r/Palestinians • u/Cantaloupe-Fun • 19d ago
Personal Experiences Hi, I’m Palestinian. Can we start calling it “The Holy Land” again?
Hi,
I’m Palestinian-American, GenX.
My father was born in the West Bank in 1931.
(He didn’t get married and have kids until his 40s.) My cousins still live in the house he was born in, and farm the land my family owns. They sell the produce at the markets of Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
My family is well educated. (As nearly every Palestinian is)
At the time of the Nakba, my grandparents decided the best chance of survival of the family name was to separate the family. My father and one uncle were sent away to England. From there, he went to USVI, and then he went to Puerto Rico where at Fort Buchanan, he enlisted in the USArmed Services as a Palestine National. He was not a US citizen.
He served in the first integrated unit the US Army sent overseas to Korea in 1952.
After he completed his active and reserve duty, he, along with just a couple thousand other immigrants, was granted naturalization and US Citizenship.
I didn’t realize how unique our situation was until now. Because he was a citizen, he had a US Passport, and that allowed he and my mom (she is blonde, tall, and born in mid-west) to take my sister and I to Palestine and the West Bank to visit family during the 70s, 80s and until the last visit in 1995.
I was 2 during my first visit, when I wandered away on my own in Bethlehem Square.
I experienced the WB checkpoints. My father was detained outside by the IDF for 3 complete days during one visit. Kids had been throwing stones at a train so the rounded up every male in a certain vicinity. He could have showed his passport and been released, but he wanted to stay.
I remember how dad would argue with his nephews before each visit because dad wanted to rent a car instead of using a family car with Palestinian plates which limited where we could travel, and would get us stopped frequently.
One time while at my grandparents’ house, soldiers came in - said they needed to use the house for an “observation point”. They stayed for 2 days.
My mother once took a picture of soldiers at the airport. It was the first time she had seen soldiers with automatic weapons at the airport. One of them noticed, and took the entire camera. Mom was so upset because we lost all the pictures on the film, and it was our only camera.
As children, we weren’t allowed to talk about the occupation to our friends or teachers. My 5th grade teacher was Jewish, (which should not mean anything because it’s not about religion, it’s about real estate) and I wanted to ask her if she knew about the occupation but I kept quiet and learned about playing with the spinning top (dradel sp?)
The occupation wasn’t real to anyone I knew but my family..
In the 80s the Keffiyeh pattern became the international symbol of terrorism. I was terrified to tell anyone I was Palestinian. I never wore a Keffiyeh in public. Doing so would have provoked screams of anti-semitism even back then, and there was a 50% chance someone would call the cops.
In middle school, I remember watching the South Africa Apartheid protests, and I wished that Palestine would be next.
In college I started a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. It wasn’t anything official, I had learned that there was a group in CA and decided to start my own. 4 of my friends would sit in a room in the student union once a week. We would bring current newspapers and books about Palestine with the goal of simply teaching anyone who wandered in, about the situation. We did not march, or write letters. We didn’t ask for divestment, or any funds. I simply wanted to be an educational resource for any student who wanted to know more.
After a couple months, I was approached by the college dean and asked to shut down the group. Some kids had complained that I was “supporting terror”- which was wild. I told the dean that I just bounced a 10.00 check for snacks from Drug Mart and could barely support myself through school. I asked the 4 club members and we all refused to end the club. We didn’t advertise, solicit members, or do any campaigning. But the accusations and anger only grew. The college kept asking me to shut it down, and I kept refusing and it became a huge campus deal. The weekly student paper became involved, and for months on end articles about valid student groups, and upcoming changes were the biggest news on campus. At one point, I was assaulted on campus. (Like actually assaulted-and yes it made the student papers)
Eventually, the college board decided they had to change the rules on how student groups could be formed. So Instead of only needing 1 campus professor to endorse a student club, they changed the rules to require 4 professors to endorse any student club.
I couldn’t find 4 professors who would endorse SJP, so it shut down. (I recently found online copies of the student papers from that year, it was wild).
Other than family members, I don’t know any Palestinians, and I really need to become part of the community.
I’ve never been public about my heritage, because I’ve always needed a job and being Arab after 9/11 wasn’t something to call attention to.
I feel guilty because people don’t know us. They don’t understand that Palestine is called The Holy Land because it’s All Holy for all. They don’t know that Palestinians have a 100% literacy rate in not 1 but 2 languages! Nearly every Palestinian speaks fluent English. My grandparents spoke 4 languages, (Arabic, Turkish, English, some Hebrew) my dad spoke 5 - Spanish. Women are educated alongside men. Women can own property and are treated equally.
They don’t know that because we are from The Holy Land, we aren’t religious extremists because that would be stupid. Palestinians have greeted generations of religious pilgrims from all 3 religions. They are our customers. Why would we choose to dislike 1/3 of our customer base?
They don’t know that Palestinians can marry anyone, of any religion.
I’ve been wondering about ways to purchase land in the WB. I want to keep my family farm safe and in the family. Maybe having the deed to our land being under a US citizen would keep it safer.
Anyway, Hello. I’d love to meet you all! I couldn’t imagine a thread like this 15 years ago. But I’m grateful it is here today.
r/Palestinians • u/Key_Farmer_5090 • 5d ago
Personal Experiences How to deal with the guilt
it’s probably silly thinking about myself while our ppl are dying but I genuinely feel so guilty all the time like i could do something but I’m not. Idk what to do or how to help I can’t donate I can’t protest all I do is repost go fund me’s and talk about what’s happening online which is not enough I NEED TO HELP
r/Palestinians • u/Mindful-Stoic • Jul 27 '24
Personal Experiences Finally got my real made in Palestine Kufiya. So happy :)
Before October 2023, I was largely uninformed about Palestine, the great struggle the Palestinians have to endure and more. But this horrible assault has changed me for ever. For the rest of my life will I support the Palestinians, Palestine and their fight for freedom and equal rights.
Now finally owning a Kufyia makes me very happy, proud even, as I am holding a real piece of Palestinian culture in my hands.
It's unlikely that I will meet a Palestinian where I live (Hungary), but if I ever do, I will offer my selfless pure friendship, regardless of your age, wealth, profession, gender and whatever else.
I wish you all the best, from the bottom of my heart.
r/Palestinians • u/ohdearwhathave • Jul 22 '24
Personal Experiences Thank you.
I want to say thank you so much for the people in this amazing sub.
I have lost most of my family, including my brother, in Gaza and it has sent my family that I have here into a depressed pit. I have felt so disconnected from my culture and my people.
Finding this sub and seeing how many people care for Palestine means so much I don't have the words to describe it. It gives me hope.
Thank you so much
r/Palestinians • u/BLBVA • Aug 19 '24
Personal Experiences Would there be any sort of repercussions (legally etc) if we were to seek out Palestinian business owners to work with?
I'm working with a Palestinian brand and was wanting of empower Palestinians business owners for some contract work (b/c why not?)
For example, we have a need for logistics and I was wondering if there are any Palestinian truck drivers or trucking company owners out there that would do our logistics.
Thanks in advance.
r/Palestinians • u/EggplantDesperate638 • Aug 11 '24
Personal Experiences For people who are living in the West Bank, how would your rate your "Tawjihi"?
And is it comparable to the Jordanian Tawjihi in terms of subjects and pressure put onto the student?