My orange juice tasted disgusting as it mixed in my mouth with the taste of my toothpaste...you know the taste...but this was Israeli orange juice...as much as it may be the land of milk and honey, and as much as they might try to brag on the quality of the Israeli fruit, which is by far the best I've ever had...the oranges still fall flat to my Florida OJ...
I looked at my watch and realized that Romi my driver and "Fixer" was due to pick me up from the hotel in 10 minutes...I ran out the door of the hotel restaurant and to the lobby, it felt like an eternity for the elevator get there and then for it to get to the 6th floor...I ran, fumbled about for my keycard and opened the door to my room...
"Dang it.!!..only 2 batteries fully charged..."
The middle east is the last place you want to get to, only to then find out your gear is not working precisely like it was designed to do...Randy, my camera man and good friend, had taken meticulous care of the batteries all week, but he had to leave the night before back to the States to a previous commitment...from that moment to the end of the shoot, I'd have to wear 2 hats, producer, and cameraman...fortunately we were done with the majority of the sit-down interviews so collecting scenics (or what we call in the tv industry "B-Roll") was the bulk of what I had to do...only one interview left....this morning...and Romi must have been pulling in front of the hotel at that very second.
Romi was a Godsend...I'd known his boss, Eli, for almost 10 years, and each time I had an assignment in Israel he would always give me the best treatment, he'd arrange transportation, travel, hotel and driver/guide...but Romi was different...Romi was not an offcial "Guide" licensed by the toursim board...Romi was an ex-military guy who had contacts all over Israel....he could get us into places and get us interviews that regular "guides" couldn't have dreamed of...what the resident foreign journalists call a "Fixer"...someone who could "fix" things...especially situations....or get you out of a "fix".
I grabbed the 2 good batteries, my bag with tape stock and audio gear, and of course the camera...by the time I made it downstairs, Romi was waiting for me with the back of the SUV open and my tripod already inside...Romi was on the phone...he was always on the phone...though I know very little Hebrew, I did not have to know a single word of Hebrew to know when someone is cutting deals and making moves, hustling, if you will....It's something about the tone of the voice...and the body language.....I could tell he was about to hang up when I heard him say "Hassan Al-Asman" (great! wonderful...terrific!)...by now we were pulling out of the Hotel and onto the main road...
"Ready?" he said...switching from Hebrew to English,
"Yeah, I think so" I responded...I went over a mental check list...after all...once you cross the checkpoint and go beyond the wall on the Palestinian side, there's no going back to get something you forgot.
Romi started with the instructions..."once you cross the border you'll see a guy on the other side wearing an orange t-shirt with English writing on it...he'll be your ride to the interview...Eli said you know the driver's dad....Anser" said Romi...he was refering to an incident in 2001 when inside the West Bank I actually got arrested by the Palestinian authority with the producer of the show that we had been working on...they had "issues" with our prescence there that day, and Anser, a good friend of the producer and a popular and influencial Arab businessman in the area, convinced the Palestinians to release us to his care and he took us back into Jerusalem...of course, with Rudy-luck on my side, on the way out of Jerusalem between Gilo and Beit Jala, the Islamic Jihad gunmen and the IDF decided to have it out...I was literally pinned to a wall, crouched down rolling tape on what little I could see while the Palestinians and Israeli's threw everything they could find at each other....
"...are you listening?!" Romi said kinda sternly..."...you must do this correctly...you do NOT want to end up in the wrong car with the wrong person back there!" he warned...
"Yes Romi, I know!!" I said trying to pry myself from my thoughts...and slightly irritated, but more at myself than at Romi
"...orange t-shirt...Anser's son?" I asked,
"yes,"...
As we pulled into the check point, I realized just how much things had changed since I had crossed the border 7 years before...yes this was a checkpoint but it was also a full-blown military enclave...There was the infamous wall...littered with graffiti...messages painted, "Free Palestine", "We are also children of Abraham", "Bush is a criminal"... lot's of other things in both Arab and Hebrew...on top of the walls were turrets armed with real machine guns...big ones. Armored vehicles idly sitting by and IFD soldiers with M-16s or AR-15s everywhere...but to them...just another Thursday morning .....all of the cement barricades you could ever want...and try as I did, I could not help but to think that if Lebanon ever invaded Israel....that this would be the exact place where it would go down.
"I almost forgot Romi..." I said as I pulled out my North Carolina driver's license from my wallet and handed it to him...
"Just in case?" he asked...
"yeah just in case..." I responded... I figured that if things turned ugly in there I could at least plead my case by saying..."I'm not an American, I'm Spanish" of course speaking in fluent Spanish....in such places...when in doubt...it's best to not be American....and of course, it's best to not have a driver's license in your wallet that says that you live in Mecklenburg County.
"Lata Drop Ana Sahafi" I muttered under my breath as I dug around in my bag, not really sure of what I was looking for but trying to ignore the little butterflies in my stomach....Romi laughed....
"What did you say?"...
"Lata Drop Ana Sahafi" I repeated again, smiling a little embarrassed and still digging in my bag, ...."don't shoot I'm a Journalist...listen Romi, you're sure you don't wanna go in there with right?" I asked him sarcastically and fully knowing what his answer would be......he laughed and said....
"Do you want me dead? "...
"No of course not", I answered....
"the West Bank is no place for an ambitious young Jewish man like me who would like to grow to be old man, call me when you are ready to come out, I will be in the area..."
...."thanks, I will," I said....I grabbed my gear and started to walk towards the checkpoint....
"Hey Rudy....been nice to know you".... laughed Romi...
"Ha ha....very funny Romi.." I yelled back through the chain link fence of the check point...sometimes I don't gel with Israeli humor like that...the butterflies did a little fly-by in my stomach as I kept walking......"Latta Drop, Ana Sahafi"....I kept rehearsing.
Just in case you're wondering, no those are not the real names.
No comments:
Post a Comment