It could only happen to me! On my way to the biggest demonstration ever for Palestine, I decided to take my favorite route into central London and on my trusted bike, as I so much enjoy and especially the scenery that I pass by and always the history of it all. As soon as I get down to Limehouse from Canning Town and swing into Cable Street it starts to take shape, that great battle in 1936 and the giant painting or rather mural on the side of St Georges old Town Hall a crowning reminder of that epic fight won over the fascists, I can almost still hear the shouts ‘they shall not pass’. I just love this place of Tower Hamlets the people and it’s very rich diversity. Anyhow, traveling along the whole length of Cable Street I soon reach Tower Hill once renowned and famous for outdoor speakers and socialist agitators of old long gone as the place is crawling most days with tourists, as I hit the Themes Pathway I notice hundreds of people walking along it and many are Bengali, not all but many, it’s difficult with such numbers to navigate my bike, I ask one group where they were heading, and a very polite young man informs me to Oxford Street and the BBC, my heart takes another beat filled with joy, for this only confirms to me as I mount my bike and ride into the sunset direction of the BBC the march was going to be huge and enormous and there friends I wasnt disappointed. As I will be doing a more lengthy and extended post on my blog for the morning, I’m going to try and keep this as short as I can. The journey on the way back home was as interesting, revealing and packed with a little adventure? Down the most polluted Road in London I peddled my old pushbike, like something out of hell packed with crazy people I decided to take a different route home through the city, the Square Mile they call it, and as I was heading into Holborn at what is known as the Holborn Viaduct I came across an artist painting with oils on canvas the images of some old buildings, this guy was good and I said as much as I had a wee chat with him as I like and enjoy art very much, but not wishing to take up to much of his time I decided in my mind that I should take off, and as I was just about to do just that, the artist, the creative human being that I met on the Viaduct asked me a question; ‘what was I doing wearing an Arabic Scarf (the keffiyeh) around my neck? Well at first I thought that’s good, a brewing political discussion is in hand. I told him that I had been to the Demonstration for Gaza, and so had 150,000 other people. He then told me that he was Jewish and that Hamas were Terrorists, and why was I supporting them he asked? Well you could have knocked me off my bike with a feather. Well, what ensued was a very interesting at times very heated discussion, won’t go into it all but just to say the poor man got a good intellectual pasting, how could I fail I’d just been to and listened attentively to some of the best speakers around, there are just two things that stand out in my mind that he said to me, the first is he said that I came across as aggressive, to which I said he confuses that with passion, and the second was he kept saying had I ever been to Israel, I had a good answer for everything he had said in support for Israel, I just hope I had not put him off or killed his inspiration to paint and It could only happen to me!
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 17:57:11 +0000
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