"Israeli military courts were a parody of real courts. Israeli officials used their legal expertise to devise ways of justifying the theft of our land." (p. 111)
"Half a century of occupation and despite its large number of Arab customers [the Israeli bank] continues to avoid using a single word of Arabic in any of their statements and letters." (p. 112)
Shehadeh's father had spoken English to Jewish colleagues in Mandatory Palestine but, after 1967, Israeli officials defiantly responded in Hebrew. The military government did not introduce Hebrew into schools in the West Bank or Gaza. Israel "...was looking for ways to encourage Palestinians to leave." (ibid.)
Shehadeh attended Hebrew classes where the teacher said that the land was mainly empty when the Jewish immigrants arrived. When Shehadeh, in his shaky Hebrew, disagreed, she merely commended his use of the language.
Some Arabs learned Hebrew in order to understand orders bellowed by soldiers and to avoid being shot. When the class was featured on Israeli TV, the teacher asked them to read the new Hebrew names of streets in the Arab quarter. He also translated graffiti: "'Mavet le aravim. Death to the Arabs.'" (p. 117)
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