Two families in the Middle East, the Palestinians and the Israelis, appeared on British television show 'House Swap' this week. In the show, one family stays with another one for a week but but have to abide by the host family's house rules, then the reverse happens for the second week, and this is how the programme went:
Mrs. Leila Palestinian, from Gaza City, said: 'The Israelis seemed very polite all of the time, but a bit odd, as they're like Western Europeans, but I loved their house in Tel-Aviv. They have a life we can only dream of, with decent schools and hospitals and transport, and universities and farms and businesses, made me feel like we were in France or Italy! But the minute they told us their house rules, things started to get a bit strained.'
'They said we couldn't use their toilets or showers, nor could we wash our clothes, and we couldn't even drink their tapped drinking water, so we had to scoop it up outside from puddles in the road. My eldest son got very angry about this, and said he was going to join Hamas when we got home, but the rest of us just put up with it all - after all we were otherwise getting on OK, though a bit awkwardly, sure, but it wasn't so bad.'
'Then disaster struck! We were sitting with our hosts in the garden, drinking beer and having a barbecue - neither of which are allowed by Hamas - when our neighbors back in Gaza heard we were staying with the Israelis, and started firing rocket bombs at the house! Luckily the Israelis had a safe shelter, or we'd all be dead by now, it was terrible. I'm ashamed of my own people for such cowardly acts, they could have killed my children, and for what? I was disgusted. But the Israelis were nice about it, and let us stay for the whole week, it was good to see how they live.'
And Mr. Moshe Israeli said: 'For the second week we stayed at the Palesinians' place in Gaza, and had to live under their rules. That meant no drinking, only speaking Arabic, praying five times a day - and how funny it was to see us Jews bowing down to Mecca, hee hee, my grandmother from Poland would have had a heart attack seeing us all! - but the main difference was the practical things we simply had to do, there was no choice but to do them.'
'That meant we were given rifles and had to defend the house and street against the IDF, and they were using jets and tanks!, and we had to barter to get enough to eat. There was no heating, though the coffee there was unbelievably good, who knows where they got it from. But we got by, it was a bit tense but the constant air raids and snipers firing at us meant we had no time to fall out with one another. The Palestinians were very good to us, but angry with our people, and with good reason, like us they just want peace.'
'Then on the third day a huge explosion could be heard nearby, and we soon found out that IDF jets had attacked a school. Ambulances struggled to get near it and bombs were still going off in the area, but there were dead and wounded children everywhere. I'm ashamed of my people for such cowardly acts, they could have killed my own children, and for what? It will just make Hamas more popular.'
When asked what they would like changed in each others' houses, Mrs. Palestinian said: 'I wish the Israelis had treated us more equally, and let us use all of their modern facilities, and of course stopped their relations from attacking us in the Gaza. But we'll keep in touch, they're cultured and nice, brave people, once you get to know them.'
And Mr. Israeli said: 'I'd've preferred not to have been forced into Muslim prayers, and found their culture rather backward and obsessive, and of course would like them to stop the Hamas murderers from firing rockets at us. But they're good people just trying to survive, and as brave if not braver than us - we''ll keep in touch with them, no question about it. Shalom, Leila.' 'Salaam, Moshe.'
A movie of the TV show is reportedly in the pipeline; production is set to begin just as soon as enough sensible Palestinians and Israelis can be found in Israel to make up the cast of eight for it - which may take another 2,000 years.
