A friend of mine in Baltimore is passionate about the Occupy movement and urged me to join in. I applaud the movement and am in silent support. There are many just causes; Free Tibet, stop whaling, save endangered languages to name but three.
For my part, I have decided, at the moment to concentrate on just two. The first is very small scale. Save a little Jewish deli on Charing Cross Road from being taken over and redeveloped by a grey, homogenous chain. Gaby's Deli was established some 45 years ago by an Iranian-born Israeli, Gaby Elayahou and serves felafel, salt beef and Mediterranean salads. A few doors down from Wyndham's Theatre, it has been a thesps haunt for decades; signed photos on the walls attest to this. I can't claim to be a faithful customer; I went once for felafel and promised myself I'd go back. I didn't, and I am poster girl for 'use it or you'll lose it'. Actually, in this case, that's not true. Gaby's thrives; it's the landlord, the Marquis of Salisbury, his eye on the £££s redevelopment might bring in, that threatens this luvverly London eaterie. That's why my small Twitter/Facebook weight is thrown behind Gaby's Deli. Currently unemployed, the idea of going to central London, let alone eating there, sends me scurrying to count my change, but I can add my small, belligerent voice.
The second is very much larger and oh, so much more complicated. It's Palestine. I could write for pages, but my simple take is that the people of Palestine, be they in Gaza, the West Bank or the Palestinian diaspora are monstrously discriminated against. Their very existence has recently been denied by Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and our own BBC. While my American friend, whose family are East European in origin and was born in Philly, whose family never set a foot there until the late 80s, could emigrate, study and get a great job there in 1999, my friend Atef's father, from Jabaliyeh, Gaza's, who was born in Jaffa in the 40s, could never even get to the town of his birth after his family was forced to flee in 1948. Atef's family are told they can go to any Arab country, but aren't welcome in Israel/Palestine. My American friend was welcomed 'home'. Over-simplification, I know. I could go on for days, cite a myriad of sources, but to my simple brain, that crystallizes the situation for me; my white, blonde, Jewish friend has access all-areas, my brown, Palestinan, Muslim friend struggles to leave Gaza (and faces hassle from dreadful, corrupt, enemy-within Hamas should he speak 'out of turn'). For the record, I have lived in Israel and I speak a bit of Hebrew and Arabic. I'm atheist of CofE/Methodist heritage.
Them's my battles. (A Tesco Metro in my locality may become a third).
See you on the other side.
