Now, Deputy Foreign Ministry Danny Ayalon wants the rest of the world to take on this custom as well. He is pushing a campaign called “Just One Minute” in which he calls on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to devote a minute of silence during the opening ceremony of the  summer London Olympic Games in remembrance of the massacre of the eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

The campaign is a grass roots counterweight to the IOC’s refusal last week to formally honor the memory of the murdered athletes. The families of those athletes have been trying in vain for 40 years now to receive some official commemoration. Ayalon’s plan is to build public support via the Internet, using social media and petitions, to sway the hardened hearts of the IOC.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The campaign kicked off this week with the release of a YouTube video title “Just One Minute” featuring Ayalon solemnly addressing the camera, speaking in English  During the video, a clock counts down the 60 seconds of the video’s duration, which Ayalon points out is not such a long time to do something with such clear value.

The campaign has some international support (20 British MPs, a few U.S. Congressmen), but Ayalon stresses he is not in this for politics. “I hope that this massive support and sympathy will lead to a change in the decision,” he says, adding “it is undeniably the just and moral thing to do.”

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Motta Gur before entering the Old City in 1967

I’m never quite sure what to think of Yom Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Day in English. The day commemorates the reunification of the city following the Six Day War in 1967 – 45 years ago today – and is for some a day of great joy – a miracle even – while for others is alternatively a catastrophe or at least a major sticking point on the road to the creation of a Palestinian state.

It’s hard to argue that the city of Jerusalem, without the treacherous wall that existed from 1948 until 1967, dividing the city and from which Jordanian snipers would take shots at civilians living near the seam line, is not a better place today. And yet, overly boisterous celebrations around Jerusalem Day always seem to me to have an inherently confrontational tone, one that says, “it’s ours, it always has been and always will be.”

Now that may indeed become the case, and I would hate to see the city divided again in any way, but let’s be straight: that outcome is far from de facto. East Jerusalem’s future status is in no way a done deal, despite what certain politicians may claim. There is a lot of work to be done…including compromise on both sides.

That doesn’t seem to be the understanding on the streets though. Jerusalem Day in recent years has been hijacked; no longer is it a day of unification among Israelis of different religious and political persuasions.

Just check out the annual flag parade that snakes down Jaffa Street towards the Old City: the message has become one of military and miraculous conquest, as the “parade” surrounds the Old City like Joshua and the biblical Jericho. Shouldn’t it be more of a ceremony marking the end of an historic and tragic wrong, where the historic Jewish Quarter was emptied of its residents and many of its synagogues and structures were pillaged and destroyed? Why can’t we celebrate Jerusalem Day bathed with words of love, not war; togetherness not antipathy?

I read in the newspaper over the weekend something else that disturbed me. When the march reaches the Old City, the sexes will be segregated. Men will go towards the Western Wall via the Dung Gate while women will enter through Jaffa Gate.

That left me feeling both saddened and angry. How can we untangle the conflicting narratives of this most complicated city if we can’t even keep our men and women together? It seems that my ambivalence about Jerusalem Day will continue for some time to come.

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Back in 2007, after the death of former model Hila Elmalich who was 34 and weighed less than sixty pounds, he told me the following for Women’s Wear Daily:

“The problem is with society, and the low self-esteem of these girls,” says Barkan. “We need to put this out there, to make it a societal norm in Israel and the rest of the world. People need to see these anorexic bodies and move their butts and do something about this.”

Israel21c interviewed Barkan several times about the issue, and posted the following video:

In March, his perseverance paid off, as the Knesset passed what is being called the Photoshop law, for the aspect of the law that regulates the use of Photoshop to make women appear perfect in advertisements. That’s a huge accomplishment. The bulk — no pun intended — of the law focuses on banning underweight models based on their BMI, or Body Mass Index.

The law is making waves in Israel, and around the world. Can Israel set the precedent for changing the way the fashion industry views and uses models’ bodies?

