“Our safety is bound together”: Why Palestine’s freedom matters to me
American Israeli artist Yael Malka offers her personal perspective on the Gaza conflict as a queer Jewish person. WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY YAEL MALKA Last Summer, I met a Palestinian artist on Fire Island and when we went our separate ways, she said, “See you later, cousin.” As an American Israeli, I couldn’t stop thinking about that.
It’s something my dad always says, that Palestinians are our cousins. But it’s hard to get that sort of sentiment from him during times like these when we turn to a very binary way of thinking: us (Israelis) vs.
them (Palestinians). People like my dad don’t always understand that it doesn’t need to be one or the other, that being pro-Palestine (or even just voicing the desire for a people to not be completely wiped off their homelands) doesn’t equate being anti-Israel.
I truly will never be able to make sense of this moment, of what I’ve felt the past few weeks. I don’t expect to encapsulate all my thoughts perfectly, or touch on all the points necessary, but a friend once told me, “If you can put words to something, it’s probably not worth making.” While I try to be clear and adamantly state my views on something as simple as calling what’s happening in Gaza “genocide,” there are some things I will never be able to put into words, and that’s why art is part of how I process.
