Easter Monday, Passover and a Desert Wind

1 Apr

IMG-20130322-00237It’s one of those days where you could only be here. No other place can do today like Jerusalem.

It’s Easter Monday, it’s the last day of Passover, and the “sharav” — that hot desert wind from the Arabian peninsula — is blowing.

Weird.

I took a drive around the city, which is basically a white-out with this desert wind. You can hardly see anything. Everything’s closed for Passover too. Still.

The streets are full of ultra-Orthodox men dressed in their fur Shabbat hats and shiny black coats out for a walk with the family (wife in a wig) or heading to the Western Wall in the Old City.

Easter, on the other hand, doesn’t mean much around here, even though Catholics believe it’s the site of Jesus’ birth, his crucifixion, his death and then resurrection. Although a lot of Christian pilgrims come here to see these sites (Christian tourism is the biggest source of tourism to Israel), Christianity is not something that’s lived here, at least from what I can see.

Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, is a majority Palestinian Muslim town that’s behind Israel’s security wall. It’s not easy to figure out how to get there, even though it’s only about three miles away. I can’t tell you the number of people who have stopped me on the street and asked me how to get to Bethlehem.

Uh, take a bus or a taxi to the checkpoint. Walk through the checkpoint (that looks like something out of the Berlin Wall) with your passport, then get another Palestinian taxi on the other side to take you to Manger Square. Got that? Right.

In the Old City, of course, there’s the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus is believed to have been brought after his crucifixion. If you took away the Filipina maids who work in Israel, and the Christian tourists visiting on those big tour buses, there wasn’t much of a crowd there on Easter.

On Easter, which is all about the crucifixion and resurrection, right?

The whole Christian thing here is odd. There are some mammoth places here in Jerusalem that belong to Christian churches. There’s a French monastery right by my apartment, for example, that is about the size of a Manhattan city block. Behind huge stone walls and gates that are never open. What goes on in that huge space — or who’s actually in there — is anybody’s guess.

The Muslims are around, of course, in East Jerusalem, with their revered Al-Aqsa mosque, but you wonder how many Muslims really can — and do — make the pilgrimage here. Several Arab leaders have called on Muslims to visit Al-Aqsa here in Jerusalem, to preserve it’s revered identity. Most Palestinians who live in the Holy Land wouldn’t have permission to come to Jerusalem.

Nah, driving around today, there was no mistaking it. No matter what they say about Jerusalem being the cradle of three religions, it’s really mostly about the one religion these days — Judaism.

And that’s just how they want it, I would think.

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Chametz All Over the Place

28 Mar

IMG-20130328-00246 (1)I don’t know about you, but I’m up to my ears in chametz.

Here in the Jewish state, here on the Jewish west side of the holy city of Jerusalem, where most everybody else has been getting rid of their chametz like there was no tomorrow.

For the uninitiated, let me explain.

Chametz is what becomes of five types of grain — wheat, barley, spelt, rye and oats — when you combine them with water and let them stand raw for longer than 18 minutes.

Crumbs, to you and me.

Really important during Passover here in Israel, since Jews may not own, eat, or benefit from chametz during the seven-day Passover holiday.

Now why am I up to my ears in the stuff when nobody else has any? Precisely because nobody else has any.

Starts with bread. I’ve now got more bread in my freezer than my husband and I can eat in weeks. Why? Because our bakery is closed for the holiday and takes orders weeks beforehand to ensure you’ll make it through — and perhaps ensure they have a prosperous Passover. So you buy more bread than you could ever eat. Happened last year too.

Then the apartment. Filthy. Why? Because every cleaner you could ever hire — or have hired — is busy cleaning every last nook of the homes of their Israeli clients — working double and triple time for them in the lead-up to Passover. Getting all that chametz out.

I have been SO jealous. My neighbors’ apartments must be spotlessly clean, judging by all the stuff — furniture, clothes, etc. — they’ve dragged out onto their terraces and gardens to clean under, around and behind.

Israelis go into a full overdrive of spring cleaning in the run-up to Passover. Trash cans have been overflowing with discarded stuff all over town. You could see, and smell, the fires, where the chametz was burned.

