“This will affect humanity,” Cal Poly alum Miki Dubery interviews live from her home in Israel
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Miki Dubery, a Cal Poly alum and 23-year-old journalist, made a quick trip from a bomb shelter to her apartment in Tel Aviv, Israel to interview with News Channel 3-12 Tuesday morning.
"I haven't slept in four days," said Dubery. "It's hard to eat. It's hard to sleep. Every single noise that happens in this house, the people that are we're sheltering all together with every one of us, flinch."
Dubery emigrated to Tel Aviv two years ago after graduating from the San Luis Obispo university, and currently works with different Arab governments in Israel's citizen diplomatic sphere.
"I have friends all over the Arab world, colleagues, people that are so near and dear to me. And I know, I know for a fact that Hamas and the actions that they're doing do not represent the Muslim population and they do not represent all, most Palestinians.”
She said it is wrong to label this war as "Freedom fighting" – something she's hearing in California and throughout the US.
"This is the worst thing that as a people we've ever experienced since. I want to say the Yom Kippur War, but I'm actually going to say the holocaust. I don't think any of us as Jews, as Israelis, Israeli Arabs, Israeli Jewish people, Israeli Christians, Druze, everyone in Israel has ever experienced something to this multitude."
Dubery pointed out that many of the images circulating from Saturday's initial incursion, including the music festival raid and hostage taking, were taken and distributed by Hamas.
She said images and first-hand accounts she's seeing and hearing from victims' relatives are far worse – beheadings, women raped, children and babies killed.
"It's terrifying. It's absolutely terrifying. It's unfathomable. It's barbaric, you know, to see holocaust survivors be dragged into Gaza and be kidnaped."
Day four is "really tense," said Dubery. "It feels like it's been a lifetime."
While speaking to KEYT's Beth Farnsworth on the Zoom interview, Dubery suddenly paused.
"The reason I just got a little startled is because I heard a bomb," explained Dubery.
She said that hearing of incidents of violence here at home are distressing and she urged Americans not to use community forums to escalate tensions.
"I am scared for Israelis. I'm scared for Israeli Arabs. I'm scared for Palestinians. This is not about who is right anymore. This is about what is right. This is about human rights. This is about ethical war."
Dubery sees this war as "Terror versus Israel and Hamas versus the Palestinians," and urges people to care, because in her words, "This will affect humanity."
