America Don’t Worry! Israel is Behind You!
By Nadia Hasan • May 19th, 2008
I remember a few years ago walking through the wonderful narrow streets of the occupied Old city of Jerusalem, seeing a small shop managed by an old Palestinian man who was selling souvenirs to the tourists. I entered the shop, not because I wanted to buy something, I am not a tourist in my own land (despite the Zionist entity who is occupying my land allowing me to enter there just as a tourist) but because I was captured by the smell of fresh coffee that beckoned me from inside the shop. As I know my people, I knew that as soon as I set foot inside the shop I would be welcomed with this hot and stimulating beverage. I was right, after just a minute I was enjoying my drink and having a nice talk with the man. I made the rounds of his shop, looking at the hundreds small plates, pictures, colorful fabrics of all kinds of imaginative and very original T-shirts hanging on one of the walls. T-shirts with pictures of Jerusalem, with Holy Land slogans, with IDF motives (always wondering who might buy one of those!) and I saw one that scared me the most because of its realism. It was a simple T-shirt with the slogan: “America Don’t worry, Israel is behind you!” When I left the shop I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I didn’t get it, I was thinking that the right way to say it is “Israel Don’t worry, America is behind you!” but not the opposite. Anyway, after a few minutes of confusing thoughts about who comes first, the egg or the chicken, I forget the whole thing and continued my walk in the Old city of Jerusalem. This happened 3 years ago.
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I remember a few years ago walking through the wonderful narrow streets of the occupied Old city of Jerusalem, seeing a small shop managed by an old Palestinian man who was selling souvenirs to the tourists. I entered the shop, not because I wanted to buy something, I am not a tourist in my own land (despite the Zionist entity who is occupying my land allowing me to enter there just as a tourist) but because I was captured by the smell of fresh coffee that beckoned me from inside the shop. As I know my people, I knew that as soon as I set foot inside the shop I would be welcomed with this hot and stimulating beverage. I was right, after just a minute I was enjoying my drink and having a nice talk with the man. I made the rounds of his shop, looking at the hundreds small plates, pictures, colorful fabrics of all kinds of imaginative and very original T-shirts hanging on one of the walls. T-shirts with pictures of Jerusalem, with Holy Land slogans, with IDF motives (always wondering who might buy one of those!) and I saw one that scared me the most because of its realism. It was a simple T-shirt with the slogan: “America Don’t worry, Israel is behind you!” When I left the shop I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I didn’t get it, I was thinking that the right way to say it is “Israel Don’t worry, America is behind you!” but not the opposite. Anyway, after a few minutes of confusing thoughts about who comes first, the egg or the chicken, I forget the whole thing and continued my walk in the Old city of Jerusalem. This happened 3 years ago.
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