two days ago, we took a taxi to yad vashem. we passed this billboard, so i pulled out my camera to take a picture of it. the taxi driver slowed down to give me a better shot.
"shukran" i said to him. "why did you speak arabic? this is israel!" the driver said.1
"i can't speak arabic here? i've been speaking arabic in the old city ever since i arrived."
"that is east jerusalem, this is the west. here, you speak only hebrew."
"but all the street signs are in both arabic and hebrew." i said, pointing to various examples we passed.
"bah, the signs!" he exclaimed, "no one reads them"
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1-actually, i had thought he was an arab. i've gotten pretty good at hearing whether a person is an arabic or hebrew speaker based on their accent in english (both accents are someone familiar to me. i grew up hearing a hebrew accent fairly regularly and an arab accent i have heard many times since i started learning the language and traveling in arabic countries). this driver sounded like an arab to me, and he looked like he could be one too.
it turned out his family is from mococco.
