It is possible to be of one mind. This op-ed by Hanin Majadli at Ha’aretz is a Palestinian reflection on Gaza an Palestinian identity that mirrors the thoughts of so many of us this year who care about this place and people. The usual refrain on the Jewish left is to talk about 2 narratives, a Jewish one and a Palestinian one. But this year of total catastrophe for two peoples calls for people of good will to start figuring out how to thread Nakba-Memorial-Independence Day into a single narrative. The narrative starts in the bleak and utter grief. It compares to what she describes is the fate of a drowning ant in a terrible sea. “Have we been destined only to live in the shadow of the Nakba or in the midst of it?”

It is not my intention to obscure the suffering of Gaza and Palestinian statelessness. I only want to note a shock of recognition (the recognition of “the other” and the recognition of “self”) in the inversion of a mirror image.

Majadli writes, “In the past, Israel’s Independence Day pained me because you won, and we lost; because you have renewal, and we are licking the wounds of our destruction; because you’re stringing up flags, and we’re hiding our own flags. You’re planting trees, and in the West Bank uprooting our trees. You’re building homes, and in the Negev demolishing ours. This year, you’re in the midst of destruction, ruin and a future shrouded in uncertainty. Does that console me? Absolutely not. And I’m pleased that it doesn’t console me. Because everything around us is so sad.”