Nobody’s asked me to buy their chametz this year. That happens too.

Besides using up, throwing out, or burning their chametz, observant Jews can also sell their chametz to non-Jews for the holiday. And then buy it back later, if everybody wants.

I’m glad nobody’s asked me to buy any this year. Someone did last year.

I’d be drowning in chametz then.

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The Palestinian Issue, anyone?

21 Mar

IMG-20130319-00224Obama’s second day here in the Middle East began with rocket fire from Gaza, the first since the Gaza war with Israel ended in a cease-fire in November.

No better indication to the visiting U.S. president how complicated things are here.

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, who was hosting Obama later in the day at his headquarters in Ramallah, denounced the rocket attacks, quickly highlighting the deep schism that now exists between the leaders of the Gaza Strip and those of the West Bank.

There is no united Palestinian body for Israel to talk to. Not that anybody is talking to anybody, mind you.

Obama said in Ramallah that he was still “deeply committed” to the two-state solution. But the two-state solution is being eroded on the ground here by Jewish settlement building in areas the Palestinians are envisioning as their state, he also acknowledged.

And that’s not likely to change, everybody knows that. Israel’s newly-formed government includes a large representation from the settler movement.

And so it goes here in the Holy Land. Just gets more complicated all the time.

And it’s easy for the world to just forget about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict too, since it’s been going on so long now, and the fact there are so many other places — just in this neighborhood alone — to worry about.

Today’s newspapers here were full of what Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talked about yesterday – the possibility of a nuclear Iran, the disintegration of Syria, and the increasing instability in the Middle East, at the top of the agenda.

Not a whole lot about the Palestinian issue.

The visit was mostly billed as an opportunity for Obama and Netanyahu to make up from the frosty relationship of Obama’s first term.

Mission accomplished on that score. Not much to report on anything else, though.

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Welcome President Obama!

21 Mar

IMG-20130320-00230 There’s been a decent build-up to the Obama visit here in Jerusalem. Two weeks ago, big red-white-and-blue banners heralding the “unbreakable alliance” between the United States and Israel started appearing. American flags, side-by-side with Israeli ones, went up along major roads.

And this being Israel, everyone wanted to talk about the upcoming visit.

Then, the whole city shut down Wednesday. Classes were cancelled, kids got off school, and people took off work because traffic was disrupted and diverted around the center of town and near the historic King David hotel, where Obama is staying. There’s traffic disruptions, cancellations, and closures all week here. This visit is having a big impact on local residents.

So I decided to head up to the King David Hotel in the afternoon to see if I could get a peek at Obama. Warm sunny day here in Jerusalem, where almost everything is reachable by foot, although almost certainly up a hill.

I guess I expected a crowd, although I’m not sure why. Obama isn’t hugely popular among regular Israelis here in Jerusalem. I guess because it felt like a holiday.

There was no crowd. Only a sea of Israeli police and soldiers around the hotel and down the street where the presidential motorcade was passing. And a few lookie-loos like me and my British friend.

We talked to a few policemen, who mostly wanted to know where we were from and what we thought about Obama. I was surprised they were talkative and nobody searched us or seemed to consider us much of a threat.

There were dozens of them, however. And very few of us. And then the heavily-protected motorcade passed. Since I had a front row place, I got a decent look at Obama sitting in the back seat.

Felt historic, mostly because I was standing there. But it’s not.

It’s mostly being billed as an opportunity for Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to turn over a new leaf in their not-so-great relationship.

No movement is expected in the dead-in-the-water peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Not much change at all.

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Me … and the Israeli Police

19 Mar

IMG-20130329-00247Full disclosure: I drive like an Italian. Which usually fits right in, here in Israel.

It’s not that I’m reckless. I don’t think I am. But I’m not a scaredy-cat driver, let’s say.

The other night, I was definitely driving like an Italian — the country of my DNA – when I came out of the grocery store near me and crossed a double line to get to the other side of the street to stop at the 24-hour convenience store there.

