The name of our program used to be Ambassadors For Unity/Write On For Israel. The whole idea of this program is to advocate or “write on” for Israel and to engage others. However, after experiencing the intolerance for Arab Israelis by many of our friends from Beit Shean, some of us have also found a need to advocate on behalf of the Arab Israelis. When you’ve lived in America for your entire life, it’s difficult to imagine bred-in dislike for an an entire ethnicity. Yes, the Palestinian government (or lack thereof) is a constant threat to the Jews, but Israeli Arabs are completely different people. There are plenty of Israeli Jews who don’t have anything against Arabs, but there aren’t enough.
Realizing that the dislike between the Arab and Jewish Israelis is something so personal that some Beit Sheanis don’t even want to be around them, I was very excited and intrigued to visit the Arab village of Jisr as Zarqa today. Although it was slightly awkward at first and the language barrier made in-depth conversations challenging, I thoroughly enjoyed our time with the Arabs. We broke out into small groups in the beginning and did a few ice breakers–I knew I liked the Arabs in my group as soon as one of them made a derogatory comment about Justin Bieber. The mayor even came to welcome us and answer questions about the village.
Afterwards, we took advantage of Jisr az Zarqa being the only Israeli Arab city with a beach, and all rode there in the same bus. The Arabs were exceptionally loud in the same way as our Beit Sheanis, which makes me believe that they really could be friends if they tried. However, I couldn’t help but notice that not one American sat next to a singe Arab, besides myself and the girl next to me.
Once we got to the beach, the Arabs enthusiastically took selfies with us and asked them to find our Facebook profiles on their phones, which solidified my belief that teenagers are basically the same all over the world.
During the brief free time we had on the beach, the most important soccer game went down since the Mundial, or World Cup started–Americans versus Arabs beach soccer. The Arabs won 3-2. As the entire group hung around doing what is one of the former WOFIites’ favorite activities in Israel, eating watermelon, I couldn’t help but notice that the circles of people starting to form were either all American or all Arab. Because it was never like that with Our Beit Sheanis, I was a bit discouraged until my friend pointed out this was a very different situation.
First of all, it was like that, with circles of only Americans or only Israelis when we first met–or so she claimed. (My life was kind of a blur before we befriended Our Beit Sheanis.) We’d known these Arabs for maybe an hour and had not been learning about their culture for the majority of our short lives. Secondly, the language barrier was much more significant with them. For the most part, their English was extremely limited, and we didn’t speak Arabic, which left us only Hebrew–a second language for both of us–or very basic English. But we not only made it work, we also had a great time.
For dinner, the former WOFIites split into two groups and were each hosted by an Arab family, which, just like any Israeli family, made fantastic food and way too much of it. (I did appreciate, however, how they were far less insistent that we finish all the food than the Jewish Israelis were.) My group was hosted by a very nice family that owned goats, which very unsurprisingly, were the subject of many selfies and legitimate photos.
We interviewed a family member, Diab Amash, who told us that being an Arab Israeli is to be “in a fight with your soul.” He believes, as I tried to convince Our Israelis, that people should look at each other as human beings only, and try to work together. The warm welcome that the former WOFIites received from every Arab we met did not show a hint of a dislike for a culture which with they were sometimes at odds, and I hope that they will serve as an example to both Arabs and Jews.