The humans of Palestine

Not going to post a whole lot of excepts since you should read the whole thing, but here's a teaser:

He points to the bottle of Gordon’s gin sitting on the coffee table. “Maybe in America people think all the Muslims are so serious, they never party or have fun, just go to mosque. But we like to party, we like to live. We’re like any people. We want to have a good time with our friends. We’re not some crazy terrorists who only care about religion. I mean, listen bro: I’m Muslim. I pray, I go to mosque. I believe in Allah. But also, I like some things that are haram.” He pours a gin & tonic for me, and another for himself. “In Ramallah, there are a lot of people like us. This is a liberal city, progressive, you know? That’s why we come here. It’s different in the small villages, like where my family lives–there’s no alcohol there. The people there don’t like it. It’s fine, no problem. We can believe different things and still live together. I don’t hate them. Even the Israelis, I don’t hate them. Well, maybe the soldiers, but not the people. Why should I hate the people? I don’t know them.”

Ameer, who’s busy rolling a hash joint, seems to agree. “If you hate somebody, it means you want to control them. Me, I don’t want to control anybody,” he says, blowing a cloud of smoke into the air. He leans forward and locks eyes with me. “I want to be free. Totally fucking free. I don’t care about borders, nationality, any of that shit. My mind is open. I love everything that’s different. That’s why I love to meet people from outside Palestine. The normal daily life is always routine, and I fucking hate routine!” In his excitement, he slaps the coffee table and leaps to his feet. “Come on, let’s go! Let’s show you the fucking Holy Land!”

Don't know if this is the right group, feel free to move if you think it would fit better somewhere else.