B&B owner, antiquities authority battle over ancient tomb

May 10, 2012 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, Crime, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Religion 

Mitch Pilcer in front of the grave he discovered. (Arieh O'Sullivan)

What do you do when you’re digging in your backyard to put in a swimming pool and discover the grave of a third century rabbi?

That doesn’t likely happen too often in most parts of the world, but it did in Israel, to Mitch Pilcer, who owns picturesque bed-and-breakfast country establishment in the Galilee village of Tzippori, the home of early rabbinic sages.

Pilcer’s 2009 discovery of Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Levi’s grave, whose commentaries appear in the Talmud and legend has it was a close friend of Elijah the Prophet, has sparked an ongoing struggle with the Israel Antiquities Authority who have been demanding that Pilcer allow them to excavate the tomb.

According to a report by The Media Line, the IAA won a court order, and late 2009 it conducted a dig on the property and confiscated the headstone door, which had been inscribed in plainly legible Hebrew: “This is the burial place of Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Levi Hakapar.”

Later the IAA filed charges against Pilcer for carrying out an illegal excavation, damaging an ancient site and possession of antiquities. Pilcer’s trial began at the Nazareth Magistrate’s court last week where he pleaded not guilty. He has also made formal demands to have the stone returned to its original site.

Full disclosure here is that Pilcer is an old friend, and I’m on his side of this battle over the ownership of the stone and the site. Read the full story about his battle with the ‘Man’ here.

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Jerusalem Light Rail’s growing pains

April 4, 2012 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, Crime, General, Israeliness, Life 

While all appears to be running smoothly on the Jerusalem CityPass light rail line, there are rumblings that are coming from below the surface and about to explode.

The rail payment system is similar to many European cities, where passengers are expected to buy tickets or flash their magnetic card against a machine to debit a ride when they board. However, it’s a little confusing for some newtimers, and overzealous inspectors who roam the trains hoping to catch violators are evidently not being too sympathetic.

A Facebook page called “Jerusdalem Light Rail Abuse” has been launched. In their manifesto, the organizers write: “CityPass inspectors are writing fines for any infraction, even genuine mistakes caused by not knowing the system or language (tourists and new immigrants) and by malfunctioning Light Rail equipment.”

The page links to a bunch of horror stories about perplexed passengers going up to inspectors to ask for help and immediately being hit with a substantial fine (up to $50) for not having paid for their ride.

Likewise, the blog ‘Life in Israel’ details a particular case of family of five from outside Jerusalem who bought their tickets and couldn’t’ figure out how to use the machine to swipe the card. When they approached an inspector, they were immediately fined NIS 993 and forced off the train.

Something is clearly not on track for the Jerusalem Light Rail.

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Israeli driver training

December 23, 2011 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Crime, education, General, Israeliness, Life, Travel 

Having possessed a car for much of the last 25 years, I’ve grown accustomed to the driving habits most Israelis have adopted – habits that have justifiably given us the reputation of being among the worst drivers in the world.

Driving around Jerusalem the other day, my wife and started joking about what we would do if we were given citizen’s rights to give traffic violations. We decided to keep track of the various infractions Israeli drivers are guilty of on a daily basis.

Within a couple minutes, we witnessed one driver speeding up as a traffic light turned red and barreling through the intersection. “That’s a license revoking offense,” I offered.

A couple streets later, a car over on the right shoulder had just evidently mistakenly passed a side street and was backing up against the traffic in order to turn right. I think that should prompt taking their license away and also impounding their car and forcing the driver to take an IQ test. It’s probably the most dangerous thing you can do on the road besides driving blindfolded.

“This is too easy,” my wife said, as we continued to witness one violation after another – cyclists weaving in and out of traffic, drivers making right turns from the left lanes, and someone blaring thumping trance music from their open window – itself a capital offense.

We thought we had seen everything, and had handed out probably 20 tickers during our imaginary shift. However, driving up the highway incline to our neighborhood, a station wagon passed us containing what looked like Palestinian laborers on their way home. A quick glance came up with nine passengers in a six-seat car, and these guys weren’t tiny.

We couldn’t help but laugh at the negligence around us, but one more sight topped it all. Across the median on the shoulder heading downhill, a taxi was pulled over to the side. The driver was standing around the front of the car, facing away from the road and urinating for all to see.

After all we had witnessed on that trip, it didn’t seem to be so bad at all.

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Shattered calm close to an Israeli home

December 18, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, Crime, General, Israeliness, Life, News, War 

The entrance to Ma'aleh Adumim usually looks like this.

To get into our city of Ma’aleh Adumim, you have to pass a compact roadblock usually manned by two people. It consists of a mobile barrier that drivers need to slalom around, slowing down enough for the guards to get a good glance at you.

It’s generally a boring place, despite the thousands of cars that pass daily, and the hundreds of construction workers – mostly from the neighboring Palestinian village of Azariyah – who on foot pass through the barrier on the way to their day jobs.

So, it was surprising to find out on Saturday night, after Shabbat came to an end, that a guard at the entrance had been lightly injured in a stabbing attack that morning.

According to The Jerusalem Post report, “a suspected Palestinian terrorist launched a knife attack against a security guard at the entrance to the Ma’ale Adumim settlement near Jerusalem on Saturday. The municipal guard was lightly injured in the assault. He was evacuated to hospital for treatment. Police and IDF forces were searching the area for the suspect.”

It took place on a beautifully sunny, mild winter’s day, less than a quarter-mile from my house, unbeknownst to the families in the neighborhood enjoying the day with their families.

An odd thing about the incident – generally Palestinians aren’t coming into Ma’aleh Adumim on Shabbat, since there’s no building or repair work going on. So either the perpetrator made a special trip to attack, or he had another reason to be coming to the city.

Either way, whether the attack was the result of cumulative anger, hate and frustration at Israeli ‘occupiers, or he had a personal vendetta about a work issue that left him humiliated or enraged, or whether he was mentally unstable and the guard was a natural target, the ‘business-as-usual’ feeling that passes for reality in the West Bank is a tenuous one that can be broken at any time with ease of a knife’s steel blade passing in the wind.

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The Israeli version of ‘the dog ate my homework’

November 7, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Crime, General, Israeliness, Life 

The robot bomb sapper.

My 11-year-old son came home from school with an anecdote yesterday about an occurrence that could only happen in Israel.

We’ve all heard the old ‘my dog ate my homework’ excuse or something along those lines, and many of us have probably used it at some point in their educational career. But one of Matan’s classmates brought a truly original – and true – excuse to class for not doing her math homework.

She and some friends were waiting after school at a bus stop for their bus home, when they decided to walk a couple blocks to the nearest ‘makolet’ (corner market) to buy some ice cream. They took their leisurely time, until about 20 minutes later on the way back, she realized that she had left her school bag at the bus stop.

By the time they approached to the bus stop, the police suspicious objects unit was already there, treating the school bag as a potential terror threat. And one of their cool robot cop remote-controlled devices was in the process of exploding the bag.

The shocked girl retrieved her knapsack, which didn’t really look like a knapsack anymore. And inside was her math book, warped, burned, and shredded.

The next day, she brought the book to school and presented it to her surprised teachers.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t do my homework yesterday,” she said. “My book got blown up.”

When my son finished relaying the story to me, his final comment was, “she’s so lucky, she didn’t have to do her homework.”

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