Interestingly enough, it was on Israel’s new fashion channel, Fashion.net., that a panel of fashion professionals, including clothing designer Yosef and a local fashion magazine editor, agreed that despite the new law and its groundbreaking potential, the fashion world will still view impossibly thin model bodies as the ultimate in goal.

“No one wants to see a curvy, zaftig model,” said Naama Chaisin, who is the second generation in the Tovale designer line of clothing. “And I say that as someone who is curvy and has fought to lose weight my whole life.”

Here’s to hoping she’s wrong.

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Among the 38 documentaries entered into the competition this year is Shadows In Palestine, a new look at the millennial movement of German Templers (not to be confused with the Crusader Knights Templar), a community of religious Protestants who lived in the Holy Land for three generations, from 1868 to 1941, in settlements known today as the “German Colonies” of Haifa, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Sarona (in central Tel Aviv), Wilhelma (adjacent to today’s Ben Gurion Airport), Waldheim (now Moshav Alonei Abba) and Bethlehem of the Galilee.

The Templer sect (Tempelgesellschaft) was a German Protestant sect with roots in the Pietist movement of the Lutheran Church. They believed that living in the Holy Land would hasten the second coming of Christ and were expelled from the church in 1858 because of their millennial beliefs. In 1868, at the urging of their leader, Christoff Hoffman, the emigrated to the Holy Land and built their first colony in Haifa.

According to Wikipedia, “The colonists built an attractive main street that was much admired by the locals. It was 30 meters wide and planted with trees on both sides. The houses, designed by architect Jacob Schumacher, were built of stone, with red-shingled roofs, instead of the flat or domed roofs common in the region.

“The Templer settlement of Sarona was one of the first modern agricultural settlements in Palestine… In August 1871, the Templers purchased 60 hectares of land from a Greek monastery north of Jaffa.

“The colony’s oranges were the first to carry a ‘Jaffa orange’ brand, one of the better known agricultural brands in Europe, used to market Israeli oranges to this day. The Templers established a regular coach service between Haifa and the other cities, promoting the country’s tourist industry, and made an important contribution to road construction.

“In 1873, after establishing colonies in Haifa and Jaffa, members of the Templer sect from Württemberg, Germany, settled on a large tract of land in the Refaim Valley, southwest of the Old City of Jerusalem. The land was purchased by one of the colonists, Matthaus Frank, from the Arabs of Beit Safafa.”

The Templers brought modern farming methods to the region, importing agricultural machinery, introducing soil fertilization, better methods of crop rotation and new crops with a focus on crops and products they could readily sell. ‘The researcher and author Sven Hedin wrote of his visit to Sarona in 1916 ‘…many plants were in blossom. They mainly grow grapes, oranges and vegetables, [but] like in old times they also produce milk and honey.’”

But the idyll began to fracture when in 1917, during World War I, General Edmund Allenby conquered Palestine from the Ottomans. “The German colonists were regarded as enemy aliens. Many of the colonists were recruited for the units of the German Imperial Army, which fought together with the army of the Ottoman ally against the British conquest.”

The German colonists — now into their third generation — chafed under British rule and became increasingly influenced by German nationalism. “In 1937, 34% of the Templers were Nazi party members. At the start of World War II colonists with German citizenship were rounded up by the British and sent, together with Italian and Hungarian enemy aliens, to internment camps in Waldheim and Bethlehem of Galilee. 661 Templers were deported to Australia via Egypt on July 31, 1941, leaving 345 in Palestine.”

“Sarona, together with the three other agricultural settlements – Wilhelma, Bethlehem of Galilee and Waldheim – became ‘perimeter’ compounds into which all Germans living in Palestine were interned. Sarona held close to 1,000 persons behind a guarded, 4 m high barbed-wire fence. In July 1941, 198 people from Sarona, together with almost 400 from the other internment camps were deported to Australia on the Queen Elizabeth. They were interned in Tatura in Central Victoria Australia until 1947. By November 1944, most of the remaining Sarona residents had been moved to the camp in Wilhelma. The last group was sent there in September 1945.”

