Today the same soldier who threatened me yesterday was at it again outside the flat. He came up to me and threatened me again saying I obviously had no recollection of yesterdays conversation. It turns out the other week he threatened to beat someone up and slash their throat. he is a complete nutcase whose face was so close to me that I could smell his bad breath. Mary however was having none of this - she is a 70+ granny about 5ft 5 who stands up to the soldiers. she knows her rights to the letter and makes sure the soldiers don't prevent her doing whatever she wants within them. Some of the soldiers love her, others hate her. These ones today hated her - eventually they called the DCO and some officers arrived who eventually left. The soldiers repeatedly asked us if we thought there was terrorism here and laughed at our replies. They asked for every Palestinians ID and held them up, stopping people from going abut their legitimate business, and asking for people to lift up their shirts. They got bored and eventually started shouting and pretending to shoot which scared a few kids. Later I played football with Ronaldo and various other members of the Brazilian football side aka Palestinian kids 6-11. Saying I was England the best side in the world was met with laughter. needless to say I lost (though of course I let them win ;-) Its difficult not to dehumanise the Israelis. Te soldiers here believe that everyone is a terrorist ad see them as subhuman. I see every soldier as a potential murderer - normally with fingers on trigger- every action is seen as hostile. Whilst they see me as someone who prevents them from preventing terrorism (or allegedly). I must make sure that I remember to see them as humans often young scared kids who have been attacked on occasion by Palestinians, some of whom have been fighting in Lebanon. I came here wanting to promote peace and solidarity and I don't want to come across or become simply just anti-Israel, which I am not.
Picture: Boarded up house in Tel Rumeida
3 comments:
to the author:
Although you state you are trying to be objective, your vocabualry reflects an obviuos bias. For example your use of adjectives when referring to palestians are "lovely" but when referring you an israeli soldier your choice adjectve was bad breath.
Its ok not be in favor of one side vs the other, but don not kid yourself that you are even trying to be objective.
you can reply to doltonoptometric@ameritech.net
If the Israeli soldier had bad breath and was sufficiently in g's face for him to smell it, is it evidence of bias for him to say so?
Likewise, if the Palestinians have been behaving towards him in a way that he feels is "lovely", then is it a display of bias for him to report it?
I would regard both accounts as honest reporting, unless you think he is lying about the events he describes. If you do, then I would be interested in your reports from the scene.
jw
Almost without exception the palestinians have been lovely, one guy tried to short change me in jerusalem.
Although one or two Israeli soldiers have been friendly - when I first arrived in Tel Rumeida they said hello and asked if I was going to work with Mary and we talked about my home country briefly they have usually been very aggressive, especially in tel rumeida
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