So writes Aziz Abu Sarah, who runs an amazing tour company in Israel which provides "dual narrative" tours led by an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian partner who are engaged in peacebuilding.
Aziz, who also happens to be a columnist with Al Quds newspaper and is the co-executive director of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, writes of his recent experience at 972 Magazine:
Last week my tour company, MEJDI, received a tour group from Washington DC. The group members are all part of the same Jewish congregation, and are here on a trip lead by their rabbi, who was inspired by our narratives-based approach to tourism. This morning we took the tour group to the Mount of Olives for a view of the Old City of Jerusalem, and spoke to them about the political and religious narratives of the city. While the tourists were wandering around and taking pictures, a policeman with another woman in civilian clothing approached our Palestinian tour guide [who we'll call "HJ" - a fully licensed tour guide and peace activist], asked for his identity card and tourism license, and arrested him...
When the police saw HJ’s green identity card (ID’s issued by Israel are color-coded; Israeli citizens get blue IDs, Palestinians get green ones), they were visibly overcome by excitement and a big smile appeared on their faces. They behaved like they made a big catch. They ignored the fact that HJ had a travel permit and a license to work in Israel. I actually heard them say: ”Even if he can work in Israel, he couldn’t possibly be a licensed tour guide.” HJ’s tour guiding license was also disregarded.
The police also arrested Aziz on the charge that he had hired an illegal alien, and after their pleas fell on deaf ears, both Aziz and HJ were taken to a police station in East Jerusalem. Neither was allowed to make any calls, including to their lawyer.
Fortunately, once they were interrogated, an Israeli officer righted the situation swiftly and firmly, to his great credit:
In less than five minutes the interrogator stormed out of the interrogation room enraged and began yelling at the arresting officer: “He is legal, why did you arrest them? Release them now.” I was rather relived to have finally met an Israeli police officer who knew how to read a permit issued by the Israeli authorities.
However, the experience is an anecdotal example of the types of discrimination and prejudice Palestinians face in Israeli society. And it's precisely this type of discrimination that many Arabs are now speaking out about during Israel's growing social justice protests. And they're not doing it alone.
As I wrote in a prior diary, an increasing number of Arabs are participating in Israel's massive social justice protest movement, and many Jews are now working cooperatively with Palestinians to not only further shared economic goals, but to bring Palestinian issues to the attention of the Israeli public. It's happening in Haifa. In Tel Aviv. In Jaffo. In Jerusalem. All across Israel, Jews and Arabs are marching and speaking and planning protests together.
One of those issues Palestinians are now working to place before the nation in these protests? That of discrimination. Noting the unique chance Arab citizens have in Israel to change the status of Palestinians, Aida Touma-Sliman, editor-in-chief of the Arabic daily newspaper Al-Ittihad, says:
“If there ever was willingness in the Israeli Jewish mainstream to hear the Arab citizens cry out against discrimination, land confiscations or house demolishing – and to do that not through a nationalist lens – it is now.”
The protest movement in Israel is making great strides toward bringing social and economic equality to all of Israel's citizens. As Aziz's experience of being arrested shows, there's a ways to go. But as the interrogating officer demonstrated – as the social justice protesters continue to march – the way is may not be as long as some might think.
-------------------------------------
Follow me on Twitter @David_EHG
-------------------------------------
Author's Note: Aziz's tour company is MEJDI. It's worth a look.