YouSaid · the spoken record

Malak AbuSoud

lines on the record
14
first
2021-03-02
most recent
2021-03-02
sittings or episodes
1
sources
un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “Jerusalem is the biggest experiment in seeing whether Palestinians and Israelis can live together. While in most instances the violence and injustice make it seem like the experiment has failed, at times the experiment appears successful. My proof for that is that when I go down the international aisle in American supermarkets and I see an Israeli snack from my childhood, as much as I resist it, I am flooded with the feeling of home.”

    2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source

  2. “If peace programmes are to succeed, oversight is essential to ensure that the youth participating in them are kept safe in the presence of those who are licensed to work with minors. More importantly, peace programmes should be preoccupied not only with bringing Israelis and Palestinians together but also with fixing the structural differences between Israeli and Palestinian life experiences. Programmes should provide such resources as access to mental-health care and grants. They should also advocate policies that improve the living conditions of Palestinian youth participating in these programmes. Bringing Palestinians and Israelis together will not achieve anything unless they are equal parties in the conversation. When I consider whether peace is possible, I think of my home, Jerusalem.”

    2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source

  3. “In 1974, President Yasser Arafat addressed the General Assembly saying, “Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom-fighter’s gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand. I repeat: do not let the olive branch fall from my hand” (A/PV.2282, para. 82). Some 46 years later, that olive branch has withered into the slow but painful crippling of the Palestinian cause. Once active actors in their destiny, Palestinians are now passive observers as their land and rights are usurped every single day. The international community has the responsibility to empower Palestinian youth to become decision makers in their lives by investing in their security, education, opportunities and employment.”

    2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source

  4. “Quite the opposite — while I had barely any access to water or electricity at my grandma’s house in the refugee camp, my Israeli peers were enjoying their “normal life” on the beach with their friends. I started comparing my Israeli friends’ lives to mine and truly realized the extent of the humiliation and oppression I have experienced because of the occupation. What made matters even worse was that after graduating from peace programmes, my Israeli friends started enlisting in mandatory military service, thereby eroding any progress we may have made. The same people I called my friends are now participating in my oppression. The same people I called my friends are currently the ones of whom I have always been scared. The same people I called my friends are currently pointing a gun at me and my family.”

    2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source

  5. “I have the exhausting responsibility that no 14-year-old should have: to prove that I am a human — a human who deserves human rights. All these Israelis can offer me in return is a pat on the back and a few apologies for what their Government does. This is why I believe that peace programmes, by themselves, cannot fundamentally achieve peace. The problem is not the lack of conversation, as the media and perhaps even the Security Council broadcast; the problem is the lack of justice for Palestinians. Indeed, these programmes have the opposite effect of what they are looking to achieve. In my experience, I was shocked to find that the lives of Israelis on the other side were nothing like mine.”

    2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source

  6. “After all, how can the conflict exist if we shared a plate of hummus together? However, what we need to acknowledge is that Palestinians do not experience the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the same way Israelis do, and so a Palestinian’s idea of justice differs significantly from an Israeli’s. Palestinian youth have grown up in violent conditions caused by Israel where they live in scarcity in an open-air prison or, in my case, as a second-class citizen constantly being profiled and discriminated against. My problem is not that I do not know that Israelis are humans; I know that they are humans. My problem is that they choose to live in my house on my land and tell me I do not get to protest. Therefore, when I arrive at these programmes, my goal is different than that of my Israeli peers.”

    2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source

  7. “However, Palestinian youth realize soon enough that they get more than they bargained for. In my experience, these peace camps caused me emotional and mental distress. What people-to-people peace organizations do not understand is that success or justice looks very different from different sides. Many of my Israeli friends champion these organizations for the “life-changing experiences” they offer. Many Israelis come to these camps steeped in years of their Government’s propaganda on how Israel is a peaceful actor and not an occupier in a land of indigenous people. They are fed the idea that all Palestinians wear hijabs, are uneducated and are terrorists looking for a conflict. What these programmes offer them is a chance to realize that maybe Palestinians are not that bad. Maybe they are normal people.”