However, according to the new documentary, “during the thirties, the Templers were pressured to embrace and form a Nazi party” and fell victim to a secret exchange between Germany and Britain. “The Nazi party set free a number of Jews from concentration camps and in exchange Britain, who controlled Palestine at the time, sent the Templers back to Germany. Despite the fact that only a third of Templers joined the Nazi Party, all of them were forced to leave their new homeland.”

It will be interesting to see this new account of the Templer’s history. (Right now there is only a movie trailer on YouTube). The movie includes first-hand interviews with Templers who speak about the past and their exit from Mandatory Palestine. For Israelis who don’t necessarily know the background to these German Colony neighborhoods, it’s a chance to learn about the Templer movement, its accomplishments and contributions to the development of the modern State of Israel.

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So I switched to another favorite web source of news and, damn, it had basically the same headline. Could this be? How could a nation that at midnight was 95% of the way heading to early elections with the Knesset about to dissolve itself have veered so drastically in a few hours in which most sane people are fast asleep? Welcome to Israeli politics.

Whether the largest national unity government in the short history of the country is good for us or not, I’ll leave to the political pundits. But the whos, whys and hows behind the dramatic turnaround that caught everyone – including the nation’s usually plugged in media – totally off guard will be the subject of speculation and dissection for weeks to come.

Most people, whether they admire or disdain him, are calling this Bibi Netanyahu’s master stroke, strengthening his government and creating a national consensus for everything from changing the Tal Law to planning to cope with the Iranian threat. And it’s not a bad deal for Kadima either, which was on its way to the dust bins of history – with one leader, Tzippi Livni out the door, and its new figurehead, Shaul Mofaz fighting to create a persona for himself.

Now he’s a vice premier, and Kadima is in the government, even though he had repeatedly stated Kadima would never join a Likud-led government and has been widely quoted as calling Netanyahu a “liar.”

But that’s all politics, he told today’s joint press conference with Netanyahu where they announced the deal, and as opposition leader, he was required to criticize the leadership.

Fair enough. Regardless of the cynicism of self-serving interests surrounding the decision, it’s maybe time to let this government see what it can do, and determine if Bibi and Mofaz are just spouting more politics or are serious about working together to better the country at a critical time in its history.

I’m willing to give them a chance, but I’m a little scared about going to sleep tonight and waking up to find another unbelievable headline in the morning.

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Early elections seem to be a done deal, with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announcing Sunday night at a Likud convention the plan to dissolve the Knesset and establish the election date of September 4.

Nobody really knows why virtually every party is clamoring for new elections over a year ahead of their scheduled appearance. But it’s clear why Bibi is agreeing – his Likud party stands to be the big winner according to all the recent polls.

With tour operators bemoaning the likelihood that Israelis are going to cancel late summer travel plans in order to be here for the elections, and the nation bracing for another symbiotic coalition of strange bedfellows, there’s not a lot to be optimistic about.

Luckily we have the campaign ads to look forward to. A truly entertaining exercise that wastes millions of shekels that could be better put to severely lacking social services, the party ads offer some unique ‘only in Israel’ moments that reveal a juicy cross-section of Israeli society.

You want to know what makes Israelis such a ornery, loveable bunch? Watch some campaign ads. Here’s a small sampling from 2007 – from Yisrael Beyteinu, Meretz and the defunt Shinui party.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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According to an essay on the Shaar Hagai website, having decided to set up a canine unit, Haganah commanders turned to Dr. Professor Rudolphina Menzel, “a noted cynologist with a considerable reputation in her native Austria in the field of animal behavior… She quickly discovered that the European breeds with which she was accustomed to working, German Shepherds, Boxers, Dobermans, suffered greatly from the severe climate and difficult terrain and had a hard time functioning effectively.

“She began to observe the local pariah dogs living on the outskirts of settlements and with the Bedouin in desert and wilderness areas, and decided that this was a true breed of dog that had adapted to the conditions. She began a program of re-domestication, collecting puppies and adults from the pariah groups.”

