{"id":4129,"date":"2013-10-17T22:55:45","date_gmt":"2013-10-17T21:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/?p=4129"},"modified":"2013-10-17T22:55:45","modified_gmt":"2013-10-17T21:55:45","slug":"tesco-and-israeli-apartheid-debunked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/2013\/10\/17\/tesco-and-israeli-apartheid-debunked\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesco and Israeli Apartheid debunked"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I did my weekly shop in Tesco this afternoon.<\/p>\n

There were not many checkouts free so I noticed one with a somewhat elderly man with few items who appeared to be engaged in conversation with the checkout assistant.<\/p>\n

She happened to be of African-Caribbean appearance.<\/p>\n

As I unloaded my trolley I could hear he was talking to her about marriage and that after 47 years he was on his own.<\/p>\n

She was politely responding and laughing with him.<\/p>\n

As he left she said something to me, but she had a very strong African accent and I could not understand it – something about being married. She was a woman in her thirties, quite attractive, very personable. She asked me about the weather.<\/p>\n

I had happened to buy some kosher grape juice for kiddush.<\/p>\n

As she checked it out she asked me ‘is this from the Jewish section?’<\/p>\n

I thought that was a bit strange because why did it matter where it was from? And why did she not say ‘kosher’?<\/p>\n

I didn’t really give it a second thought until a few seconds later she said ‘I was in Israel this year’.<\/p>\n

Oh, I thought, how nice, she clearly realised I was Jewish and, therefore, assumed I would be interested in Israel.<\/p>\n

I replied ‘where did you go?’<\/p>\n

‘Ashkelon’.<\/p>\n

[Packing the milk and yoghurts and fielding a rolling melon.]<\/p>\n

‘Ashkelon? That’s a port – were you on a cruise?’<\/p>\n

‘No, my brother lives there’.<\/p>\n

[trying to remain nonchalant]<\/p>\n

‘What does he do?’<\/p>\n

‘He works for [name of high-tech company]’.<\/p>\n

‘Sounds like a good job. Did you enjoy your trip?’<\/p>\n

‘Yes, I went to Haifa and Tel Aviv’. I lived there for eight years.’<\/p>\n

[trying not to look surprised].<\/p>\n

‘Where were you before then?’<\/p>\n

‘Nigeria’.<\/p>\n

‘Do you still have family there?’<\/p>\n

‘Yes’.<\/p>\n

‘Do you want to return?’<\/p>\n

[trying not to channel the BNP]<\/p>\n

‘No, my children go to school here… Are you paying with the Clubcard?’.<\/p>\n

And she gave me my receipt. At which…<\/p>\n

‘Toda raba’<\/p>\n

‘B’vakasha’<\/p>\n

‘L’hitraot’<\/p>\n

What a lovely lady. She made my day.<\/p>\n

Never in my wildest dreams whilst I rummaged through the courgettes and the Esquise new potatoes did I ever think I’d have a short exchange in Hebrew with a Nigerian!<\/p>\n

So there you have it. The Israel apartheid system which allows Nigerians to live there for at least eight years, provides them with job opportunities in a high-tech industry. Ok, I don’t yet know the full story but it rather debunks the Apartheid myth, once again.<\/p>\n

I’ll be sure to look out for this lady again next time. It makes shopping such a pleasant experience to speak a bit of Ivrit at the supermarket.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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I did my weekly shop in Tesco this afternoon. There were not many checkouts free so I noticed one with a somewhat elderly man with few items who appeared to be engaged in conversation with the checkout assistant. She happened to be of African-Caribbean appearance. As I unloaded my trolley I could hear he was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[226,4,1109],"class_list":["post-4129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-israel-and-accusations-of-racism-and-apartheid","tag-apartheid","tag-israel","tag-tesco","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4130,"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129\/revisions\/4130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}