Aside from spending time in Mexico for a short period, I've lived in the United States for my entire life. Because of this, I can't necessarily say I've been exposed to many other beliefs and perspectives. Moving to the Middle East has definitely changed my way of looking at the world.
The word "coexistence" suggests that two or more things exist in balance side by side. In general, there is less coexistence in Israel's political factions than there is in its religions. This is due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs both want the same land, and a compromise has been proven difficult to find. Palestinians, the Arab population that hails from the land Israel now controls, refer to the territory as Palestine, and they want to establish a state by that name on all or part of the same land. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in short, is over who gets what land and how it’s controlled. But it's so much more complex than this. I was aware of this conflict beforehand, but it is a completely distinct experience to be here in person witnessing the divide between the two communities. There's a tall wall that divides Israel with the West Bank (Palestinian territory).
