From a small village in South Africa to Israel’s Ben Gurion University of the Negev, a foreign student’s perspective of taking cover from Iranian missiles.
By Kenneth Mokgatlhe
On Saturday night, the autocratic and warmonger Iranian government under Ayatollah Khamenei launched more than 300 missiles against Israel. As a South African studying in Israel – at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev – I experienced the attack first-hand and can say it was the most horrifying night of my life. Following security guidelines provided by the Israeli authorities who had been expecting this insane attack by Iran, my fellow students and I, all had to take cover by running to the relatively safety of bomb shelters. We remained there until the early morning of Sunday. In this first-ever direct attack by Iran on Israeli soil, a young girl from the Bedouin community which is not far from us in Israel’s south is reported to have been injured.
I grew up in a Christian environment in a village in South Africa, and during Christmas last year, I visited the Old City of Jerusalem and Nazareth. The streets were mostly deserted as could be expected due to the Israel-Hamas war. I was struck to see Israel’s victims of the conflict, the mass of people who fled their homes near the Lebanon-Israel border where Hezbollah is continuing to wreak havoc by firing rockets daily into the north of Israel.
I know that many people who have been influenced to hate Israel do not even know that the Jewish state is as small as our South Africa’s ‘Kruger National Park’ and is smaller than any of the provinces that make up South Africa. By further country comparison, Israel has a small population of only 9 million and hardly any significant mineral resources. Despite this, proud and resilient Israelis have transformed a desert into a place of wonder, sprouting innovative ideas no less than abundant crops. I should know – I’m living in Beer Sheva, Israel capital of the desert.
Israel is the only Jewish-majority state in the world. It is a democracy in the sense that you can do whatever you want to do as long as it does not go against the fundamental liberties of others. You can choose to be religious or secular, whether to wear a dress or pants. It’s your choice, unlike what is the case among many of Israel’s neighbors.
For those who only ‘experience’ the conflict on television or in newspapers, war is something that is happening elsewhere. For most the people caught up in it, it is not of their choosing. They are tragically dragged into it. The reality of war is that people die, are injured, are displaced, lose livelihoods and multitudes face famine.
Death comes to easy to too many. There is never a winner in war, hence the need for diplomacy and dialogue to establish peace, security, and stability.
Where is the serious conversation? The world is not talking about how Iranian proxies such as the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in the South have been threatening the existence of Israel for so many years. Having been continually dragged into war in the past by its neighbors, Israelis have had to developed super-advanced military technology to defend their country against these threats. To this end has been the development of its air defense systems such as the Iron Dome, David Sling and Arrow 3.
As a people I have discovered who lovingly embrace life, Israelis have to invest a lot of its time and treasure in protecting life.
Coming from a country once respected for its choice for peace over war, I was greatly disappointed to see some of my fellow South Africans on social media, not only supporting but also calling for more attacks by Iran against Israel. My disappointment was amplified because I know that the citizens from both Iran and Israel are essentially peace-loving people who have no desire nor necessity to go to war. Sharing no borders, there is no quarrel between the people of Iran nor the people of Israel. It was also sad on a more personal level because I know a fellow South African from the same village as me in the North West Province who is studying in Iran – me in Israel; she in Iran. Here we are set on pursuing our education in foreign lands and we find ourselves in two countries unexpectedly in war against each other! I had to take cover; will she soon have to do the same?
Last week, the Argentine court ruled that Iran was the mastermind of the gruesome attacks on the Israeli embassy and the Jewish community center back in 1990 and 1994 respectively in Buenos Aires. People tend to have a selective memory where they only choose to remember the Israeli attack on a building adjoining the Iranian consulate in Syria while refusing to acknowledge the longstanding pain and suffering that Iran is and has been inflicting on the Jewish people both in the Diaspora and in its national homeland.
People should resist formulating their views and perspectives by confining their source material to voices spewing hate. We should take charge of what we feed our minds by fostering a reading culture and discovering fresh insights that will help us avoid being the subjects of cheap propaganda by those driven by narrow personal agendas.
Peace and stability in the Middle East are prerequisites to global security and development. This cannot be achieved by alienating or hating Israel. Genuine peace will require us to be objective, impartial, and factual. We need to be solution-driven rather than calling for expansion of violence which places more people in danger; civilians who are generally peace-lovers. It is incumbent upon us all to call for peace in the Middle East, a peace necessitating a political rather than a military outcome, and that requires sober-minded leaders to come together and confront this long-decade impasse.
Today the Middle East demands mature leadership not the rabble rousers and sable rattlers.
About the writer:
Kenneth Mokgatlhe is a political writer and columnist studying Master’s at Ben Gurion University in Israel.
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