Anonymous progressive American tourist on the Israel-Palestine conflict

My original interest for coming here was really the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  I was raised in a pretty left-wing culture, household, critical of the Israeli government and I still feel that way.  I'm pro-Israel, I'm pro-Palestine and I feel I'm pretty "on the left" on that issue.  But being here has shown me the value of being here and the value of talking to Israelis and learning about Israel and respecting Israel.  And I think the biggest mistake of the Berkeley, pro-Palestinian stereotypical people is not wanting to engage with Israel, wanting to boycott Israel; don't visit Israel, don't talk to Israeli professors.  I think being here has reinforced how much you can learn about a country even if you don't agree with the government on a particular thing.  And the people - so many people in Israel have so many mixed, complicated views about the conflict.  It's not like they all hate Arabs, or Palestinians.

~ "Tourists in Israel: What surprised you about Israel?," The Ask Project, 19:45 mark, February 5, 2023

Anonymous Palestinian American woman on how the West Bank has changed

Q: Now you are a Palestinian American?

A: Palestinian American.

Q: You haven't been here in 12 years.  Now you just came here.  What surprised you most this time being here?  What's different?

A: Honestly, how modern it's become.  I mean, it's just as modern, if not as modern as where we live.

Q: And where do you live?

A: New York.  So it's kind of like being in New York right now: the life, the way people are interacting, the restaurants, all the fun activities they have.  It's amazing.

Q: So 12 years ago when you came here, that didn't exist as much?

A: No.  Seeing that, especially for the youth, they're literally riding motorcycles...  What I've noticed, honestly the first thing, is how many young girls are working now, that are in the workforce.  It's unbelievable.

Q: In stores...

A: Yeah.  It's amazing how much more forward and really progressive they've gotten.

~ anonymous Palestinian American woman, "Tourists: What surprised you in Palestine?," The Ask Project, 1:40 mark, February 2, 2023

Anonymous Israeli man on how the Six-Day War impacted Israel

A: Until 1967, we had a wonderful country.

Q: And?

A: Since 1967... the country went to shit.

Q: Why?

A: Because we turned into a big headed people, great heroes.  We conquered all the Arabs.  We made them small.

Q: So it was better before?

A: Yes.  In my opinion, 100%...  Both sides are losing.

~ anonymous Israeli man, "Israelis: What do you think of the one state solution?," The Ask Project, 8:45 mark, February 16, 2022

Anonymous Israeli man on why a one-state solution is untenable

Q: Would you agree with the Palestinians for one state for all?

A: No.

Q: Why?

A: Because in my view, they have a high birthrate and they will be the majority in the country.

Q: What is bad about that?

A: They will take away control.

Q: Okay, let's say that happens.  That can't be fair to the Jews?

A: It won't happen.  They will dominate the entire country, will give preference to themselves, and in the end they will expel us.

Q: You think it will get to that?

A: I am certain.

~ anonymous Israeli man, "Israelis: What do you think of the one state solution?," The Ask Project, 0:10 mark, February 16, 2022

Anonymous Israeli woman: "we conquered the territory of the Arabs"

Q: Why do you steal land from the Palestinians?

A: This is a question related to history, yeah?  And stealing is not the word.  It's conquering.  We conquered.  Every state, every nation in history, conquered.  So we conquered the territory of the Arabs.  They left so now it's ours.  Now they want to take it in their own way.  It's fine by me.

Q: Okay.  So what do you mean it's fine by you?

A: It's fine by me.  If they want their territory back, so they fight for it.  If they bomb, they kill, their own way.

Q: So you can even understand.

A: Yes, I can understand.

Q: So what do you think should happen then?  If, let's say, the goal is to end violence, how do we do that?

A: We as a people?  We as a country?  The government?

Q: Whatever you think.

A: I don't know.  We want to hold the land, yeah?  I don't want to release my home.  So I think the fight will never end.

~ anonymous Israeli woman, "Question: Why did you steal Palestinian land?," The Ask Project, 4:35 mark, February 13, 2021

Anonymous Israeli woman on land rights in Israel

Q: Why do you steal more and more Palestinian land?

A: We steal?  They steal our land.

Q: But you came here.  They were living here and you came here...

A: We lived here before them.  Look at the history.  Not just 100 years, a lot of years.  God gave us Israel.  God gave us this area.  We didn't steal from them.  We didn't hate them.  They hate us.  Really.  I appreciate them.  We let them live here, but they want to kill us.  It's from the Bible, you know.

~ Anonymous Israeli woman, "Question: Why do you steal Palestinian land?," The Ask Project, 0:15 mark, February 13, 2021

Anonymous Arab Israeli on the Nakba

Q: Why did you surrender to the Jews in 1948?

A: Well, I wasn't there.  I was born in 1996.  But according to what my grandfather and grandmother told me... we were simply a minority and we didn't have enough forces and we weren't ready for a war.  The Arabs who lived here, and especially the Bedouins...

