World · North America · 2 hrs ago
Arab speakers describe how personal encounters changed their views of Jews
Three Arab speakers from Yemen, Bahrain and Israel shared their experiences at a Toronto event called Voices for Peace in the Middle East.
The event brought together Yemeni Luai Ahmed, Bahraini Fatema Al-Harbi and Arab-Israeli advocate Tamer Masudin.
Ahmed said he was raised in Yemen to see Jews as enemies.
While studying in Sweden, he met a Jewish Israeli who offered to cook Yemeni food for him.
Ahmed initially suspected the offer was a trap, but the two became close in their student residence.
The speakers described how personal encounters challenged antisemitic ideas they had been taught.
Yemeni speaker Luai Ahmed said personal encounters with Jews challenged the antisemitic views he was raised with.
Ahmed recalled suspecting that a Jewish-Israeli student who offered him Yemeni food was trying to expose him as a Muslim terrorist.
Instead, the student became Ahmed’s favourite person in their Swedish student residence.
Ahmed spoke in Toronto alongside Bahraini Fatema Al-Harbi and Arab-Israeli advocate Tamer Masudin.
The speakers appeared at Voices for Peace in the Middle East, an event presented by Allied Voices for Israel with NGO Sharaka.
- Who
- Yemeni Luai Ahmed, Bahraini Fatema Al-Harbi and Arab-Israeli advocate Tamer Masudin.
- What
- They spoke about how personal encounters with Jews challenged their views.
- When
- This week, according to the article published October 23, 2026.
- Where
- At a Toronto event.
- Why
- Their personal encounters challenged years of antisemitic indoctrination, the article says.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Ahmed met a Jewish-Israeli student in a Swedish student residence, where the student offered to make him Yemeni food.
Ahmed said the student became his favourite person in the residence.
Ahmed, Al-Harbi and Masudin spoke at a Toronto event called Voices for Peace in the Middle East.
- Speakers
- Luai Ahmed, Fatema Al-Harbi and Tamer Masudin
- Event
- Voices for Peace in the Middle East
- Event location
- Toronto
- Presenters
- Allied Voices for Israel and NGO Sharaka
- Ahmed's encounter
- A Jewish-Israeli student offered to make him Yemeni food
What people are saying
Behind my back, he’s going to go tell everybody in the university and the student house that there’s a Muslim terrorist in the student house
He just had a lot of Yemeni Jewish friends in Israel, and he wanted to get to know this Yemeni Muslim and see if we were the same