The event at Argo Bookshop, August 16, 2024 was small & intimate with generative conversations & vulnerable shares that were deeply appreciated, with amazing food from Cuisine de Manille.  

Organizing the event was a challenge, as almost every one of the organizers, including our hosts, addressed resistance from our own comfort & from those close to us. The event shifted from how to talk about Palestine to centering the tension of talking about Palestine with our loved ones.

We understand that human life is sacred & intentional terror, annihilation of a people is abhorrent & should be stopped. We understand that the violence did not begin on October 7, even before the Nakba in 1948. We understand that Palestinians continue to live in the largest open air prison in what the ICJ has ruled as an unlawful occupation for over 75 years. We understand that they are imprisoned with no just cause & are being genocided, subjected to horrors of dehumanization by the IDF. 

Although we understand these facts, that does not make us experts. Focusing the conversation on the tension & hesitation of standing up for protecting the sacredness of human life, allowed for honest introspection.

Much of the tension lies in a culture of silence reinforced by the model minority myth, immigration in precarious work & capitalist values hard to unlearn, contradictory to the Indigenous core value of kapwa.

Moving through that tension takes holding space, discussion, self-reflection on positionality, privilege. We must challenge white supremacy, capitalism, settler colonialism, patriarchy & how we benefit & what we give up with silence. Upholding a cognitive dissonance between our values & practices can challenge being present. It takes action to move through that tension.

Zev Saltiel from Voix Juives Indépendantes Montréal shared a hopeful insight, the Yiddish term, Doikayt, which means “hereness, nowness” in reference to how home is in the body, home is where you are.  As Zev said, “to connect with creating a home within myself. To learn to sit & be present & take ownership of my body.”

We pray that Palestine will be free & that Palestinians can safely return home. Inshallah.