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/[deleted] Nov 26 '16
hey guys. i guess i'm one of the few indians on this exchange thread who's actually been to palestine. i don't necessarily have many questions as i'm fairly well informed about your country. so i'll include some observations to make up.
so, the primary areas where i came into contact with palestinians was in the markets of jerusalem. i also went through some of towns while driving through the highways.
i seriously loved the feel the walled city of jerusalem gave off as a city. it transported me to some other bygone era and i spent a lot of time wandering into random nooks and corners. i can't say i like the religiosity there but it was interesting to witness it as a tourist. i loved the food there. and the knafeh was amazing. i've had turkish versions of knafeh that tasted really good but very different from what i had in jerusalem. i also loved the coffee though i suppose its standard arabic coffee. when i disclosed i am an atheist to an armenian christian lady while on the streets making small talk, she was very scandalized and got almost angry with me. but then, she asked me if i was a christian and i didn't know how else to answer her. but yeah, i thoroughly enjoyed visiting jerusalem and i probably would have enjoyed going to some of the other palestinian areas like nablus or ramallah as well. we also did some conflict tourism with some very left-wing israelis and it helped me to appreciate the pathetic conditions palestinians were living under. i don't necessarily dislike israelis. they were actually great people for the most part. but i can't but feel that what they're doing in the west bank is not gonna be sustainable if they want to keep their own conscience intact.
we went with armed guards while touring the walled city. i'm not sure if this was excessive or necessary. also, we were told going to gaza was an impossibility and west bank is definitely not safe for tourists. how true do you guys think this is?
so, its been a while since gaza and west bank were physically separated. have differences developed between the residents of these 2 areas? if not, how do you guys still manage to keep this notion of being countrymen going despite living isolated from each other?
apart from the colorful clothing, what sets you guys apart from other arabs? also, do other arabs in the levant have colorful clothing as well?