Hamas War

Thursday, September 8, 2011

"Where Are We?" Ask The Confused Trolley-Jerusalem Light Rail Passengers

Yesterday I was on the Jerusalem Trolley with my husband, so there's finally a picture, actually two, of me.  Yes, I know that the colors are a bit strange.  I lightened the photos.



Many people, including those of the Jewish neighborhoods where the train starts, Neve Ya'akov and Pisgat Ze'ev, seemed to be unaware that the train would be going through nearby Beit Chanina and Shuafat, two upper-middle class Arab neighborhoods.  Yes, there are wealthy and middle-class Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem.

When I had previously ridden on that part of the route, it had been much too crowded for me to take pictures, but yesterday I got some good shots to show Arabic signs.



I wonder if the foreign press and even the Leftist Israel media have mentioned this much.  So far, Jewish and Arab passengers wait and travel and sit together politely and peacefully.  The announcements and the signs are in three languages: Hebrew, English and Arabic.  Of course, there's no guarantee that Arab terrorists won't target the trolleys.

The truth is that there's more cooperation and tolerance between Jews and Arabs here in Israel than the world wants to recognize.  Even Israel's Leftists don't like to admit that Arabs and Jews can live in one country as long as we all obey the laws.  Just the other day I heard a Leftist politician saying that the reason Israel must  withdraw from Judea and Samaria, which he called the "occupied territories," was because "Israel shouldn't have too many Arabs."  That sounds extremely intolerant and very foolish.  It's like throwing out the baby with the bath water.

2 comments:

Hadassa said...

Shalom!
If I'm not mistaken, Shuafat is still officially a refugee camp, even though you'd never know it by looking at it.

Batya said...

Good point, Hadassa, thanks