You live in Ramallah? Do you want me to help get you out? -
Amira Hass received an unusual phone call on her Palestinian cellphone the other day.
By Amira Hass | Jun. 16, 2015 |Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/.premium-1.661145
Last Tuesday, my Palestinian cell phone rings. Caller ID shows it’s from an Israeli number. “Hello, this is Yad L’achim,” the young voice on the other end says. Excuse me? I respond.
I’m speaking from Yad L’achim. We’ve heard that you live in Ramallah. Is that true? Are you interested in our assistance?
Assistance with what? I say. If you want to leave, comes the response. Why would I want to leave? I ask. Just asking, the caller says. Just asking if everything is OK. If everything is OK, then stay there.
His name is Yitzhak, and I ask him: And if I do want to leave, how will you get me out of Ramallah? Do you go into Ramallah? Or set a place to meet?
“I’m just a volunteer,” he says diplomatically, “but the minute that you say you need to get out, I will tell the call center, the management at the office. They will know what to do.”
No, he has not yet had the chance to get someone out of the West Bank, but he has prepared for it. He hasn’t been volunteering for very long, he explains, but he “tries to help, just volunteering here for his national civilian service. Anything that Jews and Arabs need help with, I try to help.”
“You also help Arabs?” I ask.
“I help everyone. I try. I am not officially doing national service. It’s like picking up hitchhikers at every hitchhiking post.”