Breathe
By Samantha Rodríguez Santillán
In the last few days, the attack -or response- carried out by Hamas in the border area with Israel has been referred to. In this regard, there are several versions, scenarios and positions regarding who is the good or bad guy in this situation. Many of the explanations, unfortunately, have replicated anti-Semitic or Islamophobic discourses, so it is important to reflect on this.
Historically, the area where Israel and Palestine are located has lived in constant conflict. Battles have been recorded in the sacred religious texts, expulsions, aggressions in the British-Western mandate, genocide, apartheid processes, and wars with other countries of the Arab League. Consequently, there is a wound that, with the passage of time, has become bigger and hurts all peoples.
One of the most recurrent mistakes is to take sides and pigeonhole all people - on one side or the other - into created ideas or biases. In a conflict with so many nuances, it is important to understand the position of both sides. On the one hand, you have the Palestinian people who are repressed, abandoned and who have brought injustices to the attention of the international community (for example, Palestine took a stand against Resolution 181 because they were not taken into account in the discussions). On the other hand, Israelis have been expelled and persecuted because of their religion, and continue to face stereotypes regarding their beliefs and culture (for example, they have requested that Jewish religious days be respected, at least before international organizations).
Faced with this scenario, they have worked for transitional justice. Palestinians have stated that there will be no peace for them or their children, but they hope that it will be a reality for their grandchildren, so the younger generations are willing to engage in dialogue. In Israel, some areas have been able to find a balance - such as Haifa or Eilat - but in others there is greater tension due to the proximity to religious sites such as Hebron and Jerusalem.
The attacks are not isolated; every day some conflict or crisis is reported. The population has been in a state of emergency since its foundation. People live in constant fear. The picture is so difficult to comprehend that it cannot be summarized in a 60-second thread or video.
Clearly, one cannot justify the disproportionate violence that Palestine has suffered, but would it not be unfair to label all Israeli people as villains? In the same sense, for those living in Gaza. The entire population is a victim of the war. All have suffered losses, and are going through pain. Minimizing their feelings only leads to re-victimization.
We have to ask ourselves, can we really punish a part of the population for the decisions of others? Therefore, positioning oneself in favor of one or the other - without understanding the complexities - only fuels the hate speech and distances the possibility of a peaceful solution.
Palestine and Israel are trying to resist from their own struggles. Society is not responsible for the consequences brought about by the resolutions of their governments or resistance movements.
*Samantha Rodríguez Santillán
Lawyer with honors from the Law School of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She was a student representative in the Internal Commission for Gender Equality of the Faculty and part of the Academic Excellence Program of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN). She has completed academic stays at the University of Toronto and Montpellier, France. In 2021, she completed an exchange semester at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, focused on international cooperation and human rights.
She has participated in the preparation of Amicus Curiae briefs for cases of gender violence heard by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. For her research work, she has authored and co-authored articles, chapters and columns on the situation of women's, children's and adolescents' rights in Mexico and Latin America. For this, she was awarded in the Fourth University Essay Contest organized by the Center for Constitutional Studies of the SCJN.
Recently, she worked as an intern at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She also worked as a merit assistant at the Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la UNAM. She is currently working at the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, where she is a member of the bench of Justice Jorge Mario Pardo Rebolledo.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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