tasting the medicine..

a friend of mine living in jerusalem is moving to ramalla.. or at least considering it.. its bizarre.. but i feel so palestinian right now.. at least about this.. he is an "international" - what we call non israeli people that live here and/or partake in peace work.. but he is also jewish and until he becomes israeli (if ever) he can do this.. and thats all cool..

we used to hang out a fair bit.. id often crash at his house in jerusalem.. last year he moved in with a palestinian friend of his.. i used to consider that person a friend of mine as well.. but one day half way through a discussion he exclaimed that he didnt want to know my opinions about the situation here and since our connection soured.. so once they moved in to share a house i stopped visiting..

if my friend moves to ramalla i will never visit.. for one its illegal.. and secondly i wouldnt feel welcome in the house even if it was legal..

i think this might be similar to how palestinians feel when they befriend someone from israel.. hopefully if the talks between our leaders are successful things may change someday.. then again while netanyahu is edged into the corner as obama insists that he defeatedly utter the words "two state solution" - i am left somewhat hopeless.. once upon a time we would talk about arab pride being an obstacle to the peace process and a psychological factor to reckon with.. it seems that jewish pride is no lesser a hurdle..