I have watched this video about a hundred times. Alone. And with my children.
It has inspired me to find strength to speak up.
It has taught me about grace, humility, and courage.
Sophia Khalifa is an Arab (Muslim), who grew up in Israel. In this video, she thanks Israel for protecting her life. As a woman making choices her family opposed.
She speaks the truth. Plain and simple.
In a world where simple facts and tangible reality seem to be fading away, this felt right. Reassuring. A beacon of light in the surrounding darkness.
I watched this video again and again. I could not help but get back to it at times when I doubted. Times when I needed a spark of hope to keep believing.
And while many parts of Sophia’s story resonated with me, one stood out.
Sophia recalls attending classes given to Muslim children by Muslim teachers in Israel.
During those classes, she was told that she had no future.
Because the Jews would not let her fulfil her dreams.
Because the Jews were bad.
Because Jews would steal everything from her.
Sophia felt like a victim during those classes; she’d feel hopeless.
However, Sophia notes, those classes “really contradicted my experience with the Jewish people, because they were loving, they were kind, they were my friends. They did not care that I was an Arab, they did not see me as an Arab. They saw me as their friend.”
What Sophia went through is an experience psychologists call “cognitive dissonance”.
A feeling of confusion and self-doubt when perceiving a gap between reality and discourse, between narrative and tangible experience. It is a highly disturbing experience that leaves you unsettled, searching for validation of your own perceptions.
It takes courage, confidence, and intellectual integrity to hang on to reality in this context. A less honest, brave young girl may have agreed with her teacher without further questioning, without trying to put her finger on the confusion she felt. Cognitive dissonance is a pattern known to be used in the context of manipulation. Sophia’s teacher was using false narratives to manipulate young minds, making them doubt of the very reality they lived daily. That causes psychological harm to young minds – without even going into the endless damages caused by the hatred this teacher tried to instil in their hearts. Even as a young girl, Sophia brushed the brainwash away, as dust on her sleeve. She dismissed her teacher and hung on to her truth, to reality. Little Sophia is proof that deep in our hearts and souls, we know the truth. Question is: Are we brave enough to stand up to manipulators to honour it? Are we brave enough to speak up for it?
Note: Please watch and share Sophia's full interview, link below.
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