Me: Good morning, I'd like to rent a car for the weekend.
Friendly guy: Good morning Sir, thank you for choosing Avis. Can I get your name please?
Me: My name is Mohamed.
Friendly guy: Are you Jewish?
Me: (wondering if the guy is joking.) Excuse me?
Friendly guy: are you Jewish sir?
Me: Hmmm.. no.
Friendly guy: Are you an Israeli citizen?
Me: neither. I am a foreigner.
Friendly guy: Ah. (5 seconds of silence). So, for what dates would you like your car Sir?
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6 comments:
I think the name Mohamed, in Israel, is a little like the name Cohen in USA/Europe - a name declaring an identity in a way no other name does. What you got is the result of the small bigot who lives inside everybody, thinking 'ohhhh, he's an Arab...' which leads some people to stupid reactions (e.g 'You don't sound Jewish at all..which I personally got in the states).
Myself, to be honest, also sense this 'tingle' when I call some service provider and get answered with 'Thank you for choosing Leumi Bank, this is Mohamed speaking, how can I help you'...
This leaves me wondering what the outcome was? What effect do the answers to these questions have? Does Avis know that their employees in Israel are requesting that customers answer questions about their religion?
You should have asked which answer would give you the best deal, or told him that you aren't but some of your best friends are.
Hope you had a good weekend with your rental car! ;-)
I feel a wee bit of clarification is in order here: I'm not upset or anything, I found this quidproquo quite amusing actually!
The reason he'd ask about my citizenship is because foreigners are exempted from the 16.5% VAT that locals pay. (I did find funny that he asked about my religion/ethnicity first though!) but perhaps it's because dual citizens also pay VAT, and dual citizens are more likely to be Jewish...
Oh well. But seriously, I didn't think it was anything less than hilarious. :)
Anon: LOL at the "you don't sound Jewish!"
Billie: The outcome was great, actually! The guy on the phone was very nice - we joked around for like 10 minutes, he registered me as a VIP customer and we got a cool car upgrade for the same money! Yipee!!
Liza: Hmm. I didn't think of that, I wish I did!!
we did have a great weekend indeed!! Posts to follow soon - inshallah :)
haha i love this story.
no one said we didnt have our fair share of .. what do we call these sort of people? geniuses?
:s
hmm maybe not..
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