The Mall

In Tel Aviv there is a place that looks like home. It’s a mall, full of movies and music and sports wear and panty shops. There is a sign, in Hebrew, on a window in a pizza shop that reads, “Delivery driver wanted, apply after military service.” Most citizens are required to serve in the Israeli army, but everyone here knows that. Palestinians, on the other hand, are forbidden.

There are scores of Palestinians in Tel Aviv who have come seeking work. They pick fruit and pave roads. They paint walls and collect garbage. This mall, far from the checkpoints and curfews, where food is thrown away and teens scurry about coveting fashions, is where Apartheid manifests. It’s hidden away, but buried deep beneath, are the Wall, the blockades, the assassinations and the colonies. And every so often, Apartheid peeks through to the surface, in the form of a sign, on a pizza shop window, that translates, “Delivery driver wanted. Arabs need not apply.”