Month: October 2009

Raising their spirits

by adminin Israel, Writing

dsc05295The Jerusalem Post, October 30, 2009

A Star-of-David-wearing Batman chased a Hebrew-speaking Spiderman. The pair wove their way through a crowd of dancing ghouls, singing witches, and smiling princesses—including a blonde Snow White. Orange balloons bobbed overhead and children toted pumpkin-shaped plastic buckets full of candy, reminding the partygoer that it wasn’t Purim, it was Halloween.

Although the Saturday night party was hosted by Israel’s Ilonggo tribe, comprised of Filipinos who hail from the Iloilo province, foreign workers and families from all over the Philippines received a warm welcome from the group’s president, Victor Soriano. The Embassy of the Philippine’s Labor Attach, Miriam Cuasay, also greeted the crowd at a nightclub in Tel Aviv’s Tachana Merkazit.

Some Filipino traditions echo those practiced by Americans. As in the United States, many Filipino children go trick-or-treating. And families often hold costume parties on October 31.

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Israeli blockade strangling Gaza agriculture

by adminin Writing

gaza agriculture carnation farmers The Electronic Intifada, October 29, 2009

Recently, Israel announced that it would import palm fronds from the Gaza Strip for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. The move came at the behest of Minister of Religious Services, Yakov Margi, who feared that a shortage of palm fronds and a local monopoly on the item would send prices skyrocketing for the Jewish holiday Sukkot, which came in early October this year.

Before the holiday, palm fronds are in high demand as religiously observant Jews build thatched huts that commemorate the 40 years that, according to Biblical tradition, the ancient Hebrews wandered the desert. Once Sukkot begins, however, palm fronds are no longer needed.

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Village a symbol of resistance

by adminin Writing

dsc05221The National, October 31, 2009

Hebrew translation: here.

Every Friday, as midday prayers draw to a close, a few dozen protestors meet outside Bilin’s humble mosque. From there, they march though the village, calling for an end to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories. By the time they enter a thin, dusty grove of olive trees adjacent to the barrier that separates Israel from the West Bank the crowd has usually grown to at least 100.

The area is considered a no-access zone, a no man’s land, by the IDF. Israeli soldiers in riot gear wait on the other side of the barbed wire fence. They blast a siren and warn the demonstrators to disperse. Seconds later, the soldiers fire tear gas into the crowd. Sometimes, they shoot rubber-coated bullets.

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Casting out its own children

by adminin Writing

Mondoweiss, October 24, 2009

South Tel Aviv, home to foreign workers and African refugees, is in turmoil again after Interior Minister Eli Yishai recently indicated that children of illegal residents will be deported by the end of the school year.

They won’t be going alone—their parents will be deported, too—but that’s beside the point. Many of the 1200 children now targeted for deportation were born and raised in Israel. Some are teenagers who hope to serve in the army and join the Jewish collective they already consider themselves a part of. These kids have Israeli names, celebrate the chagim (holidays) and are culturally Israeli in every way.

The Interior Ministry estimates that there are currently 300,000 foreign workers in Israel—250,000 of these are in the country illegally. Migrants from the Philippines constitute the largest group; laborers also come from India, Nepal, China, and Thailand. Additionally, there is also a small community from Latin America. Usually, the Filipino, Indian, and Nepali workers are employed as caregivers, the Thai are found in the agricultural sector, and the Chinese labor in the construction. Israel is also home to almost 15,000 African asylum seekers from Eritrea, Sudan, and Darfur.

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Children born in Israel now denied the right to live there

by adminin Writing

dsc05242The National, October 23, 2009

Michael Trinanis is eight. Like most children born in Israel, he likes football, learns English in school and when he bickers with his older sister, he does so in Hebrew.

But Michael is not a typical Israeli boy. As the son of illegal Filipino workers he is facing deportation back to a country he has never seen and knows little about.

Up until now, children of foreign workers, whether illegal or legal, have been allowed to stay in the country, attend school and access all services. But that is now changing after the interior minister, Eli Yishai, indicated that illegal labourers and their children will all be deported by the end of the school year.

