'I somehow erased my Palestinian identity for the life I have now in Seattle'

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
"In 1992 in Beirut, I was on a three-way phone call with an American DJ and an Israeli heavy metal musician.

We had been introduced by a French music journalist who was touring the Middle East in search of Middle Eastern heavy metal bands and radio stations. (I had a part-time gig at a heavy metal station while attending the American University of Beirut.)

The American DJ orchestrated this phone call to see if love of music could transcend hate. I was 18 at the time, alone in a studio apartment that I shared with a roommate. It was after midnight, and it was the first time I had ever talked to an Israeli, let alone a Jew. I was afraid, nervous, and unsure whether my phone was tapped – if it was, I could be in deep shit with the Lebanese government, or any of the militias, for speaking to someone in Israel. This was two years after the civil war, so paranoia was high. But my deep belief in humanity and goodness overwhelmed my fear, and I decided to take that call.

For over an hour, the three of us talked about music, whether Metallica had sold out, and the greatest front man of all time. (I thought it was Axl Rose.) Before hanging up, we acknowledged how dangerous this call was, but how determined we were to change the narrative of the decades-long struggle between Palestinians and Israelis."...