Kamila & Yossi by Jim Maceda
ACT ONE
SCENE 1:
The Doniana Restaurant, Old Acre, Galilee
The curtain rises on a striking couple of thirty-somethings being
directed to a dimly lit table for 2, overlooking the Mediterranean
sea
Kamila Said wears an attractive black dress and mother of pearl
earrings, her long hair is worn down
Yossi Bloom looks 'typically Israeli' - short cropped hair, tight black
jeans, a tighter black t-shirt, black leather boots, gold necklace and
- even though they are inside and it is evening - dark sunglasses
On the house audio system a Palestinian woman sings an upbeat jazz ballad
Their table is on the periphery of the dining room
KAMILA: Perfect! Shukran, habibi! (Yossi helps Kamila into her chair.)
Oh, who's the gentleman in the dark sunglasses?
YOSSI: Yossi Bloom. Ashkenazi Jew from Petah Tikva, (Covers his
forearm with his table napkin, like a waiter) At your service,
Madame.
KAMILA: How nice to meet you, Mr Bloom.
YOSSI: (Yossi now takes his seat) Kamila, shouldn't we take a table
closer to the others? So we can - you know - kind of blend in?
KAMILA: But this table is so…romantic! No?
YOSSI: (Smiles) Yes. You're right. (Looks around the premises and
the stunning view out to sea) Surf…stars…sexy music…I like this
place. I think.
KAMILA: I thought you would, habibi. After your trip to the camp, I
figured you'd want to let your hair down.
YOSSI: (Rubbing his oiled, bald pate) Very funny!
KAMILA: (Giggles) Oh, I'm sorry!
YOSSI: (Takes off his sunglasses) I suppose I won't need these.
It's dark in here. I doubt anyone will notice me as long as I
don't speak Hebrew.
KAMILA: Oh, Yossi, Acre's a big city - and you hear lots of Hebrew
in the streets, you know. We'll be fine. White or Red?
YOSSI: No, I think I'll have a coke. I'm beat.
KAMILA: I bet you are. And that long drive back over the border. I
don't know how you news cameramen do it. Shoot all day, drive all
night.
YOSSI: Well, Kurt and I mostly slept. Shakir did the driving. But I
don't feel too sorry for him. While we were out chasing your cousins
he was in his car, aircon blasting, calling his local Lebanese
squeezes, no doubt. He left a trail of cigarette butts in Jal al-Bahr.
And he kept harping on this young girl there.
KAMILA: Was she cute?
YOSSI: Maybe. Hard to tell with her veil. But that's never stopped
Shakir.
The waiter arrives to take their order.
WAITER: Masa' alkhayr. Tonight, I recommend our special, grilled
dorado and claims in a white wine sauce.
KAMILA: Oh, that sounds wonderful. I'll have that. With a glass of
chablis.
WAITER: (Glances at Yossi) Israeli?
YOSSI: Can't you tell?
WAITER: (Apologetic) I'm sorry. I meant the wine.
YOSSI: Oh. Well, what's wrong with the French or Lebanese
chablis?
WAITER: I just thought you might prefer the local wine. (Smiles and
leans into cupping his mouth with his hand.) Actually, our best
customers find it to be undrinkable.
YOSSI: (Laughs in an admonishing way) Well, thanks a lot for
suggesting it then! I'll have a coke.
WAITER: And would you like the fish special as well?
YOSSI: No, I'd like a steak please.
WAITER: A steak.
YOSSI: Yes.
WAITER: Filet?
YOSSI: Yes.
WAITER: Medium?
YOSSI: Burnt. Black.
WAITER: Burnt black?
YOSSI: Correct.
The waiter looks at Kamila for some kind of clue.
KAMILA: It's no joke. Trust me. And make my chablis Lebanese please.
(Grabbing Yossi's hand) To celebrate your return from Lebanon today!
(Big smile)
The waiter nods and leaves the table.
YOSSI: Be'tei'avon! Enjoy your meal!
KAMILA: (Diplomatically) But Yossi, the Daniana is famous for its
fish.
YOSSI: I'm sorry, habibti. I just feel like a steak. And a coke.
