A true story of tiny personal significance
As a child I was bullied relentlessly in the private school I was in for showing my support for the Palestinians
When I was a child I wore a Palestinian flag at a school awards ceremony. I made it myself. It was a small sticker on my arm. I walked across the stage, accepted my award, took the flag off and kissed it. This was at the time Israel was killing yet more people, 'mowing the lawn,' murdering more children.
As a result of my actions, I was bullied by pro-Israeli students, the headmistress and the school. I was harassed and called all sorts of names. I was followed around in school by groups whispering obscenities and threats under their breath behind me or into my ears, all in full view of the teachers and staff. I was told I would be pushed into the ground and my head stamped into the floor. That I was the lowest of the low. I was subject to numerous racial slurs, ‘p**i, bl**kie, sand n*****r’.
I was not expelled because it was a private school and they will never turn away money, and no-one ever actually could articulate what wrong I’d allegedly committed, what rule I had seemingly broken that caused this intense, tangible anger. But my parents told me off, said it was too dangerous to raise the rights of Palestinians. It was a lesson I would never learn.
I was told I could not wear the flag. I would not back down: I said that the Star of David flag was worn as a necklace by some students so I would continue with my small sticker - it was not a swastika and nor was it offensive to ask for equal rights.
A sympathetic teacher told me I could keep the flag on my person, in the inner cover of my homework diary so it wouldn’t bother anyone. I relented. Opened the diary at every opportunity. I was a shy child and the bullying I experienced was intense and soul-crushing. I became an insomniac due to the anxiety and stress. I was too scared to go wherever the bullies would be, so spent all my break times and all my lunch times hidden in a classroom while everyone else socialised outside. This lasted for two years, until I left. I even stopped using my locker, as one girl had smashed the door into my hand as she walked past. It was my ‘bad’ hand - one I already had problems with, and one a few years later had to be operated on. Girls can be horrible and these bullies were the nastiest of all existence who I've ever personally come across.
I was the sole person then, standing up in school against Israeli oppression of the Palestinians.
Now the whole world has arrived with their Palestinian flags. God bless them, their bravery and their sacrifice.
FREE PALESTINE!
The WHOLE WORLD SHOUTS IT NOW! FREE PALESTINE!
P.s. those who bullied me? You know who you are. Look what the world thinks of you now.
Your great courage under very difficult circumstances is admirable.
It is astonishing how threatened some are by a gentle challenge to an unjust situation.
This is the sign of a great soul, refusing to be cowed even under the greatest pressure, being made into an outcast... Shame on the headmistress and the teachers for permitting this appalling level of bullying. They should be outed now - better late than never. The school should be shut down or at the very least, the headmistress sacked. I also experienced enormous pressure year after year but I was an adult, teaching in a college. Disciplinaries were made up against me and all manner of things done, to undermine me professionally and personally. Only many years later did a solicitor point out to me, it was a cohort of Zionists coordinating the attacks. I had offended one, who saw me photocopy an article about Palestine... that became their red flag to attack me and try to make me leave my position.
We who refuse to submit to the bullies and their vicious tactics, we are one family of Truthtellers, Aya!