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Muhammad Zoabi, a Arab Muslim Israeli teen, speaks at Temple Israel.

Speaking Out

Arab Muslim Israeli teen
shares his pro-Israel views.

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Stacy Gittleman | Contributing Writer

elivering a positive message of
peace and co-existence from
his standpoint as a Muslim
Israeli teenager, Muhammad Zoabi
capped off his first American speaking
tour at a standing-room only Shabbat
evening service at Temple Israel in West
Bloomfield Nov. 18. His tour is spon-
sored by StandWithUs.
Poised, charming and insightful
beyond his 18 years, Zoabi spoke of his
experiences growing up in the multicul-
tural city of Nazareth, the threats and
support he received after he renounced
the Hamas kidnappings of three teen-
age Israeli boys, the ensuing war with
Israel in the summer of 2014, and his
education in both Arab- and Hebrew-
speaking schools in Israel.
In summer 2014, Zoabi, who comes
from a prominent and large Nazareth
Arab family, gained popularity on social
media during the beginning days of
Hamas’ war with Israel. The viral video
of him blasting Hamas and pleading for
the safe return of the three Israeli teen-
agers endangered his life; he received
numerous death threats from Hamas.
The Israeli government helped him
take refuge first with Israelis in north-
ern Israel and then with a Christian
family for two years in Florida. He then
returned to Israel, where he is currently
enrolled in a pre-army college program
at the Shalom Hartman Institute in
Jerusalem.
“The day Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaar
and Eyal Yifrah were kidnapped, my
Muslim mother, like any Jewish mother,
called me on my cell phone out of
concern to make sure I was all right,”
Zoabi said to 400 congregants and com-
munity members in attendance. “I then
went home and made a video in Arabic,
Hebrew and English expressing my deep
sympathies for the mothers who begged

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for the safe return of their children and
my desire that, as children, we all have a
right to live in safety without fear.”
Temple Israel’s Rabbi Josh Bennett
said, “Everyone I have spoken to at the
Kabbalat Shabbat service is raving about
the evening. Zoabi was an inspiring
view into the possibility for peace in the
Middle East. To hear an Arab Muslim
Israeli speak in terms of collaboration
and cooperation brought me hope.”
Zoabi went on to discuss the ugli-
ness of hatred. The Israel he loves is a
place where Arabs like himself have the
choice of attending school taught either
in Arabic or Hebrew.
“This diversity and respect for all reli-
gions and cultures — this is the Israel I
will love and will always defend,” Zoabi
said.
Zoabi made an appearance at the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor,
he says, because actions by Students
Allied for Freedom and Equality
(SAFE), a pro-Palestinian student group,
was making the campus environment
unsafe for pro-Israel voices. Zoabi’s talk
was moved from the Michigan League,
a main public building on campus, to
the Campus Hillel. SAFE is the group
that displayed an anti-Israel “Apartheid
Wall” during the Jewish High Holidays.
“When I heard people at the
University of Michigan protesting or
speaking ignorantly about Israel, they
left out one important word — Israelis,”
Zoabi said.
“When they shouted at me and called
me a bigot, I said they were the ignorant
ones. Israel is not perfect, but what
country is? All I know is I am an Arab
Muslim who is growing up and was
helped and saved by the only country
in the world with a Jewish majority. If
that is not co-existence, I don’t know
what is.”

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December 22 • 2016

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