Q: Where did your family live then?

A: My family then lived in the northern Negev [desert in Israel]...  And my answer is we weren't ready for war and we simply wanted to live.

Q: You lived in tents then.

A: Yes, we lived in tents then.

Q: Did they evict you?  

A: Yes.

Q: So where did you live then after you left?

A: After the war, there were only 11,000 Bedouins and originally there were 100,000 Bedouins in all the Negev.  The government concentrated the Bedouins which was called the reservation area.

Q: Where was that?

A: The reservation area was in the northern Negev.  I think it was a triangle.  Arad, Dimona...

Q: But was it a city?  What was it?

A: It was a military administration.  It was the army that was the authority and there was no police, and we were a type of outcasts.  We were under military administration until almost 1966... then the government decided that we didn't pose a threat to the existence of the state of Israel even though the Israeli intelligence in the 1950s defined the Arabs of Israel as a non-risk factor to the state of Israel.  But it took them many years to start to think of development plans and the existence of the Arabs.  

During that time in the Negev there were built more than 200 moshavs, communities, kibbutzes and individual farms for Jews only and only after 1967, the Six-day war, they started to think about Bedouoins and only one thing, to concentrate the Bedouins, to move the Bedouin population, which sadly was not successful.  Only half the Bedouin population is in cities and that population suffers greatly from different problems: problems with education, problems with unofficial education, problems with land, family problems, incompatibility with the land they are on, social incompatibility with the modern life and urban life.  Because Bedouins are not urban peoples.  And the other half are located in unrecognized villages and they don't have basic rights like connection to water and electricity, sewage infrastructure, roads infrastructure, basic infrastructure.  And they fight daily for a piece of bread.

That's it in general.  There is a bigger story to this, but I will stop here.

~ anonymous Arab Israeli, "Arab Israelis: Why did you surrender to the Jews in 1948?," The Ask Project, 13:14 mark, June 4, 2023

Anonymous Arab Israeli on Zionism

I never had a problem with Jews.  The Palestinian cause is not about Jews.  There are Palestinian Jews and there are Arab Jews from the Arab world so it was never about Jews.  I think it's about the... exclusionary concept of Zionism, the establishment of a state only for the Jewish people, which I think is unjust, as simple as that.  And I also think it's unjust for Jewish people.  That's perhaps an immediate solution that Europeans saw following the Holocaust, to expel all Jews, which is ironic, right, because when you speak to a German they say, "Yeah, Jews deserve their own state."  No, what they deserve is to live anywhere they want without being politically persecuted or massacred.

~ anonymous Arab Israeli, "Arab Israelis: Why did you surrender to the Jews in 1948?," The Ask Project, 3:00 mark, June 4, 2023

Anonymous Israeli woman on Palestinians: "I don't want peace, I want them to have a life"

[Israeli woman's parents were displaced by Israeli government because they couldn't show a deed of ownership.]

Q: So did your parents protest?

Israeli woman: Well, they didn't.  I did.  Because for them it was surviving.  I call it the crumb fight.  The real people... can't really have the time to afford to fight.  And I think it's about time that the second generation like us - I'm 40 - who are saying "the war is not helping any of us."  We want eduction, we want sports, we want fun, we want to create.  We are living so close, we are neighbors, we are basically the same family, we are brothers.

Q: So how did you resist the Israeli government?

A: Well, I'm an actress so I spoke about it.  I went to teach children, the 1st and 2nd grade.  I twice tried to reach the Knesset who didn't help shit.  Sorry.  I write about it on my Facebook.  When there is a complicated situation, I talk about it.  I talk to Palestinians.  I talk to people and I make sure they know that I care for them as much as I care for my safety as well.  I want to cry because I'm scared when I run to shelters, but I know...

Q: Because missiles are coming from Gaza.

A: Of course.  I lost a friend in a bombing when I was 15 and I felt this pain.

Q: Palestinian bombing.

A: Palestinian bombing, sorry.  Here in Tel Aviv.  My grandfather's brother was slaughtered by terrorists in Jerusalem.  I was in the army.

Q: Palestinian terrorists.

A: Yeah, Palestinians.  We just want to live.  I don't want peace.  I don't want peace.  I want them to have a life.  I want them to have too much to lose, to care for their life.  I want them to care and for that they need education.  And they do, they're entitled of resisting and there is occupation, but there's also terror.  And you cannot just skip it.  There's a lot of violence.  And if you ask most Palestinians, all they want is jobs, they want schools, they want to have their privileges in a home that is their own.  And I don't have the answers.  That's why I am an actress and bodybuilder and not a politician.  But I know that us, the people, we suffer the most and they [the Palestinians] are entitled.  And so am I!

~ Israeli woman, "Israelis: Do Palestinians have a right to resist occupation?," The Ask Project, 1:25 mark, April 30, 2022