Meet Ahmad…The Qassam Foot Solider
By Hanitizer
When you reside the Gaza Strip, with its high population density, your neighbors come from all political views from they crazy Palestinian conspiracy theorist, the religious zealot, the obnoxious progressive and they guy who wants to be left alone. One of my the guys that lives in my area is Ahmad and Ahmad as a 23 years old Palestinian man who’s a member of Hamas’ militant wing, Al Qassam Brigade, and he is also an employee of the Hamas government where he drives around one of their political figures. I often see him rushing to the local mosque and when I speak to him, it is often a short exchange.
We spoke about how pissed of he was when President Abbas renewed his own term, while insisting that Hamas should abide by the election deadline. Upon learning of my struggle to leave Gaza, he asked me to speak to his boss—a big Hamas wig. I let him know that for a smart guy, he says stupid things. On a hot summer night, I returned home late around 2 AM only to spot him carrying an assault rifle and heading to his Murabt’een unit. Murabt’een are individuals who belong to various Palestinians militant wings who stay up all night long at strategic locations as well as border lines to wait for a sudden Israeli incursions.
I had an outlandish conversation with Ahmad few days ago. Ahmad was sitting at his cousin hole in the wall grocery shop and out of the blue he asked me, “Is it true in America is fornication wide spread?” regardless of how random the question is as I thought to myself “What the Hell?” feeling like an unofficial spokesperson for Uncle Sam in my little town, I told him sure, people do have sex over there and it is not considered as bad as we view it here. I felt obligated to also tell him about that not all groups in the States approve of. I spoke of the Mormons, Baptists as well as others who tend to hold out. Ahmad was surprised that America was not what he saw in movies in his words, “Is it true like in America in bars and parties guys ‘ride’ any chick they meet” I do not why he insisted on pushing this subject and labeling America as a whore house, America got other things going for it. I said sure some people have some luck with that and they rarely return home from the bar empty handed—pun?
Then our uncomfortable conversation took another turn, Ahmed wanted to to know that according to him women are responsible for initiating promiscuity. I happened to disagree with Ahmad and believe that men are responsible for initiating sexual behavior. Ahmad was surprised when I told him from my personal experience women tend to be more conservative and are the ones who say “No!” while the guy wants to do what Marvin Gay sings about. I know that once started men are harder to stop, and thus less inclined to harbor self control.Although I am willing to be wrong on this one, I am not all comfortable with the subject. I felt the need to share this little story to show where people’s priorities are laid—pun intended. Now Ahmad is not a spokesperson for an entire brigade, but his views are common among the zealot crowd and the common man. My problem with such mentality is their mixed signals; many of them have no problem killing a person who disagrees with them, but all seem to raise hell when someone sticks his dip stick in the cookie jar. At least in the second act there seems a mutual agreement and no one loses his/her life.
Two weeks after my conversation with Ahmad, his GED results came in and our friend, the great religious figure of our neighborhood here, actually failed in the religious studies, thus he had to repeat taking the exam…oh the irony. I then felt GOOD
But Ahmad few days ago and all of a sudden actually decided to move out of our area. I noticed that few of the folks living nearby were discreetly happy by his decision to move out of the neighborhood. Evidently, if Israel to take him out: as they did in the past will not stop till they find him dead even if it took demolishing the entire neighborhood or killing few innocent souls.