Israel is an absurd country
How Palestinians are building our Jewish country.
Today I was walking home from school down my street when a person approached me. I knew he was a Palestinian by his looks. He asked with an Arabic accent if I know where he could buy something to drink. I instructed him on how to get to the supermarket. He looked like a construction worker and I remembered that our ‘mamad’ (ממ”ד) — Hebrew for a reinforced security room — was being built. I asked him if he was one of the workers, and if I could bring them something to drink. He said he was, so we went to my house to bring them some drinks. He asked me in which grade I was, I told him 10th grade, and he said ‘A(l)-Saf Al-Ashir’ (الصف العاشر) — tenth grade in Arabic. I, as a student learning Arabic, knew of course what it meant. He told me that like he learns Hebrew, every Jew in Israel should learn Arabic. I agree with him but that’s another discussion. But then it hit me, that a Palestinian was building a room in my house that should protect me from other Palestinians — the Hamas, the Hizballah or every other organization wanting to hurt us. I’m sure he isn’t a member of any of those organizations, but they are all Palestinians. I don’t think he hates me and I don’t hate him. He doesn’t want me dead as I don’t want him dead. We both want to live in peace, he told me this himself. But the fact that a Palestinian is building something that should protect me from ‘his kind’ is distressing. And he doesn’t build only my ‘mamad’. Hebrew construction workers are a very small minority in Israel, most, if not all, of the construction workers are Palestinian. They built my house, the built Prime Minister Netanyahu’s house, they built the Knesset, they built the Dimona Nuclear Reactor. They essentially built and are still building Israel.
It is ironic that the founders of Israel were not religious, and they weren’t anything like the stigma of a Jew. They came to work hard, make their own bread, and build their own country. They thought that Jewish Labor is the key to removing the Jew stigma. As Herzl said: “Work will provide us the bread of tomorrow, and furthermore — it will provide us the respect and freedom of tomorrow”. And what happened since? Palestinians build our country. Israel is an absurd country.
