Another gorgeous warm day in Glasgow and as the warmth of the sun enveloped us all at the GFI peace advocacy stall on Buchanan Street, everyone felt as if there was no better place to be on this Saturday.
All except Vicci who was suffering from excruciating tooth ache which she tried to ignore this morning as we left home, fortified by a determination that would allow her to spend the day in the way that she has spent the majority of her Saturdays for over eleven years.
They say that toothache is probably the most difficult pain to tolerate as it emanates from such a small part of your body and yet it is so difficult to ignore. It’s partly because Teeth are packed with nerves and inside every tooth is the pulp, which contains blood vessels and the dental pulp nerve. When this tissue becomes inflamed or infected, those nerves are directly irritated, producing intense pain – and the problem is that the pain has nowhere to go. And it is often so incredibly severe and constant making it mentally exhausting.
And so eventually she decided she could take it no longer and Robi gave her a lift home.
But life at the stall continued almost as usual. The high number of both volunteers and visitors was astonishing. And apart from one girl accusing of bombing Gaza when she could clearly see that I was actually on Buchanan Street, all the chats and comments we received were so enormously positive from so many passers by
But not everyone was a passer by. Some time ago Davina from London contacted us on Messenger and promised to come and see us. She and her husband have been cruising round UK with the Holland America Cruise Line and last night at the Shabbat dinner they met a couple from Sydney, Australia and all four of them arrived today. It’s difficult to describe how it feels when someone tells us that they plan to visit and eventually their plan comes true. It was a delight to meet them today.
But as you know, we sometimes have received some unfriendly visitors with whom we are always happy to engage as long as they remain civil and courteous. Today we were advised by a couple from Turkey that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and if we do not agree, it’s because we are brainwashed and we must check out facts. It would be interesting to know how visitors from Turkey have the real facts and brainwashing is not something that happens there. Janice told them about the time she was at the Israel-Gaza border where were a group of nurses from various countries were heading into Gaza to do run eye clinics. The only way they could safely go in and out of Gaza was with IDF soldiers accompanying them. What a surprise?
I had a chat with a lovely American/Israeli called Aimee who was visiting from Detroit. She was most surprised to see the GFI stall and to learn that we have been advocating for peace for over 11 years. It was nice for me as I had an opportunity to speak with her in Hebrew. I showed her all the badges and wrist bands that we have and invited her to take some. She declined because she said she would be afraid to openly wear these where she lives. Pretty unbelievable I thought. She said she plans to go to Israel in October, as do I, and perhaps we will meet again.
And then there was Louisa. She has come from London to spend 24 hours with her family as she walked towards the top of Buchanan Street, she laid eyes on our stall. “I cannot tell you how wonderful I feel to see you here”, she said – or something similar. And instead of rushing for her bus, she stayed with us for ages chatting and handing out our main leaflets which still says “Pro Israel, Pro Palestinian, Pro Peace”. That last word is not one that is known to the Israel haters who man the two Israel hating stall on either side of ours.
It turned out that our volunteer David was very familiar with Louise’s family and when she was much younger, they lived almost next door to each other. There was some chat about who baby sat for whom between the families but it was a wonderful welcome for Louise as she arrived in Glasgow
And then we had a visit from a family who lives in Hong Kong. They indicated that they were very happy to see our stall but were surprised by the apparent political rivalry in the city centre as this was not something that happens in Hong Kong.
You may know that in addition to the Scottish and Israeli flags that we fly on the stall, we also fly the Persian flag featuring the lion, sun and crown. This acts as a huge encouragement to our many Iranian friends and many of them visit the stall to thank us for supporting them and today was no exception.
Wayne from Cumbernauld stopped to express his support and told us about the wonderful time he spend during the past few years on three different kibbutzim.
I had a friendly chat with Michel and Toni who were visiting from Holland and with Okuchuma who was over from Tokyo. I also met a very grateful lady from Kurdistan who saw our Kurdish bunting and encouraged her little girl Emma to be photographed by her next to her national flag.
I’m not sure if the very friendly busker was who stopped for a chat is called Billy or Bobby but I’m absolutely sure he supports us and our peace advocacy activity. He gave me permission to photograph the tattoos on his arms of his favourite singers and I reckon you could spend quite a bit of time trying to recognise who they are.
This was the day for the Pride march in Glasgow. Although the route usually means that the march takes place very close to our stall, this was not the case today and therefore we didn’t hand out too many of our leaflets and booklets that tell people about the Pride movement in Israel and how the state supports the rights of gay people to follow their own path. Unfortunately so many of them are so incredibly ignorant about the Middle East and nothing can demonstrate that better than the group and people calling themselves ‘Queers for Palestine’. I wonder if perhaps they are planning to have a Pride march in Gaza or in some of the places around Israel where they would not last long enough to say ‘Free Palestine’. I fear and worry for many of the young people in our society today.
On my way home I bought Vicci some Co-codamol. I pray that it helps. ... See MoreSee Less
