Too much death

We are in Tel Aviv and it’s late. Jabali takes me to this ace burger place where they do really good meat. We’ve just been in Shesek drinking vodka and listening to grubby soul.

‘Which burger do you want?’ the waitress asks. I just want the quickest one. I want the one that’s ready now. It’s been about eight hours and food is on my mind.

As we wait for the burger to fry, the big man at our side – this bar is full only of men – starts to talk. And I want to take his picture so I do.

‘The other day,’ he says, ‘a woman half your size came in here and ordered the maximum burger. She put it all away. I don’t know where. And her man – he was bigger than you – had only the small. You know what I said? I told him, it’s clear who wears the trousers in your house.’

My burger arrives. Raphael, for that is the man’s name, wants to see the pictures that I took.

‘That’s not good. I could do better with my phone,’ he says. ‘What are you doing here anyway?’

‘I’m a photographer,’ I say. ‘Working in Jaffa with Sadaka Reut.’

He looks blank.

‘It’s an Arab-Jewish partnership.’

The waitress snakes her eyes.

‘A what?’

‘A-rab Jew-ish partnership.’ I spell it out.

It’s like the moment when someone says ‘I’m gay’ at the family Christmas in front of all the aunts.

But then Raphael circles one huge arm, stands in front of his chair and shouts, ‘I believe in that! That is good! You know what – this land doesn’t belong to anybody just because God says. Not this one. Not that one. We all come from our mother's womb.’

We are listening.

‘This land belongs to all of us. I’ve seen too much death already!’ he shouts.

Comments

[Caroline Irby]

Just been looking at your blog... So interesting to see what you’ve been up to. The story about the Ivoiriens is extraordinary. Do they plan to stay in Israel or what? And I love the picture of the family portrait wall at Sama’s place.

Big hug Xxxxxx

[Leila]

Caro.. now we saw each other anyway but thanks for your inspiration. Sketch was great! I think the refugees have no plans, they can't - but want to go to America or England, where everything is easy and there's no racism, just lots of work for the taking... We talked about that. I tried to explain... L xxxxxx