What happens when an Israeli enters Kalandia is this:
Two couples and their five children, the oldest aged six and the youngest 11 months, in two different cars accidentally made a wrong turn this past weekend. They passed a checkpoint, but soldiers were only checking who was trying to enter Israel, not those trying to enter Kalandia, a Palestinian city moments away from Jerusalem. They realized their mistake almost immediately - so apparently, did the Arab residents of the city. As reported by YNET:
Said one Israeli father: "A minute after we passed the checkpoint we saw cars with blue license plates and realized we were at the wrong place. We made a u-turn but then the Palestinians realized we were Israelis. I locked the doors, but my brother-in-law didn’t make it on time. They opened his car doors, threw stones and started climbing on his car. We ran, we couldn’t drive towards the exit, but we realized we had to stay in motion. We drove back and forth at least five times."
His wife continued: "A few moments earlier we dropped the kids onto the car floor. Had the child still been sitting there, you would have been publishing his picture today. We prayed, they knew we were there and they waited for us each time we drove passed. They had giant rocks and murder in their eyes. It's not fear, its crazed horror one cannot imagine. I was afraid they'd yank the kids out of the car."
Two important facts need to be added: the families were in contact with the IDF, which apparently chose not to go in and get them out but rather waited while staying in contact and trying to get them out via other avenues. One must assume they were afraid a full riot would further endanger the families. Second point - one of the men had a gun with him. He chose not to open fire believing that was best for everyone.
And the second question - what would happen if two Arab families entered Kfar Sava, an Israeli town?
The answer is that they would be able to go shopping, have lunch, and return home safely. That, dear friends, is the Middle East in a nutshell.
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