A novelist and poet asks why she must audition for empathy and compassion.
In her lyrical guest essay for Times Opinion this week, the novelist and poet Hala Alyan writes about the double standard that Palestinians have been facing during the Israel-Hamas war. Palestinians are constantly asked to "prove their innocence" and to condemn the actions of a terrorist group, she says, even in the midst of their own grief and a rapidly escalating humanitarian crisis. |
She writes, "The real problem with condemnation is the quiet, sly tenor of the questions that accompany it: Palestinians are presumed violent — and deserving of violence — until proved otherwise." |
Her words are especially resonant now, as America is gearing up to lend more military support to Israel in a war that could drag on indefinitely with more and more civilian casualties. |
When I first read Alyan's draft, I was very moved, as I suspect anyone who's ever had her identity questioned, misrepresented or even vilified might be. The experience I had reading it mirrors one of the lines in Alyan's piece: "But in the end, I am undone not by silence or erasure but by empathy." |
I hope that you are also moved by Alyan's writing. |
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