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First impressions of a European in Israel
Brigitta Moll
When I told my European friends and relatives that I was going to Israel, their reactions were not exactly ecstatic.
Should you ever find yourself in the same situation, expect your loved ones to ask if you are not "afraid something might happen."
In any other context, the mysterious "something" could point to one of the thousands of fatal car accidents, or a common crime. But with Israel, it's different. Many seem to believe that whoever goes there is doomed to die horribly in a suicide bombing.
As violent attacks and the threat of imminent war are the most frequent aspects in the mainstream Western media's coverage of Israel, there is little room for anything other than an image of life in constant fear.
To be sure, travelling to Israel is a special experience. Along with its ancient historical sites, its culture, landscape and people to be discovered, you somehow expect the conflict to be visible in everyday life.
At first sight, public life in Tel Aviv does not look that different to other places. People here do the same things as anywhere else. They go grocery shopping, they relax on the beach. They even go to work by bus, a terrifying notion for media-educated Europeans.
And it is this normal animation that surprises. After all, how do people cope every day with the conflict-ridden reality? Someone from outside can only imagine. Maybe some events remain abstract as long as it does not touch someone or something close to you. Or, as odd as it sounds, you may get used to a feeling of threat.
Eventually, you develop this rough sense of humor about war, a subject beyond jocoseness in European spheres. Just like the person who, on the walls around a house on Ben-Gurion Boulevard, painted an arrow toward the building, together with the words "Secret Nuke Cellar".
True, cynicism can make hardship sound lighter. But then again, you hear a young woman talking about the trip to India she took after her military service.
"Sometimes you just have to get out of here," she casually adds to her account.
As a newcomer, trying to put together these pieces of ambiguous impressions, you can only wonder.
Brigitta Moll is a journalist from Cologne, Germany, who is staying in Israel for several weeks.
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