Two Young Women on Opposite Sides of the Israel-Palestine Divide
by Tala Albanna, Michelle Amzalak
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The remarkable, year-long correspondence between two young women in the wake of October 7—a Palestinian from Gaza City and an Israeli from Sderot—who, through letters, developed an improbable friendship through faith, genuine curiosity, and a shared hope for peace and liberation, for readers of Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza and The...
The remarkable, year-long correspondence between two young women in the wake of October 7—a Palestinian from Gaza City and an Israeli from Sderot—who, through letters, developed an improbable friendship through faith, genuine curiosity, and a shared hope for peace and liberation, for readers of Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza and The Eyes of Gaza.
"Tala, I've been thinking about you constantly...I can't imagine what you've been through these past weeks. Are you safe?" "Michelle, I wish that I had the chance to know you better in different circumstances. I believe that it would be different."
In early 2024, French journalist Dimitri Krier reached out to two young women: Tala Albanna, a twenty-year-old from Gaza City, Palestine; and Michelle Amzalak, a twenty-four-year-old from Sderot, Israel. Tala had never spoken to anyone from Israel; Michelle had never spoken to anyone from Gaza. Would they be willing to write to each other?
Both women said yes.
Over the course of a year and a half, Tala and Michelle opened up to each other about their faith, their families, and everything they'd ever wanted to say to someone on the other side of the divide, including their shared, unshakeable conviction that the bloodshed in Palestine served no one—and that, if history could be rewritten, they might have had a very different relationship. "Michelle, I wonder if you ever have questioned the validity of your state," Tala wrote, "...Please tell your people to stop stealing our humanity and let us determine our fate." "I write to you of the harder days, of extreme war escalations and personal struggles," Michelle wrote, "but the truth is it feels almost shameful to mention these things to you after reading how hard you are fighting just for basic survival."
With the clear-eyed reflection of Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza and the uncompromising, on-the-ground testimony of The Eyes of Gaza, I PRAY YOU WILL BE SAFE memorializes the improbable, border-transcending friendship between two ordinary young women, brought together by their unflagging faith, uncommon empathy, and a fierce hope for a better future.
