Well, its pretty simple what’s going on here. I, directing four trucks, need to move this concrete wall to another base. The IDF built it for the checkpoint after the Palestinians requested a gender separation for the Ramadan holiday.
My iPhone suddenly lit-up and I opened it to check a message: the grades are here. The grades! I’ve waited for so long and… Ohh no! I just remembered I forgot to serve my Anthology of Religion paper. Damn! The professor will probably be so pissed off… he might even fail me, and I can’t endure any failing grades – this is my final semester at god-awful Tel-Aviv University.
“Hi officer,” I hear an old Palestinian man turn to me as I immediately shut off my phone. “Listen, the line in the checkpoint is hour long, can you please deliver the money to that cab driver over there?” I raised my head and saw the driver on the other side of the security barrier, waiting. In front of him stood the border police arguing with a Jewish Israeli who kept screaming that law is forced on Arabs and Israelis as one people.
Nablus Checkpoint Toward Israel
“I’m sorry,” I said to the old Palestinian “I don’t have an authority here…Just turn to them,” I said and pointed towards the border police. “But they do not allow,” he looked at the money, frustrated. “Sorry,” I said and he turned away. A crowd was gathering next to the open gate. This could quickly turn to riots – we need to get the hell out of here. We don’t even have bullet proof vests – any jerk in the street can knife me and disappear. I started to walk toward the trucks and my phone blinks again, this time from a Facebook message: “Shlomo gave us grades! I got a 91! I think he is good after all, he probably didn’t even check that well… how much did you get?”
I close the message and head to the trucks. In front of us a group of Greek tourists descends a Palestinian bus and begin to walk toward a couple of soldiers. They will scream at them… I can see it happening… “War criminals!” Soon the media will come and now we will be on the front page of the BBC… BBC and BDS… Who can tell a difference?
The first tourist arrive and scream: “My daughter is in the Greek army!” he said with a smile, “can we take a picture with you?”
The soldiers, like me, were very surprised. Quickly enough the tourists got back on the bus, leaving us hungry for the blond girl (she smiled at us) that was among them.
“You are the officer?” some soldier turned to me.
“Yeah…”
“Some food for you and your soldiers… eat,” he gave me a bag and walked away.
I took the bag and was thinking that I must finish the paper, this week. But I’m in reserve, where will I find the time?
“Can you just sign here..?” the crane worker turned to me, “I need an officer’s signature…”
I looked at him with confusion. Why does everyone keep calling me an “officer”? I’m not an army officer.
I’m just a sociology student, stuck in the middle.
From Arik:
Itamar, if Liran will choose to only be a student, my home in Jerusalem will get a new present: Grad rockets. Watch the Palestinian media, read their articles, study about the 2000 Camp David offer which the Palestinians refused (and begun the second Intifafa), they are not stuck in the middle my friend, they choose to be stuck in the middle, and I choose to LIVE.
From Liran shamriz:
Itamar, the situation is a horrible tragedy but it wasn’t always like that and there are reasons to it. When i grew up i had Palestinian in my home, my mother and father used to drive to Gaza twice a week and people even took summer trips next to the coast. Terror destroyed the attempt for reasonable life. The same terror that killed so many of my friends, and some of my family, is the reason for the fences. I’m sorry for that, but i will not refuse an order to defend myself. Its not again’st the Palestinian – its again’st the terrorists. And there is a very high co-operation between the IDF and the Palestinian authority to fight it. So i am optimist and i hope these fences will go down and will never be raise again – but i say it once more time. I will not refuse an order to protect myself and my family. I have known to many people that died by the terrorists, one of them was killed this week – in my city, by a missile.
From Itamar:
You are an army officer and a sociology student. You’re not stuck in the middle, you chose to be both those things. The people that are stuck are the Palestinians that the army sticks between walls and fences, and where every possibility of movement is dependent on you. You can refuse and get out of that situation. They can’t.
From kinder:
Great article saying about the true struggle.
From Oliver Worth:
Fantastic article Liran!!