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Assalaamu Alaikum

My boy just came back from vacation. That's something I really want badly right now too, a vacation. And that doesn't mean like a couple days off from school, because I skip classes whenever I want, and on a good week, I can manage to go to school on only 2 days, that is Wednesday and Thursday and not miss a beat. (Actually, I probably miss a lot of beats, but whatever...)

Anyways, he went back home, I don't know if that is Jordan or Palestine (haha I'm JOKING dude....sike...sike sike...) and also got to perform Umrah, may Allah accept from him all of his good deeds, ameen. He came back the other day and we got to chill for a bit, and he told us stories and his experiences etc, this kinda got me to think back also about my time out there and reminisce. So inshaAllah, if I can muster up enough energy or motivation, my next few posts might be telling a random story from Hajj or something else from the trip.

However, the point of this post is a little different. And the point of this post is about something we've heard countless times and lately I've seen a couple facebook groups emerge. But this time, I'm not hearing it from people who've heard from people, who've heard from people, or from sensationalist Muslims, or at the annual family dinner where everyone sits into the late night with tea and talks about politics and conspiracy theories. This time, I'm hearing it from a friend I know personally who's just been there and saw this stuff with his own eyes, and that is that, PEOPLE ARE DYING IN PALESTINE EVERY DAY.

I've heard that before. And I guess I kinda got desensitized to it for some reason, maybe cuz hey, there's about 364 murders a year in Baltimore last I heard, that's pretty much one every day with a day off for Christmas. Or maybe I just hadn't really HEARD it from a personal source...

But no, just in Nablis, in the little neighborhood that my friend stayed in, he told us that every single day, after Isha, the occupation would roll in and all night long, there would be gunshots and explosions less than a block away. The kids would be up on roofs reporting to their parents what was going on, "Oh, they're at so-and-so's house now!" "Oh, they just destroyed this-person's house!" and every single day, school was cancelled, and every single day, people were killed, and this is just in their neighborhood. And he said that the people there were used to it. Find out the neighbors were killed. Oh, they were cool peoples. Go on with your day, etc.

And what's crazy is that I hadn't heard a thing about Palestine on the news in a while. Did any of you?