Watching BDS Fail, Right At Home

JayinPhiladelphia

Here in my little corner of North Philadelphia, Kensington, we have a new(-ish) late night Middle Eastern cafe and c-store open on Front Street under the El.  Best falafel I've found here yet, and their house-made hummus certainly ain't bad either.  I regularly stop in for both.  Fun thing I noticed last time I was in, though - in addition to their house-made product, they're also carrying Sabra hummus!

I guess nobody told the Palestinian family, my neighbors, my friends, who run this place, that they're supposed to boycott Teh Jooz(!).  Here in our North Philadelphia neighborhood, one of the most ethnically diverse inner city neighborhoods remaining in America (any which way you turn, you can find yourself on a Jamaican, Dominican, Puerto Rican, African American, Arab, Irish, Polish, Vietnamese, Salvadoran, Korean, Mexican or Haitian block), we intrinsically know that if one of us ain't doing well, then eventually none of the rest of us will either.  We stand together, and have for generations.  If we have a problem, we talk it out.  That's just the way it is.  That's how we make things work.

That's the only way.

My theory is that the BDSers have never lived amongst a diverse urban population (and likely never will, since most would poop themselves even looking at pictures of neighborhoods like Kensington), and therefore do not know how to get along with others, and how to solve problems.  Ideological extremism works for them, in their comfortable little abodes, when they're not the ones who have to do the fighting.  But for those of us who do, it's a whole different story.

Like the Palestinian family which carries (the frankly inferior) Sabra hummus, right next to their own (excellent) home-made product.

BDSers - are my friends down the street not "Palestinian Civil Society?"  Perhaps some should consider their "call," as well.

I call on comfortable, suburban White Guilt BDSers to examine how local urban economies work.  Here in America, and elsewhere.  Standing invitation, any time.  If they can get off their keyboards and get over their fear of actually walking around poor urban neighborhoods, and interacting with those of us who live in such places, that is.

We don't bite.  Hard.  ;)