On-arrival or an evening spent in Tel Aviv

За превод на тази публикация на български: http://dobrovolkavpalestina.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/6/

                                                                                                                          3rd - 4th of Oct

After a surprisingly smooth entry into Israel I am finally here, on my way to the West Bank. I have carried in so much “luggage” in terms of information and other people’s stories about this country that it feels weird to be seeing it with my own eyes now, knowing so much and so very little at the same time. Tel Aviv seems unreal, hollow and somehow lacking substance. I catch myself being saddened by the sight of its people. Here are Russian-speakers, soldiers, people with side curls or not and all of them are replying readily and politely to my ceaseless inquiries about directions. It takes me some time to realize the root cause of my feelings: life here seems way too normal. It feels too much like being inside a bubble. There’s no sign of Palestinian presence or even existence. All car registrations have the Israeli-indicating yellow color. Only the directions do contain Arabic script along with the Hebrew and English and this is the only reminder this land used to be Palestinian.

So here I am, completely immersed into what is Israel today. I had expected to be shocked by the constant sight of soldiers with their guns all over the place but even this seems like part of a ridiculous game now as they are here during their time off and are regular people that just happen to be in a soldier uniform. A soldier and his girlfriend walking hand in hand talking casually. The only detail that makes this sight different is the rifle hanging on his back.

During my one and only night in Tel Aviv I stayed with Israeli students. I had picked them almost randomly from a network for travelers (couchsurfing.org) I’m a member of. I thought it would be good to get to know the point of view on things from the regular Israelis. I had decided this would be good cover at the airport as well, staying with Israelis and had decided to not let them know I was coming to their country to be a peace activist in the West Bank. Soon after we started going into deeper conversation than small talk my host shared his avid disapproval of the occupation of the West Bank. During his interview meant to determine his placement for the army he had refused to serve in the West Bank. I feel relieved as I can now share openly what I am here for and leave behind the role of the tourist exploring Israel that didn’t suit me anyways. My host and his roommates (a couple) have already all served in the army. He and his roommate think that my being part of a peace team is great and call the settlements “the cancer of Israel”. The roommate said he served “close to Gaza”(as he put it). He appears to be very well informed about everything going on in the West Bank unlike his girlfriend who doesn’t seem to know much at all (she has done social service in the military). We talked quite a lot about how problematic it is for a soldier-to-be to refuse doing military service. They claimed that at the age of 18 one lacks the courage and the matureness for such a brave step, to stray away from the flock. I left for Jerusalem with a “Good Luck” note in my notebook from the ex soldiers. I found this ironic and in a way inspiring at the same time. They had job interviews to think about now, social reforms to discuss, government to complain from, beach to go to for fun and other concerns and pleasures.

A sense of oblivion was about to almost overwhelm me as well, I felt somehow led to forget it all as well after spending a day floating inside the bubbly mass.