growing up as a first-generation palestinian-American , my identity has always been erased, whether it was due to uneducated people not knowing what palestine is, to having my identity reduced down to a political statement- a means for an argument- however I want to give 1/9

insight as to what it means to me to be palestinian in america. First, in the occupation of 1948 my Sedo (grandfather) was forcibly displaced from his home in Palestine due to Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing, he had fled to Lebanon as a refugee at 15 2/9

and had to work his way to gain some respect- After he got married and had children a civil war broke out in Lebanon in 1975 when my Baba (dad) was 9 years old, he lived in a war torn country for 10 more years until he was able 3/9

to leave at age 19 to Greece. When my baba finally made it to America after 4 years he had to work twice as hard for half of the respect from the Americans- he had faced uncountable 4/9

amounts of racism and discrimination solely for being an immigrant. When my parents had me and my sister my baba made sure to remind us of the hardships that he and his father had faced as refugees, I had grown up with the knowledge of the pain and suffering Palestinians 5/9

endured everyday and how the country I lived in, contributed to that occupation. America sends the Israeli military (IDF) millions of dollars in military funding to help continue the colonization efforts of israel, growing up as palestinian in America i always felt 6/9

disgusted that the country i lived in had supported these actions which directly impacted the way I interacted with my culture and those around me. I always make sure to show my palestinian culture to combat against ethnic cleansing, I try to educate those around 7/9

me about the issue of Palestine because the way the apartheid is viewed in media is through the eye of the oppressor rather than the oppressed. I am proud of my culture and will say free palestine until it’s true 8/9

this thread got away from me but I just wanted to show that the issue in Palestine isn’t one that just affects a small region of people, it’s effects are felt through Palestinians all around the world and it directly impacts so many people -especially children of refugees. 9/9