I mean, I had forgotten something. And nobody was coming in either direction.

Not good, I know.

Within about five seconds, an Israeli police car was zooming in my direction, his blue light ’aflashing.

“License and registration,” the policeman barked at me.

I handed him my American driver’s license (that can’t be right) and started fumbling in the glove compartment for the registration of the car, which is leased by my husband’s company here, and I drive only occasionally. Never seen the registration. No idea what I was looking for.

The policeman then started.

“Are you a teenager?” he yelled. “You don’t look like a teenager to me. Why do you drive like one?”

“I’m sorry,” I stammered. I mean, I had no defense whatsoever.

“Can you do this in your country?” he barked. “No,” I said. (Certainly not in the US, I thought. In Italy, you might just get away with it. Wasn’t going down that road).

“I can take you to the police station right now and arrest you,” he said, “and take this car.”

Where IS the registration?

God. I had my book club coming to my apartment in about an hour. My husband was out of the country. He hates that I drive like an Italian. Now what?

“I’m sorry,” I stammered again. A tear might have come to my eye. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry? Who cares?”

“Are you an Israeli citizen?” No.

“Are you a tourist?” Not even.

“Do you have your passport?” It’s at the house.

“Where do you live?” Just up there.

“Why do you drive like a teenager? You don’t look like a teenager,” he repeated.

“I’m sorry,” I said. What else was there to say?

A couple seconds went by. Neither of us said anything. I tried to look as contrite – and scared – as possible.

“Go home!” he yelled suddenly, pointing in the direction of my street. ”Get out of here! Go home now! Get out of my sight.”

Really? Uh, okay. Whatever you say, sir.

I pulled away slowly.

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Call to Prayer

11 Mar

IMG-20130309-00210     When we first moved into this apartment in west Jerusalem, an expat who had lived on this street before told me it was the call to prayer that always reminded her she was living somewhere really different.

I know what she means. You can hear it so distinctively here.

Because we live on the old Green Line — and there’s an Arab village between us and Jerusalem’s Old City.

“Waa, waa, waa,” it wails five times a day from the loudspeakers that are usually mounted on the highest part of a mosque’s minaret. It’s calling nearby Muslims to prayer, so that’s the point: You should be able to hear it.

During the day, I like it. It punctuates things; makes you notice what time it is. I often stop and listen.

But the first one, right before dawn, took awhile. When we first got here, I used to wake up every morning at the first call.

People told me I’d get used to it.

“Waa, waa, waa,” it went every morning before dawn. Loud.

The other day it hit me. Something had changed.

I was no longer waking up to the dawn call of prayer.

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Democracy, Israeli-style

8 Mar

IMG-20130308-00189 Gideon Levy, a columnist on the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper here in Israel, never ceases to amaze me.

As far as I can tell, he’s the no. 1 critic of the Israeli government, of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, of the direction Israel is going.

So much so that I actually worry about the guy’s safety, even though he’s a prominent Israeli. I mean, considering some of the stuff he writes.

Yesterday, his op-ed column was entitled “Netanyahu’s children.” In it, Levy argued quite forcefully, that a recent spate of attacks against Arabs in Israel — anti-Arab violence that hasn’t been seen here in years, he said — was pretty much Netanyahu’s fault.

“These Israeli skinheads are the fruits of the nationalistic and racist atmosphere that has grown greatly in recent years, the Netanyanu years,” Levy wrote in yesterday’s paper. He said Jews who had committed these attacks “know they are allowed to do so since no one will enforce the law against them. They even think they are required to do so. And they are right: That is what they were taught during the cursed Netanyahu years.”

Some pretty strong stuff comes out of Levy every day he writes.

Which does make me marvel at Israeli democracy.

I said that to a very left-wing Israeli the other day, a guy whose life work is helping Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

I told him that I’ve actually worried something could happen to Levy because of how outspoken he is. I mean, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was basically murdered for his left-wing views, right? I can’t tell you how many Israelis have told me that the left died in this country along with Rabin.

“Nothing will happen to Levy,” he said to me. “They need him around precisely to show what a great democracy Israel is.”

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