Tonight - a lot in one

Tonight I stopped by my neighborhood grocery shop that specializes in sweets. The guy who works there offers a real nice smile and handshake, too. I was expecting just to say hello, buy something with chocolate in it, and make my way home. But when my friend who works there seemed interested in shooting the shit, I willingly stuck around for a few minutes. Our conversation wandered from favorite soccer teams and leagues to more serious issues, like Israel and Palestine (by the way, you are allowed to have a favorite team in each country's league, for example Barcelona in Spain, Manchester United in England, etc).

So people here are curious about me. Where did you learn to speak Arabic? is the most common question I get. I'm glad to spend little time explaining: Yes, I studied it in school. Yes, Arabic is taught in America. Yes, I learned classical Arabic (this gets a laugh because so few people are comfortable speaking classical Arabic and I have such a hard time understanding the dialects spoken). 

So with this guy, my friend the grocer, I had mentioned Ultimate Peace before. Tonight I showed him an Ultimate Peace promo video on my phone. Despite not believing frisbee was a sport before watching it, he was impressed with the play and what UP is doing :-) Afterward, he asked me: Are you for or against Israel? Interestingly enough, I've been asked the same question by a friend in Atlanta. 

My answer was basically that my Arabic isn't good enough to give a complete answer. So its hard to even start. But I'm with people, whether they're categorized as Israeli or Palestinian, Arab or Muslim or Jewish or Christian. This does not fit the typical narrative of picking sides, and defending one country or another without question. After that, I asked: Is it possible to be for both?

The guys and I also talked about world travel. I'm lucky that I can travel basically wherever I want -- my passport is accepted fairly universally, the license plate on the rental car I drive gives me a free pass between places, and I'm lucky to have access to financial resources. All these things support me in living out Dr. Seuss's "Oh the places you'll go!" In contrast to that, the two guys I was talking to tonight rarely travel outside the West Bank and have never left Israel/Palestine. Israeli restrictions are so tight on Palestinians' travel.

The most shocking thing I learned in tonight's conversation is that my friend (the one who works at this grocery store I like to frequent because of the sweets he carries and his warm smile) -- he has a brother who was killed within a few miles of where we were talking tonight, and where I am right now. What he told me is that his brother was walking to work near a West Bank settlement and was killed. Nothing was done afterward as far as criminal investigation or prosecution. That's something beyond words (even in English) -- strange, awful, scary, baffling, and more.