Yossi smiles as he puts his sunglasses back on.
KAMILA: What's wrong? (Smiles) You look like a Jew from Petah Tikva
with those on.
YOSSI: I think he made me self-conscious.
KAMILA: Relax, motek. You're an Israeli Jew. I'm an Israeli Arab.
We're crazy about each other. It's not a crime. The rest is THEIR
problem.
YOSSI: (Takes off his sunglasses again). You're right.
The music has changed to a nostalgic song by Arik Einstein as the
waiter returns and pours their drinks.
YOSSI: I do like this place. The song is Israeli, but you sure don't
feel like you're in Israel here.
WAITER: You're not. This is Palestine.
YOSSI: Touchee! (All 3 laugh, the waiter leaves the table). It WAS
Palestine, a long time ago.
KAMILA: And it will be Palestine again.
YOSSI: In sh'allah. But not the Galilee, motek.
KAMILA: Why not? This was Palestine once. In fact, this was to be part
of our state, if you recall.
YOSSI: Yeah, back in the 40's. And that lasted a few months. (Toasts
Kamila with his coke) Here's to all those Arab legions who laid
siege to tiny Israel on the very day after its birth! LaHaim!
KAMILA: (Returns the toast with her glass of Lebanese chablis)
Alamdulillah! And here's to all my relatives in a god-forsaken
refugee camp still waiting for the day you give them back their
Galilee! LaHaim!
YOSSI: (Toasts) Not me, darling. I'm on their side. They should get
it back. It's their land. Our army leveled their villages. I get
that. But it's too late.
KAMILA: I know that. But they won't listen. It's all about one
country now.
YOSSI: I gotta tell you, all this talk about a 'one state'
solution - Arabs and Jews living in one Palestine again, like the old
days, before all the wars. (Looks around and then leans forward in a
loud whisper) Bullshit!
KAMILA: Well. Wouldn't that be nice?
YOSSI: Yeah. Nice…but impossible, Kamila. Too much water under the
bridge.
KAMILA: And too much blood on the bridge!
YOSSI: Right. And too many of us Jews just too damn afraid to even
consider themselves a minority again. (Whispers again) You know you
Arabs fuck like rabbits! (Both laugh again)
KAMILA: Look at us. Aren't we proof Jews and Arabs can get along?
YOSSI: Yeah, sure. But our children would be half breeds.
KAMILA: Yossi! (Blushing) I never heard you talk about having children
before.
YOSSI: Well, have you thought about it? I mean, if we had kids (he
looks around the room again) - think about all the harassment
THEY'LL get. All the bullying in school.
KAMILA: They'll just have to be really thick skinned.
YOSSI: And take after you!
KAMILA: Touchee back!
YOSSI: Hey this steak is great. How's your fish? And your unIsraeli
chablis?
KAMILA: Ezze yoffi. Ko lakavol! Now tell me about the shoot today. How
is my Palestinian family? I can't believe this is all happening!
Yossi pulls out a small digital playback machine from his rucksack and
lays it on the table.
YOSSI: Well, this being the 21st century, habibi. I'll show you some
clips I've already edited…
KAMILA: Oh wow. This is so cool!
YOSSI: Here's Hassan and Ali, who are very busy here packing their
bags.
HASSAN/ALI: Hello cousin! The clock is ticking!! We'll see you
tomorrow, can you believe it?
KAMILA: Oh my god!
YOSSI: This is Kurt sitting down with them in their bedroom for a
brief interview. Pretty basic living standards, you can see. A sheet
hangs from some electric cable for privacy. There's no tv or
electronics in the house - just one old tube radio. There's hardly a
roof, it's just some corrugated tin….can't imagine what it's
like when it rains. Here's Ahmad…
KAMILA: Oh wow.
YOSSI: He was very quiet. Camera shy, I guess. Kind of stuck to
himself. He spent most of the time we were there trying to fix an old
water pump in the back yard that had given up the ghost.
KAMILA: Father says he's a good man. Just not a go-getter.
YOSSI: He said that without the pump the house could be washed away in
the next storm. He was introduced to us as Hassan and Ali's father.
So I guess he's your uncle.
