Picture of the week: The Ethiopian journey comes to an end
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Holidays, Picture of the Week, Religion
It’s been a long journey for Israel’s Ethiopian Jews, airlifted out of Ethiopia to Israel in 1984 and 1991, but this week, many must have felt their travels were really and truly over.
Thousands of Ethiopian Jews descended on Jerusalem on Monday to take part in the prayer of the Sigd on a hill overlooking the Mount of Olives.
Ethiopians Jews, who are thought to be descendants of one of the lost tribes of Israel, celebrate this holiday every year. Back in Ethiopia, they would climb a mountain called Amburver to pray and beg God to bring them to the Holy Land.
Now in Israel the 80,000 strong population continue to celebrate the holiday. This year, however, the whole of Israel celebrated with them. The holiday of Sigd has been declared a national holiday and mandatory educational programs will be initiated to teach children about the celebration.
It’s a significant step forward for a people who haven’t always found it easy to adapt to their new life, and who still face prejudice from some quarters. Keep an eye out on ISRAEL21c for our video on the holiday.
Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90.
Picture of the week: The long goodbye to Rabin
There can’t be many people on the left or the right in Israel who don’t still wonder what would have happened if former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin hadn’t died the night he was shot by religious fanatic Yigal Amir.
Would we have peace now? Would the second intifada have been avoided? Or would everything have unfolded in much the same way? We’ll obviously never know.
What amazes me most is that it was 14 years ago, but the memories are still painful for so much of Israeli society. It’s an open-wound that as David so rightfully pointed out in his post, Have any lessons been learned , hasn’t yet been resolved.
I was at the rally the night Rabin was assassinated. We didn’t know about the shooting until after we left, when we visited friends on our way home and found them glued to the television. Even then it was clear, history had just taken a completely different route.
Israel’s president Shimon Peres addressing the crowd on Saturday at the 14th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in Tel Aviv. Photo by Liron Almog/Flash90.
Picture of the week: Finding friendship in the ruins of war
Israel is a country of contradictions. While the world outside sees the conflict in the clean crisp black and white of headlines, here in Israel we tend to see things in myriad shades of grey.
Take these two kids for example. Maria Aman (in the wheelchair) is a Palestinian girl from Gaza who was hit by an Israeli rocket during operation Cast Lead. Orel Ilizrov, is an Israeli child from Beersheva who was left with severe brain damage after he was hit by a grad missile fired from Gaza in the same conflict.
Against all the odds, they are best friends.
Maria was left paralyzed when her house suffered a direct hit. Four of her family were killed. Orel, an only child, is lucky to be alive. His mother threw herself on top of him in an attempt to protect him from the missile.
The children were hospitalized at the Alin Rehabilitative Center in Jerusalem and were given neighboring beds. Despite the traumas that both suffered, they ignored the conflict – as kids so rightly do – and formed a deep friendship based on everything they have in common, and not everything that keeps them apart.
Photo by Nati Shohat/Flash90
Picture of the week: October in the Old City
It’s October.
The evenings are getting cooler and Jerusalem is one of the first places in the country to feel the change in seasons.
In the evenings, the Old City walls are lit up, creating interesting shadows. Photo by Miriam Alster/FLASH90.
Pants off to Israel’s motorcycle protestors
Maybe it’s the hot weather, but protesters in Israel seem to like to get naked. The latest group to strip down to their underpants were the motorcyclists, hundreds of whom took to the streets of Tel Aviv late last week protesting against a hike in their insurance fees.
This is the fourth demo by the motorcycle community, who are getting increasingly incensed by the thought of the insurance rise, which is due to take place in November. In the last protest they snarled up route 2 causing heavy traffic jams.
Their motto this time was “They are leaving us without coverage”, which in Hebrew is a play on words that also means “without clothes/covers”. Hence the absolute necessity to whip off their clothes.
Walla covered the protest with lots of snaps and a video – naked people make good news obviously.
The demonstration comes just a few months after the Israel Bicycle Association and the Tel Aviv Rollers staged another protest ride to oppose the lack of government support for urban bike riding – in their thongs.
David reported on the bike protest here in Israelity. From a purely visceral point of view, it probably made better viewing, as bike riders and roller-bladers tend to be in much better shape than bikers.
But as Stephanie pointed out in her nude demo post a couple of years back – shape isn’t what counts in a naked protest.
Pic by Liron Almog/Flash 90. The sign at the back, by the way, reads: “The insurance companies strip us naked.”
Picture of the week: Acco festival back on track
This time last year, rioting over Yom Kippur led to a temporary postponement of the much-loved Acco Festival – an alternative theater festival that spills out onto the streets of the old Crusader city every Succot.
