Palestinian-Ukrainian activist warns the world against selective empathy

Zoya Miari is a 24-year-old Palestinian-Ukrainian peace ambassador. She was raised as a refugee in Lebanon and now lives in Switzerland after fleeing the war in Ukraine. Miari has been speaking out about the way she is treated as a Ukrainian refugee, versus a Palestinian one. "I'm the same exact person, I'm the same exact human, but being treated in a different way," she recently told TRT World's Tanguy Garrel.

Here are excerpts of her interview.

TRT World: Can you please start by introducing yourself?

Zoya Miari: So I'm half Palestinian, half Ukrainian. My father is Palestinian. My mom is Ukrainian. I was raised in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon for the first 15 years of my life. We then moved to Ukraine in 2021 after the situation in Lebanon was getting worse. And then the war started in Ukraine.

TRT World: So you are twice a refugee?

Miari: Yes. So I was raised as a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon. And then after the war started in Ukraine, we became Ukrainian refugees in Switzerland.

TRT World: And what are you up to now?

Miari: I'm 24 years old. I always wanted to become a peace ambassador because in Lebanon, when I lived in the refugee camp, that is something I always wanted to see - peace and love. And now that the war started in Ukraine and (I moved) to Switzerland, I felt the need to do more.

I attended a One Young World summit, after which I became a peace ambassador. So now, in a way, I'm leading a global storytelling movement to share the stories of refugees in a more humanised way. I'm also a nurse. I work here in Switzerland, and currently I'm studying psychology to become a positive psychologist.

TRT World: Can you explain a bit about what you've been through since October?

Miari: So when the war started in Ukraine, we escaped the war into Poland and there we were. We were welcomed by a Polish family for four days - such a quiet family. And I believe that with their kindness, we were able to regain the positivity and the resilience that we have. And also coming to Switzerland, we were hosted by a Swiss family for around three or four months and we lived in a good way together.

But now that the events started in October, I felt that the narrative is changing a bit. So before, when I used to introduce myself as Ukrainian, I didn't need to explain myself twice in order to really see the empathy in people's eyes.

But now, if I want to introduce myself as a Palestinian, I need to emphasise that I'm not a terrorist or I'm not going to attack them, or that I'm a peaceful person.

So really, when it comes to the language that we use, as for the Palestinians, it's always associated with a language that is filled with dehumanising language. So, for example, when we want to describe the Palestinians or describe now the people in Gaza, instead of saying that there are children, the media says that there are minors, or instead of saying that it is a genocide, it's being portrayed as a war between two nations.

But there is no such thing as a war between an occupier and occupied. So, you know, I just want to make sure that the world knows that we are not terrorists. We are actual human beings filled with dreams, filled with life. We are fathers, we are mothers, we are children - not minors. So it's very important to be aware of the language that is being associated with the Palestinians.

So of course, I thought at some point that half of me is being dehumanised when the other half is completely humanised. And with this contradiction, it created an internal conflict within me that I had to deal with on my own.

TRT World: Did you expect this?

Miari: To be honest, as Palestinians, we got used to the language that is being used in the media.

I think growing up as a child, as a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, whenever such events used to happen in Gaza, we got used to the media portraying the Palestinians as terrorists or like in a very dehumanising way. We got used to that. And in a way, maybe I was expecting this. Yes, but of course, it was also this time I felt the oppression because I also have my Ukrainian side.

And when I received all the kindness as a Ukrainian person, now that I am also a Palestinian, I'm the same exact person, I'm the same exact human, but being treated in a different way.

TRT World: Can you tell me a bit more about the reaction of your leaders? How welcome the Ukrainian president was around the world, versus how Palestinians don't have such access.

Miari: So the international community, of course, acted really fast when it came to (the) October 7 (attacks).

But if we are talking before October 7, of course it is disappointing, but something that truly gives me hope are the people, the people who are coming from different religions, whether Jews, Christians, Muslims or different backgrounds or different nationalities, all of them going down the streets (protesting), and there are millions and suddenly you see that I'm not the only one who's Palestinian.

Not only the Palestinians are Palestinians. And yet the whole world became Palestinians. So in a way that truly gives me hope, like with everything that is happening, I truly feel more hopeful than ever, because it's not only about Palestine anymore, it's about the world and just the injustices, hypocrisy and the world. How the world functions.

So if I were to say how I'm feeling today, I would say I'm feeling hopeful as well. And that is because of the people who are coming down the streets, who are refusing to stay silent or are speaking up. That has been a message of mine, which is that the occupation, the wars, the genocides, they kill the people that we love, they steal our homes, they steal so many things from us.

But one thing they can never steal away from us is the freedom that we have within and the hope that we have within that. One day Palestine will be free and Ukraine will be free.

TRT World: How do you feel as well when it comes to empathy?

Miari: Of course, what's happening is selective empathy. Because we're no longer looking at the humans as a human being, but rather looking at them as someone with a certain nationality or background or colour. And that's not true. Human empathy. I truly feel lost. It's a whole irony that's contradicting that. I'm convinced that you cannot stand with Ukraine and not stand with Palestine.

And at the same time, you cannot stand with Palestine without standing with Ukraine, because there's occupation on both sides. We're getting occupied. There is settler colonialism, there's illegal occupation. So I feel if someone is fighting for a free Ukraine, that means that that person also needs to fight for a free Palestine.

