The Israel-Palestine war, with approximately approximately 40,000 people killed, is currently at the center of global humanitarian concerns and U.S. politics.
According to the Arab American Civic Council, San Diego County enjoys one of the highest percentages of Arab American communities in Southern California.
But what local impact does this defining issue of our times have on our North County communities? Well, Palestinian Americans are a rich, intelligent and vibrant part of our everyday lives — they are our neighbors.
As a little boy, my first business was a lemonade stand aptly named Cool Carlsbad Lemonade. I was so excited I created my own drink, Sharkheart Juice, a combination of lemonade, iced tea, pineapple and Panamanian honey (where my grandmother is from).
Sharkjuice increased my performance as Sharkheart on Team USA Swimming and was a refreshing and popular summer drink. My neighbor across the street, Ahmed, was the first to buy from my stand, and I framed the first dollar he gave me from my entrepreneurial endeavor.
When I started my own SharkHeart Aquatics (swim instructions), again Ahmed was my first client.
At first, I had him do basic exercises such as kicking with a kickboard and holding his breath underwater. After that, we worked on lap swimming and pushouts from the wall.
Ahmed is the senior traffic engineer and deputy city engineer at the City of San Diego. He oversees our day-to-day traffic and the flow of transportation in San Diego. Ahmed has been an important part of my life growing up. Ahmed is a friend and a mentor. Ahmed is Palestinian-American.
Another Palestinian American, Ella, is a lifelong friend and former classmate at St. John’s Elementary School. We will both be seniors at Sage Creek High School this fall. I asked her about her take on the Palestine-Israel conflict.
“I support Palestine because my family is from there and still living there,” Ella said. “They are in the West Bank but still have to live in fear every day because they don’t know what will happen. I want to do my best to help my family and others. This has made me want to pursue human rights when I get older and work to help people struggling all over the world.”
I asked her how she supports her family there, and she is equally passionate and committed.
“I support Palestine by donating to organizations providing aid to Palestine and businesses,” Ella said. “I also repost to make people aware of the situation. I love to educate people and make them aware of what’s really happening and not just what the news is saying.”
Most of what we see on the nightly news is the death toll of both Israelis and Palestinians, stories that inform us of military tactics, political positions and the resulting casualties.
These conflicts involve beautiful families, terrified neighbors, and an incomprehensible amount of pain and suffering.
For me, they involve my childhood friends and neighbors, many of whom are Jewish, too, just as it does for our Carlsbad and North County communities.
The greatest accomplishment we can achieve at this juncture in history is to be gentler, kinder and wiser with one another, to be good people and kind neighbors.
Christian Howell is a rising senior at Sage Creek High School in Carlsbad.
