HOLY FUCK! I was just attacked, aassaulted, and threatened by a NEIGHBOUR and his posse (3 men and a pickup truck) for wearing a keffiyeh. He said because they are Israeli and I wore this cultural symbol of Palestine, that gives them the right to run me down, push me around, lay hands on me, threaten me and my children, and drive me out of the neighbourhood. At first I didn't know what the fuck was going on, I was just walking home nonchalantly when this guy in a pickup truck suddenly starts driving his truck straight into me. I jumped out of the way and said, "what the fuck?!" when my neighbour, whom I've known for years, comes down the driveway and for one second acts like he's mediating a dispute when the driver of the Ram comes out and starts swearing at me, then when I stood my ground against him my neighbour turned on me, grabbing my keffiyeh and asking, "Do you know what this means? Do you know what I am?" I rightly guessed, "Are you Israeli?", then he screamed "That's right!" as he slapped my keffiyeh. The pickup driver screamed, "So am I!" as he pushed me around. My neighbour called me an asshole then started threatening my children who used to ask to pick raspberries, yelling at me to "get off his property" (his driveway which his friend FORCED me onto with an 8,000 lbs truck!), and threatened to make all sorts of malicious reports against me to force me out of the neighbourhood. We were always friendly before, though I always had bad preminotions about him because of his support of alt-right politicians (in the form of open display of lawn signs and such, I've never talked politics with him), and his air of affluence. I never expected this level of hateful violence.At another point he said, "Our friendship is over". Well duh. The fact that you wanted me dead kind of told me that...I told him I would be reporting this hate crime (meaning the attempt to run me over with a motor vehicle, explicitly because of a cultural symbol) to the police and he replied, "Good luck with that". Obviously I have no faith in the police to do anything, but now that I think about it I realize that I must report all of this entire incident, and not just the motor vehicle attack, because he will be sending police after me for mischief, and his malicious intent needs to be on record.He said that, "When you get reported you will know it was me." This is how they weaponize the law because they know they can, while the marginalized will always be oppressed by the law.And just to be clear, this doesn't make me afraid to show who I am, it makes me glad that showing who I am allowed me to expose the hateful elements living around me before it's too late. Knowing I live so close to a terrorist is much better than being surprised in ignorance.#abpoli #cdnpoli #freepalestine #racism #hate #HateSpeech
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