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| Ibrahim Abu Ta'a nursing a broken leg at Jerusalem's Sha'arei Tzedek Medical Center after being attacked by a group of Jews on September 6, 2012 (photo credit: Yoav Ari Dudkevitch/Flash90) Times of Israel |
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Obama and Romney need to confront, solve Israeli-Palestinian divisions
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October 22, 2012
I was born and raised in Jerusalem.
Most of my work colleagues are Jewish, and despite the growing tension
between Jews and Palestinians in Israel, years of working together have
made us quite close. I speak Hebrew fluently, as well as my native
Arabic, and I have always engaged my Jewish acquaintances with the same
openness and respect I would give to anyone else.
At the annual employee appreciation
party for the upscale Jerusalem hotel where I work as an accounts
representative, one of my Jewish colleagues, a good friend, had too
much to drink. She asked another co-worker and me to give her a ride
home. When we arrived at the apartment she shares with her family, she
assured us that she would be able to continue on her own. But when she
exited the car, she promptly lost her balance. As we got out to help
her, a group of nine Israeli-Jewish teenagers approached us and asked
what was going on. We responded in Hebrew that everything was fine so
they began to walk away. With a look of concern, my friend turned to
speak to me. “Ibrahim,” she said, less quietly than intended, “leave
them be.”
Today I know that if my name had been
Avraham, and not Ibrahim, I would not have been attacked that night
several weeks ago. Ibrahim is the Arabic version for the Bible’s
Avraham. Nowadays, however, instead of hearing the slight variation in
pronunciation, people hear Palestinian, or Jewish. And, within seconds
after my friend uttered my name, I felt the pressure of a hand grab my
shoulder, as eight other men joined in pummeling my body. One of my
attackers struck my left leg with a heavy iron rod, shattering the bone
and sending me to the ground. I remember trying to protect my face,
while I faded in and out of consciousness....READ MORE
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