A picture tells 1,000 words

August 17, 2010 by · 3 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, General, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture, War 

Eden Abergil is seen in this picture, posted on her Facebook page, smiling next to the prisoners.

The storm that erupted yesterday when am ex-IDF soldier posted photographs of herself from the army posing with blindfolded and bound Palestinian prisoners under the title “The Army … The Most Beautiful Time of My Life,” reminded me of an incident during my own military service a few years back.

Serving in a series of military prisons, I also dealt with Palestinian detainees in similar situations as the ex-soldier, Eden Abergil. As their ‘jailer,’ I would sit for hours outside a huge, soccer-field sized fenced in area, where the prisoners lived, ate, studied, played volleyball, studied and slept in tents. I was their outside contact to enable their food to get in, to announce their trice-daily roll calls, to bring prisoners to see their lawyers, or the IDF doctors and dentists that were also in reserve duty to serve them.

I had always tried to explain to family and friends what life was like in the prison, for us the soldiers, as well as the prisoners. But it was really something you needed to see. So, I brought my camera back one time from leave, and one day, in the middle of their daily activities, unobtrusively took a couple of wide-lens shots of the prisoners through the fence.

Unobtrusively, I thought. Because, just as we were ordered to keep an eye on them, the prisoners also had their guards whose job it was to keep their eyes on us. Within a minute, the ‘shawish’ – the Arab name for the prisoner chosen to speak for the detainees – was at the gate demanding to speak to my commander.

I reluctanctly called him, and it became clear during their discussion that they were talking about me and my camera. Afterwards, the commander came to me and said, “next time you want to take a photograph, take one of me.”

I left my camera home in subsequent stints of reserve duty.

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Artik, Kartiv

August 16, 2010 by · 4 Comments
Filed under: Art, Food, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Movies, Music, Pop Culture 

I’m in a kartiv period of my life. Kartiv, for the unitiated, is the Hebrew word for frozen popsicles, but the ice ones, not those made of ice cream. That would be an artik. Israel, being a land of a long summer, specializes in its artikim and cartivim, with huge selections of both everywhere you turn (something like the dairy selection). Whether you’re in the supermarket buying a box of eight, or at the local pool or makolet (corner store) sliding open a freezer, you can find popsicles in a wide range of flavors, from the traditional lemon, cherry and pineapple to passion fruit and mango. There are cup-like popsicles that hold small balls of ice (I’m partial to the strawberry/banana), long sticks that are more sherbert-like and creamsicles that look like watermelon. But that’s getting into artik land.

For my purposes at the moment, being the mother of 22-month-old toddlers, popsicles are playing a major role in our days. Ziv and Lev were introduced to cartivim a while back, probably when we were at someone’s house or the pool. Now they’re pretty addicted to the most typical Israeli cartiv, colored plastic tubes of sugar water that are sold in packages of 6 or 8 in the supermarket. Granted, lots of sugar in them, but what I do like is that the tubes are colored — green, red, purple, yellow — but the ice itself is not, which is a sort of natural touch. In our house, we call them ‘pops’, and they’re requested first thing in the morning, but I try to hold them off until the afternoon. I’ve tried to turn other food items into ‘pops,’ such as pretzel sticks, breakfast bars, bananas. But they’re not buying it. They want the real thing.

The inappropriately named 'Nanasim'

The fave among the toddler set? Nanasim, which means dwarf or midget in Hebrew (note, only word for either dwarf or midget, even though it’s a a different condition entirely) and is used, in typically Israeli un-P.C. manner, as the name for the package of six mini popsicles that come in cola, cherry, lemon/lime and apricot flavors. They’re tasty, especially when dipped in the enclosed bag of sugar, but not to worry, I don’t offer that to Ziv and Lev.

Israel, in fact, is known for its artik/kartiv selections, and there’s even a Facebook page called Artik Kerach. As well as a song by singer Tzvika Pik, called YouTube Preview Image (“Artik, Kartiv, chocolate, banana” is the refrain). Which brings me to my final bit of popsicle linguism: The real word for an ice popsicle is a kirchon, as in kerach (ice), but is commonly known as a kartiv, artik kerach or eskimo (Check out the 1978 cult classic, “Lemon Popsicle”, about three high school kids growing up in Tel Aviv). Finally, the term artik came from the name of an ice cream company, based on the word ‘arctic,’ as in cold.

Grag me a cold one, wouldja?

