the other day in the caf

i was having coffee with some friends between classes and, upon glancing to my left, i noticed that the girl sitting there was studying hebrew. i was shocked: the existence of a hebrew class here means that there is enough interest in hebrew to have a class in the most important university in the capital of lebanon, which does not have relations with its southern neighbor and will not permit anyone with an israeli (or palestinian) stamp on his/her passport to enter the country. i imagine that i just gaped at this girl's textbook in an overly conspicuous manner because she looked up.

"it's hebrew."
"um...oh."

despite my terribly insightful response, she introduced herself, as did i, and told me that she's from syria, in a city between damascus and aleppo. she is in her second year in biology and studying hebrew for the hell of it. she began telling me how fascinating she found the language and giving me examples to demonstrate how intimately related it is to arabic. only sort of thinking, i told her that she should go to israel. she clicked her tongue, a typical expression of disapproval or disagreement here, and replied, "i know that is how you're supposed to learn a language, ya'ani. you study and then you go to where they speak it, bas i can't go there. i would be killed!"

i got momentarily distracted. what would happen if a syrian girl showed up at the israeli border? would she be allowed to enter? and if she were, would she be welcomed once she was there? even though syrians presently don't have much say in their political representation, i don't know if many israelis would draw a line separating the government from the people, so i am hesitant to reply in the affirmative to either question. do i think she would be killed, though? no.

misconceptions like this are far from one-sided. before i arrived, almost every jew with whom i discussed my imminent departure inquired about the state of my mental health and then expressed extreme concern for my physical well-being during my stay here. some of these worries have subsided since i have been existing here happily and successfully for 5 weeks, but many have not.

in lebanon, there is absolutely an anti-israeli sentiment and, from what i've seen so far, few people distinguish between israelis and the israeli government, although since israel is a democracy and sharon's last popularity ratings before he fell ill were still fairly high, i find it less objectionable than when someone assumes that i voted for bush since roughly 1/2 americans didn't. if an israeli managed to come here -- on another passport, obviously -- the person would not be welcomed the way i have been and would not feel comfortable being here. i don't think, however, that, at least in beirut, the person would be in physical danger. the security situation here is less than ideal at the moment, but the targets have nothing to do with jews or israel. except for those who espouse anti-syrian rhetoric to the masses, beirut is a party.

further, hiding a feature of your identity because you're not sure of what the reaction to it would be (e.g. israeli, jewish, scandinavian), is not difficult. most lebanese people in lebanon have never met a jew, much less an israeli, and i don't think there is much of a scandinavian expat community. consequently, there is no recognition of what constitues a jewish or scandinavian name (provided it's not well-known, of course; if a man introduced himself as moses ben gurion, people might catch on), and no one can pick out an israeli or danish accent in english because they've never really heard either one.

in any case, there is often a distinction made between jews and israelis. professing subscription to judaism in public gatherings is unwise, but confiding to intimates is not. the reaction is surprisingly similar to saying that you are american: people try to find out which stereotypes are true and which aren't, and they are pleased and impressed that, despite lebanon's reputation in much of the west, you have elected to visit anyway.

the syrian girl told me that she invited several american exchange students from aub to her house in syria in the fall and then she expressed her dismay that the government is being "difficult, ya'ani. if it improves before you leave, you are welcome. ahlan wa sahlan." (equivalent to "my house is your house" in english.)

i hope that when she can bring americans to her house again, a jew visiting lebanon will be able to take her to israel, confident that, not only will she not be killed, but that she will find the door to the jews' biblical house open and awaiting her arrival.