Tag #120890 - Interview #87387 (Rifca Segal)

But I got along so well with the nun… She is a gorgeous woman. She said she had a rented place in Jericho, that I should go and stay with her in Jericho – the first city of the world, they say. I said: “Sure thing, why not?” When I saw Palestinians in the street I said: “I’m not staying here, I’m not staying here.” “Stay, for they don’t know… [that you are Jewish.] Say that your name is Maria. Must you say that your name is Rica Segal?” The nun was an intelligent, refined woman. I was sitting with her on the porch one day, and I see a black man there in the courtyard, a Palestinian. I said: “This one knows I’m here, that I’m a Jewish woman from Romania. Somebody denounced you.” “Hold on, he’s the man who reads the water meters.” They have water meters on the smallest of streets over there. Civilized people. And she took me to see the Jericho Mountains, and there are some grottos over there, and tourists go inside them. I said: “I won’t go in, even if you kill me.” And I was torn to pieces: “I want to go back to Jerusalem, I want to go back there. I’m afraid in Jericho.” For there are many Palestinians living in Jericho. The city was still under the rule of Israel, but it isn’t anymore. And a woman from Jericho had to go to Jerusalem with her sick child. They were Palestinians. And they didn’t allow her to enter Jerusalem, she didn’t have a valid passport. And the nun knew this, but she didn’t tell me about it. She took a taxi, this nun, and she took that woman to Jerusalem. There were some tunnels that people used to enter Jerusalem. And the taxi driver drove through there. When I saw I was entering a tunnel, and when I looked out of the window, I saw a precipice in front of the car’s headlights… I didn’t say a word, I sat there tensed, and when we exited the tunnel, I said: “Mother, and I trusted you…” But when she told me what it was all about, that the child was sick and they couldn’t treat him in Jericho, I was somewhat appeased. But we could have fallen in that precipice, nobody knew how to find us. The taxi driver was Palestinian, too, and he knew the road with his eyes closed. But had I known [the road where he was taking us], I wouldn’t have left with them. I would have taken the bus, for there was a bus connection, and I would have left by myself. I tell you this so that I can relate you an incident as you see only in movies.