ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
A Melbourne man says he’s learned from past mistakes as he opts to stay out of the social media discourse surrounding the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
In previous flare ups between Israel and Palestine, Naarm boy Wesley Talbot was quick to show his support for Palestine but that lead to conflict between his old Camberwell schoolmates who didn’t see it the way he did.
“Their parents called my parents, it was messy but that was a while ago and my old friends were happy to ‘educate’ me and move on,” he said.
“So despite there being, you know, clear violations of international law and abhorrent criminal acts committed upon… actually, I’m going to stop myself there. I didn’t even share anything about the referendum, to tell you the truth, I think I’m actually going to become one of those guys that doesn’t post anything – like ever,”
“Like, I still see my school friends heaps and while, like, they didn’t exactly forge the same path through Melbourne Uni that I did, like a lot of them are now dentists and doctors, some are lawyers and engineers. But, like, I did Arts with a major in criticism and Australian literature so, yeah, my university experience was a bit different,”
“So now, like, for example, I have a friend that grew up in a council flat in Fitzroy so there’s that and like I don’t exactly get back to Brighton that much now that I live in Northcote so yeah, I forget that sometimes a lot of my school friends are pretty conservative and like, I think a few of them are from like ‘their-dad-is-Jewish’ type setups or something. So yeah, like my school mates are pretty pro-Israel and my uni friends are like full on going to pro-Palestine protests,”
“So I’m just going to sit this one out, I’m not even on the fence here. I’m in a different postcode.”
More to come.