TRT World: Can you tell me a bit more about the difference of language and double standards that you witnessed?

Miari: So with this double standard of one side of me being completely humanised, the other side being completely dehumanised, I felt this irony within me. I felt it truly and it's not the problem of Ukrainians that they got this humanisation - that is how people need to be treated. That is how every refugee needs to be treated.

And I guess people need to learn from the way the Ukrainians were treated to treat other people, whether in Palestine, in Congo, in Sudan or other oppressed nations. That is the language that should be used and should be generalised.

I think when it comes to selective empathy, I felt this oppression of my people because as I mentioned that as a Ukrainian, I did not feel that I needed to explain myself twice in order to get the better of people because everyone knows what's really happening. When it comes to what's happening in Palestine, suddenly everything becomes complex and complicated.

When it's really simple, there's an occupier and there's the occupied, there's the oppressor and there are the oppressed.

TRT World: What would be your message for the world for today? What would you like to tell them based on your background, your identity?

Miari: We have a priority, which is to stop this madness once and for all. The humans that are being killed could have been any one of us.

And you want to feel your child, your sibling, your kids, your mother, your father. These are genuine human beings. We are not statistics to be displayed in newspapers or in the media. We are human beings. We are humans. So whatever side you're standing on, whatever your beliefs are, just know that somewhere in the world, someone is struggling and someone is crying over a dead child or over a killed child.

This madness should stop. We need to demand a ceasefire.

TRT World: Do you have the feeling that many Ukrainians feel empathy toward Palestinians and that many Palestinians were feeling empathy towards Ukrainians?

Miari: Not necessarily, I guess not many Ukrainians knew what's really happening in Palestine because the media always showed the Israeli side.

But now, after getting in touch with so many Ukrainians who are fighting for a free Ukraine and a free Palestine, I now know that many people know what's really happening. And I even remember my mom, who lived in a Palestinian refugee camp, and she knows the struggle of the Palestinians.

I remember when the genocide started in Gaza, she was telling her Ukrainian friends that what's happening in Gaza is similar to what's happening in Ukraine, but not for the last decade, but for the past 75 years.

And I guess so many Ukrainians are now really getting what's really happening because what's happening in Ukraine, being colonised and being oppressed has been happening in Gaza, in Palestine and West Bank, everywhere in Palestine for the past 75 years.

And when it comes to Palestinians, when I would get in touch with my friends and tell them what's happening in Ukraine and through me, they would try to know what's happening.

So of course, they also humanised the Ukrainians and they know the pain of the Ukrainians because this is something that the Palestinians have been feeling for the past almost eight decades. So oppressed people know how it feels. That is how we really connect. We know each other's suffering and pain.

TRT World: Would you like to add anything that you couldn't share that you would like to highlight?

Miari: When I escaped the war from Ukraine and we were hosted by our Polish family and I was telling them about my life. One of my plans was to go and visit the Auschwitz camp and it was just five minutes drive away from their home.

As a child, I used to hear a lot of stories about the Jews who were killed back during the Holocaust. That is something my grandfather used to tell me. And of course, I grew up curious to understand the pain and suffering. So I went to the Auschwitz camp, and I remember looking at the pictures of the killed children hanging on the wall.

And to be honest, I really got scared. I was looking at them straight in the eye. And it came to my mind that every child there had dreams and had a whole family. So I felt that the world had failed them. And later on, I read a lot of articles which talk about the ways that the Jews were tortured back then are similar to the ways that the Palestinians are being tortured by the Israelis for the past decades.

And what's happening right now, I guess we have already reached that point where we are going to look at the pictures of the Palestinians, look them straight into the eye and see that the world has failed them. And I remember reading back in Auschwitz a court which says something like, we should know our history in order for it not to be repeated.

But maybe I can ask this question: What is happening currently in the world? I know that there are so many Jewish people around the world fighting for a free Palestine, free of oppression. But why do so many people choose to resort to violence as a way (to perpetuate) their unhealed generational trauma? I really want to imagine a world that is free of every kind of oppression, free from any wars and genocides.

And if we really need to learn our history, then it's time for people to learn more about Palestine.

TRT World: Anything else?

Miari: I always like to end it in a hopeful way. So I remember when we were escaping the war from Ukraine and we were on a train from Kiev to Lviv. I remember my mom looking at me and telling me like, Zoya, we should sing. So we were sitting with strangers who then became our friends as well.

And my mom told me, like Zoya, we should sing. And so we sang Ukrainian folk songs. And I remember with each song, our resilience grew stronger. And this reminded me of the resilience that we always had as Palestinians growing up as refugees in Lebanon. And I promised myself that if we make it out alive, I will not become the victim of life again.

Yes, we are victims of wars, but I refuse to be a victim in life. And I thought to myself that I would become a warrior and a fighter.

I would love to add that the Palestinians, the Ukrainians, the Lebanese, they teach us life. So whether seeing Ukrainians trying to help the Ukrainians in Ukraine or seeing the Palestinian children dancing our traditional Palestinian dance or children holding a press conference to tell the truth from Gaza, I think they teach us life.

We need to learn life from them.