“The Canaan Dog has survived for thousands of years on its own, living by its wits, and surviving in the wild and on the fringes of civilization by hunting and scavenging. Often puppies were captured, raised and used, especially by the Bedouin tribesmen, as guardians of the flocks and the tents. Like other wild or feral residents of the area, only the strongest, healthiest, cleverest, and most fit survived to breed and pass on their characteristics.”

Prof. Menzel called the breed the Canaan Dog after the Biblical Land of Canaan. Canaans have been part of the local landscape since time immemorial. The American Kennel Club history of the breed cites “Drawings found on the tombs at Beni-Hassan, dating from 2200 to 2000 B.C., depict[ing] dogs that show an unmistakable resemblance to the Canaan Dog of today.”

An essay posted by the Canaan Dog Club of America states, “As a breed the Canaan Dog proved highly intelligent and easily trainable, serving as sentry dogs, messengers, Red Cross helpers and land mine locators. During World War II, Dr. Menzel recruited and trained over 400 of the best dogs for the Middle East Forces as land mine detectors, and they proved superior to the mechanical detectors.”

“The Canaan is also one of the very few breeds known that has successfully adapted to a desert environment,” the Shaar Hagai essay notes. “Studies done at Tel Aviv University and Ben Gurion University of the Negev have shown an astonishing ability in this breed to adapt to extremes of temperature and lack of water. The breed has developed physiological adaptations to prevent waste of fluids and overheating.”

Prof. Menzel was responsible for gaining recognition for the breed; her breed standard was accepted by the La Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI) in 1966, where it is classified in FCI Group 5, a subgroup of primitive dogs. She exported the first Canaans to the US in 1965 and to Germany shortly after. (An interview with Prof. Menzel about her work by noted naturalist Dvora Ben Shaul makes for fascinating reading). In 1970, Shaar Hagai Kennels joined in the development and breeding of the dogs, carrying on Prof. Menzel’s work after her death in 1973.

Over the years, urbanization and cultivation have led to the gradual disappearance of the Canaan’s natural habitat and there is a danger that the wild dog, which is the original breeding stock, could disappear. Added to that is a new threat: after 42 years, the Shaar Hagai Kennels have received a notice of eviction by the Israel Lands Administration (ILA), which holds title to the property. Such a move could mean the end of their breeding program and consequently endanger the breed overall.

Myrna Shiboleth, who has run the Kennels for 42 years, now finds herself in an unusual plight and has been actively lobbying for public support. She has successfully recruited 38,505 signatures (so far) on an online petition that will be submitted to the ILA. 50,000 signatures are needed, so sign the petition, join the Facebook page, and pass the word on.

I should mention my personal interest in this story; when we adopted her two years ago, we couldn’t figure out our dog Nili until we learned about Canaan dogs. Then it all made sense: she may be part Canaan in breed (check out those giant ears) but she’s all Canaan in ‘tude: highly intelligent, very loyal but never blindly obedient. All in all, a true Israeli sabra.

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You can message from Waze user to user

Twitter and Facebook have rightly become famous as the most powerful new media tools used today to organize protests against social and governmental injustice. Now there’s a new one, and it has the potential to be not only influential but annoyingly intrusive.

The latest mobile service to be drafted into the fray is Waze, the social driving app that I wrote about for Israel21c last year. Waze shows you where traffic is slowing down…or where you yourself should slow down to avoid a cop at a speed trap. It’s all crowdsourced, meaning that the data Waze gets comes from fellow Waze users out on the road, posting manual updates or letting Waze do it for them automatically.

It’s an incredibly seductive app and has an estimated 1.5 million drivers in Israel on the road with their Android and iPhones working away. Full disclosure: I have Waze and love it too.

