I greeted him and stood in the passengers’ line with him. We talked about flights and airports until it was my turn for the security inspection. Out of habit, I had a book to read until they were done searching my luggage. However, I was surprised that the check was relatively easy this time. I looked over to the man I had greeted. They had taken him aside and were questioning him and going through his belongings. An hour later, I boarded the plane and searched for him. I asked the person beside him to switch seats with me, and we did. I wanted to know what they had done to him.
As soon as the plane took off, my friend started on a tirade of curses towards the Israeli authorities and the whole system; he angrily said, “Did you see how scared they got when they saw me speaking to a Palestinian like you?” I replied asking, “Aren’t you a Palestinian yourself?” He sharply replied, “No! I am an Israeli of Arab origin. I was born in Iraq. My family immigrated to Israel; and my father died full of sorrow, wishing he could go back to Baghdad.”
He was quiet, and I was trying to absorb what he said. I had thought he was a Palestinian. But he was a Jewish Israeli who got into trouble just for speaking to me.
Trying to soothe him, I offered my apologies for greeting him at the airport. He exploded saying, “They are racists…Today, they are treating you just like they used to treat us, Sephardic Jews, as if we were stray dogs. They tricked my father and other Iraqi Jews. They promised them ‘paradise’. Then they blew up Jewish property in Baghdad so that everyone would run away to ‘the promised land’. We lived a deprived childhood. My father suffered from depression and was frustrated over losing his home, friends and a prosperous trade. He refused to learn Hebrew and died without learning a single letter of it. If it were not for our perseverance, my brothers and I would have never made it in this Ashkenazi-controlled Jewish society.”
He was quiet again; and it seemed that he was relieved to have vented his anger. He dozed off and left me wondering as to how Ashkenazi Jews will ever be able to live in peace with us if they are discriminating against their fellow Jews. I remembered what they did to the Druze and the Palestinians who decided not to flee their towns and villages. I am convinced that true peace will not be achieved until the day comes when Jews are able to see Palestinians and Arabs as human beings. They must overcome their persecution complex by resolving the guilt of what they have done to the Palestinians.
I was in a state of deep thought. He woke up and asked, as if reading my mind, “Do you think they are serious in signing a deal with Arafat?” Without waiting for an answer, he replied, “Sharon does not even want to shake Arafat’s hand. They are racists, and all they want is the land.”
I pictured Sharon and Netanyahu, the new King of Israel, walking the earth as if saying, “I am king of the hill.”
I felt sorry for our negotiators; and I feared for them, for us, facing American pressure from a President hoping that the peace process will rescue him from his scandals and opposition. I also feared the pressure from the Israeli king, whose only concern is preserving his throne, while mastering the game with the slogans of security, fighting terrorism, and protecting the interests of the Jewish people.
Without a doubt, Arafat was successful in breaking the deadlock by threatening to declare a Palestinian State. He forced the king of Israel to sit down. He stripped him of his excuses, exposing him naked and vulnerable in front of Clinton and the whole world.
My friend echoed some of my thoughts saying, “You are still at the beginning of your journey. You should be patient. Take everything they give you. Then ask for more; today you get 13%, and another 13 or more tomorrow. Today, you open an airport; tomorrow you will open a seaport. You should learn from Sephardic Jews; they have a long experience.”
The plane landed, and my friend said goodbye with an “oriental” hug. We promised to meet in the future and he left me deep in thought.
The Wye plantation negotiations confirmed to the world that peace is the overall strategy of the Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority agreed to all of Netanyahu’s conditions in order to strip him of his last excuse. The Authority put up with Sharon’s rudeness. They got what little they could and put their eyes and hopes on the future.
The Palestinian Authority committed itself to Israeli security with American supervision. Consequently, will Palestinians finally get peace and freedom? Will the Palestinian Authority open a new page of democracy-building based on the rule of law, not oppression; on equality, not connections and nepotism; on accountability and fighting abuse of power?
These are our questions. My Sephardic Jewish Israeli friend from Baghdad cannot answer them. The answers should be Palestinian.
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