The first Jewish-Israeli Luai Ahmed met offered to make him Yemeni food.
asserted
him → meet → ?
But Ahmed, raised in Yemen to regard Jews as enemies, suspected a trap.
asserted
Ahmed → raise → trap
“Behind my back, he’s going to go tell everybody in the university and the student house that there’s a Muslim terrorist in the student house,” he recalled thinking.
asserted
he → go → house
Instead, the stranger became his favourite person in their Swedish student residence.
asserted
stranger → become → residence
“He just had a lot of Yemeni Jewish friends in Israel, and he wanted to get to know this Yemeni Muslim and see if we were the same,” Ahmed told a Toronto audience this week.
asserted
Ahmed → have → audience
Ahmed joined Bahrain’s Fatema Al-Harbi and Arab-Israeli advocate Tamer Masudin at Voices for Peace in the Middle East, presented by Allied Voices for Israel, with NGO Sharaka.
asserted
Ahmed → join → Sharaka
Their accounts illustrated how encounters with Jews and Israelis could challenge years of indoctrination.
uncertain
encounters → illustrate → indoctrination
“As a Yemeni Muslim who grew up in Yemen, my entire life, I never saw an Israeli or a Jew, or listened to them or heard their perspective,” Ahmed told the Post.
asserted
Ahmed → grow → Post
Today, he brings that missing perspective to more than 208,000 followers on X. Masudin has more than 180,000 Instagram followers, using his platform to challenge anti-Israel narratives.
asserted
Masudin → bring → narratives
For Ahmed, Jew-hatred permeated childhood: At his mosque, prayers for prosperity accompanied prayers for Jews’ destruction; school lessons supplied conspiracy theories.
asserted
lessons → permeate → theories
“I absorbed every single bit of it because there was no counter argument,” he told the audience.
asserted
he → absorb → audience
Life in Sweden brought friendships with Jews, including a Jewish newspaper editor who became a mentor.
asserted
who → bring → editor
Then came October 7.
asserted
October → come → ?
Watching footage of Israelis being attacked, Ahmed imagined those friends among the victims, while people he loved in Yemen celebrated.
asserted
he → watch → Yemen
“We’re not going to be freeing Palestine by slaughtering these incredible people,” he recalled thinking.
asserted
he → go → people
He condemned the attacks publicly.
asserted
He → condemn → attacks
When he announced a visit to Israel, his brother and best friend threatened to cut him off.
asserted
brother → announce → him
Three years later, he said, they’ve still blocked his number.
asserted
they → say → number
Al-Harbi grew up amid different contradictions.
asserted
Harbi → grow → contradictions
Bahrain had a synagogue and a Jewish community of about 50, yet a teacher told her to hate Jews.
asserted
teacher → have → Jews
“My mom would tell me you’re not supposed to hate anyone that you don’t know just because of their religion or nationality,” she recalled at the Toronto talk.
asserted
she → tell → talk
After the Abraham Accords, she visited Israel.
asserted
she → visit → Israel
In Tel Aviv, a Jewish stranger on the street approached her and greeted her with enthusiasm about the landmark peace agreement.
asserted
stranger → approach → agreement
Invitations to many Shabbat dinners followed from an array of hosts.
asserted
Invitations → follow → hosts
“Everyone welcomed me with open heart and open arms,” she said.
asserted
she → welcome → heart
The welcome she received in Israel stood in contrast to the hostility she faced for speaking publicly about it.
asserted
she → receive → it
“People said I’m a traitor.
asserted
I → say → ?
They said I don’t deserve my name because my name is the Prophet Muhammad daughter’s name,” Al-Harbi said onstage.
asserted
Harbi → say → name
“They told me I should take the hijab off, that I’m not a real Muslim.
asserted
I → tell → hijab
Everything you can imagine.”
asserted
you → imagine → ?
She responded by leaving her job in the education sector to work full-time with Sharaka, which means “partnership” in Arabic, founded in 2020 with the purpose of cross-cultural engagement.
asserted
which → respond → engagement
Al-Harbi described persuading a Muslim friend who had prayed for Israel’s and Jews’ destruction to attend dinner with an Israeli delegation in Bahrain.
asserted
who → describe → Bahrain
After sitting beside two Jews, the friend marvelled at their similarities.
asserted
friend → sit → similarities
Al-Harbi said she stopped saying the prayer.
asserted
she → say → prayer
“I think it’s important to not give up,” Al-Harbi told the Post, urging outreach to moderate Muslims.
asserted
Harbi → think → Muslims
When people understand Israel, they understand that Israelis are human beings.
asserted
Israelis → understand → Israel
Masudin came to advocacy prompted by the Abraham Accords, inspiring people-to-people diplomacy.
asserted
Masudin → come → diplomacy
But October 7 pushed him into public advocacy, and with it came the haters.
asserted
haters → push → it
“I got to hear all of it.
asserted
I → get → it
From people accusing me of being a sellout for simply standing for my country, to calling me a Mossad agent,” he told the audience.
asserted
he → accuse → audience
…and 13 more, not listed.
The Aporia
