I’m a Palestinian Christian

Dear friends, fellow humans,

Let me tell you my story, so maybe you understand the “other side”.

There is a propaganda running around that there is a war between Jewish and Muslim people. Well let me tell you, I’m not Muslim and I lost as much as my fellow Muslim Palestinians lost. I was living the life of a forever refugee, though my US passport. Yes, my mom gave us birth in the US, so we don’t have to live the torment she lives every time she showed her Palestinian identity. Just by saying I am Palestinian, I would be treated differently, as if it were a plague. Palestinians in Palestine know that there is no difference between a Muslim and a Christian to an Israeli soldier, to them we are both something they want to get rid of. I thought it was an exaggerated thing to claim until I went to Palestine myself. No Christian was given privilege, if you thought they did. We all have to wait patiently until the water comes, so we could bathe and wash our clothes. And this is the West Bank we are talking about. We all had to spare every drop of water so that we could drink. We all had to compromise the limited choice and quantity of products which were given to sell before expired. We all had to keep our cool while the Israelis were roaming from house to house, not knowing when is our turn to come, whether I could stop a soldier from killing my child if they do invade our home without warning us. We all have to cope at night while the abandoned Israeli dogs howl in the wild all night, so that even our sleep is torture. Yes, they throw their dogs in the West Bank after they have no use for them, so that they bark all night. A woman is trying to provide them shelter, but they are just too many and they are starving to death. So imagine if they treat their own dogs like this, how would they treat their “enemies”. Last but not least, I had to wake up my daughter, who fell asleep after two hours of investigation, because they want to make sure that she was alive, as if testing her breathing, which at this age is visible, was not possible without waking her up. Yes, there were good people, but they all thought I was Lebanese. I have no records for being Palestinian, unless they dig deep, which I believe they need US authorization to do so. I’m not sure if they are just playing dumb to be honest. The thing is, as much as I love seeing my grandparents’ country, which they were kicked out of (no they didn’t sell anything, or leave it willingly), I really hate going there for the sake of the safety of my daughter. A soldier, an Israeli settler, or even an Israeli child could kill my daughter and not only would they not be held responsible, they’d be applauded for killing another terrorist. We are dehumanized to the point that the world celebrates our death. In the West Bank there is no Hamas, dear fellow humans. Just go there and see for yourselves how we are treated. And if you really think Hamas is the problem, please do your research on who created Hamas and for what purpose, which is now clear for those who really want to see the truth. Israel refuses to treat its own citizens equally, you think they’ll treat us any better? Tell me why did they have to destroy all of these olive trees in the West Bank if it is a just and democratic state as they say? More than 300,000 olive trees were torn down. Why do they keep building settlements and displacing Palestinians in the West Bank, if there is no Hamas there? I’m not saying that there is no extremism on our side, but do we all have to be punished? There is extremism in every country and every religion. If there wasn’t extremism in Israel, then why do they dance and eat popcorn while Palestinians are killed? Why do they spit on Christians who want to go to the Nativity Church? I’m not saying they are all bad. I’m saying that you don’t see that they have extremism too. The West has only one side of the narrative. Please look for the other narrative and listen before you judge and hear the story from the beginning please. You think we have no credibility? Well check how many times the Israeli media created lies and apologized later on, because they were caught in the lie. Wake up please. There is no we or them. It is just an illusion that the politicians created to sell more weapons and increase their bank accounts. This happens every era. And in every era a people pay the price. I do not want to wait until Gaza is wiped out and then they turn to the West Bank and then to what is left of us here in the rest of the world. There must be something done before it’s too late, again.