April 26, 2002

Girls with Guns

[East Jerusalem, Palestine] I wanted to totally forget the intifada today, so I walked around West Jerusalem and took a couple photos of young girls. Nothing like a cute girl to make you forget the war, right? (By the way, since I am 39, I realize that I am walking a very thin line here.)

It make me really sad to see young kids with rifles walking through the open mall. I'm disturbed because it just doesn't seem right. If you go almost anywhere in West Jerusalem, there are kids with guns. Take a trip to the Jerusalem Mall Burger King and you'll find a dozen kids with rifles eating hamburgers. Go to the movie theater and look at the guys holding guns. These appear to be kids having a good time with their friends, not soldiers on duty. (A nice lady I talked to did tell me they were soldiers taking a break.)

Walk into any restaurant and you'll find a young guard on duty. He'll wave a metal detector wand over your body. He will also ask you if you are carrying a gun. Routine question -- "Are you bringing any guns into our restaurant today?" I wandered up to the Sbarros on Jaffa Street that was bombed about six months ago. It was in business, but during lunch only one guy was drinking a Coke inside. Two guards were posted outside. The Jerusalem Mall recently had three layers of security outside the building -- one row of armed men and women, one row with armed men and a metal detector, and finally a third row of guards at the door of the mall. (The nice lady told me that she guesses about 25% of the men in Israel carry a gun.)

And it's almost as bad in the West Bank. There are a lot of young guys with guns walking the streets. (Well, it was like that. I'm not sure how it will be now.) I've never seen a women with a gun though. That would be very unusual.

I grew up around guns. We probably had at least a dozen assorted rifles, shotguns, and pistols on our farm. I killed my first (and only) deer when I was 16 with my uncle's .306 rifle. I went hunting with my dad and younger brother every year. Guns were around, and in general, I wasn't uncomfortable with them. But I wasn't taking my gun to Valley Mall. I wasn't carrying it to McDonalds. I didn't take it with me when my friends and I went to a football game. I didn't carry it on the bus or in my car. They were never brought into the house.

All the guns here make me uncomfortable. And all the young people carrying guns just sort of depresses me. This place would be a heck of a lot better if we didn't have all these guns.