years-old with his family; and U.S.-based Dalia Ziada, a writer and activist who fled Cairo after Oct. 7, 2023 due to her pro-Israel advocacy.
The Israeli-American Council cosponsored the event with Sharaka and the synagogue.
“In today’s world, where misinformation and divisive narratives dominate discussions about Israel and the Middle East, it is crucial to amplify voices that challenge misconceptions and promote coexistence,” Ayelet Hargash, New York regional director of the council, told JNS.
Hargash told JNS that the event was an opportunity to “provide a platform for courageous individuals, who are breaking barriers, reshaping the discourse and fostering a more nuanced and truthful understanding of the region.”
The three panelists shared a lot of personal anecdotes that inform their activism and the challenges that they have faced in communities that don’t tend to be pro-Israel.
“I grew up hating Israel,” Ziada told the audience.
When she was 18, Ziada saw protesters burning both U.S. and Israeli flags and the Egyptian flag at an anti-Israel gathering in Egypt. “It was so severe,” she said. “I couldn’t tolerate it.” After Oct. 7, it was “impossible not to speak up,” she said.
Ziada told JNS that she has a message “of both hope and warning” for the West and for Jews in particular.
“Hope that you are not in this fight alone. It’s all of our fight,” she said. “But a warning that the best things about Western society are being abused by extremists.”
‘Never met a Jew’
Elkhoury told JNS that he really wants to talk to open-minded moderates.
“I want to build bridges through our personal stories and our shared experiences in this world to create a better understanding and to get more of a middle ground,” he said.
“We’re not Jewish so we didn’t feel part of the Jewish community, but they welcomed us. We were able to live our lives and have our futures as equal Israeli citizens, like any other Israeli that exists today” he told the crowd. “The same way that Israel protected me, I need to protect back.”
Elkhoury said at the event that he feels the need to speak up for Israel “louder than before,” because he feels it is his duty for “the future of humanity.”
There are misconceptions about Israel and about Jews in Arab society, according to Elkhoury.
“What Israel is, how Israel operates and what resembles Israeli society,” he told JNS. “A lot of times these happen because they have never met an Israeli, or they’ve never met a Jew.”
Those misconceptions are a major reason why Elkhoury works with Sharaka, which formed after the signing of the Abraham Accords and which, per its site, aims to “shape a new Middle East, built on dialogue, understanding, cooperation and friendship.”
Al Harbi, the Sharaka Gulf affairs director, told attendees that she was the first Bahraini citizen to visit Israel who wasn’t a government official or diplomat. She added that she has always been curious and wanted to know more about the Jewish state.
She told JNS that Muslims support peace.
“If we actually want to be pro-peace, we have to be friends and have relations with Israel and Israelis,” she said.
“If you decide to be a real Muslim, not a radical Muslim with ideology, you have to choose peace first,” she told JNS. “That’s what we learned from our prophet Muhammad—that you always choose peace first.”
“If you are a real Arab and a real Muslim, you’ll follow the prophet and the teachings of Islam,” she added. “That leads to being pro-Israel and pro-peace.”