Believe it or Not
by Sam Bahour 10:35am Mon Dec 24 '01
sbahour@palnet.com
The solider ordered the Palestinians to make 4 rows as follows; pretty
women, ugly women, men over 40 years old, and men under 40 years old. Out of
necessity to make it to Ramallah and earn a living, three lines were formed,
all females, men over 40 and men under 40.
by Sam Bahour*
For the last sixteen months my staff has suffered the humiliation of Israeli
checkpoints twice a day, once coming to work and once going back home.
Daily, I'm briefed of the horror stories, which unfortunately have become
part of our 'normal' life, about the events that take place at the
checkpoints -- extended delays (at times 4-5 hours to travel what should
take 20-30 minutes), shouting matches, walking through mud, climbing
mountains, being refused entry, etc, etc, etc.
However, today's briefing was special, so special I had to document it. One
of my mangers lives in Bir Zeit, 7 minutes from Ramallah. When he arrived at
the Surda checkpoint, two hours prior to the start of the workday, he was
faced with a new type of Israeli solider. As part of Sharon's reinforcement
of all checkpoints around Ramallah to prevent Palestinian Authority
President Yaser Arafat from reaching Christmas prayers in Bethlehem, Israel
deployed Lebanese phalange soldiers to deal with the population. These are
the pro- Israel soldiers that joined the ranks of the Israeli defense forces
in Southern Lebanon when Israel invaded that country in 1982.
With about two hundred people stopped while on their way to work in Ramallah
and in perfect Lebanese-accent Arabic, the solider ordered the Palestinians
to make 4 rows as follows; pretty women, ugly women, men over 40 years old,
and men under 40 years old. Out of necessity to make it to Ramallah and earn
a living, three lines were formed, all females, men over 40 and men under
40. This bastard Israeli solider then proceeded to walk past the female line
separating them into his taste of pretty and ugly.
When he reached a female friend of my manager he demanded that she stop
chatting with the men. My manger made a remark to her that he must be
Lebanese. The solider heard the remark and pulled my manager out of line and
asked to see his identification card. When he saw on the card that his
family name was Zeideh and that he was a Christian Palestinian (Palestinian
I.D. cards are required by Israel to state a person's religion) he loudly
chuckled that he was better than the other Muslims in the row. My manager,
being very politically aware himself, provoked the solider by lying and
telling him that he was an Orthodox Christian, even though he is Marionette,
just like the solider. The solider quickly reacted in the opposite tone and
shouted to him that if that was the case then he is the scum of the earth.
Little did the solider know that the Zeideh family is part of the family
tree of the Khazen family, which is one of the famous families of Lebanon.
The solider then asked my manager if he was ever in Lebanon. When he refused
to answer, the solider told my staff member that he wanted to ask him one
question. How do you pronounce the word, tomato? My manager replied by
offering two options as an answer, tomato, or tomoto. He asked the solider
which one he wanted to hear. This infuriated the solider because it was now
revealed that this Palestinian knew that in Lebanon one method of
discrimination was for soldiers to hear this word pronounced, which can
identify if your accent is Palestinian or Lebanese. In Lebanon, once that
was known then the age-old divide and conquers tactics used.
From that point the solider grabbed my manager and a physical clash was
about to ensue. Luckily, another higher ranked solider approached and saw
that the situation may be explosive and thus put everyone waiting on his or
her way.
This is the racism, the discrimination, the humiliation, the naked arrogance
and the military occupation that Palestinians have been screaming to the
world about. This is what the Palestinians will end, with or without the
U.S. consent! Merry Christmas.
December 24, 2001
* Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American and General Manager of the Arab
Palestinian Shopping Centers (www.apic-pal.com). He lives in the besieged
Palestinian City of Al-Bireh in the West Bank and can be reached at
sbahour@palnet.com.