The Fourth Transformative Event of the Decade (on the Way to Eleven): A Rude Awakening in a Palestinian Neighborhood

A Rude Awakening: The Ugly American

East Jerusalem neighborhood 

Courtesy of timesofisrael.com

While in Jerusalem I embark on a solo walking tour in a Palestinian neighborhood adjacent to the Temple Mount.

The area is craggy, steep in parts, sparsely settled with no visible residents and few autos. A solitary Mercedes taxi passes me.

I am a little nervous and pick up my pace.

Suddenly, a group of five Arab ragamuffins aged 5-7 years old come running out of a recreation center and follow me for a short distance chanting in unison in a broken English" Ugly, f_ _ _ ing American, f_ _ _ing American, go home American" --each one slapping me lightly on my rear end.

And just as suddenly as they appeared, they run back up to their basketball court...

I pick up my pace and it seems that a half hour passes- before I arrive at Independence Park in the vicinity of the City of David unmolested with just one more Mercedes overtaking my rapid pace.

The last time I experienced being in the class of the ugly American abroad was in the early 1960's when Parisians and other Europeans cast aspersions at and caricatured the rich American abroad, tourist or government functionary--unable or unwilling to converse with natives in French, German or Spanish, but who carried a wad of cash to bring back perfumes, jewelry, cameras and other goodies---always oblivious and insensitive to local mores.

Of course in those days, we college students abroad were easily able to follow the guidelines laid down in our new Baedecker, Art Frommer's Europe on Five Dollars a Day.

For an earlier blog on my visit behind the Iron Curtain to East Berlin's Pergamon Museum back in 1962 (more on this Ugly American) check out Breaks in the Berlin Wall: Behind the Iron Curtain 1962-1965.

For earlier events in this series, visit my blog Tell It Like It Is.