I have never known any Palestinians, but I met 3 women today in the West Edmonton mall by chance. I’m here visiting in laws and they wanted to show us the biggest mall in North America so I put on my gray shirt that has an illustration of a colorful woman in a keffiyeh and it says Palestine in Arabic and English behind her. It is this one: https://a.co/d/02kA5Ll3

I love this shirt so much and I wear it every chance I get but I tend to get a lot of sneers in places with large crowds of people.

Today we walked all over this gigantic mall for hours while the in laws pointed out the craziness that is the indoor water park, the giant ship, and the amusement park. I didn’t notice anyone paying any particular attention and pretty much forgot about my shirt soon after we started walking the mall.

Then after many hours when we were just about to leave, dad had to go pee so we walked to one of the restroom areas and as we did I saw a young woman look at me, have a very visible look of shock on her face and then while I tried not to directly acknowledge her I saw her whispering to another somewhat older woman who then looked me straight in the eye. I thought oh shit, someone is going to make a scene now, right in front of my mother in law. Then I saw them both approaching me and my heart started to pump as I waited for a verbal assault.

I quickly looked away trying to minimize the confrontation that was sure to come when the older woman came right up to me and said “We love your shirt!”

The intense relief I felt was amazing and then I felt so embarrassed for having been such a coward.

Then an even older lady came toward me and said “We are Palestinian and we love your shirt, thank you for wearing it today!”

I didn’t even know how to react so I said thank you and I pumped my fist in the air and said something stupid like Stay Strong!

They walked on by, but there was nowhere to go in that direction and so they came back by me again and the oldest lady said “I just have to tell you how proud I am of you!”

I could have just melted right there. I had tears in my eyes immediately and I wanted to say so many things and give her a hug but I froze and stupidly just said thank you they continued on by.

It was the most touching moment I can remember having in the longest time and somehow I feel like such a jackass for not being able to express my emotions.

But I will never forget them and I hope even the people who don’t show any reactions when they see it are at least forced to think about what these people are going through.

Anyway I just wanted to share this and I can only hope that they will be free from the zionist pigs someday real soon.