KAMILA: Half uncle, yeah. He and my father, Sirhan, have the same
father, Mohammed. Can you believe it, we're only 5 miles from the
Lebanese border and Uncle Ahmad has never even stepped inside Israel?
Never been once to visit. Not allowed…until now!
YOSSI: So sad. So tell me again, your father was REALLY born on May
14, 1948?
KAMILA: Ken, Independence Day. YOSSI: The 'Nakba'.
KAMILA: Yeah, that too. Day of Catastrophe, for us Arabs. So what do
you do? Every birthday, Father never knew if he should laugh or cry. I
think it made us all a bit manic. Oh, who's that waving?
YOSSI: Let's see. (Checking his notes) That's at 02 21
15…that's Emna.
KAMILA: That's Aunt Emna? Gee, she's really changed from the old
photos we have.
YOSSI: And she is?
KAMILA: Uncle Ahmad's wife. Hassan and Ali's mother. YOSSI: And
she's never met your mother either?
KAMILA: Never. I think they tried to have a family reunion in the
90's. In Jordan. You know during those days of hope - the Oslo
Accords - Arafat's return. But it never happened. There were issues
with travel documents or something.. I was just a teenager and more
interested in boys. (Laughs)
YOSSI: So here's the sit down interview with Hassan and Ali. They
speak pretty good English - I was surprised.
KAMILA: Well, Papa Mohammed - our grandfather - is very smart. He
actually earned a high school diploma - that was unheard of in those
days - and was a voracious reader, I'm told. The whole family were
citrus farmers and they did very well. He worked hard to get into a
university back in 1948 - just out of high school - but then the war
broke out.
YOSSI: So he and his family fled to Lebanon?
Kamila: Yes, after their village - Az-Zeeb - was destroyed by the
Israeli Army. But his wife, Fatima, was so pregnant with my father -
Sirhan - that he ordered her to say behind. To protect the herds of
cows and goats, as my father tells it. His brother, Abdul Razak - my
great uncle - and his wife, Um, stayed behind at first to care for
her, but Uncle Abdul Razak was wounded by a mortar and my grandmother,
Fatima, ended up caring for both of them as well.
YOSSI: She sounds like another tough cookie.
KAMILA: Oh, there are amazing stories about Grandma Fatima. She gave
birth to my father on a pile of rubble on the front lines. All alone.
Days later, the Israelis had a forced evacuation of civilians down the
coast, and Grandma was on that bumpy bus ride for hours, ending up in
Tarshiha - where we live today. Then in October '48 Tarshiha was
bombed in another Israeli operation, and again, she stayed on with her
5-month old baby - hiding in a cellar for days at a time, with shells
exploding overhead. Uncle Abdul Razak and Auntie Um fled north, to
Tyre, and actually found my grandfather, Mohammed, in a camp up there.
He had already remarried. (She drifts off for a moment) But, yes -
Grandma Fatima was one tough cookie. (Turns to Yossi) My father says i
got her genes. (Laughs)
YOSSI: What happened to her?
KAMILA: Well, they lost everything - the cows, the goats, the orchards
- either stolen or destroyed . But she managed to raise my father, on
her own. She never
remarried. And she never saw her husband again. Things got a little
better here after martial law was lifted in the 60's. She found a
job as a seamstress. Learned Hebrew. Became an Israeli citizen. She
always called herself an 'invisible' Israeli - back then Arabs had
(she gestures) NO rights, no opportunities, nothing. Just ID cards to
leave the country, if you could afford it.
YOSSI: It's not much better today, is it? (Kamila frowns and shrugs
her shoulders) Is she still alive?
KAMILA: No. I think all the stress and heartache must have caught up
with her. She died when I was 6. My mother says that on her deathbed
she would not stop asking when the family was coming home.
YOSSI: Shall I show you a short clip?
KAMILA: Oh, sure. I'm sorry, we got carried away.
YOSSI: Please. I love your family's story. It's Palestine's
story. And it must be told. (Yossi leans forward and gives Kamila a
sweet kiss across the table. Then rolls the video)
KAMILA: That's much better!
