On Reddit, a US person of palestinian Arab descent posts about his/her experience coming to Israel.
In 2012 I flew to Amman, Jordan with my family en route to the Allenby Bridge. We were spending some time in Palestinian territory (I have a lot of family there but had never been myself). My mother has a Palestinian passport and is not permitted to fly into Tel-Aviv. Accompanying us were my 3 younger sisters and my older brother. One of the my younger sisters is both epileptic and mentally challenged. We spent hours on a plane to Jordan from the United States and a few more in taxis before reaching the Jisr. And there I met the most pleasant human being in my life. He was roughly 6’3″ and decorated in IDF uniform and assault rifle. Having never seen something like this in my life, I was slightly terrified at first glance (I was in my early 20s and seeing military personnel anywhere was new to me). He approached my family in a very non-threatening way and asked politely where we were coming from and where we were going. After we told him, he looked to my younger sister and asked us if we needed anything to drink. He handed my mother a bottle of water when she asked if she can have one for my sister.
Also at the Jisr was someone of Asian descent that worked as a reporter. To get to Palestinian security, one must take a series of buses with some checkpoints in between. I was not naive at the time and understood that it was for security reasons. However, the kind gentleman that I previously mentioned went around and spoke to some people. After some protest from his colleagues, he eventually got us on the same bus as the reporter and we were able to bypass all checkpoints. He went completely out of his way to make our lives much easier that day.
Before leaving the U.S. for Israel, I expected to be treated like dirt based on the stories I heard growing up from friends and family. But I was glad to be completely wrong. In the month I spent in that part of the world, my perception of Israelis had completely changed. I treated each IDF soldier I encountered with respect and received nothing less in return. I could have went about that entire month all wrong. But thanks to one kind gentleman, I learned so much.
