On one of the last evenings of my time in the West Bank, a few of us gathered on the back porch area to smoke some arguila and eat peanuts. As it got later and later, the group continued to get larger and larger, and at one point we had about 16-18 people sitting around the circle, telling stories and laughing. It was a great chance to spend one last evening with some of the Palestinian friends that I’ve made while I’ve been in this area. So good.
As the evening was winding down, I asked everyone a question: “I’m going home in a few days, and I want to know what you want me to tell people when I go home. What is the one thing you want people to know?” So, below you will find their responses. They are funny and wonderful guys (as you can tell by a couple of the responses). I told them I would share their responses, so here you have some words from young Palestinian men:
“Tell them there are Christians here.”
“Tell them that we are not the enemy…we want peace.”
“I would like you to tell them to give me some cash-money…money for girls, for cars…cash-money please.” (and they all laugh)
“Please tell them that we just want freedom. We want to live like anyone else – want to be able to go places, to work, there is no money here, we want to be able to live and raise families, just like you.”
“Yes, again…tell them there are Christian brothers and sisters here…please don’t forget about us.”
“Tell them that we just want to live like anyone else…we don’t hate anyone, we don’t hate the Israelis, we want peace just like they do.”
“We want peace…tell them that they have no enemies in us…we want peace.”