    2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source

  8. “How do you expect us to invest, grow and prosper when our future is full of uncertainty? Another issue that Palestinian youth face is the lack of investment in their lives and livelihoods. At the age of 14, I had great ambition and wanted to fill my college applications with extracurricular activities. However, owing to the lack of funding and programming for Palestinian youth organizations, the only activity I could do was joining peace programmes. In peace programmes, Palestinians and Israelis are brought together to talk — directly or indirectly — about the conflict. Peace programmes glamorize the idea that Palestinians and Israelis are coming together to make peace, when in many cases the only reason Palestinians join is to get a diploma, practice their English or learn a skill or two.”

    2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source

  9. “What was his crime? Eyad was shot because, fearing the soldiers, he ran away from them. A few months ago, Ahmad Erekat crashed into a checkpoint on the day of his sister’s wedding. Israel claimed that Erekat was like all Palestinians, a terrorist committing an attack. Earlier this week, Forensic Architecture, a British research body, confirmed that there is mounting evidence indicating that Ahmad Erekat crashed into the checkpoint by accident. Of course, that does not matter anymore. On the day of his sister’s wedding, Ahmad, an innocent man, walked away from the soldiers with his hands up, whereupon he was executed with six bullets fired in two seconds and denied medical aid as he slowly died on the ground. How does the international community expect Palestinian youth to look forward to peace when Israel antagonizes us every day?”

    2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source

  10. “At the time, I was very naive to think that he would be out the next day. But days turned into months and into years. The minute he got out of prison he was quickly detained again and ever since he has been going in and out of prison. And he will likely continue to do so for the rest of his life, all because of one rock. With Mohammad and countless others, Palestine’s potential is wasting away in prison. Palestinian youth face constant insecurity owing to the atrocities committed against them by the Israeli police and military. Israeli police are trained to see every Palestinian as a possible terrorist. Without any repercussions to the hundreds of lives they end, Israeli police continue to kneel on our necks. Earlier this year, Israeli police shot seven bullets at Eyad Al-Hallaq, a young man on the autism spectrum, on his way to school.”

    2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source

  11. “When I think of how violent and ruthless the occupation can be, I think of my cousin Mohammad, who lived in the Al-Azzeh refugee camp where the houses piled on top of each other looked like they were on the verge of collapse, just like the people who lived in them. Mohammad was quiet, shy and soft-spoken. I always felt for him. Even though Mohammad was a child, he seemed like a young man to me. It is common that when violence and scarcity are prevalent, children have to grow up too soon. At the age of 11, Mohammad was detained by the Israeli Government. Israeli soldiers had entered the camp for the sole reason of wreaking havoc. Apparently, Mohammad had thrown a rock at a soldier, so what the Israeli Government thought was most appropriate was to imprison an 11-year-old.”

    2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source

  12. “Worried about being verbally assaulted for being Palestinian, I was always on edge whenever I walked anywhere, especially on the Israeli side. Israeli sales clerks would be nice to me until they heard which side of Jerusalem I lived in, and then they would frown at me. Soon enough, I stopped speaking in Arabic to hide that I am a Palestinian. When Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint would point their guns at me, I would speak in English trying to force an American accent to protect my life. I lived in constant fear of being who I am because I knew my life was not worth much to them. I acknowledge, however, that I have received a lesser degree of the hate and violence that a young person can experience in Palestine.”

    2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source

  13. “The various restrictions imposed by the Israeli Government not only separate Palestinians from one another, but also define our experiences within the conflict. While I cannot speak for all experiences of the youth in Gaza, the West Bank or the diaspora, I hope that I can use my experiences to bring to Council members a clearer vision of what it is like on the ground in Palestine. I have called Jerusalem my home for the past 20 years. I grew up two kilometres away from the Al-Aqsa mosque, in one of the largest streets in Jerusalem. However, I have never fully felt comfortable there. I lived in constant fear of being hurt both physically and emotionally as a result of living under military occupation.”

    2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source

  14. “I would like to thank the members of the Security Council for providing me this platform today and empowering youth in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to speak about their experiences. My name is Malak AbuSoud. I am a third-year student in the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where I am majoring in international economics. I was born and raised in Jerusalem, and I am proud to call myself a Palestinian. To begin, I would like to acknowledge my privilege in speaking here today. I am a white, middle-class female from Jerusalem who speaks English, which is why I have the privilege to brief the Council today. I also need to acknowledge that I do not, by any means, represent all Palestinian youth.”

    2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source