You can drive a car with a yellow license plate if you hold a foreign ID or passport or have a blue Jerusalem ID or Israeli citizenship. If you have green and white Palestinian license plates, you can only drive within the West Bank and you are forbidden from taking certain roads in the West Bank. Only on very special circumstances like if you are a doctor can you drive a car with a green license plate in Jerusalem or Israel.
I mainly drive myself since I work in different cities such as Ramallah, Jerusalem and Hebron. The first time that I drove, I was a bit scared since it was my first time driving in a new country and in a place that has many steep hills. Florida is very flat, so I never had the experience of driving up a hill and having my car slowly beginning to roll back because of how steep it was. Now, I am glad to say that I feel very comfortable with driving here and have formed the habit of honking my horn frequently just like everyone else on the road does.
When it comes to taking road trips with some of my Palestinian friends to different cities such as Jerusalem, I feel a bit guilty and sad. It is much easier for me to move from place to place than it is for my friends who are from here and hold a green ID because I hold a foreign passport. For example, I can stay in my car and drive across a checkpoint, but my friend has to get out of the car and stand in a really long line at the checkpoint, pass a security check and then walk across and meet me on the other side. I have walked across checkpoints before, and it is not a nice experience.
