5 wishes from a Palestinian for the Jewish* New Year

By Amal Oraby

1. I Hope that next year you stop getting excited by any politician who mentions the word Shalom [peace], especially if they had taken acting courses or were a TV star [a reference to Lapid].
2. I wish for you to stop being afraid of the word equality, of our demand for equality. Because equality is a human right, and as the saying goes people don’t live on bread alone.
3. I wish for you to start questioning the words of the spokespeople for the army and the police, because they are not reading out verses from the Torah, and we are not dealing with the great minds of our generation.
4. I wish for you to begin to understand that Israel is not the ultimate victim, and not every criticism of it is antisemitism, and not every protest against it is an existential threat.
5. I wish for you to stop being afraid of the word Occupation; time to grow up and stop denying reality. Because there is nothing you can do; even if you deny it and ignore it — it would still exists.

* (A lovely typo, a transposition of two letters changed Hebrew to Arab in the original)