You undergo a whole process there. I joined the military, I was very right-wing, I got there, the first month at the [DCL reception] window, I became a radical leftist. I hated myself, I hated the country, I hated the military.

Why?Because I thought, “Come on, they’re miserable, people my grandfather’s age come with tears in their eyes, and I have to tell them whether they’re allowed to move around in the country or not.” After a month or two, you hate this job, you start to develop a loathing and hatred toward everyone around you, both the soldiers and the Arabs. They (the Palestinians) keep coming, and they can’t take no for an answer, and they make a scene. The situations are unreal, you get into situations where they manipulate you emotionally. You get a mother who comes up to the window with eight children. “You bitch, you’re standing in this line with them for eight hours now. You need the permit, why do you bring eight children to show me?” They come with miserable children wearing sandals with holes in them, you want to die. No 20-year-old kid is emotionally prepared to be in this thing. 18-year-old kids with no idea about anything, shouting, humiliating some 60-year-old Arab who doesn’t understand them just because he doesn’t speak Hebrew or English and they don’t speak Arabic. So they (the soldiers) just scream at him, “Ruh, ruh, bara, bara” (go, go, out, out).

Did you learn Arabic in the DCL course?You learn very basic Arabic, bro.