Israel is the land where one can “see a Muslim woman, a gay couple kissing, and a Hassid sharing the same small space,” Haisam Hassanein, an Egyptian-born student, said in his recent commencement speech at Tel Aviv University, which was published in The Jerusalem Post yesterday.
Hassanein, who came with his family to the United States at the age of 16, said he told a security official upon his arrival in Israel that, “I always heard the Jews are bad people, and I came to see this for myself.”
Hassanein expressed that, despite the extensive anti-Israel propaganda he had been exposed to as a child, he found Israelis to be warm and accepting of him.
I expected to find that people here were unfriendly, and especially unhappy to meet Egyptians. I was pleasantly surprised to find just the opposite. I was invited everywhere, from Shabbat dinner, to Ramadan Iftar meals, to plays and even to political gatherings. And the diversity I found here was as surprising as the warmth of the people.
On my very first day here at the university, I saw men in kippot and women in headscarfs and hijabs. I saw soldiers walking peacefully among crowds of lively students. I learned there were people of every kind on campus, and that the university had a space for all of them – Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druse, Beduin and even international students.
Hassanein also spoke of a “spirit of cooperation” that characterized the daily lives of Israelis, even in the face of broader disagreements.
In parallel to his own growing appreciation of Israel during his studies, Hassanein said that his biggest surprise actually came from Egypt. This year, Egyptian television’s annual Ramadan soap opera broadcast was a show called “The Jewish Quarter,” which dealt “with questions of identity and politics” and featured both Jewish and Muslim characters. Hassanein wrote:
As a student of history, I can’t say that the series was perfect, but the depiction of Jews for the first time as human beings, as people with a love of family and country, rather than mortal enemies is nothing short of extraordinary. And while Egypt has a ways to go before accepting Israel as a friend, perhaps this series will inspire more Egyptians to at least be willing to rethink “the enemy.”
Tying up both his personal experiences and his observation of greater acceptance of Jews in Egypt, Hassanein concluded, “the only thing one should truly expect in life, is for life to defy your expectations.”
A video of Hassanein’s speech is embedded below.
[Photo: TAUVOD / YouTube ]