Dec 11, 2023, 5:06:28 PM

I had the honour of talking to @jehadmhanna last Saturday night at a Palestine solidarity event organised by @globalshapers.bsb, a youth group in Brunei. We watched excerpts from "Gaza Fights for Freedom" and talked about the occupation, life in Gaza, misinformation in the media, and more.

Some afterthoughts that lingered. As we listened to Jehad talk about these very horrendous things that we see in the news, happening to his loved ones, I thought about the added burden he has of having to talk about it. It has to be talked about, of course, because there are still people out there who are not talking about it, there are still people out there who are misinformed, there are still people who think this will be over soon and that things will go back to normal. As I processed the details of the evening later that night, I wasn't convinced that everyone in the audience fully appreciated the labour it requires of Jehad, or any Palestinian, to talk about the genocide of their people.

So I really encourage us to check our intentions and attention capacity when attending such events. I understand that we in Brunei are new to this so perhaps there are ways of conduct that aren't immediately obvious.

If you can't give your full attention for two hours, by all means pop out of the room and take a breather. It's okay. If there's a conversation you urgently need to have with the person next to you, you can quietly leave the room. Do we understand the gravity of the situation? At the last count, the death toll in Gaza was over 17,000. Thousands of children left orphaned and disabled. So why are you here talking and giggling while Jehad is talking? If I can see you, he can probably see you too. It’s disrespectful and distracting. I don't like to be mad out here but it's been 48 hours and I'm still bothered so I figured I'd say something in hopes this doesn't happen again. (cont. in comments)

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