7 till 7

The phone wakes me up “we’re in the share-taxi, we’ll be at the central bus station in 40 minutes” “what? I thought your meeting started an hour ago?” “They wouldn’t let anyone through the checkpoint – noone no reason – we had to take a cab round the other way then hitch from that checkpoint in to Jerusalem, but we’ll be there soon, can you meet us?” “no worries i’ll see ya there”. Twenty minutes later, “we arrived, where are you?” “still at home, I thought you said 40 minutes, you should just get a taxi its only a 15 minute walk don’t pay more than 20 shekels.” “ok”. 5 minutes later “Ah I think somethings wrong, they want 80 shekels and told us its really far away” “What?! Let me speak to the driver”. The guy pretends to have misunderstood the directions then agrees its only a 5 minute drive but demands 60 shekels, I tell them to find another taxi. 10 minutes later I’m on my bike and call back, “is everything cool, did you make it?” “I’m not sure where we are, I think its the right street but he took us to the wrong end, we’re at number 4.” “What the fuck?! I’ll come find ya.”

“Welcome to Tel Aviv” I say sarcastically as we hug. She’s smiling, seemingly unaffected by the morning stress, stoked to be in this sun-drenched city by the sea for the first time in her life. I dink her the last 5 blocks to the meeting, she’s two hours late. It was only supposed to go for 2 hours. They talk for another hour then we go for lunch and walk down to the beach. “So whats the story in the end, is the permit just till 7 or are you staying and we’re going out tonight?” “I think i’m staying, the permit doesn’t say anything on it about being back by 7” “Ace! It’ll be such a great night. Only thing is i’m going to dinner at my cousins later, would you wanna come with or should we just meet up after?” I’m actually really happy to be able to offer dinner with my family after I ate, laughed and drank coffee with hers in Nablus a few wks back, but I also know its not the most carefree dinner invitation and don’t wanna pressure. “Hey yeah that could be nice, but umm are you sure, aren’t your family kinda crazy?” i’ve told her about a few conversations I had with some of them “yeah I reckon it’ll be fine tho, these cousins are lovely, totally relaxed and open-minded, some others are coming but I reckon they’ll behave around them. Maybe just think about it and i’ll call them later if you wanna come”.

After just 20 minutes on the beach she’s called back to the office to talk shop again. An hour later I poke my head in to ask whats up, “the permits only till 7 I have to start heading back in half an hour.” “What?!” I promise to come back and walk her to the bus stop. She’s leaning against the front of the building, almost in tears. “I hate them. I want to cry but I don’t want to. Why are they doing this? I just want to live and have fun, do they have a problem with that? … I just spent the whole stupid day in meetings and just 20 minutes on the beach, I didn’t even get to swim. Do you think theres time to go back quickly? Maybe we should just drop by the beach then i’ll leave.” “Umm, I really don’t know, if you want to be back at the checkpoint by 7 then theres not really time, I’m not saying no, its not my call, but.. I don’t know I just don’t want this to screw your chances of getting a permanent permit, its your call i’ll dink you if you wanna go” “Oh I should just go. Why won’t they leave me alone, why me, why am I so different to you?” I dont know what to say, “its fucked”. We walk back to the bus stop, say bye and make plans to go out on the weekend in Bet Lehem.

I get on a bus to go for dinner with my fam, my aunt and uncle pick me up from the station, “How was your day?” “ok I guess” I tell them about my day “why did she have a permit?” they say accusingly “ah, I already said – because she had meetings for work” “Ha! they should just give every one of them a permit then” “Yeah its a big problem, their freedom of movement is really restricted” i’m kind of playing them “thats not what I mean, none of them should be allowed to come here. Ever. They can’t be trusted, they come here to blow themselves up and kill us” “all of them? are you saying you think my friend secretly wants to blow me up?” “oh its not about the individuals.” I’m relieved she couldn’t come to dinner.