If you think about it, friendships can become fraught in relationship to local and national politics. The Americans talked about how whole families split in the wake of Trump's first election to power. Pakistanis have experienced division when it comes to differences and loyalties to Imran Khan. It's the same with BJP in India. Trumpian/MAGA , Insaafian and Hindutva politics have ruptured social consciousness and created divisions amongst friends.
Friendships and family bonds need to find a way to exist despite these political differences.
I have felt the same with my international friendships. I have been think about how hard it is to relate to another human in the wake of the Genocide. I think it's hard to relate to Western friends and aquaintances because I don't know the meaning of these relationships anymore. If Western friends are not going to openly condemn and protest what their governments are doing for the sake of Israel , how do they value lives in the Global South? There is a sense of betrayal and distrust.
I can imagine some would say this is not the way to look at these friendships and, one person doesn't represent their whole country nor is it imperative to prove you are against the Genocide. However, these are international friendships, forged in third international spaces, because we met as expatriates in third countries and, within elite expatriate bubbles in the Global South or at university in the Global North. I would imagine solidarity would be expressed or at least the imperative to demonstrate you are against the Genocide.
When it comes to local and national politics, I know people in the periphery are invisible. And, they would like to see that those in the centre, those in privilege are not oblivious to their peoples' struggles. After all, within the bounds of a nation states borders, those in privilege, those in the centre benefit most from the state, nationalism.
I am mulling over these ideas and, how to think about friendships and loyalties and our place in the world. So, this continues to something I struggle with.
