I had been in Palestine for over a year and a half before a friend introduced me to the Rami Levy grocery store chain. I'm all about convenience and having to visit 3-4 different places for my weekly grocery shopping was not quite as efficient as I needed it to be. So it was a Palestinian friend who introduced me to this store insisting that it was the cheapest store around, PLUS it had everything. So, why hadn't I heard about it before this? Because it is a store that mainly serves settlers and has a large quantity of goods produced on Israeli settlements. Any good principled supporter of the Palestinian cause boycotts these goods. I am not a good principled supporter. However I can say in my defense that I rarely buy the products produced in the settlements because I cannot read the Hebrew on the packages. I felt terribly guilty about my choice to patronize the store, until I kept bumping into Palestinian friends there, who looked just as embarrassed as I was to be seen there.
The particular store my friend introduced me to happens to be located behind a gated settlement area, but one that is freely accessible (with just a minor security check) to both Israelis and Palestinians. And now that fact is what accounts for all the weirdness of the place, and the fact that I become convinced that perhaps this is a place where peace will be made. The workers at the store are predominately Arabs - the stock boys, the guys at the meat counter, the baggers, etc. The only exception is the cashiers who consist uniquely of that class of rude, Israeli women who stare with all customers with contempt, which is common in all grocery stores throughout Israel. Oddly enough, they save their smiles and joking for the Arab men bagging the groceries.
In this store, filled with American products and all these settlement-produced products, you find settlers with their 3-4 children under 5 thrown into their grocery carts, shopping side by side with the Arab families. It is an amazing site to see. Nobody is yelling at each other. Nobody is threatening each other. They are just simply coexisting. Of course, as I've come to experience as so common, everybody does give each other a once "up and down" look, trying to tag them into their mental categories.
One day last summer, I made a quick stop at Rami Levy and as I was packing my bags into the car after finishing my shopping, I heard the sound of a baby crying. Actually, the baby was wailing. I don't know what in that particular circumstance drew my attention to investigate the sound, but I told my son to stand by the car while I went searching to find where the sound was coming from. I discovered it was coming from a large, spanking-brand new black SUV, and the child was about 5 months old, sitting in a car set (trying to wiggle her way out) in the back seat of the car. A front window was cracked about 3 inches. I looked around, and noticed there was not a single person in sight. I then noticed the baby was dressed in at least 3 visible layers with a fleece blanket covering her and she had sweat dripping down her face. Amazingly, all the doors to the car were unlocked. I realized (albeit slowly), that I needed to do something.
But wait, this could get complicated….I had heard stories of ultra-orthodox families rioting against Israeli police when they came to arrest a mother for starving her child. And if it was an Arab child I could be mistaken as an Israeli woman doing something to this child, and maybe really be in trouble. I checked the license plate….white Palestinian plates. Then my heart really sank into my stomach….now I was about to get a Palestinian into some real trouble on Israeli territory (or more accurately…occupied Palestinian territory). Well, the child's welfare comes first, right? So, I climbed into the car, found some bottled water and plastic cups on the floor and began to give the baby some water which she took readily. I then ran to the front door of the grocery store and tried to explain to the Israeli security guard that there was a problem, pointing to the car. He immediately called over one of the Arab workers. By the time I arrived back at the car, an Israeli settler woman had taken the baby into her arms and was undressing the baby. She didn't speak English, I don't speak Hebrew, so we were gesturing our way through our communication. The Arab workers arrived and I explained to them in my limited Arabic what I found. They became quite agitated, grabbed the baby and ran back into the store. A few minutes later I saw what must have been the father holding the baby and the Arab workers were yelling at him, "This child could have died? Are you crazy? Leaving a child alone in the car? Dead, she could have been dead!!" I felt a huge wave of relief that others were just as outraged as I was. Outraged by the possibility of the loss of another life….so yes, maybe this is where peace will be made.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment