Dangerous Tomfoolery

I have a problem.
I need to stop being so foolhardy.



On Wednesdays, I end class by noon.

Instead of mulling about in my room wasting time by taking extended naps and reading random blogs or laying outside on the grass to watch the clouds roll by, today, I decided to be a little less sedated than usual and be a little more adventurous.

I found this wonderful site: www.jerusalemp3.com where you can download mp3 files for self-guided walking tours throughout Jerusalem. I downloaded the Mount of Olives tour because it begins right by the university campus, and it includes many Christian pilgrimage sites that I've wanted to visit but never got around to doing.

After a quick glance at the map, I decided the route was straightforward enough, and if it wasn't I could probably find my way with signs. I took my routine nap and set out at around 3 PM with my mp3 blaring away in my ears and a taser my brother got for me from his travels in Cambodia tucked safely in my pocket.

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Since I've been in Jerusalem, I've heard from several Israelis as well as other Rothberg students who've been heckled around here that walking around East Jerusalem is not safe.

But whenever I hear someone say that he/she would never walk even to the Arab quarter of the Old City or around East Jerusalem because he/she is Israeli or a Jew, I always scoff a little at their exaggerated fear.

To be quite honest, a lot of the time, this fear seems completely unjustified and exacerbated by group-think bordering on collective hysteria.

For instance, my friend's Israeli roommate unabashedly stated that she was afraid to study at the Mount Scopus campus of Hebrew U because there are so many Arab students. She must not know that almost all of them are Arab-Israelis, and I can safely say that none of them are terrorists.

Or my Israeli friend who was appalled that I would consider going to Ramallah to watch a once-in-a-lifetime hip hop concert because it's so dangerous (should I have put that in quotes?)- and I didn't even end up going because the person I was supposed to go with was too nervous.

Every time I hear someone say something like this, I think, what a terrific job the media has done to portray Arabs and Palestinians as villains.

Even so, I too have had a bad experience around East Jerusalem on a nightly run when I was chased by two men screaming at me in Arabic. So just as a precaution, I tested my taser before embarking on my tour and felt more confident every time I felt it bump against my hand. Of course, I have never used it and hope I will never have to.
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I took the route that I used to run to get to the starting point of the tour, and it was the first time I'd been back since the incident I just described. I got to the second site no problem, but then I somehow ended up somewhere I didn't feel completely comfortable in. I was in a part of East Jerusalem I'd never ventured before, but I knew I couldn't have taken a wrong turn-there was nowhere to turn towards!

I fingered my taser as I walked through a dillapidated Arab village and scolded myself for feeling nervous. On my right was a muddy plot with two horses that I decided must be a soccer field because I noticed two rusting metal contraptions that served as goals, and there were kids and teenagers hanging around in groups waiting for their turn to ride two horses milling about the field.

The streets and stores were relatively empty for the afternoon (though now I'm realizing that it's a Muslim holiday week), but there were a few kids running around and some grandfathers walking with their grandchildren.

Of course I stuck out in this scanty crowd, but I would not allow myself to turn around. I would not be a coward and reconfirm their incredulity and admit that I did not belong. I held my head high and kept walking down the street ignoring the men calling out of their speeding cars asking if I was lost or needed help.

Even if I was lost, I would not satisfy anyone's claims that I was turning around because I was afraid to be walking in an Arab neighborhood that was certainly no Ben-Yehuda promenade. I would debunk the "all Arabs are terrorists" myth and prove to myself and anyone else that East Jerusalem is perfectly safe.

Then I stopped dead in my tracks and whirled around gasping an "ohmygod" under my breath.

About 30 feet in front of me, a group of teenage boys shoved another boy against a gate as another boy (who I had passed by earlier) put a gun to his head.

Mid-turn I saw him pull the trigger and heard a faint pop that definitely could not have belonged to a real gun. Regardless, I wondered frantically to myself if that were a real gun, was I really trying to walk away nonchalantly? If he wanted to shoot me, I wouldn't have been able to dodge the bullet.

They must have noticed my abrupt movement and started calling out to me. My hotheaded pride kept me from running, but it also kept me from responding to them.

As I speed-walked back the way I came, I noticed that there were still young children running around and parents with their kids. Even reassessing the situation and realizing that what I had just witnessed was probably a game or prank at best and a sick example of bullying at its worst, I was shaken. Then I was disappointed with myself that I did not even consider helping the victim.

On the walk home my frustration was heightened by an unwanted suitor. I was upset that I had turned around without even reattempting to find the third site of the tour. I was angry that I had validated the fear of East Jerusalem and reconfirmed that as a woman, I should not walk around by myself. And most of all, I was disenchanted with the violence that has pervaded and become the norm in Palestinian youth culture.

No wonder then, that the hip hop artists I've met through my internship are so earnest in their claim that the mic is their weapon of choice.


A picture I took of toy guns for street-side sale in Turkey against the backdrop of a mosque.

Relevant note: gun-toting soldiers and security guards (sometimes in civilian clothes) are the norm in Israel. I think the only reason why gun-toting teens and young boys disturb me so much is because a gun is not and should never be mistaken as a child's toy.