But Waze also has a feature where you can send messages to other Waze users (they show up with smiley car icons on your Waze map). And that’s how, last weekend, a group called Free Israel took advantage of Waze to send out mass messages to other Waze users protesting the fact that public transportation doesn’t operate on Shabbat.

The “message-in” took place in Tel Aviv and included such slogans as “Buses to and from hospitals were forced to stop due to religious coercion,” and “Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz won’t let me on the bus.” The protest organizers implied that, were there buses running on the weekend, people wouldn’t be forced to drive in their cars, although I suspect a one-to-one correlation would be a tad hard to prove.

Now, here’s where it gets potentially meddlesome. There’s nothing to stop other Waze users from mass messaging themselves. That could take the form of an advertisement (“Hey everyone, we’ve got the best sushi in Herzeliya”) or political activism beyond lobbying for Saturday buses. In this article in last week’s The Times of Israel, for example, West Bank activist Shmuel Ben-Yosef suggested using Waze “to bring more Israelis to Judea and Samaria.”

His innovative method: when Waze users see the traffic jams around their favorite parks this coming Israeli Independence Day, Ben-Yosef would send out a message informing drivers about “some beautiful destinations just a few minutes away from the population centers that many residents of the large cities don’t know about,” he says.

The Tel Aviv bus protests may have let the genie out of the bag for a whole range of unexpected uses for unsuspecting drivers.

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The Hursha event flyer

And then, a major scoop on why it is that the Hursha recycling area never happened. During a ‘heppening’ — Hebrew for a gathering, an event — that was taking place yesterday at the Hursha playground, sponsored by a local Jerusalem political and social action party, a municipality official taking part in the event told a friend that the reason the bins were never put in place is because the space wasn’t planned well, and there was no way the recycling trucks would ever be able to access the bins.

The Hursha, you see, is situated between two streets, Efrata and Korei Hadorot, accessed by what we call a simta, a kind of open alley or path that connects the two streets. The recycling space is at the front of the park, about midway up the simta, formally known as Barzilay Street, and therefore inaccessible to cars or trucks. It’s quite true, there is no way to access large recycling bins and clearly someone in the municipality made a big mistake when they poured the cement for this particular corner.

So that’s it. No cardboard or metal recycling corner for Talpiot, or not yet. And it seems doubtful that the city would post an apology sign, letting us know that they screwed up. Instead, the orange-painted area has become a default hangout space for parents and their toddling kids, until someone comes up with another, better idea.

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Anne wrote about the tree three times in her diary, the last time on May 13, 1944, noting, “Our chestnut tree is in full bloom. It´s covered with leaves and is even more beautiful than last year.”

The Yad Vashem sapling was planted near the Children´s Memorial and International School for Holocaust Studies, in the presence of Hanna Pick (pictured), Holocaust survivor and childhood friend of Anne Frank.

How ironic that such a fitting memorial should be followed, only a few days later, by the outrageous news that the Berlin branch of Madam Tussaud’s had inaugurated an Anne Frank tableau, meant to inspire “optimism”.

If the Berlin waxwork is a fitting memorial, it is not to Anne Frank’s memory, but to Madame Marie Tussaud herself, who gained notoriety during the French Revolution as a maker of death masks. Put that in your nostalgia pipe and smoke it.

Holocaust Remembrance Day is not nostalgic, “nostalgia” being a sentimental or happy recollection of times or things past. It is a day for recalling the most unpleasant aspects of human nature, for honoring the memory of people we may or may not have actually known and hopefully, a day of self-examination and learning about a terrible chapter in Jewish history.

For over half a century, Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, has been committed to what it terms the four pillars of remembrance: Commemoration, Documentation, Research and Education.

Of those four, it is the last one that has become most critical as older generations pass away. In fact, its fair to say that the first four provide the foundations upon which education can stand; the Yad Vashem website provides a wealth of downloadable materials, educational programs and lesson plans for educators, as well as an online photo and document archive and YouTube channel of documentary films, survivor testimonies and historical lectures.

Visit the Yad Vashem website this week – there is always something to learn there.

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