KURT: (Clip begins) Are you excited about visiting Israel?
HASSAN: Very much. It's a first. It feels like leaving prison when
we are out of this camp and out of Lebanon. There's nothing for us
here. No work. No school. No future.
KURT: And do you see a future in Israel for you now, given Prime
Minister Eretz' co-called peace blitz?
ALI: We hope so. We're grateful to the new Prime Minister to make
this peace plan - opening up the border for some divided families is a
good start. A good humanitarian move.
HASSAN: And we want to thank him personally for this. (Shows Kurt a
gift- wrapped box.) We even have a gift for him. (Laughs) And we hope
that our cousin, Kamila, who works in the Karlston hotel in Nahariya,
will help us meet the Prime Minister and thank him personally while he
stays there.
YOSSI: And NOW you know why I wanted you to see some clips.
KAMILA: (Looking stunned) Wow. That's amazing. How did they know
about Eretz staying at the Karlston?
YOSSI: (Guiltily) We told them. I hope you don't mind? We said you
were really excited about Eretz's visit.
KAMILA: Well, i think hooking them up is a great idea. Don't you?
YOSSI: I'm sure Eretz will love it. He's coming up to Nahariya to
win Arab hearts &minds, right?
KAMILA: (Affected) And of course he's staying at the classy, 4-star
Grand Karlston Hotel when he's there! (Laughs) You know they put me
in charge of his stay?
YOSSI: No, I didn't. That's great, Kamila! (Leans over and kisses
her again)
KAMILA: I don't know what I'm more nervous about. My cousins
arriving, or taking care of the Israeli Prime Minister.
YOSSI: (To the waiter) The steak was delicious, sir. Toda raba. And
I'll definitely have the fish next time we come. (All Laugh)
WAITER: I look forward to it. Can I get you anything else?
KAMILA: I think just a coffee for me.
YOSSI: Two coffees, please. And the check.
The waiter nods, smiles, and backs off into the darkness.
KAMILA: I wanted to say, 'No thank you - I'm having desert in my
hotel room', but I bit my tongue.
Yossi smiles and caresses the top of Kamila's thigh under the table.
YOSSI: You're having desert in MY hotel room…
KAMILA: 114 again?
YOSSI: Where else?
KAMILA: You should be paying property tax.
YOSSI: Ha! (Long pause) How did an average Jewish kid from Petah
Tikhva end up with an Arab beauty like you?
Two Arabic coffees arrive with the check. The waiter thanks them, in
Arabic and Hebrew.
WAITER: Shoukran. Toda raba. Please come again soon!
YOSSI: I'll get this. You'll need all your spare cash for Hassan
and Ali, I'm sure.
KAMILA: Shoukran habibi. (Sips coffee) You know, we're not so
different, you and I.
YOSSI: Really?
KAMILA: (Leans in, starts ticking off points on her fingers) First of
all, we're both Semitic.
YOSSI: True. That's really boring. But true. KAMILA: We're both
single.
YOSSI: Better.
KAMILA: Thirty-something?
YOSSI: Yes.
KAMILA: VERY mature professionals.
YOSSI: Speak for yourself. (Laughs) Ok, I'll give you that one.
KAMILA: And were both only children. Introspective.
YOSSI: Moody.
KAMILA: Self-starters.
YOSSI: True again. You win the prize! An all-expenses-paid walk along
Acre's Crusader ramparts! Shall we?
KAMILA: Yes! Let's go!
END OF SCENE 1
SCENE 2:
On the Rosh Hanikra border between Israel and Lebanon
Sirhan Said - Kamila's father - and his younger brother Ahmad - both
middle aged - are standing on either side of a chain link fence
starkly lit by large spot lights. Ahmad is in Lebanon; Sirhan is in no
man's land between the Lebanese and Israeli border checkpoints. They
are meeting at night for a final review before Ahmad's sons, Hassan
and Ali, travel early the next day to Sirhan's house in Tarshiha, in
Upper Galilee.
SIRHAN: Salam Aleikhum, Ahmad. (They touch fingers through an opening
in the fence.)
