Israel through my eyes: Mark Halawa, a Kuwait born UNRWA refugee
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Israel through my eyes: Mark Halawa

  •   Mark Halawa, a Kuwait born UNRWA refugee
  • 11/23/2016
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    ​Mark Halawa was born and raised in Kuwait to a secular Muslim Palestinian family. In spite of their Western lifestyle and education anti-Semitism & anti-Israel sentiment were part of the norm. After moving to Jordan he was exposed to Israeli TV, which changed his perceptions. With his new Halawa Initiative he tries to reach out to Arab youth that oppose the radicalization of Islam to show them a different view of Israel.
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    Mark Halawa Mark Halawa
     
     
    ​My childhood was far from typical. I was born and raised in conservative Kuwait to a secular, Muslim, Palestinian family.

    As the child of one of the country's top engineers, we lived a mostly western lifestyle and had western education.

    Anti-Semitism and an anti-Israel sentiment however was part of the norm. I was taught of the "evils" of the Jewish people in school and took part in activities demonizing Jews, just like everyone else. Although knowing of my maternal grandmother's Jewish background always made me question the demonization of Jews.

    When I was 13 years of age, right after the gulf war, my family moved to Amman, Jordan, where everyone’s favourite TV programmes to watch were Israel’s two channels. I watched everything with great curiosity, especially commercials showing Jewish people, who I thought looked and acted just like us; they laughed and hugged their children, just like us.

    Just like my grandmother’s presence in my life levelled out ugly hate that I was fed in the gulf, Israeli TV allowed me to see Jewish and non-Jewish Israelis, women and men, old and young, achievers or insecure, organically without addition... Also, it allowed me to see Israelis from all religions and backgrounds intermingling to a degree that a self-proclaimed expert like me can’t tell who’s an Arab and who’s a Jew.

    Years later while a student in Canada, I shockingly discovered that my Jewish roots also made me Jewish. The curiosity of my roots eventually led me on a trip to Israel where I studied Judaism, and was lucky to fall in love and get married in Jerusalem.

    After marrying my Israeli European wife, and touring Europe a few times, and after 100’s of lectures around the world speaking about my experience to bright idealistic youth that simply want to change the world, I came to a conclusion that if I want to see a difference in this world, I must stand up and try to create change myself.

    This made me create a foundation in order to mimic the Israeli TV I experienced for nearly 4 years, which allowed me an inside peek into Israeli society, with its positives and negatives in the hope of reaching the nearly 400 million Arab speakers in the Middle East, who I believe are thirsty for any information about people different than they are, especially Jews and Christians.

    There is a large but mostly unknown movement of Arab youth that oppose the radicalization of Islam and simply seek a more westernized lifestyle, with freedom of speech and democratic values.

    Through social media the voice of this movement is becoming more and more heard in the Arab world. With my unique background of both Muslim and Jewish roots I hope to break the barriers one voice at a time.

    Mark Halawa is a business conduit connecting Israeli and Middle Eastern businesses and the Executive Director of the newly founded 'Halawa Initiative'.
     
     
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