To get to the Beit Zait Moshav located just outside of Jerusalem, where I spent my Rosh Hashana Holidays this weekend past, it took an hour and a half on three different buses to get there. Each and every bus–the one from Holit to Eshkol and the one from Eshkol to Ashkelon and the one from Ashkelon to the Harel Junction just outside Beit Zait–had at least two thirds of its seats taken by rifles, and the soldiers in uniform (or not in uniform) they belonged to.
Soldiers ride Israeli public buses for free. As long as they are in uniform, they can ride the bus in any direction, any distance, as many times a day as they want. Sometimes they travel individually, but usually they travel in packs because they are all going to or coming from the same places. They all wear long pants and long sleeves with their respective colored berets that identify their units. They all wear heavy boots on their feet, and they almost all have a rifle slung across their shoulder.
I’m never confused or alarmed or uncomfortable by the fact that I am surrounded by rifles on public buses, but I have became obsessed with watching the soldiers and studying their behaviors with their rifles. They hold them above their heads to walk through the isles, sit with them on their laps, sit on them, and when they get up and sling their backpack over their shoulder to get off the bus the backpack usually just shoves the rifle to the side or it sits nicely on top of the rifle. The rifle is like an extra body part that Israeli soldiers have to maneuver around their body simply for the means of sitting and standing comfortably. It’s entirely natural to be seen handling one on a bus.
Once on the bus, and aside from the fact that they get to ride it for free, soldiers are not treated as special on buses. They wait in line like everyone else, they find a seat like everyone else and if there isn’t a seat for them they stand in the isle–like everyone else. No one seems to be confused or alarmed or uncomfortable about their presence. Everyone is used to them being there. Pretty much everyone has either once been the soldier, or knows that they will be the soldier one day.
According to my research, Israel is one of two countries in the world that has a mandatory military service for both boys and girls, and out of all the countries with any mandatory service, it has the strictest rules and is the hardest mandatory service to get out of.
On my buses to Jerusalem I was sitting next to my madrichah (teacher, guide, counselor, whatever…), who is Israeli and was, of course, in the Israeli Army. At one point she turned to me and said, “I know a lot about guns. I know a lot about pretty much every gun there is. It’s kind of crazy and it’s even hard for me to believe sometimes.” And that’s when it really, really occurred to me that everyone in Israel is trained in guns. Every Israeli citizen knows how to handle those giant rifles that they so casually swing over their backs while in uniform. Armed soldiers on the bus is normal, because armed soldiers are the people of Israel. Every Israeli citizen is an armed soldier on a bus.
Once again, I am the minority. I am not trained in guns, and I probably will never be trained in guns. I’m only here to observe those who are, and marvel at a society where everyone else is.
Hillary Weinberger is a participant on Hashomer Hatzair’s Shnat Hachshara, one of Masa Israel’s 200 programs.
