The genocide is still ongoing and many things are still developing in Palestine, but we are removing the limitation on only posting things related to the operation Flood of Al-Aqsa to this thread, you can now freely post over Lemmygrad again.
Please don’t stop talking about Palestine.
Due to popular demand, please keep all posts about the operation to this megathread, sitewide.
I had maybe a ten minute conversation with a Palestinian customer the other day about the operation and Israel’s response. It was rather enlightening.
He spoke of Ishmael, he spoke of the Arabs and Jews as being brothers. I mentioned 1948. We talked of most Palestinians welcoming many Jewish settlers – viewed at that time as refugees, even – with open arms, only for those accepting natives to be slaughtered soon thereafter.
We pondered together whether razing a hospital and destroying a mosque were adequate responses to children throwing stones at tanks.
He seemed very relieved to talk to anyone with a modicum of understanding. He said “you are a very smart guy” as he left. It was a strange but welcome experience. If I prayed, I would pray for his family in Palestine. I know we have some religious comrades, here, and I would implore you to include them in your prayers, if you so wish.
As an agnostic, this week is the first time I’ve prayed in years. Partially because most victims of the Zionist entity believe in Allah, though I don’t pray to a specific vision of god.
When I was around your age, I used to do meditative empathy exercises. I’d try to feel the weight and the hurt of other proletarians worldwide, and imagined that I was taking some of their hurt away; bearing its brunt myself.
I do not know what to think of it now, if it was simply a desparate attempt on my part to feel like I was making a difference… idk. Not even sure it was healthy for me lol, trying to tackle the weight of the world within the confines of a dark closet and and an otherwise emptied mind.
I might have to try that. I’ve been doing some loving kindness meditation so maybe that can be a dialectical balance for empathy exercises. I’ve found that I’m not that particularly empathetic feeling people’s pain, but I do learn pain I haven’t experienced and feel good on behalf of those who fight injustice. I also am too young to do any organizing so that’s kind of hard, though of course the organizing would be a sacrifice too.