An Arab Zionist, is there such a combination? Of course!
Rowan Othman, a Syrian peace activist, primarily focused on developing a positive relationship between Middle Eastern Arabs and Jewish Israelis, spoke to Hadassah Chen of Arutz Sheva – Israel National News.
Othman opens the interview saying: “It is a privilege to be sitting here in a studio in Jerusalem. Not everyone with my background can come to Israel and be welcomed the way I am. The reason is that I come here peacefully, with my utmost admiration for this country. My mother is Lebanese and my father is Syrian. My mother's family is Shi’ite, from the heartland of Hezbollah in the Beqa’a Valley. Especially after October 7th, I say that I am a recovered antisemite and an Arab Zionist. The reason I chose these terms is because we need moral clarity and we need to identify problems if we want to solve them.”
She continues to explain: “I grew up being taught to hate Israel and the Jews. Although my father and mother were secular, I can promise you they do not know the difference between Sunnis and Shi’ites. Still, they hated Israel and they are both traumatized by war, but so are many Israelis. So are my grandparents and so are your grandparents. It's something we have in common. I attended a French school where I was given a different type of antisemitism, the Catholic one, where they taught us that the Jews crucified Jesus.”
Othman describes that she “grew up during the time when Israel was occupying Southern Lebanon and we didn't know the history between Israel and the PLO and the leftist factions that targeted civilians. We just knew that a part of Lebanon is occupied by the Israelis who kill us, targeting civilians, and who are the heroes – Hezbollah. I grew up in Lebanon for the first eighteen years of my life. The country was beautiful and you know, Lebanon reminds me of … Israel. The resemblance between the Israelis and the Lebanese is unbelievable. I can't say the same about the Israelis and the Syrians, they're different and when we moved to Syria, we had a cultural shock. When I married, I moved to Saudi Arabia. In those days there was a morality police, and they wouldn’t beat you up like they do in Iran, but they had a baton and would reprimand you and ask you to cover up.”
She recounts: “After my son was born, I divorced and moved to Europe, because of the stigma. For me in the Middle East, this was not my place, and I chose to go to Europe. At this point I still hated Israel. You have to understand how I perceived Israel in the '90s. We saw a report on the news about a strike on a UN shelter and there was such graphic footage, and they said that the Israelis deliberately targeted women and children. The Israeli narrative was omitted from our existence, so Israel was not given a chance to explain. Why is there a war now? Why are you sending aircraft? We had no idea; we knew our version of the story and our version was against the Israelis. Back then you were my enemies, and I wished everything bad upon the Israelis.”
Othman chose to move to France “because I speak French, and that's where my story with the Jews began. By coincidence, I landed in the Jewish quarter in Strassburg. I thought the Jewish Quarter was similar to the one in Damascus, which was deserted. It was called the Jewish quarter, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to see Jews. The one in France was literally filled with Jews, also ultra-Orthodox Jews and that was a shock. I started to panic and I didn’t know why, because they didn't even look at me. Then I realized that for the first time in my life, I was sharing the same space with the enemy. That is when I started asking myself why the Jew is my enemy and I realized that everything I knew about Israel, I knew from my hero, from Hassan Nasrallah. I never realized that we were being brainwashed, but now I had the luxury and access to uncensored information, and I started reading about Hezbollah. I was shocked when I saw a video on YouTube by Hassan Nasrallah back in the days the early 1980s when he started his majestic career. He was talking about their plan for Hezbollah and they were fighting against the Shi’ites as well, and I was shocked because it was so clear and this is the lesson the Israelis learned after October 7th. Listen to them! Don't try to interpret what the Palestinians are saying. Europeans love to do that. They tell you they want to annihilate Israel, this is exactly what they mean. They showed you what they mean on October 7th. When they say, ‘From the river to the sea,’ they don't even know what they're saying, because they don’t even know where Israel is on the map. They're just repeating a slogan that's attractive. It rhymes well, so why not.”
