Dedicated to the President and Prime Minister of the State of Israel

Long before October 7, 2023, long before supporting Israel became fashionable for some and dangerous for others, long before social media suddenly filled with people who discovered Israel overnight, I was already standing up for this country.

I was thirteen years old.

After my father’s mission ended and our family returned to the Netherlands following two years in the Middle East, every cell in my body knew that Israel would remain part of my life.

I was deeply unhappy to be back in the Netherlands, or “Horrorland,” as I sometimes still call it. I was a highly sensitive, naturally shy girl who felt everything too deeply. I was bullied relentlessly. I fought injustice when keeping quiet would have been much easier. I had seen more of the world than most children around me, and suddenly I found myself in an environment where Israel was increasingly discussed through stereotypes, political slogans and claims that simply did not correspond with what I knew.

And I refused to stay silent.

When my history teacher presented only one side of the Arab Israeli conflict, I challenged her. She became furious and threw me out of class.

So at thirteen years old, I wrote my first article for a newspaper.

I argued that a teacher had a responsibility to educate rather than indoctrinate. I demanded that the political posters in the classroom either be removed or balanced with material presenting another perspective.

And something remarkable happened.

She investigated the history herself. She removed the propaganda. Years later, when I graduated with the highest grades in history, she told me she was proud........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)