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Making a mark on Israel

by adminin Israel, Writing

dsc04395The Jerusalem Post, October 23, 2009

Over-sized Lego men aren’t something you normally see in an art gallery. But a new exhibition at Tel Aviv’s Kishon Gallery brings the work of street artist Ame72—known for playful Lego-inspired figures that decorate walls throughout the city—indoors.

Not only is “Let’s Go!” Israel’s first solo show of a British urban artist, Ame72 is arguably amongst the most prominent and well-established of the local street art scene.

Ame72 is something of a founding father in the urban art arena—when he moved here four years ago with his Israeli wife, there wasn’t much of a local movement to speak of. Soon after his arrival, Ame72 recalls, he teamed up with a French artist to produce the city’s first major work of graffiti. Like this piece, many of the images that are found in Tel Aviv today are created by foreign-born artists. “There is a lack of homegrown artists,” Ame72 remarks. “The street art scene in Tel Aviv is still developing,” Ame72 says.

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Israeli soldiers go unprosecuted

by adminin Writing

scales_of_justice2Israeli soldiers go unprosecuted

Maan News Agency, October 21, 2009

News of the recent arrest of an Israeli soldier accused of beating Mohammaed Khatib, secretary of the Bil’in Village Council and a prominent member of Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, was met with little enthusiasm in the Palestinian community.

“While I was happy to hear that one of my assailants was arrested,” Khatib said, “the real problem is much wider—the nighttime raids directed against organizers and participants of grassroots protest in Bil’in and other villages; that Israel employs military means against civilians. 28 [Palestinians] have been arrested in Bil’in in the past three months and there has almost always been use of unjustified violence. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only case to have been seriously investigated.”

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Welcome to Gaza

by adminin Israel, Writing

dsc05195Welcome to Gaza

The National, October 10, 2009

“Welcome to Gaza” isn’t a greeting you’d expect to hear in Israel. But a current tour is bringing the Strip to the sidewalks of Tel Aviv.

You Are Not Here is offering a free audio visit to Gaza City in Tel Aviv. Tourists start by printing the two-sided map from You Are Not Here’s website. When they hold the bird’s eye view of Gaza to the light, the streets of Tel Aviv appear from the other side.

At each of the 20 sites in Tel Aviv, visitors find a sticker on a utility pole instructing them to call the local “Gaza Tourist Hotline” from their cell phones. Their recorded guide, Laila el-Haddad, a prominent Gazan journalist, activist, and blogger, gives an insider’s look at the corresponding place in the Strip. In this manner, Israelis “visit” Mahmoud Abbas’s house, Palestinian Parliament, the Great Omari Mosque amongst other places.

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A Blockade That Doesn’t Apply to Lulavim

by adminin Politics, Writing

img_2353A blockade that doesn’t apply to lulavim

The Forward, October 7, 2009; print edition, October 16, 2009

When Israel recently opened a loophole in its blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza, it wasn’t heeding international calls to loosen its closure for humanitarian reasons. Instead, Israeli officials were spurred to action by the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

On September 29, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved the immediate importation of palm fronds, or lulavim, from Gaza in advance of the harvest festival. According to the Israeli daily Ma’ariv, Barak was responding to appeals from Israel’s minister of religious services, Yakov Margi of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party.

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White city, black days

by adminin Miscellaneous, Writing

whitecityblackdays1White city, black days

The Jerusalem Post, October 2, 2009

Earlier this year, the festive pop and bright flash of fireworks marked the beginning of Tel Aviv’s centennial year. But the celebration was held at Rabin Square – a location that reminds Israelis that, amidst the excitement, there is a sober history to commemorate, as well.

Those dark days of Tel Aviv are the topic of a current exhibition at the Eretz Israel Museum, titled “White City, Black Days.” Comprised primarily of photographs, the exhibition is divided into waves of difficult times that the first Hebrew city has faced from World War I to the present. Though many of these events have long passed, some have left an indelible mark on the city’s urban landscape, and some continue to resonate deep within the Israeli psyche.

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