I will tell you a personal story seared into my memory. I attended a university near Tel-Aviv for my first year in college. The university is a well-known private establishment with an international program taught in English. Jewish students come from over 54 countries to attend and acquaint themselves with Israel. The university, as may already be apparent, was founded on the values of Zionism. I attended with my older brother because our Hebrew was lacking and the international program seemed promising. While there, I met various students, one of them was born and raised in Manhattan. He was a devout Jew and wore the Kippah (Yamaka) and had served in the Israeli army manning checkpoints. I asked about his service, but he didnt divulge much. Then I asked him if he spoke any Arabic. Members of the Israeli army who man checkpoints are in constant contact with Palestinians who live in the West Bank. These soldiers decide who gets right of entry, who is denied, and so forth. Their job is supposed to be checking for proper paperwork. Palestinians have to use the checkpoints to get from one town to another or one city to another even if these towns and cities are 5 minutes apart. These Palestinians are not criminals, they are ordinary people going about their ordinary lives. I assumed since the student had been in constant contact with Palestinians that he would have picked up a few lines in Arabic while conversing with them, maybe a Marhaba (hello) or a Kef Halek (how are you). The former soldiers reply to my question, however, was both shocking and horrifying. He had only learned one sentence during his three years of service. He looked straight at me gestured with his hands and forced out that sentence in a loud cry. At first I couldnt understand what he was saying, and asked him to repeat himself, at which point he began to laugh, a little amused but still in a casual nonchalant manner Irfa Eedek will batukhak he said again. I looked at him at first in utter disbelief. Then the reality of what he had said began to seep in. The sentence translated into English means raise your hands or Ill shoot!, I gathered my nerves as best as I could and composed myself, looked straight back at him and said that is all that you learned? were the people you were dealing with dangerous? he said no, were they threatening? he said no, were there children, women and elderly among them? he said yes, in fact most of them were women, elderly and children, and then I asked him why if that was the case would his sentence ever be of any use to him, and why had he gone out of his way to learn those words to the exclusion of all others. This time he looked at me seriously and said because this fight is not about Palestinians being dangerous, it is about control.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 00:16:52 +0000
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