Brooklyn Palestinians on Gaza Conflict: 'We're not Cowards'
Friday, July 25, 2014
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Mohamed Hussein is bracing for more encounters with Israel supporters
A late-night encounter outside a mosque, between Muslim
worshipers and supporters of Israel, has set residents of Bay Ridge,
Brooklyn, on edge. Palestinians in this neighborhood are bracing for
more tensions, but many of them support Hamas and say they're trying to
hold on to their people's dignity.
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Arun Venugopal
Arun Venugopal is a reporter and the creator of Micropolis, WNYC’s multi-platform series examining race, sexuality, religion, street life and other issues that define New York City. He has been with the station since 2005, and has covered a wide range of stories, including the death of Sean Bell, the controversy over the Park 51 mosque and community center and Occupy Wall Street .
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Comments [1]
Iwouldnt call anyone who moved,
or was moved by family away from conflict zones. I'd call you smarter
then the ones who stayed behind.
I get the whole Motherland/homeland, don't abandon it, etc sentiment - but at the end of the day we're all solely responsible for our own survival, or that of our families. Escape is not being a coward, its being very pragmatic.
All I would ask, as a second generation American citizen whose parents, uncles, aunts and grandparents escaped their own conflict zones in modern history - is to leave them and the sentiments behind. You have to, you really have to. You cant be here in the US, trying to start over, etc, festering in old prejudices, and hatreds and expect it work out for you and your children, etc any differently than it did "over there." There's nothing more damaging to a child then listening to the adults go on and on, and on about the old country, promulgating the hate, proselytizing the hate.
To then go out on their own one day, to learn that those people they were taught to hate were taught the same, and should they/you meet the "others" and not know their background straight away, you learn they are just like you. Then the choice is theirs/yours to make if you then learn about their heritage and you are forced to choose between others peoples prejudices and what you learned firsthand about them...
Jul. 25 2014 03:54 PM
I get the whole Motherland/homeland, don't abandon it, etc sentiment - but at the end of the day we're all solely responsible for our own survival, or that of our families. Escape is not being a coward, its being very pragmatic.
All I would ask, as a second generation American citizen whose parents, uncles, aunts and grandparents escaped their own conflict zones in modern history - is to leave them and the sentiments behind. You have to, you really have to. You cant be here in the US, trying to start over, etc, festering in old prejudices, and hatreds and expect it work out for you and your children, etc any differently than it did "over there." There's nothing more damaging to a child then listening to the adults go on and on, and on about the old country, promulgating the hate, proselytizing the hate.
To then go out on their own one day, to learn that those people they were taught to hate were taught the same, and should they/you meet the "others" and not know their background straight away, you learn they are just like you. Then the choice is theirs/yours to make if you then learn about their heritage and you are forced to choose between others peoples prejudices and what you learned firsthand about them...
Score: 0/0
