by Shahla Naimi
Trumbull, Yale College 2012
On Rafidia Street in Nablus, they are 4 or 5 guys basking under the trees in dark green uniforms and red-green hats casually laying down and carrying guns. They do not smile; they do not talk to you.
On Benihana Street in Jerusalem, they are young, attractive guys and girls in dark green uniforms holding backpacks, who haven’t undergone the emotional development that college instigates that makes someone keen to constantly ask questions. They laugh and hold hands, drink iced coffee and eat ice cream.
One maintains order in a land of people called Arabs.
One maintains order in a land of people called Palestinians; this is the other that gets discount prices at concerts:
50 NIS.
40 NIS for students and soldiers.
In a café in Jerusalem called Change, a young man told me that soldiers are normal, that they protect the people of Israel.
At An-Najah University in Nablus, a young woman told me that the Palestinian Authority is an unwelcome puppet, “But who cares anyways?”
Viewpoint. Twist.
The government of Israel cannot continue to manipulate, twist, and mold human rights to fit the image it wants and portray a biased story. In doing so, Israel casts itself as a victim when it clearly has the upper hand: it has the stability, power, and resources to determine and enforce how well- respected human rights are in its territory, and the Occupied Territories. The Oslo Peace Accords and every agreement before and after, should have been a matter of established human rights conventions, not power.
Human rights are non-negotiable.
