israel-palestine

i raised my arms, shielded my face and exclaimed, "don't hurt me." they laughed. 

the topic in class today: marriage and the family. we discussed the differences between endogamy (marrying within your own race, class, religion, etc) and exogamy (marrying outside.) today was an especially tangental day for class discussion. i didn't help the matter any. in giving an example of exogamy i said, its like if i were to marry a muslim man. good one meredith. 

some of the students in the class already knew i was a christian, that's why this example semi-worked. others found out today. then somehow discussion shifted to what my family would think of such a marriage (your family's approval for marriage in kuwait is a necessity and not always easy to come by.) i said they would probably be alright with it. "but you're christian, ms. meredith." i replied, "yeah, but my family isn't." "oh, well then what are they?" another asked. okay, decision time. take the p.c. route or the truth. i went with the truth. 

so, my dad's family is actually jewish. and that is when i raised my arms, shielded my face and exclaimed, "don't hurt me." the whole class laughed. so you are christian but your dad's family and heritage are jewish? correct. and now you are probably thinking, "and you are teaching in a muslim country?" also correct. 

in case you didn't know the battle between israel and palestine is a big deal in this part of the world. there's a fair number of palestinians in kuwait and some in my class. while being jewish should not be confused with being israeli, it certainly isn't the other side either. (as a brief aside: i know most of you reading this live in the united states. and the us unswervingly supports israel in this conflict. but there's another side that i've learned about this summer. i'd really encourage you to do the same; it's not all as the media says. shocker.)

so why then did i say it? because i had to. i think my students know me fairly well by now. they hopefully know i respect their culture and religion and enjoy their company. but they need to see the other side. we all do! i am not israeli, or some may say not even truly jewish, but in some respect i am someone different. if you like, it's a little application of a social psychological principle called the contact hypothesis (stereotypes and prejudice decrease with contact. when we get to know people our assumptions about people "like them" change.) and you know what? nothing happened. we have reached a point, i believe, where we know one another well enough to be able to recognize our differences. and i think we're all ok with that. 

*disclaimer: i'm not saying since i'm jewish i side with israel. thank you.