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The fall of a wall

August 15, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Israeliness, Life, Politics, War 

Removing the Gilo barrier. (Photo: Ynet/Noam Moskowitz)

It may not be as dramatic as the Berlin Wall coming down, but for anyone who was in Israel during the years of the Second Intifada at the beginning of the 2000s, the dismantling of the concrete barrier that has separated the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo from the nearby village of Beit Jalla is indeed a big deal.

The Palestinian village was basically taken over by terror organizations who muscled into homes and used the vantage point to launch barrages of missiles and sniper fire on the Israeli neighborhood over a period of several months, causing death and destruction.

The IDF erected a barrier consisting of 800 concrete plates to prevent the sniper fire, and it’s remained in place ever since, even though there has been little violence in the ensuing years. This week, the residents of Gilo are beginning a new chapter as the IDF has started dismantling the concrete plates, a project that is estimated to take about two weeks.

Yediot Aharonot spoke to some of the residents of the neighborhood’s
Ha’anafah Street, which suffered the most attacks. And they had mixed feelings about the wall finally coming down.

“To be honest, I’m a little scared, I just hope its not an opening for something bad; that they’ll see the walls coming down and it will start all over again,” said Ester Cohen.

Cohen remembers the frightening time 10 years ago, “I live in the same house since the shootings, and it was a very difficult experience. I have a disabled daughter, and she would enter a trance of fear, screaming and shouting. There is still a little trauma. I am not completely okay with them taking it down, but I hope it signifies the start of an age of sanity. I would like to feel that I live in a sane place, like anywhere else.”

Maybe the removal of the concrete barrier separating Gilo and Beit Jalla will be the beginning of that age of sanity.

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Nostalgia Sunday – Haifa Postcards

August 15, 2010 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Nostalgia Sunday, Travel 

How about a little virtual trip to the Haifa of yesteryear? Let’s start at the entrance to the city…

Ride up to the Carmel… or is that camel?

Take a look at the view…

And visit some of the neighborhoods both new…

Or — closer to the port — not so new…

And of course, no trip would be complete without a visit to the Bahai Gardens!

Blogger Yossi Shdemati has done an excellent job of collecting and posting postcards online. More Haifa images can be found on his site. For up-to-date tourist information about Haifa, visit the city’s Tourism Board online. And of course, no online tour would be complete without a 360 degree virtual panoramic vista. Breathtaking!

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Foto Friday – Jerusalem Bird Observatory

August 13, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: education, Environment, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Life, Profiles, Social Justice, Travel 

Not many seats of government can lay claim to being located on one of the world’s prime birdwatching sites. In fact, Israel’s Knesset may be the only one.

The Jerusalem Bird Observatory (JBO) is a 5,000 sqm (one acre) plot of prime real estate, between the Knesset and the Supreme Court. The site is one of the few traditional birdwatching areas in Jerusalem and houses the Israel national center for bird-ringing (also called banding or tagging). Bird migration patterns are studied throughout the seasons, data collected and analyzed in a comprehensive database.

The JBO has four main goals: 1. environmental education, 2. conservation research, 3. eco-tourism, and 4. creation of a common forum for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Educational activities include training courses in tagging birds, courses in photographing birds, birdwatching tours, a birdwatching club, lectures , presentations of current research, and education about bird watching for kids.

The JBO website has an active community of members who upload photos from around the country of rare birds that have been sighted and tagged.

So, for example, on July 1 after a busy day of tagging 40 Green finches and Spectacled Bulbuls, JBO volunteers Ora and Avner met a surprise with bird number 41: an Indian silverbill. The report: “It was molting heavily and not at its prettiest! Nonetheless, a darling bird, tiny as can be, with a sharp bill!”

Volunteer Ron Haran, a talented nature photographer, snapped the finches in action…

and a bulbul, too.

And JBO volunteers Yotam and Yosef from the Zora ringing station, outside Jerusalem, report that — despite the summer heat — preparations for the fall migration are already in place: “The little warblers… are getting fatter and beginning to vacate their nests for their northern cousins who will pass our way in a month en route to Africa. This morning there were the first two European warblers… The first group of storks has settled in the alfalfa fields and we’re awaiting the pelicans.”

They also ringed a Red-rumped swallow…

a Little Bittern…

and a wren.

The JBO is an amazing place and the central location can’t be beat but if you can’t visit right away, check out the website. The list of sighted ring recoveries reported by birders all over Israel makes for a fascinating read. It also serves as a glossary of bird names in Hebrew, English and Latin. That’s how I learned that the bulbul is called that in English, too.

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