Mobile clubbing in Tel Aviv

January 8, 2010 - 10:12 AM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, Crime, General, Israeliness, Life, Music, Pop Culture 

clubshank1Tel Aviv’s fun-loving clubbers won’t be denied. Following the police closure on New Year’s Eve of some of the city’s prominent night spots due to alleged overcrowding, the dance-deprieved residents are taking their moves to the streets in protest.

The plan? To take portable music players and their headphones and silently dance all night at Gan Meir park in the middle of the city – in an act of mobile clubbing.

May, one of the event’s organizers, told The Jerusalem Post that the clubbing community feels that the city and the law enforcement agencies are trying to delegitimize them.

This is our way of protesting in a quiet and fun way, so that nobody can claim we are disrupting the peace.

For several years now the city has been corralling all the nightclubs into special enclosures – city zones that are dedicated to nightlife – and many people feel that it’s ruining the character of the city that is well known for its open and festive atmosphere. We feel that what the police did last week was going too far. We understand the need for safety, but we feel that they are picking on the wrong people. Instead of going after places because they are overcrowded, the police should be going after the places where there are fights or where alcohol is being sold to minors.”

On New Year’s Eve the police closed down 10 clubs, which they said were dangerously overcrowded. Shortly after midnight, the officers turned off the music, sent the partygoers away and issued 30-day closure orders to the clubs’ owners.

Tel Aviv’s finest said that on New Year’s Eve, officers inspected 148 nightclubs, of which 10 were closed down, some because of overcrowding, some because of fighting and some because they were selling alcohol to minors.

According to the police, some of the clubs were found to have more than two-and-a-half times the permitted amount of people. A spokesman told The Post:

“We have no desire to ruin the city’s night life, but those kinds of levels present a real danger. Never mind a bomb, in such close quarters even a fight or fireworks going off can lead to disaster.”

Whatever the result of the conflict, Gan Meir is going to be the place to be tonight – after shul, of course.

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Happy Sylvester

December 28, 2009 - 9:00 PM by · 3 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Life 

happy newDepending on how you feel about it, there’s an advantage to living in Israel come New Year’s Eve time.

If you want to celebrate the switch to the next year then there’s no shortage of parties and events taking place, especially in the big cities, and homes around the country. But there’s sort of a bashful ways we celebrate, a noticeable ‘unofficial’ feel about the whole thing, right down to the name we call New Year’ Eve – Sylvester.

According to the Balashon blog, ‘Sylvester’ was the name of the ‘Saint’ and Roman Pope who reigned during the Council of Nicaea (325 CE).

“The year before the Council of Nicaea convened, Sylvester convinced Constantine to prohibit Jews from living in Jerusalem. At the Council of Nicaea, Sylvester arranged for the passage of a host of viciously anti-Semitic legislation. All Catholic ‘Saints’ are awarded a day on which Christians celebrate and pay tribute to that Saint’s memory. December 31 is Saint Sylvester Day – hence Sylvester.”

Since we go by a different calendar in Hebrew, and the religious powers that be would never allow a real New Year’s celebration (New Year’s Eve parties at hotels are strictly outlawed), those that celebrate the evening took to calling it Sylvester.

However, if you’re like me and have never really enjoyed the hoopla surrounding New Year’s Eve and the prequisite to be merry and have a great time, then all the pressure’s off in Israel. You can easily go through the day, evening and next day without even knowing that there was anything special going on.

Because New Year’s Eve falls on a Thursday this year, there might be more partiers since most people won’t have work or school to worry about the next day. We’re even going to attend a party ourselves, a musical New Year’s Eve hoedown at a friend’s house. But the chances of us lasting until midnight are an even bet.

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A new year

January 1, 2009 - 10:06 AM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Israeliness, Life, War 

New Year's EveI was sitting this morning, checking out the status reports of my friends on Facebook, and thinking about the New Year, and the situation in the South.

The American friends were mostly writing about going to dinners, New Years resolutions, travelling, being cold, or referring to some other aspect of New Years and winter revelry. The Israeli friends were mostly alluding to the war in some fashion.

But that’s not to say that people here are fixated on Operation Cast Lead. My daughter reports that downtown Jerusalem was packed last night for ‘Sylvester’ celebrations, the endearingly nerdy way Israelis refer to New Years Eve, while thinking they’re being cool.

So we have a situation that, like the rest of the world, Israelis are out partying despite what’s going on in the south of the country. And when you stop to think about it, what’s going on in the south of the country is just mind-boggling. According to news reports last night, 600,000 Israeli citizens are within range of Hamas rockets and Kassams.

A Home Front commander was on TV advising residents of Beersheva, Sderot, Ashkelon and other southern communities not to gather for New Years Eve parties last night out of fear that a well placed rocket could cause major casualties. A couple that was getting married on New Years Ever in Beersheva changed the venue at the last minute for that very reason to the safer confines of Rehovot.

How long can we – meaning the people of the South and the country at large – endure this kind of situation? Well, for quite a while actually, as the Second Lebanon War in 2006 displayed. Israelis are quite resilient, and we realize that the pre-war situation, when it was just Hamas attacking us, is unacceptable.

But it would be nice if someone was telling us what’s going on, and providing the residents of the South with some encouragement and guidance during this unfathomable situation.
Why haven’t Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, or Ehud Barak or Tzipi Livni, given a ‘State of the Union’ address, particularly the residents of the South, and told them ‘listen, this is going to get bad, you’re going to get bombed and it’s going to be unpleasant and dangerous. But we’re doing this to disable Hamas from being able to fire rockets at you ever again.”

But no, nothing. It’s all implied that we – the government and the army – are going to do what’s neccessary, and you – the people – will only have to be told things on a need to know basis. We may be great fighters – although between the Lebanon War and our current inability to stop Hamas, that assumption is being challenged – but we’re terrible communicators.

Imagine the United States attacking Mexico in order to prevent a constant barrage of missiles from Tiajuana onto San Diego, and nobody from the government from the President on down addressing the people of San Diego and warning them that it’s going to be getting a little rough, but we have your backs covered.

Anyway, that’s what I get for checking status reports on Facebook. I guess if I was going to write a New Year’s wish for 2009 on my own status report, it would be that, instead of rockets, peace and quiet begin raining down on the South of Israel.

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