Word: arabism
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...city is ever to be legally divided--while maintaining its identity as a shared space--there are lessons to be learned from the thousands of Arabs who have figured out how to weave their way through Jerusalem's web of invisible barriers. They often dress like trendy young Israelis and, at army checkpoints, switch the car radio to Israeli music and speak a few words of Hebrew to soldiers. "I live in two different worlds," says Ammar Obaidat, who rose from gardener to head elephant keeper at the Tisch Family Zoological Gardens, "and I have to keep a balance between...
...Arab ambulance drivers, like Arab zookeepers, have learned how to navigate Jerusalem's many borderlines. "I'm suspicious-looking in so many ways," laughs Nasser Izhiman, a volunteer driver and medic for the Magen David Adom (MDA) ambulance service. "An Arab guy wearing the Star of David on my jacket? Nobody knows what to think." In fact, Arab medics--MDA has 75 Arabs among its 1,500 Jerusalem volunteers but is trying to recruit more--are invaluable. Not only can they help serve East Jerusalem, with its maze of unnamed streets, but they are also indispensable for the city...
...Arab drivers won trust from their own community several years ago after they saved the life of an elderly Arab chieftain whose family members were Old City militants. In East Jerusalem, Arabs no longer hurl stones at MDA ambulances, once seen as symbols of the Israeli oppressor. Yet still, the divisions of the city leave their scars. The ambulances are allowed to enter Eastern neighborhoods only with a police escort. Waiting for police cars often wastes precious seconds during an emergency call, so Izhiman and his colleague Morad Alian will often collect the patient in their own cars and drive...
Always, always, the pain and hurt of the city can break through and curdle the best intentions. Izhiman describes what it was like to cope with the aftermath of a suicide bombing. "We're trying to help the injured, and people are pointing at us, yelling, 'You're Arab! You did this to us, and what, now you're here to save lives?' It was like a knife in my heart." Adds Alian, "On the Israeli side, human lives are being lost, and the Arab side is demanding rights for statehood. I'm caught in between, angry and frustrated...
Jerusalem, sacred to three religions, can't be neatly divided. Israeli settlements extend to the east, beyond Arab neighborhoods, while the Old City is a jumble of streets and faiths, attracting visitors from afar...