An eventful weekend

Friday rolled around this week and I was so excited, I couldn’t WAIT to get out of Tel Aviv and go just about anywhere. Anywhere, of course, turned out to be Jerusalem. None of my friends were available to go camping with me in the Golan or in the desert (work, birthdays, work, out of the country etc) so I inevitably turned to Jerusalem again and luckily, a German friend of mine working with disabled children in the settlement of Gilo was free and decided that, as he likes showing people around, he’d take me and the new volunteers at his organization on a little tour of Jerusalem.

I arrived in the city around noon, much earlier than the “tour”, to meet a Palestinian friend of mine in the Old City. He kept me waiting two hours, but when we finally met up he took me to Helen’s Cistern, a hidden place in a cave under a church by the Holy Sepulcher. My friend told the priests I was married to his cousin to avoid having to pay the 20 shekel fee and we walked down the slippery steps into a huge cavern with lots of water in it. It was magnificent. He then took me to his school where I watched some young kids practice their gymnastics. It was lovely, until a four year old threw a nail at my head and got yelled at by the teacher. However, that tiny incident aside, everyone was as lovely as usual. No one but my friend spoke English, but everyone smiled and made gestures and offered me water and made sure I was happy.

Jerusalem, the party town

Every time I tell Tel Avivians that I love Jerusalem, they look at me as if I’m mad. “Jerusalem?!” they say incredulously, “but it’s so dirty! And there’s so much tension! And there’s nothing to do!”

They don’t know what they’re talking about! This weekend, a friend of mine and I converted yet another Tel Avivian to the wonders of Jerusalem. This time not to the Old City, but to its bars and clubs and wonderful, wonderful, friendly people. 

Goa Florentin and Jerusalem

I’ve been wondering whether my posts are too cluttered, if I should do what my friend does and limit myself to one topic per post. What do you think? Is that necessary?

This past Thursday was the opening of Goa Florentin, a new psy bar and gallery on Hatserim street in Florentin owned by my friend’s dad. The opening was great, there were crowds standing outside the bar, a live reggae band playing on the roof, free rounds of beer, beautiful art on the walls and jewelry on display, and very very nice people. The bar is nice, comfortable and easy to be in. It is not pretentious or exclusive, it’s cheap, and there are comfortable couches to sit on (if you’re lucky enough and no one else is on it).

Glenn Beck’s Rally to Restore Courage and Ramadan in Jerusalem

Last Wednesday, I took the afternoon off work to go to Glenn Beck’s Rally to Restore Courage in Jerusalem with some of my friends. I think it’s important to add a disclaimer here: I am by no means a supporter of Glenn Beck’s. I went, rather, to see what the far right that I always belittle is like in reality because, truth be told, I don’t know any extremist right-wing individuals. I do have a number of religious and conservative friends – of all three Abrahamic faiths – but for the most part they tend to be liberal in their views of humanity and their treatment of people.

That being said, the most interesting aspect of the event was its atmosphere, not the speeches or Beck himself. We were unable to get seats where Glenn Beck was actually speaking, at the Davidson Center, because tickets there had to be purchased (some went for as much as $5000). So instead, we arrived early at the viewing center in Safra Square with one extremely reluctant friend in tow (“I don’t want to contribute to the numbers there! Then, I feel that I’m contributing to the success of the rally!”). What was being said was not exciting, in fact, I couldn’t even bother to tune in to the details of Beck’s speech himself. However, before the event began there were interviews with a number of people who were attending and what they said was deeply upsetting. The crowd around me cheered when people made statements such as “there are only two sides here, and we choose to stand with good instead of evil, we choose to stand with Israel” and booing when someone mentioned Obama’s call to return to the 1967 borders. Two of my friends in attendance were so upset they left after about 45 minutes, I stayed a little longer and then, fed up, went with another friend in the hope of finding the opposition protest. Which we didn’t find.

Hebron megapost and some Jerusalem

Before you start reading, I have to warn you. This post is long. And it will be riveting. It will also make you angry, sad, depressed, perhaps even bring you close to tears. The end will seem uncharacteristically light-hearted, showing, I hope, how life here can jump from one extreme to another so quickly. And I, as an outsider, as an observor, can look at this all semi-passively. Do not get me wrong, I was infuriated and deeply upset by what I saw this weekend, but less so than my Israeli friends. In fact, whereas my foreign friends expressed interest in my trip and wanted to join me, a large propotion of my Israeli friends did not feel the same way. It is different to them, they are tied to this situation, it is more emotional to see all the wrongs being done, more upsetting, especially because they disagree with it absolutely and – by all counts – fundamentally feel the same way I do: that the occupation is disgusting, unacceptable and a great obstacle to peace.

