My name is Ido. I am in my early 30s, and I am currently a Ph.D. student in Literature.
I have lived most of my life in this land, the land that is almost now a crime to call Palestine. I grew up pretty normally - the only stories I heard were Israeli and Zionist. I did not hear one story. There were contesting stories about the land, the history, the politics, the social structure, about racism. I heard the left-wing narrative and the right-wing narrative. But in all these stories, the Palestinians and their narrative were absent. They were there as an idea, badly portrayed, but never as real people with agency.
Only when I grew a bit older I started noticing the problem. I heard stories, met Palestinians, and saw their condition. In almost a leftist cliché, I began seeing things as they were. I began to read and research the history of this land and the Zionist project (not that one needs to learn the past when he sees the daily crimes of the apartheid state).
So, in the last couple of years, I have become more active. I joined Palestinians in their activities, protests, and struggles. I join olive picking with Palestinian solidarity activists when the season comes; I participate in weekly demonstrations in the West Bank against the settlements and the land theft by Zionism; I join protests inside the Green Line against the Zionist agenda in support of Palestinian prisoners.
I know many actions and things need to be done and ways to fight the apartheid. However, for me, there is one way to fight the apartheid effectively and righteously. That is standing alongside the Palestinians in a struggle led by Palestinians.
I will try to explain shortly why. If we understand that the current situation results from Jewish and Israeli supremacy. If we understand that Palestinian voices, opinions, thoughts, and lives are being ignored in the current situation. If we understand that this hierarchy is one of the primary roots of our current problem. If we understand that this hierarchy is almost everywhere, in nearly any interaction of Jews/Israelis and Palestinians, even within the left and activism. If we believe a goal cannot be reached in a contradictory method. Then this struggle must be led by Palestinians, and we must follow. As a matter of fact, there is a Palestinian struggle led by Palestinian – either local or national, personal or communal, in the streets and the hills, in politics, and everywhere. We need to abandon our need to be in charge and control everything and join this struggle.