“Emotionally Draining”: North East Palestinian Man Speaks Out on Racism, White Saviourism, and Marginalisation

Image: Cian Mortimer

Since moving back to Darlington with his mother at the age of seven, one local resident has observed Palestinians face Islamophobia while also having their voices silenced by those who claim to be allies.

Jason Hussein, whose father is from the West Bank in Palestine and mother is from Darlington, shares a personal connection to the struggles of Palestinians. His father was forced to flee Palestine during the Six-Day War in 1967, eventually seeking refuge in Kuwait.

Jason spent his early years between Darlington and Kuwait, shaped by his family’s displacement. Reflecting on his father’s harrowing experience of leaving Palestine, Jason recalled: “Driving through the streets, there were dead Palestinians lying in the road. They were on their way to Jordan in a blue van when the family received word that the van had been blown up by an Israeli militia.”

Jason’s parents split up in Kuwait, and he travelled through the Iraqi desert with his father as the Gulf War was kicking off. From there, Jason ended up in New York, where he spent 18 months before his mother brought him back to Darlington.

Growing up as a British Palestinian man in Darlington, Jason has faced and witnessed a lot of discrimination. This has come in the form of Islamophobia and racism but also through having his voice silenced by groups that claim to support progressive causes.

The toll of events in Gaza is something Jason carries daily. He recalled the story of a friend whose immobile father was taken from his house and later found dead in the street.

On another occasion, a friend arrived late to a meeting. He said: “I’m sorry I’m late, I just found out my neighbour’s house was hit, and they were going through the rubble to find out who had been hit.” For Jason, these stories are a reminder of the relentless violence his community faces, even as he fights for their voices to be heard.

In Britain, the issue of Islamophobia has grown significantly over the past two decades. This came to the forefront during this past summer’s wave of violent disorder.

At the time, Jason was taking part in a cycling fundraiser for Palestine in Birmingham as a steward. At this event, a man approached Jason’s group, referring to them as terrorists.

According to Jason, the man said: “You guys are terrorists. All those poor little girls that were murdered, it was you Palestinians.”

Jason said: “He was pointing at an Asian guy, but he wasn’t Palestinian. I am Palestinian and I look more like him. He asked why we don’t care about the dead children, but I told him of course we do. That’s why we’re today, because 16,000 children have been murdered.”

This incident is symptomatic of the kind of abuse that Jason and tens of thousands of Palestinian people like him have to endure in Britain.

It is not an isolated incident either. On another occasion, Jason had a man shouting at him from the window of his car, accusing him of being a terrorist.

Over the past year, Jason has attended many protests against what he describes as a “genocide” in Palestine. Throughout these protests, Jason claims that there has been an unfair targeting of non-white activists by the police.

Jason described his experiences at protests, saying: “I’ve gone to several protests where our white friends have been lying down on the floor, while our brown-skinned friends stood to the side—and they were the ones arrested.”

Islamophobia isn’t the only issue Jason has encountered at these protest events. He says that Palestinians involved in these movements have gone through great struggles against people who have silenced and marginalised them.

He said: “When I became more involved last year, I faced challenges, including an incident where I felt harassed and reported it to the police. My friend was also silenced at a Stop The War event. Locally, in Newcastle, I feel there’s a strong presence of a white saviour complex in these discussions.”

He added: “There was a panel discussion about Palestine with no Palestinians on the panel. There were people who had very little knowledge, they hadn’t studied Middle Eastern studies or done anything up North. When he stood up to ask why, he got told to shut up. He’s lost over 130 members of his family. So, we’ve had to fight for over a year in Newcastle to get rid of the white saviour complex.”

Since then, a new branch committee has been elected. For the first time in the branch’s 20-year history, a Palestinian person was elected to a branch officer role.

That hasn’t made the issue disappear completely, however. More recently at a Stop The War event, Jason challenged these same issues. When he did this, he was challenged by a white gentleman who told him: “I’ve been protesting about Palestine since before you were born.”

Jason has also seen how Palestinians are often sidelined or tokenised in activist spaces. At one event, a student asked: “How do we engage with Palestinians without being tokenistic?”

Jason replied: “So that’s the two ends of the spectrum: silence us or tokenise us? You know you can speak to Palestinians, say hi to us.”

This is something Jason has described as very “emotionally draining.” On top of the emotional weight of what is happening in Gaza and having to deal with racial abuse, being silenced and marginalised by those who are supposed to be on their side adds another layer of frustration for Jason and other Palestinian people in Britain.