We often drove by this Bedouin store/restaurant under construction, about 4 miles outside of town and sitting back off the main road. I was curious about their prices, because everywhere else (in town) things were so high. I asked Lura had she ever stopped there, she said "no". She went on to explain that it's unseemly for a woman or women, Arab or Jew, to enter a Bedouin establishment without a male escort. I was new in the land, still thinking USA, accepting but not fully understanding this mindset.
I asked would she like to stop there sometime, that I'd like to check out their prices, and she said that she'd love to! Well we did, and been going there ever since. His prices are at least half what we've been paying in town. Plus you can get Bedouin bread, goat cheese, and camel milk. Things you just can't buy in town!
Took Ida (who witnessing to the Arabs is her calling) by there and she loved it!
The three of us Lura, Ida, and I now get treated like family!
The owner's name is Mohammed, has 3 wives, and at least 4 sons that we know of. Although we are treated like kin, as long as he's a Muslim this friendship could change to hate in a heartbeat. Very volatile, unstable, unpredictable.
You see the Bedouin used to all be nomads, living in tents, middle of desert, and riding camels. Israel has encouraged them with incentives to dwell in Bedouin Villages.
A downside to this is when the Bedouins were living isolated in the desert, they had no Mosque to attend...now they do! Friday is their holy day. I'm told, each Friday in the Mosques, the Muslim cleric preach hate against Americans and Jews. A lot of youth buy into all this and get all worked up!
But, greater is He in us than he that's in the world. No weapons formed against us will prosper!
Edwin Beckford
Fall, 2001