The festival was held eventually in December , but much was written about how the rioting between Jews and Arabs had damaged the fabric of a city where coexistence is the norm, not the exception.
One year on, and the festival, an event devoted to coexistence, is back in its usual time slot and last year’s unexpected outbreak of violence is being put to rest.
Now in its 30th season, visitors to the run-down, but beautiful World Heritage city, have been enjoying some 450 performances from theater groups across Israel and the rest of the world, including a show that follows six Acco residents who took part in last year’s riots.
Picture by Shay Levy/ Flash 90.
Picture of the week – A green Yom Kippur for all the world
Filed under: Environment, General, Holidays, Picture of the Week
Children riding their bikes and bimbas on an empty street in Jerusalem. Photo by Nati Shohat/Flash90.
For some it’s a solemn day of fasting, prayer, and asking for forgiveness, for others – specifically children – Yom Kippur is the day they claim the streets.
Ever year, children all over the country hone their cycling skills as the traffic stops and the roads clear. Whether it’s on a bike, roller blades, scooters, bimbas, or even unicycles, the nation takes to the street in what is probably – ironically – one of the most joyous holidays of the year.
Aside from the sheer pleasure of cycling undisturbed down some of Israel’s main arteries – like route 6, or the Ayalon Freeway, the quality of undisturbed silence is unparalleled. There are no buses, no cars, no trains, no airplanes even. The only sound is the whir of bikes, and the calls of children.
And the air quality, well…
I’ve long thought that some form of Yom Kippur actually ought to be adopted by other countries as an environmental measure. This must be the greenest day in Israel.
Every year there are reports in the local press about the dramatic decline in air pollution throughout Israel’s towns and cities. It’s a chance for the country to breathe again. Imagine what would happen if London followed suit, or New York, or Beijing. Perhaps this should be the latest campaign for environmentalists.
Picture of the week – first rains
Jerusalem, Rosh hashana 2009. Two months of rain fall in just two days.
Israel was surprised this week by unusually heavy first rains. Accustomed to short, light showers that kick off the winter season, Israel got a soaking instead.
The storms over the Rosh Hashana holiday, brought in by a band of cold weather from Turkey and the Black sea, actually set a new rainfall record – what fell in just two days equaled the average total for both September and October, according to the Water Authority.
The storms were greeted with much pleasure. With five drought years behind us, Israelis are resorting to increasingly creative ways to reuse gray water and conserve fresh water (from short showers to inventive flushing systems for the loo) in the wake of the worst drought in Israel’s history.
In Kfar Saba, for instance, the municipality is now introducing a new biofilter that will clean urban rain water runoff to recharge old and out of service water wells. It’s a pilot project in the country’s first environmentally friendly urban housing project. Watch out for the story in the coming weeks in ISRAEL21c .
As far as rainfall goes, we now have to wait and see what comes next. As we enter an El Nino year, some people are anticipating a wet winter as rainfall patterns across the world respond to the warmer seas.
The Water Authority is warning us not to get too excited, however. In a recent
Jpost article, Water Authority spokesman, Uri Schor announced that El Nino could also cause an even more severe drought year than the last five.
“We’re on the rim of the El Nino effect and no one knows what it will bring. It could conceivably bring a lot of rain, but it could also bring about a severe drought year. It’s clear what we’re all hoping for,” he said.
Given that the last time we had a rainy winter, the Israeli government slowed work on its desalination projects, setting us back several years, it’s probably not surprising he’s so cautious.
For most Israelis, however, this sudden unexpected downfall was a welcome diversion from the heat, and a chance to enjoy that fresh, clean scent that follows the rain.
Picture of the week
I want to be alone: A Canadian Sphinx takes a rest from the judging at the International Cat Show held in Rishon Letzion near Tel Aviv this week.
This is the first time the event has been organized in Israel. It was also the first time unpedigreed cats were allowed to compete for prizes in an Israeli show.
One hundred and twenty-five cats from all over the world took part in the competition, organized by the New Israeli Cat Alliance (NICA) at the Neve Shikma sports arena. Visitors were asked to vote for the most beautiful cat of their choice.
The Sphynx, also known as the Canadian hairless, is a rare breed of cat. It appears to be hairless, but is actually covered with a very soft, fine down which is almost imperceptible to both the eye and touch.
People describe them as part monkey, pig and human because they are intelligent, extroverted, affectionate, and let’s face it – not exactly the most attractive of beasts.
People seem to love them though. Check out the video here .
Photo by Lior Mizrahi/Flash90.
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