Despite losing an American friend to Palestinian terrorism and also almost getting murdered herself, Kay Wilson refuses to hate all Arabs merely because the Palestinian educational system teaches children to hate and some Palestinians decided to act on such hatred they were taught from birth.
Kay Wilson has lived a difficult life. Both she and her American friend Kristine Luken were brutally stabbed after being held hostage for thirty minutes by Palestinian terrorists while hiking in a Jerusalem forest in 2011. Her friend Kristine wouldn’t survive this terrorist attack. Kay managed to survive by pretending to be dead and then, by struggling to make her way to a nearby path, where she succeeded to find help.
“I can’t believe that I am standing here and alive,” Kay stated. “I have been through hell. It’s been like going to a desert where there is no sign of life. I felt rage.” She couldn’t grasp how any one could go out to murder “two helpless women” and then smoke a cigarette afterwards, as if nothing had happened.
Nevertheless, despite the anger she felt at the Palestinian terrorists who did this to her and Kristine, she refuses to hate all Arabs. “If I didn’t deal with the hatred, I will always be a terror victim,” she stated. Kay described how one of the people that helped save her life in Hadassah’s Ein Kerem Hospital was an Arab named Mohammad. “I want to be known for more than being a terror survivor,” she stressed.
While noting that she has been to the emptiness of the desert, Kay points out that even the desert is teaming with life if you know where to look for it. “I lived a very difficult life, but I have chosen life,” she stated. She believes that many people take many things about life for granted and that there is a lot of beauty in Israel.
Kay clarifies that she still has not forgiven the people who murdered Kristine and tried to kill her as well, as they have shown zero remorse for their despicable action. The lack of recognizing her pain is what bothers Kay most, yet she has come to the realization that the Palestinian terrorists who did this to her and Kristine aren’t capable of showing remorse. Nevertheless, Kay does stress, “I don’t hold other Arab people responsible for what they did. I can’t let that dictate how I live my life. I won’t waste my life in bitterness and hatred.” She believes in Jews and Arabs peacefully coexisting with one another and was recently part of a new film titled the Peoples of Israel, which highlights Jewish-Arab coexistence in the city of Nazareth.
Although she seeks peace, Kay does not support peace at any price. She feels rage whenever Palestinian terrorists are released from prison. “It’s politically stupid for we don’t have a partner for peace. There have been no reforms in the Palestinian educational system. I will feel betrayed by my own government if they are released,” Kay stated. On the other end of the coin, she doesn’t believe there is emotional justice for murder, even if Israel were to start having a death penalty. But still, despite all of her pain, she strongly believes that “love transcends all that happened.”