So I'm sitting in a bar (how unusual) swapping insults with Itai (how unusual) and jiggling to some Middle Eastern-sounding music (that turned out to be Spanish), and suddenly Itai stops barracking me and asks if I read French. He's trying to book a Eurolines coach from Paris over the Internet, and there's no way to do it in English. As it happens I do, but I can't actually read the bar monitor - it's some 10 feet above my head - or reach the keyboard or mouse, so I'm useless to him. I'm bemused too - it's only a few weeks since Itai came home from a major trip around Europe, most of it unplanned. He was mugged in London and fled to the European mainland shortly after, which is a distressingly familiar tale among young Israeli travellers.
Turns out it's not Itai that's going. It's Abu something or other (Arab guys are known through their sons). He's always been chatty and cheerful, but I didn't even know he had any sons 'til he showed me his travel permit - Palestinians don't have passports as such - and visa. I was a little taken aback to find his home town given as Jerusalem but his nationality as Jordanian. It didn't occur to me until then that there are some real problems with the Palestinians not having a state in this day and age - don't ask me why, but I'd assumed they'd all be down as Israeli, perhaps with some proviso. We both smiled over the workaround of having Jerusalem as a Jordanian city, but it's a bit sad, in the sense of pathetic. As was the difficulty of figuring out where in Europe he'd legally be able to travel with his French visa. The limitations sure as heck weren't clear to me either from the document itself - and the girl he plans to meet actually lives in Denmark.
Hopefully he won't get arrested for contravening some regulation he doesn't understand along the way. He's no threat to anyone, just a normal dude doing normal dude things, one of the many here who works alongside, and has friends among, the Jewish population. Who have an equally bad time abroad, if for completely different reasons.
Isn't it about time Europe stopped randomly punishing people for being from the Middle East?
Just a thought.
1 comment:
It's not new for people from the "third world" to be treated badly in America and Europe. Anyone with a non-white complexion is subject to intense scrutiny at all Airports there.
I remember an incident where 3 guys from here were withheld for 4 days in Denmark, just because a fellow passenger "heard them speak in a funny language" (they were speaking in Hindi) and were found "making funny guestures to each other" (probably excited about being in a an Airplane for the first time). Apprently the Denmark Authorities thought they were trying to hijack the plane. Sheesh.
It's about time America and Europe realize that there are people other than just them in the world. And like you point out, most of them are perfectly normal :)
Post a Comment