How ’bout those apples?

February 19, 2009 - 10:18 PM by Jessica · 2 Comments
Filed under: History and Culture, Politics, coexistence

ein-shemer-apples Just wanted to make sure you all caught that news item about Israel resuming its regular export of Golan Heights-grown apples to Syria. The idea is to allow Israeli Druze farmers in the Golan Heights — the controversial northern region of Israel that was wrested from Syrian control in 1967 — to market one of their main crops in Syria.

The Druze apples will be shipped in Red Cross trucks through the UN-patrolled border at Kuneitra, offering a diplomatic and economic solution for the Druze, Syrians and Israelis. For the Druze farmers and Syrians, it’s an important connection to the motherland, despite their settlement in Israel. For Israel, it shows the possibility of free trade with Syria, something that’s still quite hard to imagine.

The Druze say their apples are tastier than the Israeli apples, despite the fact that Israelis produce more apples, thanks to their more generous water allocations from the Israeli government. What I know about Israeli apples is that they often spend months in cold storage, leaving them somewhat tasteless once they cross the supermarket counter. And I also know that I’ve tried many tasty and/or quality Druze products, from Savta Gamila soap to the cured olives sold at the labane and fresh pita stands that line the road up the Hermon ski resort.

But hey. If we can make peace over a basket of apples, then I like them apples.

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Tags: apples, druze, labane, Red Cross, Savta Gamila, syria, un

A very Druze Knesset

February 9, 2009 - 11:55 PM by Harry · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Politics, Religion, coexistence

Druze man The Israeli Druze are a mysterious and interesting people. They are known to eat raw meatballs. They find their spouses on the internet (okay, we do that too). Although it can be argued that they know no borders, they are historically extremely loyal to Israel, fighting as part of our military since the War of Independence and even teaching in our universities.

About a year ago, some alarming news reached the public when Israel’s National Resilience Survey results claimed that Israeli patriotism among the Druze was dropping rapidly. Balad party Member of Knesset Said Naffaa had harsh words to say to YNet on the matter at the time:

“Israel had always viewed the Druze as some type of domesticated beast, but now this previously docile animal is fighting back,” said Naffaa.

Moreover, Israel has taken quite a bit of heat recently when the government decided last month to ban two Arab parties from the upcoming election (Yes, Balad is one of them), given their track records for anti-Israel sentiment, rhetoric and actions.

With polls opening in a number of hours and election fever in full swing, one aspect to the situation that has unfortunately not been emphasized is the potential for this upcoming Knesset to be the most disproportionately Druze-represented than any ever before. How’s that for tolerance and diversity? Even extremist Yisrael Beitenu party has a Druze on their candidate list.

Haaretz did the math for us recently, revealing that a total of five Druze candidates were likely to garner seats:

According to the government’s statistical yearbook for 2008, Israel has about 120,000 Druze citizens, constituting 1.6 percent of the population. Five Druze lawmakers would be 4 percent of the Knesset’s 120 members, 2.5 times more than the proportion of the community within the national population.

And the best part is, the candidates hardly seem interested in only representing their small ethnicity:

Deputy Foreign Minister Majali Wahabi (Kadima), a Druze, said yesterday that his community cannot be expected to vote en bloc: “The large parties have to understand the importance of our community. I personally plan to represent my people faithfully, but also anyone who voted for my party, no matter what sector they come from. I believe in our involvement in Israeli society, not in separate parties.”

Tomorrow, Israel has much to decide and crystallize. At least there’s a good chance that our legislative body will be far more diverse and far less “special interest”-focused than we’re led to believe.

Image of a Druze man in the Golan courtesy tierecke from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

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Tags: Arab, balad, druze, election, knesset, legislature, list, loyalty, Majali Wahabi, National Resilience Survey, nationalism, patriotism, race, representative, Said Naffaa, vote, Yisrael Beitenu

I’ll eat anything.

November 9, 2008 - 2:20 PM by Harry · 1 Comment
Filed under: Food, Travel

Fried Samboosak I’ve been living in Israel for quite some time now and have pretty much eaten my way through the country. I’ve eaten everything from turkey testicles (delicious if you can get past the fact you are eating balls) to a raw meatball of sorts prepared by Druze in the north to calf’s foot soup in the inner depths of Meah Shearim. It is incredibly rare for me to come across an item of food that I have never eaten. Last week I had to go to the Licensing Bureau to renew my license. The closest branch to my home is in Ramle so I took a ride over with dreams of either Indian food or hummus in mind. After the arduous process of basically waiting in line for an hour and running back and forth between numerous windows and locales I took a detour on the way back to my car via the shuk. I had plans to stop by at Hummus Khlalil for lunch but while walking through the shuk the smell of something being fried immediately caught my olfactory system. I asked the young man what he was frying and he told me they were samboosaks. Now sambooksaks are common throughout the middle east and are readily available in Israel as well – though I had only seen them baked – never fried. The young man explained to me that they are stuffed with mashed chickpeas spiced with garlic, paprika and other flavorings. The verdict is that they were incredible. Crispy, delicate, flavorful and deliciously oily. Yes, I know, deep fried anything isn’t so healthy, but everything in moderation.

Walking further through the shuk I came upon a bakery that was selling my absolute favorite Bukharian bread. I had only known of one place in the shuk in Jerusalem that sells it (and it always sells out rather quickly early in the day). After noshing on the samboosak and gnawing on the bread I actually headed over to Khalil for some hummus. I waddled back to my car, unbuttoned the top of my pants, drove home and took a nap.