Son of a gun...er, shoe.

I talked to a few people about the toy gun incident, and I've found out that during holidays (last week was Eid al-Adha or Feast of the Sacrifice), Palestinian children are given money and they go out and buy these toy guns and play a game similar to "cops and robbers", only it's really "Palestinians and Israelis".


After I got home from that walk, I asked a friend with some military experience, and he told me that it was probably a toy gun-what did he call it? An airsoft gun, and he'd seen a lot of Palestinian kids running around with them lately. He explained to me that they usually have this little plastic orange stopper that indicates that it's not real, but in the moment, who's looking for that orange piece? I probably didn't even notice it.

Then I asked one of my Palestinian friends about it, and he said that it was almost like a tradition as kids to play this game during holidays. Both of them insisted to my skepticism that it was fun. Sure, I guess. Is there that much of a difference between playing with toy guns and playing violent video games? I see a socio-economic difference, but maybe there's a different sense of reality too?

Again, it's such an odd dichotomy because guns are just a part of life in Israel. Here I was shopping at the shouk (like a crazy farmers market) the afternoon before Shabbat, listening to a street-side performance when lo and behold right in front of me: Strange that I can stand so close yet feel so unthreatened.

Also, a lot has happened lately in the Middle East what with President Bush getting shoes thrown at him in Iraq.
I find Minister Maliki's resigned expression when watching the first shoe getting thrown kind of comical.

It's really interesting to get professors' reactions on the shoe-hurling incident, and two of my professors in particular had very different yet both very valid things to say.

The professor of my class for the Modern History of the Palestinians and the professor of my Israeli Foreign Policy class are both extremely respectable and humble individuals with doctorates under their belts and more personal relationships with big names than I can even imagine. Both have also taught many figures of the generation now in power in Middle Eastern politics and will often recall more for their sake than ours how these leaders were as their own students once upon a time.

It's so wonderful to get their often times completely opposite perspectives on the same events or political decisions, and the texts I read for each class offer so many opposing arguments whether they be inflammatory or sometimes they are simply misleading and almost deceitful with the purposeful lack of important details. Ultimately however, neither professor is completely this or that. Neither try to impose his views on us, the students. And both offer criticisms and praise for all parties involved.

My professor for the Palestinian class has close ties with many leaders of the Arab world as well as friendships with Israeli leaders. And my professor of Israeli Foreign Policy tells us personal anecdotes of famous Israeli leaders and once, so unassumingly, mentioned casually how he had gone to give blood with Winston Churchill (the grandson of the more prominent Churchill) while he was visiting Israel as a famous journalist to cover the Six-Day War of 1967.

In my Palestinian history class today, we discussed the first Intifada in '87 and the consequentially changed educational system of Palestinian youth. Up until the first Intifada, the Palestinian people did not have control over their own education-they could not contribute to the content, the curricula, or the agenda being imposed on their children. With the Israeli shutting down of schools during the Intifada, "popular teaching" arose with the Palestinization of education.

This education was informal, and because of the lack of textbooks, Palestinian youth were taught with the media available at that time. The media was dominated by political material that focused on resistance and encouraged mobilization and often radicalization. Thus, you have the politicization of youth.

(interesting video on current methods of introducing politics in youth culture and Farfour)

My professor brought up the infamous flying shoes, and told us how his Palestinian students at Al-Quds University had been so excited by this story and revered the shoe-thrower, Mr. Zaidi as a hero of the people. Instead of praising this act, my professor lamented the lack of education people were showing by deeming Zaidi's action as heroic. This lack of education he believed stemmed from this twisted form of education that began from the first Intifada.

He told us that he asked his Palestinian students what Zaidi had accomplished by throwing his shoes at the President when he missed both times, and ultimately, the meeting continued as usual. They answered that even though Zaidi missed, the shoe had hit the flag behind the President when Bush ducked. This was insult to America enough. Honestly, I didn't even notice. My professor angrily said that if he were the reporter, he would ask the question, "Aren't you ashamed to be in Iraq, Mr. President?" He believed that would have been more effective.

And again, playing "cops and robbers" with "Palestinians and Israelis"-another example of the politicization of youth.

In contrast, when my Israeli Foreign Policy professor brought it up in class today and a few chuckles erupted from the lecture hall, he angrily told us that it was not a funny matter. He said that as an Israeli, he was so insulted by such an uncivilized act towards the President of the United States. He reminded us that whether we liked him or not, Bush is still the President of the most powerful country in the world, and you are not. That should mean something to everyone.

Anyway, when I first read about this, I was impressed with President Bush, as I usually find myself with the charmingly self-mocking yet gracious way he is able to get himself out of uncomfortable/embarrassing situations.