“I am on the side that everybody deserves to live.”

Youseff Shihadeh is a Mercy University first-year student with a massive chip on his shoulder, with ambitions lying on his plate. Youseff sees a way of getting into D-1 basketball and high hopes of making it to the league as a dream turned reality.

Shihadeh’s background in the sport of basketball before attending Mercy University was playing for In-Tech Academy M.S/High School 368. The 6’3 small forward/power forward was already making a name for himself.

Many things have given him the drive to push forward, but the one thing that increases his drive even more for success is the current state of the Israel/Palestine conflict. With much hindsight of motivation and determination, the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict has pushed Youseff to touch greatness, putting himself in a position to highlight Palestine and how much it means to him and become a motivation to his people.

Since Oct. 7, the conflict between Israel and Palestine has been at an all-time high. With both countries dealing with the chaos among them, what caused more chaos was people picking sides against one another. An ongoing war with two countries that has been having many students in the mercy community in a chokehold. With many others stating different viewpoints on how they feel about the situation. But with Youseff’s case, it’s very different.

Youseff had stated his views on the situation that has taken the world by storm throughout the months. It caught the attention of the Mercy University community, with many opinions viewed by them. It is a frenzy, with many others supporting Israel while others support Palestine. Yet Youseff’s points about the situation seemed interesting.

Youseff believes that everyone involved deserves to live and to not have their fate chosen for them by the war. Many destructive damages and horrors are occurring currently  in the Middle East country. Despite having Palestinian ties, he believes both sides need justice and not experience anarchy in exchange.

“It’s heartbreaking because I am Palestinian, and knowing that your family members might be lost in the midst of war is scary.” – Youseff Shihadeh.

Despite the anxiety of the his country being war torn, Youseff has flourished in academics and in his basketball career. Yet his humbleness is painted on the first-year student showing, and the only thing that aches in his heart is his family dealing with the current situation.

Unfortunately in some cases, opinions did not matter to some students when it comes to the current topic, as friends of Youseff became former friends when they did not respect his views on the current position of what is going on. Stating that because of his viewpoint, some friends could not respect his views, and in exchange, the friendships crumbled.

He says because of his beliefs, he was viewed as not good enough for others. But what mattered most to him was its effect on his loved ones. Pushing him even more to become a better version of himself and praying for peace for all.

“Only God knows, man, but I hope so. There are too many deaths going on at this point. Too many deaths going on at both sides.”

He doesn’t understand the purpose of the killings and why no one has intervened.

“The current problem is unfortunate! This really should not be going on. Free Palestine at this point.”

Youseff’s goal is quite simple. The trials and errors never bothered the student when it came to making goals become known. Yet the anarchy Palestine is going through pushes him even more to get this main objective going and embrace his country using sports and his social media outlets to produce awareness of Palestine.

Shihadeh sees the current event, sad on both sides. Saying “It really sucks and it hurts knowing my Palestinian brothers and sisters are dying and being harmed. There’s barely any help getting into there because of the restriction Israel has. There is too many people that are dying on the Palestinian side. It should not be acceptable. Seeing all this hate crime that is being committed against the Palestinian side, Muslims and Palestinians in general is sad. This is driving me to do better in life to accomplish and achieve things my sisters and brothers couldn’t so I can live up to the opportunity and make them proud.”

It may only a matter of time before Youseff touches the limit, but to think the main reason behind his inspiration to succeed shows another level of respect.

“Only God knows.”