On Thursday afternoon, there was a terrorist attack in the south of Israel, near Eilat and the Egyptian border. 8 Israelis were killed and, despite Hamas’ statement that the attacks (which it did not carry out) targetted soldiers, the majority of the dead were civilians. Even if they had been soldiers, it would be unacceptable. Most people who live outside of Israel do not realize that the soldiers are people like you and I; army service here is mandatory. And as much as I respect refuseniks, I respect leftists who do their service as much because we need soldiers who hold those values. An army of only right-wing extreme-Zionists would help no one. It is also important to remember that these soldiers are young, often under the age of 22. In retaliation, Israel fired rockets at Gaza because the Israeli intelligence sources found that the terrorists who carried out the attacks in Sinai originated there. I condemn the attacks, I condemn the retaliation, and I condemn the Palestinian response which has been to send over 100 rockets into Israel over the last three days.

Too much to say…

First and foremost, Ramadan karim to all my Muslim friends and anyone reading this blog. August is an insanely hot month everywhere I’ve lived – be in Indonesia, Israel or Canada – and I wish you all a good month and please, stay indoors as much as possible!

Now, it’s always daunting writing a post after such a long hiatus. I feel that if I update too often, my posts aren’t interesting; but if I don’t update often enough I end up with massively long posts, just like this one promises to be.

Another weekend, another trip to Jerusalem

I have to say it. Jerusalem might just be the best city in the world. For the most part, I’ve been nonchalant about my stay in Israel. I’ve been enjoying my internship, learning a lot and taking advantage of being in Israel to travel on the weekends. Then yesterday, when I realized there might be a problem extending my visa, I was sad… The sadness took me completely by surprise. When did I start deciding I wanted to be here? And then I realized, it was after my first trip to Jerusalem.

An acquaintance of mine here wrote a blogpost about Jerusalem, comparing the city to a girl you don’t notice at first, but as soon as you do, you’re in love. He is absolutely right. I agree. You know that feeling you get when you have a crush on someone? When an interest is starting to develop and all you can think of is that person? When thinking of the person and the next time you will see him/her you get butterflies in your stomach? That is how I feel about Jerusalem. The rest of Israel has been eclipsed by Jerusalem. Before, there were 101 sites I wanted to see, now there’s just one: Jerusalem. Maybe I’ll get bored of it in time, used to it, but for the time being I am in love with Jerusalem.

Some Ramallah and Jerusalem

The last two days I’ve been stuck in bed (well, to be more accurate, stuck on the amazingly comfortable couch in the living room) sick. Therefore, I have had time to sort through photos of my exceptionally eventful weekend and write a post before next Friday! First off, you will notice this post is tagged Palestine, even though I spent a significant amount of time in Jerusalem. This is because I stayed in East Jerusalem and spent almost all my time in the Old City in the Muslim and Christian quarters. Perhaps Jerusalem deserves its own tag and for the purposes of this blog it can be its own city-state, what think you?

Weekends here begin Thursday evening as the work week is Sunday – Thursday, a fact that never ceases to amuse one of my best friends. Therefore, on Thursday afternoon I met with the author of Lost in the Middle East and he and I caught a sherut (mini-van bus) to Jerusalem. On the sherut, my travel partner for the weekend began talking to a Palestinian man who then walked us to the buses heading to Ramallah in Jerusalem. It was very interesting. The man has a Masters degree in economics and yet is unable to find work in Palestine due to what he says is the corruption and nepotism of the current governmental system. As a result, he is forced to cross illegally into Israel and work as a construction worker to support his family. He invited us to come visit him at some point in his village for lunch.

Shavuot and Eastern Jerusalem

So the last week or two has been a little difficult. I’ve been battling with some homesickness and why-do-I-still-have-no-friends sickness. But I’m okay. Living at Marissa’s is wonderful, I love her apartment, I feel comfortable and at ease and happy which feels good.

Work, again, has been interesting. There are ups and downs, some days I get bored, but for the most part it’s great. And my bosses are absolutely lovely. Last week one of them told me to go to the Danish Embassy party at the Peres Center for Peace. The view from the building. OH.MY.GOD. It has got to be one of the nicest sea-views I have seen in Tel Aviv. The party was fun too, fancy finger-foods and weird contemporary dancers. My favourite part was this thing they had with mini-vegetables. The veggies were baby root vegetables (like carrots) stuck in “dirt” in pots. The dirt, however, was edible, and beneath it there was a green sauce – no clue what it was – that made the dirt stick to the veggies. It was so cool, like pulling the carrots straight out of the soil and eating them. Adorable!