AHMAD: Aleikhum salam, brother. All is well. The boys have packed what
they could for the summer months. (Rolls up some papers and passes
them through the fence) Here are their travel documents. The 3-month
tourist visas are inside, and can be renewed if they stay out of
trouble. It's better if you keep them somewhere safe, brother. You
know my boys.
SIRHAN: Good idea. How are they feeling?
AHMAD: Well, an American reporter came by today.
SIRHAN: I think Kamila had something to do with that.
AHMAD: Ah, ok. I wondered how they had found us. Anyway I stayed out
of the way, just listened in when I could. And they said all the right
things.
SIRHAN: Like?
AHMAD: Like, how excited they are to be visiting their long-lost
family in Israel.
SHRINE: Yeah?
AHMAD: And how grateful they are to Eretz for the opportunity to get
out of the camp. Their words, not mine.
SIRHAN: That's encouraging. Do you think they mean it?
AHMAD: I think so.
SIRHAN: You hope so. They better not be armed.
AHMAD: No, I've accounted for all the guns. They're just taking in
a gift for Eretz, in case they meet the Prime Minister.
SIRHAN: A gift? What kind of gift?
AHMAD: I don't know. It in a box, about so big (outlines the size of
a cigar box). They gift wrapped it themselves. I felt it. It's very
light.
SIRHAN: What's inside?
AHMAD: They wouldn't say. Too embarrassed, I think.
SIRHAN: You know, explosives are very light, my brother.
AHMAD: Shhhhsh. Not so loud. (Glances again at the border guards)
They'll think we're jihadis plotting something. Look, Hassan and
Ali are not sick, ok? They want what all young Palestinians want - to
get out of the camp and earn a decent living. They are grown men, not
crazy militants, Sirhan. I wouldn't allow it.
SIRHAN: They are ANGRY grown men, brother. And we both know why.
AHMED: Yes. Jeddati Mohammed.
SIRHAN: Our father has poisoned their lives with his stale ideas.
AHMED: I want to see how angry they still are 3 months from now. A lot
could change, Sirhan. (Smilies) Can you imagine Father's face if he
learns that his 2 favorites have gone AWOL with the enemy?
SIRHAN: (Smiles) Well, Kamila will be their shining light. She can't
wait to embrace them both.
AHMED: Don't be too harsh on them, Sirhan. This is their first burst
of freedom, ever.
SIRHAN: When is your 'burst of freedom' coming, brother?
AHMED: Soon, in sha'allah. If Eretz survives!
SIRHAN: (Speaking more softly now) What about that 'protest' you
mentioned, once they get inside Israel? You said they'd been talking
among themselves about doing something. Is that-
AHMED: Well, that's what I wanted to tell you. (Both glance over at
the Lebanese border guards, within shouting range. Ahmed speaks much
more softly) It doesn't look like it's going to happen now.
SIRHAN: (Loudly) That's great!
AHMAD: (Still softly) Shhhhsh! I think they got smart and realized it
was fruitless to try something silly when everyone now is talking
about Chaim Eretz and
peace. You never know - but at least they're not obsessing or
praying about it anymore. Not openly, anyhow.
SIRHAN: Well, I'm relieved, Ahmad. Imagine after they're invited
into my country that they try something - anything - like that!
They'd be thrown into jail in a heartbeat - or back into the camp -
or shot - and we Israeli Arabs would pay a price - me, Yasmine and
Kamila - it would reflect on us, their own blood.
An Israeli border guard approaches them.
OFIR: I'm sorry, Sirhan, the bosses are getting nervous. Better
break it up now.
Sirhan pulls out a few 10 Lebanese pound bills and hands it to the
border guard.
SIRHAN: Understood. We're just saying goodbye.
OFIR: Thanks as always. And see you tomorrow?
SIRHAN: Bright and early. I'll be here just before dawn. What do you
need, Ofir?
OFIR: Another box of Marlboros, please?
SIRHAN: You've got it.
AHMED: Ma salama, Sirhan. See you around 8am at the camp?
SIRHAN: Yes, in sha'allah. Give my best to your boys.
Sirhan enters his nondescript, mud-stained, minivan and heads back to
Israel.
END OF SCENE 2
[end of extract]