"Don't Take My Picture! THEY'll Kill Me"

It's amazing, at least I'm amazed at who well we all get along at work.  I'm referring to the Jews and Arabs who work together at Rami Levy and Yafiz in Sha'ar Binyamin.  As I've written many times, it's the story that the international media and the international diplomatic busybodies prefer to ignore.  They don't quite like the fact that the Arabs feel safe and comfortable with Jews, especially Jews who are obviously Right and live in communities known as "settlements" in Judea and Samaria.

I experienced something similar when studying in a special course of studies for unlicensed teachers in David Yellin Teachers College.  (The program was to officially certify/license us as teachers.)  There was an Arab in the group who would say that she trusted us, our sincerity and honesty more than the secular Leftist Jews she lived with.

The other day at work, a Jewish fellow worker called me over:

"You must take a picture of this!"

She knew that I would enjoy the irony of seeing Arabs hanging Israeli flags all over the Rami Levy-Yafiz stores to celebrate Yom Ha'Atzma'ut, Israeli Independence Day.  Many Arabs work in maintenance, and decorating the stores is part of their job.  When I took out my camera, there was an explosion of Arabic as the workers discussed it.  Then one came up to me and very politely asked me not to take his picture.

"They'll kill me.  You know who they are."
"Yes, don't worry. You're not in the pictures."

I then made sure that there were no pictures showing any staff, Jew or Arab on my camera.  That seemed best.

Arabs seem very happy to be working for Rami Levy.  Apparently, even the lowest minimum wage job gives a good salary.  A few months ago when I was serving an Arab customer in English, she told me that she's an English teacher, and if I'd work in Jenin or Shechem aka Nablus, with my perfect American accent I'd make lots of money, about ns4,000 a month.  That maybe a lot in those cities, but an Israeli teacher makes more.  That sum is minimum wage in Israel.  I found it very interesting that the woman seemed oblivious to my being a Jewish Israeli and that if I was to enter those cities, I'd probably not leave alive.