She describes how, when “I started reading about Hezbollah and the history of our region and the history of Israel and the Jews, I was furious, not because all of a sudden I love the Jews, but because I realized that all the wars were senseless. All these wars could have been avoided if only the Arabs had accepted to share the land with the Jews. They wanted the land, but they didn’t want to share the land. In history class, as part of the Lebanese curriculum, we learned briefly about Palestine, and we learned that the antagonist in this story is Theodore Herzl, who started the Zionist movement project and brought all these Jews from Eastern Europe and they came and stole Palestine. All that we learned implies that Palestine was a country. This is dishonest because we always thought Palestine was a country with political borders and the Jews came and stole it from the poor Palestinians who have been suffering since 1948. But when I ask the Arabs and the Muslims where the Jews came from, they go back in time and end up mentioning the Quran, which is problematic because the Quran tells you that as a Muslim, the end of days will not come until you have ridden planet earth of the Jews.”
Othman talks about her mother, with whom she has no contact these days, and discloses that “even though my mother is not religious, she believes what I used to believe when I was a teenager, that Hezbollah is trying to protect Lebanon, that the Zionists have an expansionist project, that they cannot be trusted, that they are brainwashing me since I started working and studying with them. We have zero connection with my family because they think I betrayed them. I understand when Arabs write horrible comments and accuse me of being a Zionist mouthpiece, but my friends and family know me and they know that I do this because I am convinced, that I understand Jewish history. I do it not because I want the Palestinians dead, but because I see an alternative to the chaos, to the deaths in the tens of thousands. I dare say hundreds of thousands because I'd like to include the Syrians in this scenario. It's part of it and we are talking about at least half a million documented deaths in Syria, and they died because the champion of the Palestinian cause, al-Assad refuses to go, because he plays a key role in protecting the Palestinians. How crazy is it that the axis of resistance includes the movements in Iraq, Yemen, and Iran and if they all want self-determination for the Palestinians, why don't they grant the right for self-determination for their own people? How many teenagers were killed just because they wanted to feel the air in their hair.”
Othman believes that “the Abraham Accords were a sophisticated comprehensive plan to get the region out of the mud. It included leaders who have a different vision for their own people and for the region and I'm proud of them. We had so much hope and this path was paved by UAE, Morocco, and Bahrain. We may have to seize the opportunity to remind people that the leader of Bahrain is the only one who condemned Hamas after October 7th. He did it in a heartbeat. Moral clarity, that's what we need. Saudi Arabia was about to join. These are leaders who chose a different path. These are leaders who would have offered the Palestinians an alternative to the misery their leaders offer them.”
Othman explains: “October 7th happened basically because we were about to sign with Saudi Arabia and what did MBS [Mohammed bin Salman] want – a Palestinian state. They were so close to it, but they wanted the Palestinian State not near the Jewish State, they wanted it instead of the Jewish state. So, they're not serious about the two-state solution. But, the Arabs in Saudi Arabia, for example, want economic stability in their countries. This is not the only reason we haven't seen any demonstrations in Saudi or the UAE. They are vocal on social media. they disagree with the strategy adopted by the Palestinian leadership and they remind them, ‘How many times did we try to help you, what did you achieve?’ They were disappointed on October 7th.”
Othman questions, “Why didn't Saudi Arabia take some of the children and the women, why didn't Egypt take some of the women and the children out of harm's way, allowing the Israelis to get rid of Hamas? If you are serious about getting rid of Hamas, take them out of harm's way. I'm happy that they are still on Israel's side. And I’m happy to say that Ismail Haniya died, because, Israelis aside, he's responsible for the death of tens of thousands of Gazans. He sacrificed them, while he was living comfortably in Qatar. He’s a psychopath; when he was told about the death of his children, he smiled. Even before Israel responded to the October 7th attack, he would not allow anybody out of Gaza. The Israelis wanted to transfer the population of Gaza to Sinai, they hadn’t even responded, and they planned a transfer. You initiated the attack and you're talking about a conspiracy started by the Israelis. The Egyptians listened to his call and allowed nobody out, not even the Gazans who were cleared by Israel and didn't pose a threat. I say the same about Jordan. They could also have helped the Palestinians in Gaza, but instead Queen Rania cried and accused Israel of killing the women and children. But they did not say anything about taking them back. They don’t want to help the refugees. They're afraid of a transfer. What audacity!”
