Yassin explains that he spent the first 18 years of his life in a small town near Nazareth – the largest Arab city in Israel – and had zero Jewish friends growing up. “It’s a mutual stand-off,” he says, explaining that he doesn’t feel resentful that Jewish Israelis weren’t interested in being his friend, as he and his Arab-Israeli friends didn’t want to socialise with their Jewish compatriots either.
Everything changed when he got a scholarship to study in America. “At Harvard I made my first gay friend, black friend, Jewish friend, Israeli friend, female friend,” he says, explaining that it was around that time that he realised “I’m so culturally Israeli” – a feeling that was, in part, sparked by his interactions with Jordanian Palestinians on campus. “I had nothing in common with them,” he says.
At this point, Yassin says his whole outlook on Israel changed – and he now says that his purpose in life is to build a better Israel.
"It’s not perfect. I think Israel can be three times better, three times richer, three times more tolerant. But I do not want to go back to a day without Israel in the Middle East,” he says, adding: “So if that makes me a Zionist, great, let’s go!”
Nuseir Yassin spoke to a packed room at Radlett United Synagogue (Picture: The JC)[Missing Credit]
Asked how many Arab-Israelis share his outlook, Yassin says: "I can assure you that at least 80 per cent of Arab-Israelis want to live under an Israeli government. But I can also assure you that less than 20 per cent will say that out loud.
“What we saw from Hamas, it’s unrecognisable,” he adds. “So it’s very difficult to say: these are my people. And it’s very difficult to want to be neighbours with a Hamas person."
Overall, it’s fair to say that Yassin is optimistic about the future – including the future of AI, which he believes will not only free humans from mundane jobs, but also “make us closer to the truth” – and cites Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries such as Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as being a great source of hope and inspiration.
Unfortunately, his optimism does not extend to the UK. “I don’t recognise Britain,” he says, later joking: “We all love Al Jazeera… and I think here it’s called The BBC?”
Yassin’s radical answer for the issues of integration faced by both the UK and Israel is forced assimilation. “Because if you let people be people, they will be tribal,” he says, adding that in the Israeli context, he thinks that both Arab-Israeli and Haredim should be required to do mandatory army service alongside their secular Jewish-Israeli counterparts.
As the evening draws to a close, Yassin takes questions from the audience. Asked what he thinks the purpose of life is, he eventually concludes: “I think the human experience is to be pressured to create something of value.” It’s fair to say, he’s definitely done that.
