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Yesterday was May 21. It was a Wednesday, and if I would have been on campus I would have been able to sleep in until 7:30. However we had a trip and as a result I was forced to wake up at 6:45(am). Yes, I had to wake up at 6:45(am) two days in a row. Needless to say I was tired the whole day, however after hearing some of the people who talked to us about Israel the way that they did I woke up a bit.
We started our day at this place called Givat Hiviva, it is named after a Jewish woman who was working for the British during WWII and was captured and killed by the Nazis. We had two people come to speak to us there. The first person who spoke to us was named Lidia, she was originally British however she moved to Israel 50 years ago because of anti-Semitism, she told us about how as a child she tried to get a job but could not because when employers found out that she was a Jew they would not talk to her any more, she also told us of how as a child she was once beat up at school because a child was trying to find the horns on her head. She said that it was not the children’s fault that they hurt her that they were just ignorant. I disagree, when someone breaks a law that they do not know about they are still responsible for their actions, same goes for anti-Semitism. If someone does something anti-Semitic then they are still responsible for their actions, after all if they were ignorant then shouldn’t they educate themselves before they go and beat up Jewish kids to find their horns?
Next we were talked at yelled at forced to hear got to listen to this Israeli Arab Palestinian with Israeli citizenship named Amir. Amir is a fairly well off person, he was able to go to law school in England and in New York and he was able to establish his own law firm. Yet he complained about talked to us about how he is “discriminated against” in Israel. He told us about how the houses that are built without permits in his town (this is a scam to avoid paying taxes) don’t have electricity or sewage and how this is Israel discriminating against him and his people (the Palestinians, it is funny that he identifies with them because when asked if he would like to live in the Palestinian state when it is created he said no and it appeared that he might even have been a little bit scared of the West Bank and Gaza natives). Before he stated talking he told us that he was only going to tell us his personal experience, that he was not going to talk politics to us. Yet almost every word out of his mouth was an insult to his country, the country that gives him all of the freedoms that every citizen of a democratic state is entitled to, the nation of Israel. He even went as far to say that the Prime Minister of Israel is not his leader, he/she is only a leader for the Jews. He also said things like, I am not happy that I can never be a general in the IDF, yet before he said that he said that he did not want to be in the IDF and could if he wanted too. Also when he talked he said things like, “They don’t build roads to illegally built houses, I don’t want to tell you what to think, but do you think that it is fair? Well, it is not”. Then someone asked him if he thought Hezbollah was a terrorist organization, his answer was “Did you know that Israel was occupying Lebanon, well Hezbollah was trying to get them out, so no I do not think that they are terrorists.” He also said, “I think that they commit acts of terror, but they do it just like Israel does in response, so I do not think that they are evil” This really upset me and I am sure that everyone else in the room was upset by this too. Hezbollah is recognized as a terrorist organization by most countries and it works to undermine the Lebanese government. They also target innocent people while Israel only targets militants. His response was also disgusting, because he is an Israeli citizen and saying something like that is not very supportive of his country.
Next we heard from an Israeli Jew named Reuven who lives on the hills surrounding an Arab town. He told us how the people in the town below really don’t have much to complain about. Their kids don’t have to go to the army and they don’t need to be scared of their neighbors like he does. He told us of how he has friends who are Arabs and how for 3 years they were able to sleep well at night while he had to be worried about whether or not his children were safe. He also told us of how there was once a bomb planted in his town by someone in the neighboring town and now his town has a electric fence with a border patrol car surrounding it. For the most part I agreed with Reuven and thought the he made a lot of sense.
After that we got in the bus and saw a few Arab towns. The person who showed them to us was named Yuvi. He is an Israli Arab and is the most rational person that I met the whole day. He explained to us that most Israeli Arabs are not like Amir. He also told us that a lot of the problems that Israeli Arabs have are not really caused by Israel.
Later we drove to a Druze city and went to a market there. At this market I was literally pulled into a store and when one of the people who worked there saw me looking at an IDF sweatshirt they confused me into buying it for 60 NIS (actually that is not such a bad price), however when I got back to the dorms later that night I noticed that it was discolored.
Next we went to eat dinner at a Druze house, the food was really good. There was also a Druze girl who talked to us about the Druze culture and we were able to find a bit about what they believe. Calling this girl good looking would be an understatement.
Over all I had a very interesting day and I learned a lot.