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@ Filou
2025-02-22 15:00:51
I was living in Ramallah, West Bank at the time and had driven into Jerusalem for the day.
It was on Yom Yerushaláyim (Jerusalem Day), an Israeli national holiday that commemorates the "reunification" of East Jerusalem with West Jerusalem following the Six-Day War of 1967, which ended with Israel occupying East Jerusalem and the West Bank. A celebration that marks the holiday is a flag-flying parade known as the Dance of Flags with Jewish Israelis parading through the streets waving Israeli flags, singing, chanting and often taunting passing Palestinians. It’s a day of celebration for Israelis, but obviously tensions often run high and clashes tend to occur.
On the way back through the checkpoint to enter the West Bank, driving in our Israeli plated car (yes there are literally different color license plates to keep people segregated and so soldiers know who to pick on) and there had already been some minor scuffles.
So yeah two white guys pulling through the Qalandiya refugee camp checkpoint in an Israeli car right in the middle of a huge crowd of angry Palestinians… things got heated. And my very basic Arabic was not sufficient to deescalate the situation.
I remember looking through the windows of my car at the screaming faces, realizing they literally wanted to kill us. And then, in the middle of the chaos, right as the stones started to fly and the glass began to shatter – was an old man, an imam, standing quietly and watching the situation unfold. He understood what had happened. It was a case of mistaken identity and that we meant no harm to anyone and had simply found ourselves in the wrong place at the wrong moment.
He let out a single shout in Arabic above the noise and the young men immediately stopped. His presence was immense, though he was completely calm in appearance and speech. He looked at me directly in the eye, said quietly in Arabic: “مع السلامة” (Ma’a-s-salama) “Go with God” and stretched out his arm pointing towards an opening in the crowd.
I took that moment to jump over the median and drive away to safety.
More than anything else from that day I remember the strength and look of peace in that man’s eyes and it still humbles me every time I think of it. #freepalestine🇵🇸 https://image.nostr.build/4ead2e1189e862a5dbe1d7a0f4725aca246572027ebc0141faa56e8038f3e1f7.jpg https://image.nostr.build/7032f2056d109237cf9a8e081cef18124f87b82364d5b2df69b4e596e1f88b88.jpg