Last night, I didn’t sleep well, as I had several nightmares. I was haunted by the endless images I saw in the news: A young woman’s naked, lifeless, unconscious (possibly deceased) body being paraded around as a trophy after Hamas attacked young people at a music festival in Israel, a 25-year-old woman begging for her life as she was taken as a hostage and babies whose faces were covered in dust and blood from the bombs thrown near their homes.

When I awoke this morning, I immediately read the news to see the latest. And while the horror continues on the other side of the world, I was also disheartened to learn that hate was just outside my doorstep.

People at rallies down the street from where I slept last night are wearing, holding, and celebrating images of swastikas and promoting anti-semitic rhetoric. For the first time in my life, I was and am scared to be Jewish.

While I have been doing my best to educate myself through the news, friends, and online resources, I am not going to sit here and pretend I fully understand the conflict between Palestine and Israel – because I don’t. And I know that it’s natural and easy to see the world through the lens of my own experiences and identity.

However, we all, myself included, should see and feel our humanity reflected in every person on this planet. And act accordingly.

As I try to process these last few days, the violence happening in the Middle East is not just about me, or any one group of people or politics. This cruel attack on innocent people is about all of us. It is a threat to all of humanity.

No child, no person, whether they share my background or not, whether Palestinian or Israeli (or any other culture, race, or religion), deserves to live or die in such an inhumane way.

There are a lot of issues we can’t and won’t agree on in this world. But we universally should believe in and tirelessly advocate for love, compassion, and peace for all people.

And sadly, right now, that’s not the case.

I am scared and heartbroken as I pray for the victims of violence, our world, and humanity.

The night’s fading darkness
Is illuminated by filaments that glimmers
With piercing reddish hues
Into a horizon of fading darkened blues.

With each touch of brilliant, glinting light
The scenery is transformed, bright
As a white pigeon in heightened flight,
Soaring, like Icarus, too near the sun’s slight

Heat that tenderly caresses its feathery
Wings across all living things, bravely
Broaching the new day optimistically,
Knowing that man’s destruction will invariably

Alter the breathtaking beauty of sunrise,
Twisting its vibrancy into shades
Of tenebrous grey, colorless, and lifeless,
As everything becomes hopeless.

Let each new day be your oath
To be stronger than the sun’s breadth,
As you emulate its depth
Of strength, that reigns above all in stealth.

©️Malak kalmoni chehab ©️