“I am simply one Jewish person. I do not speak for all as that would be impossible to do,” said freshman Holt Moseley. “This is just my own voice saying what I have gained through my cultural and religious upbringing.”

Moseley is a Jewish student at ETSU witnessing the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts occurring an ocean away.

Photo of Holt Moseley. (Contributed/Holt Moseley)

“Many people think that being Jewish is like being Christian or Muslim—meaning you’re a follower of a certain religion,” he said. “However, being Jewish is an ethnicity, it is part of your bloodline, part of my bloodline…it is not a global religion where people can convert.”

He finds the current conflicts to be “strange” stating that Israel and Palestine are both in the wrong for going at war with another.

“It’s hard to say ‘Oh, one person is invading the other,’ or ‘Oh, because of recent history, they are the new people and they shouldn’t be allowed.’ That’s what makes this complicated. There is no right or wrong answer, and that’s what makes this conflict so strange,” Moseley said.

On Nov. 24, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire and the release of hostages. The truce resulted in the release of 50 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in return for 150 Palestinian hostages held by Israel.

“Based on how things in Israel are going, I do not think [the conflicts] will stop at any time soon. If I may be blunt, Israel—many people say that Hamas is the one that started, or that Israel is the one that started it—I will say that because of the governmental structure of Israel, that is what perpetrates it,” said Moseley.

“There have not been many reforms to this structure of how this conflict has been going since the start, like there have been some accords such as the Oslo accords…but even then the hostility has rarely died down, even in these times of so called ‘peace.’ There’s always been skirmishes, there has never been a true time of peace around these two [countries].”

“Palestinians and Israelis should be able to live in this place together, but based on how the governments are running things, I do not think that will be the case,” he added.

There has been a rise in antisemitism throughout the world in recent years. Fortunately, Moseley has always felt safe around campus. “I have worn my Star of David and my kippa around school…everyone has been nice and accommodating here and I can only hope that it continues to be so.”

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