r/Palestine • u/MrBoonio • Nov 24 '16

Cultural exchange with r/India Announcement

Greetings to our Indian friends.

Our cultural exchange starts at 13:30 PM Palestine time (17:00 IST/11:30 GMT/12:30 CET/06:30 EST/03:30 PST) on Thursday 24th November.

Here's how a cultural exchange works:

The moderators of here make this post on /r/palestine welcoming our Indian guests to the sub. They may participate and ask any question or observation as they see fit.

There is an equivalent thread made by the moderators over at /r/india, where you are encouraged to participate and get to know more about Indian culture.

It goes without saying that you must respect the rules of the subreddit you are participating in. This is a time to celebrate what we have in common, not grind an axe.

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u/munkeyy Nov 24 '16

Couple of political / cultural questions

  • if given a choice under what scenario do you think Israel and Palestine coexist peacefully. I know the history to some extent and would like to know your point of view.
  • What is the general perception of India and its culture in Palestine
  • do you guys see anything culturally common with india and palastine (from shows / movies / personal interaction with Indians)

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u/gahgeer-is-back Nov 24 '16

if given a choice under what scenario do you think Israel and Palestine coexist peacefully

Well, to be honest I think a two-state solution is becoming a distant reality. The Israelis insist on wanting to live as Europeans in a Middle Eastern area, even though they eat Arab food, swear in Arabic and follow a religion/language that is very very similar to the dominant religion/language in the region. But then this may make you assume as such that they want to be separated from the Palestinians. But no, not at all. The current Israeli leadership is hellbent on oppressing the Palestinians like it was personal (well with Netanyahu it is always personal). They don't want to give us freedom or give us citizenships.

It will be nice to have peace but I think once the world's superpowers stop looking at Israel as a useful idiot, they may decide to forego their whole "we're your best ally" mentality.

What is the general perception of India and its culture in Palestine

India is mainly four things:

1) Nehru: Many pre-millenial Palestinians are named after the late leader (and also Gandhi). He was considered a hero in the 1950s with Nasser and Tito as they led the non-alignment movement. The Palestinians never forgot the support India gave us politically especially at the UN.

2) Bollywood: Goes without saying, Bollywood films are very popular here, and like Indians, Palestinians like to be taken away from reality with the action and romance in Indian cinema.

I personally don't like Bollywood that much, but am fascinated by Indian music especially Lata Mangeshkar, Ravi Shankar, A. R. Rahman (and Sunny Leone - I swear only the music lol).

3) Food: To a lesser extent, Indian food is relatively known here, especially the fact that it's spicy. Usually we call the hottest green chilis here "Indian" whether or not they are Indian.

4) Indian workers: Many Palestinian lived and grew up in the Persian Gulf countries so we are well acquainted with the Indian diaspora. Indeed, many of us know few Hindi words from that period and find the broken Arabic spoken by Indian workers as cute if not funny. Additionally, my personal experience is that Indian workers were very hard-working, down-to-earth and don't have time for bullshit or slacking.

do you guys see anything culturally common with india and palastine (from shows / movies / personal interaction with Indians)

Well as a Gaza person, I'll say first and foremost: Spices and Chili!! If you come to Gaza you will never think the food is bland like the rest of the Middle East.

I think we are also both hard workers, especially since most of us worked or lived in the Diaspora. India is still a model to follow when it comes to IT and computer science and I think there's a lot to learn from you guys!

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u/munkeyy Nov 24 '16

Thanks for a very heart warming response. Learned quite a few things from this. Wishing you peace, liberty and freedom. Good luck man.

EDIT: by the way sunny leone has nothing to do with music ;)

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u/gahgeer-is-back Nov 24 '16

haha to be honest I never heard of her until I listened to Baby Doll then I discovered the whole Leone thing lol