Warning! Danger Ahead!

Labels are shortcuts that help us analyze, categorize, and instruct. When shopping at the grocery store, labels help the consumer determine the nutritional content of a product, position its placement on the food pyramid, and may even issue a warning of one kind or another.

Labels also serve as shortcuts to identify groups. We use them to sift and sort out commonalities and assumptions - some for good and some, far less so. We categorize people by gender, ethnic origin, nationality, religion, economic status, and the list goes on and on. In a place like Berkeley, we argue endlessly over the dangers of such labeling since stigmatizing and stereotyping are rampant when tagging others this way. This is particularly true when the people doing the labeling are in power over those being classified.

As you might imagine, here in Israel/Palestine, such conscriptions reinforce the long-held views that one group holds about the other. In this conflict, the way another group labels you is almost always the complete opposite of how you might perceive yourself.

When I moved here for my sabbatical, I intentionally decided against living a tourist lifestyle. Tourists are often coddled and shielded from the realities of life here. Most visitors parachute into the West Bank for no more than a few hours to see the holy sites in Bethlehem. And many pilgrims don't even to that. They are afraid to cross the border. Why? In part, because most have been told that it is not safe. 

One choice I made was to lease a car and drive myself. People told me I was crazy but how could I experience Palestine if I was always in a taxi? 

When I first arrived, I wanted to see as much of Palestine as I could.  Flexing my fledgling driving wings, I immediately got out and drove on the open road - first to Ramallah, then to Jericho, and finally, a Sunday drive somewhere south. You know, I really have no idea all the places I went that first weekend.

It was a challenge trying to figure out the traffic, the cultural rules (it is expected that you will honk), and the various road signs.  Out of the city and in the more rural areas, I began to notice tri-lingual signs like these leading to all the Arab villages:  

Given my naiveté, I was a bit freaked out when I saw them. What would happen to me if I accidently drove into one of these villages with my Israeli-plated car? Given that I can’t speak Arabic, would I be mistaken for an Israeli? Alone and a woman, could I be hurt in some way? So I drove past them as quickly as I could, praying that my car would never break down in such an area. I secretly vowed that I would never tell my family that I had been foolishly driving around without an escort!

It didn’t take too long for me to figure out how utterly unfounded these fears had been. Quite the opposite. Palestinian hospitality is generous and embracing. If I had wandered into one of these villages, they would have found someone who spoke English, invited me to dinner, and I would have dozens of new best friend.  Never have I had anything but the warmest welcome while wandering around the West Bank.

So why the warning signs? 

I had always assumed these signs were placed by the Palestinian Authority, the message being, “Israelis keep out or else!” After all, these signs are on Palestinian land and mark the entrance to areas under Palestinian governance and military control, the well-established “Area A.”  But this is not the case. What I discovered just this past week iz that it is the Israeli government who puts up these signs. For what reason? Apparently this reinforces the Israeli stereotype that Palestinians are hostile and threatening.  These signs serve as a warnings that entrance into any Palestinian town is dangerous to non-Palestinians - something that I know to be blatantly untrue!

So imagine my amusement when some Israeli and Palestinian women decided to create their own form of non-violent protest, choosing instead to place a different kind of label on those entrance markers. They covered these defamatory signs with ones that more readily reflects Palestinian hospitality.

I really like the last line:  "Refuse to be enemies."

Now that's the kind of label I think even Jesus would like.