A couple of weeks ago I watched a fascinating and meaningful documentary on PBS called Among the Righteous about Arabs who helped to save Jews during the Second World War.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/among-the-righteous/The film-maker is a Jew, Robert Satloff, and he decided to go down this unusual road after the horrific events of September 11th, 2001. His wife worked for the World Bank and he move with her to an Arab country as she pursued her career. He became even more aware of the blatant anti-semitism in some Arab countries, where the Holocaust, or Shoah, is either denied or celebrated.
Satloff set out to uncover stories of Arabs who were sympathetic to their Jewish neighbours and saved their lives when their countries were invaded by the Germans during WW2. He found them, and honours their stories in his documentary.
In Jerusalem there is a memorial to more than 20,000 "righteous gentiles," the men and women who were not Jews who protected Jewish neighbours and friends, sometimes sacrificing their own lives in the process. While only sixty of those 20,000 are Arabs, Satloff is convinced that there are many more.
Of course not all Arabs are Muslims. In Israel there is a small but persistent Arab Christian population. But Satloff points out that we need to be careful about stereotypes, even in this time of deep suspicion of those from Arab nations.
Does this surprise you? What are your thoughts?
Twenty years ago, while living in England, I dated a woman from Iraq. It was just at the end of the 8 year Iran-Iraq war. I remember in the midst of the war how the media and politicians from other countries would make it seem like one side was the bad side and the other was the good side.
ReplyDeleteHowever, in getting to know her and her family, I learned a lot more than what the media gave us. In most cases, there are two sides to everything, but when we only hear one side, it helps perpetuate stereotypes, racism and hate.
We stereotype all the time. All teenagers are trouble, all Arabs are dangerous, all overweight people are lazy as are the homeless who beg for money, older people should not be driving, etc., etc., etc. It is really hard not to do so when the media spends most of its time exposing the people who do fit the descriptions above. Very seldom do we hear about the others. As Johnny said,we need to get to know these people with open minds and learn to judge for ourselves. This will in turn make us better people.
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