A Tale of Two Cities

A Tel Aviv sunrise as viewed from a bathroom window of a friend

I often need go down to Tel Aviv from my lovely mountain top city, Jerusalem. Each time I get off the bus at the Tel Aviv bus station I sense a small culture shock. The hot, humid and dusty sea shore city of Tel Aviv was never my cup of tea.

But something in Tel Aviv seems to be more alive. Walking down the streets in Tel Aviv, it seems people are busy just going about their life. In Jerusalem, by contrast, people are much more preoccupied with other people’s life, than their own.

Tel Aviv is the stronghold of Israeliness, so people live with out the usual existential fear most Israelis have.

A view of Jerusalem from Mt Scopus

Jerusalem is the home of many different types of people. While riding a bus to work, a Jerusalmite will probably run into all others groups: Ultra-orthodox Jews, modern orthodox Jews, Christian monks, Russian immigrants, Arabs, secular Israelis and every other mix of the above one can think of.

While all those people meet each other often in the streets, transparent walls separate them. They live in different neighbourhoods, study in different schools And study different curricula.

A lot of the fights in my city are just about keeping this fragile status quo. For a a few month now, an extreme group of ultra orthodox Jews are violently protesting against the opening of a public parking lot on the Sabbath. Some of the streets in the city are blocked on the Sabbath  to prevent cars from entering ultra orthodox neighbourhoods. For an Israeli, Entering the Arab neighbourhoods of Jerusalem, is almost like going abroad. Even in the University, Arab and Israeli students rarely mix.

Meting your out-group so often might be a bit straining on one’s identity. “Who am I” is a question often asked  after interacting with such a diversity of people. For me, it is a part of Jerusalem’s lure. For other’s it too straining – those people go to Tel Aviv.

2 AM, drinking coffee

It is now 2 AM .  After a few days of constantly reading about all that happened in this area since the fall of the Ottomans (1924), I take a break. Looking out of my living room window, over looking  the Jerusalem Botanical garden, I feel the sweet Jerusalem breeze, mixed with the the hot smell of dark bitter coffee. In my head I can still hear the roaring canons and smell the gun powder of old wars, coming out of history books. I hear hateful speeches of fallen heroes, and sword brandishing by opposing factions.

Then comes a moment of silence. I look at the clouds, cascading  over the the rooftops. I stretch my neck to feel the breeze a bit better. This is the only place in Israel, where it can get a bit chillly in August. For a moment, I could here the loving heart beats of my city.For one moment, I could here  my city weep. She weeps for her sons, calling her name, killing each other.  She weeps for herself, for she never forgets.

Every morning, the city wakes up, puts on her make up and smiles. I, for one moment,  could here my city weep. I wept with her.

Israel’s settlements policy – Deals in the dark

The settlements are one of the key standing issues between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and one of the great divides between the new administration in Washington and the Israeli government. For years , Israeli governments, right wing and left wing, proliferated the Jewish settlements in the West bank, in an attempt to strengthen Israel’s control over the west bank.

Albeit intense pressure from Washington and Europe, Netanyahu’s Government is still insisting on the right of Israelis to “live” in the settlements, or in Netanyahu’s one words “not expanding the territory is different from the freezing life. You know, you have children there. You have babies that are born. What do you do with them? You have to give them kindergartens. You have to give them schools.”

Since the beginning of the 90’s, no new settlements were build. Nevertheless, the Jewish population in the west bank more than doubled. (that was the time of the Oslo process). According to a publication of Ariel college (Ariel is a Jewish city in the West bank), published at the end of 2008, the growth rate of the settlements between 1995-2007 was more than 3 times the growth rate of Israel proper. Not merely “natural growth”, I guess.

One of features of Israel’s settlement policy is the way Israeli authorities “koshered” Illegal settlement. According to the Sasson report, a report published in 2005, to the request of then Prime minister Ariel Shron, many ministries including law enforcement agencies and the military, supported, with underhanded means, the establishment of illegal outpost in the west bank.

the report states:

“The ‘engine’ behind a decision to establish outposts are regional councils in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, settlers and activists, imbued with ideology and motivation to increase Israeli settlement in the Judea, Samaria and Gaza territories. Some of the officials working in the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization, and in the Ministry of Construction & Housing, cooperated with them to promote the unauthorized outposts phenomenon. These actions were apparently inspired by different Ministers of Housing in the relevant times, either by overlooking or by actual encouragement and support, with additional support from other Ministries, initiated either by officials or by the political echelon of each Ministry.

The result was that the executive echelon, so to speak, became the deciding echelon, with no authorization, in contrary to government resolutions, baring no political or public responsibility, which by nature of things rests upon the political echelon.

All of this with massive financing by the State of Israel, with no appropriate transparency, no criteria.
The establishment of unauthorized outposts violates standard procedure, good governing rules, and especially an ongoing bold law violation.”

Violating the law is always a bad idea. Things tend to boomerang back. now a days , Israeli authorities now have to struggle with extreme  “hill top” youth,  wrecking havoc in the west bank, sometimes even going after the army or the police.