Othman says that she has, “Decided to solve the Middle East problem, and it can be done because it's a political issue. It sounds absurd but it’s a political issue and we can untangle it, just as the administration back then managed to develop a plan and the Abraham Accords were signed. We can do it. We just need the will to do it. So, when I decided to do that, I sold my business in Germany, I went back to University to study Islamic Studies, Jewish studies, and the Middle East conflict, to be equipped with the tools I need to understand how on earth can we solve this. On October 7th I decided to come to Israel. I knew that I would never be allowed to return to Lebanon and Syria, but seeing that some people there celebrated what happened, I give up the right to ever return to these countries until these issues are addressed, this monstrosity is gone. I came to Israel because I think Hamas would have never dared to do what they did on October 7th, film it, and share it, unless they wanted a long-term war, that would eventually expand to the region. I realized that I needed to choose a side, and I chose a side after October 7th. I stand with Israel and here I feel at home [Othman is currently undergoing conversion to Judaism]. I feel part of these people, who returned from all over the planet, to this country they call ‘home’ and when I came here the first time and I came to Jerusalem, I felt that this was the right place, and I made the right choice. Since arriving in the Jewish Quarter, there have been so many coincidences that happened in my life, and only when I was studying Jewish studies in a class I took with a rabbi, he said something that hit me that these were not coincidences. I didn't seek Judaism, it is Hashem who showed me the light, for which I'm forever grateful. Here I realized that we all have a voice, we have this energy and we have to use it. When I came to Israel I realized what I have to use it for, I'm just back home to remind the Jews you have nothing to apologize for. And I tell everyone, ‘Yes, I'm converting and I want to make aliyah and I am a Zionist. I'm proud of you, of the people, of the army. People think they are committing genocide. I have a lot of friends, even in special forces. They are wonderful people. Nobody wanted this war, but if Israel is forced to fight, they will fight. Israel will prevail. They will fight for the right thing; for the Jewish people and also for the Gazans. I came here this time and I brought my son with me to show the Jews, the Jewish people who are doubting themselves, my absolute faith, and my confidence in Israel's victory. I came here with the most precious person in my life, knowing we would be fine.”
Othman says that she is not scared of being in Israel, even though, “They see me as a traitor. Because I'm one of them and I'm stabbing them in the back. In the Middle East, if you seek normalization with Israel, if you seek peace, you're a traitor. But if you're willing to kill a Jew, then I'll be a hero. I learned that in the difference between Islam and Judaism, the goal makes a massive difference. In Judaism you seek a better life, even improving yourself all your life. You have to live well and take care of your loved ones, in your community, you have a moral duty. In Islam, you must be indifferent to this materialistic life and you have to be invested in the afterlife. This is why if you die or if you lose your children, everyone will tell you it's okay because this life doesn't matter. The individual doesn’t count in Islam, only the project. In Israel, and this is why I find this country a miracle, the project matters, but not at the expense of the individual. The way Jews take care of one another without compromising the project, the homeland, the country, the concept, Judaism, tradition, values, even an atheist Jew has that relationship with the Jews, with the community, that doesn't exist in Islam.”
“There are potential partners in the Arab world and in the Islamic world, like the people of Iran, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia. Once there is a political decision to get all the antisemitic material out of the curriculum, once you stop brainwashing people and you change the goal; when your goal is not death, but building, prosperity, and progress, your goal is to support human civilization, instead of destroying it, then you can do it, whether you're Muslim or Hindu or atheist or Jewish. But, in general, when you look at the Arab world and you see that they're investing their energy into destruction, instead of building their own countries, that I dare criticize loudly.”
Othman concludes, saying that she is doing this, “Because I feel part of this community and I feel part of this people and unless we fight together, we don't stand a chance. I am certain Israel will prevail because there are enough people around the globe who can still differentiate between good and evil. Even if we are outnumbered, it's quality that matters.”