Tractors in Jerusalem

July 23, 2008 - 9:53 AM by · 3 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Life, Politics, War 

At 2.30pm yesterday I got an email in my inbox from the government press office:

(GPO 1) TERRORIST ON TRACTOR SET OUT FROM CONSTRUCTION AREA IN JLEM YEMIN MOSHE NEIGHBORHOOD ON RAMPAGE TOWARD ‘GAN HAPA’AMON’ (CORNER OF KEREN HAYESOD ST. & KING DAVID ST.) & STRUCK SEVERAL VEHICLES, INCLUDING A #13 BUS, BEFORE BEING SHOT & KILLED BY BORDER POLICEMAN & CIVILIAN. JLEM POLICE CHIEF ILAN FRANCO REPORTS ONE PERSON MODERATELY-TO-SERIOUSLY WOUNDED & 4 OTHERS LIGHTLY WOUNDED. (COMM. BY GPO)

For a moment I was confused. Was this the terror attack from a couple of weeks ago? Were they sending out another press release by mistake? I clicked onto Ha’aretz and confirmed that yes, it was yet another terror attack by an East Jerusalem man on a tractor.

tractor t.jpg

This time the shock value was less, partly helped by the fact that no-one died. But still 24 were wounded, and for some of them, those wounds aren’t just a scratch on the arm, but a devastating life-changing injury that will scar them for life.

There have been five major terrorist attacks on Jerusalem since the start of the year, 12 people killed, dozens wounded. So what do you do?

What can you do? You go on. It’s the school holidays, the kids are out and they’re looking for fun, and they don’t need to know about terror attacks. Everything operates as normal. The beaches are busy, the cafes are full, the cinemas are bursting. So you get on with life, you go on as usual, and soon you push it aside and move on. And that’s exactly how it should be.

Still, it’ll take a while before I can see a tractor on the road and not wonder who exactly is behind the wheel. Nor can I help looking at other once innocuous work machines and wonder if they too have the potential to be turned into weapons.

And what about a word for all the decent, peaceful Israeli-Arabs living in Jerusalem. There’s talk now of banning them from working in construction in the city. It’s logical, and hardly surprising, but still it will take away livelihoods from some good people. But how do you know who’s a potential terrorist? That’s a problem the whole world faces.

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The loaded loader

July 7, 2008 - 5:31 PM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Life 

It’s an unfortunate fact of life in Israel that following a terror attack, whether it’s a bus bombing, roadside shooting or last week’s terrifying rampage with a construction ‘loader,’ the tools of violence become more noticeable to the rest of us.

During the years of the second intifada, we all became more aware of people wearing unsuitably heavy outerwear during the hot summer months, of abandoned or forgotten knapsacks in public places or how dark a highway can seem at night when it’s been the site of a shooting attack. The signs and symbols can be almost comical, as one looks for ways to alleviate the stress and pain of unnecessary losses.

After last week’s attack with a construction loader that killed three people, I began looking at the ubiquitous construction equipment around Jerusalem with a new lens. In the way that often happens, the bulldozers, loaders and other construction vehicles became the subject of conversation, including the fact that while much of the media used the term bulldozer to describe the machine that was used, it was actually a loader that wreaked Wednesday’s tragic havoc.

And so it was one of those ironic life moments when we were woken up the other morning by the sound of a bulldozer outside our apartment building, digging up the driveway that serves as a pedestrian byway between two streets. To be honest, we were kind of nervous. It was only a few days after the incident, and here was a massive piece of machinery right outside our window, driven by local Arab construction workers.

We ventured outside and tentatively asked what was going on. Turns out they were sent by the municipality to put in the street lights that we’ve been requesting for months. We smiled, exclaimed, and thanked them for starting the work. They smiled, nodded and went back to work. And now, as always in this city, we’re stuck in that somewhat uneasy but familiar status quo that exists between the Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem. They’re driving the bulldozer outside our house, we’re bypassing it on our way home, and though we nod, smile and offer each other the right of way, we barely speak the same language.

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Acknowledging the obvious

July 2, 2008 - 7:15 PM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, War 

It’s impossible to blog about life in Israel without acknowledging the terrible (and slightly surreal) terrorist attack today in Jerusalem. If you haven’t heard by now a Palestinian construction worker went on a rampage in a bulldozer crashing through cars, overturning buses and attacking pedestrians. This attack left three dead and over sixty wounded.

In a strange twist, Moshe Plesser, the off duty soldier from the elite Egoz unit who killed the terrorist and ended the attack is the brother in law of David Shapira, the off duty soldier who killed the terrorist in the attack on the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva back in March. I guess heroism runs strong in that family.

Terrorist attacks are few and far between these days but when they do happen, they obviously pack a wallop. It’s a chilling reminder of how fragile life, how powerful hatred is, and how we all somehow continue to live through despite with it all.

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