Category: Israel

The Jerusalem Post, October 30, 2009

A Star-of-David-wearing Batman chased a Hebrew-speaking Spiderman. The pair wove their way through a crowd of dancing ghouls, singing witches, and smiling princesses—including a blonde Snow White. Orange balloons bobbed overhead and children toted pumpkin-shaped plastic buckets full of candy, reminding the partygoer that it wasn’t Purim, it was Halloween.

Although the Saturday night party was hosted by Israel’s Ilonggo tribe, comprised of Filipinos who hail from the Iloilo province, foreign workers and families from all over the Philippines received a warm welcome from the group’s president, Victor Soriano. The Embassy of the Philippine’s Labor Attach, Miriam Cuasay, also greeted the crowd at a nightclub in Tel Aviv’s Tachana Merkazit.

Some Filipino traditions echo those practiced by Americans. As in the United States, many Filipino children go trick-or-treating. And families often hold costume parties on October 31.

Continue reading “Raising their spirits”

The Jerusalem Post, October 23, 2009

Over-sized Lego men aren’t something you normally see in an art gallery. But a new exhibition at Tel Aviv’s Kishon Gallery brings the work of street artist Ame72—known for playful Lego-inspired figures that decorate walls throughout the city—indoors.

Not only is “Let’s Go!” Israel’s first solo show of a British urban artist, Ame72 is arguably amongst the most prominent and well-established of the local street art scene.

Ame72 is something of a founding father in the urban art arena—when he moved here four years ago with his Israeli wife, there wasn’t much of a local movement to speak of. Soon after his arrival, Ame72 recalls, he teamed up with a French artist to produce the city’s first major work of graffiti. Like this piece, many of the images that are found in Tel Aviv today are created by foreign-born artists. “There is a lack of homegrown artists,” Ame72 remarks. “The street art scene in Tel Aviv is still developing,” Ame72 says.

Continue reading “Making a mark on Israel”

Welcome to Gaza

The National, October 10, 2009

“Welcome to Gaza” isn’t a greeting you’d expect to hear in Israel. But a current tour is bringing the Strip to the sidewalks of Tel Aviv.

You Are Not Here is offering a free audio visit to Gaza City in Tel Aviv. Tourists start by printing the two-sided map from You Are Not Here’s website. When they hold the bird’s eye view of Gaza to the light, the streets of Tel Aviv appear from the other side.

At each of the 20 sites in Tel Aviv, visitors find a sticker on a utility pole instructing them to call the local “Gaza Tourist Hotline” from their cell phones. Their recorded guide, Laila el-Haddad, a prominent Gazan journalist, activist, and blogger, gives an insider’s look at the corresponding place in the Strip. In this manner, Israelis “visit” Mahmoud Abbas’s house, Palestinian Parliament, the Great Omari Mosque amongst other places.

Continue reading “Welcome to Gaza”

Bringing artistry to the orchards

The Jerusalem Post, September 11, 2009

There’s something new coming from one of Israel’s oldest communities—fruit bearing curious names like Watermelon Plums, Plumegranates, and Pita Peaches.

They’re the creative product of Ben-Dor Fruits and Nurseries, which is located in Yesud Hama’ala. Founded in 1883 during the first aliyah, Yesud Hama’ala’s early settlers took advantage of the Galilee’s rich Hula Valley, laying the agricultural roots that remain today.

Though the Ben-Dors were among the founders, their family farm didn’t evolve into a thriving business until 23 years ago, when Seffi Ben-Dor took over. Ben-Dor, who paints in his spare time, brought artistry to his orchards. Using traditional methods of selective pollination, Ben-Dor began crafting unique varieties of stone fruits, the family that includes plums, peaches, and apricots.

Continue reading “Bringing artistry to the orchards”

The Palestinian village of Bil’in, located in the West Bank, is a flashpoint for the Arab-Israeli conflict. Since 2005, Bil’in has been the site of Friday demonstrations attended by hundreds of Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals in protest of the impending construction of the separation wall, the division of Palestinian-owned land, as well as the continued building of Israeli settlements. According to the protestors and Palestinians the barbed wire security fence, which serves as a temporary separation, also prevents farmers from accessing their land.

The weekly rally sometimes turns violent. In the past, protestors have thrown rocks at Israel Defense Forces soldiers; occasionally IDF forces have fired rubber-coated bullets at the crowd.

The IDF typically uses “skunk bombs”—a putrid-smelling liquid— and tear gas to disperse the demonstration. The tear gas canisters, propelled at high speeds, sometimes injure protestors. In March of 2009, American Tristan Anderson was critically injured when he was struck in the head by a tear gas canister. In April of 2009, Palestinian Bassam Abu Rahma was hit in the chest by such a canister and died.

Read the full story: A different kind of activism.

A different kind of activism

The Jerusalem Post, September 11, 2009

It’s Friday afternoon in the West Bank village Bil’in. A crowd of protestors—Israeli, Palestinian, and international—is gathered at the barbed-wire separation fence. Facing the IDF on the other side, they chant in Hebrew, Arabic, English, and Spanish. Their voices are punctuated by the occasional pop of a tear gas canister launching into the air. Rapidly clicking camera shutters serve as quiet percussion.

But not all of these photographers are with the press. Some of them are with Activestills—a group that, like other photoactivists, attempts to bring provocative images to the attention of the Israeli mainstream.

Now a collective of ten photographers, Activestills began in 2005 with a few individuals who noticed each other documenting the same politically-charged events. “We all wanted to do something to promote the issues we believe in,” Keren Manor, one of the founders, recalls.

Continue reading “A different kind of activism”

 The Balkan two-step

The Jerusalem Post, August 7, 2009

Another shot of ouzo? Why not?

I wince as I down the alcohol. I get back out on the floor and study the footsteps of the ring of dancers. I nod my head and mutter to myself—right, left, right, return—and when I think I’ve got the sequence, I break into the semi-circle. I clasp hands with one of the instructors, Mika Yehezkeli, and the friend I’ve brought along, Josh Krug.

As my hips clumsily bump Krug’s and Yehezkeli’s hips and my boot-clad feet threaten to tangle with their legs, it’s clear to me that I don’t have the sequence at all.

“You remind me of Borat,” Krug shouts over the blaring music, which I vaguely recognize as something gypsy. The music speeds up and the circle picks up pace, too.

Continue reading “The Balkan two-step”

 Another crack

Zeek at Jewcy.com, June 29, 2009

I was walking down Carlebach Street when the wailing air raid siren announced the biggest civil drill in Israel’s history. Though I’d timed a morning interview around it, (who wants to pause for two minutes of alarm?), I was otherwise unprepared. Unsure of what to do with myself, I stopped and stood at the edge of a sidewalk café, under the shade of the awning. I was still. I listened. The sound was barely audible, drowned out by the noise of construction and late morning traffic. I looked to the people around me for cues. Their conversations continued, coffees were sipped, cigarettes puffed.

A waitress, her blonde hair pulled into a tight ponytail, pointed to an underground parking garage across the street and reminded us that we were to head to the nearest “protected space.”

Not that we needed the reminder. On the heels of Netanyahu’s induction, most homes received a pamphlet accompanied by a colorful magnet: a map of Israel, carved into color-coded regions, edged by cheerful images—splashing dolphins, dancing camels, and a smiling skier in snow-covered Golan Heights. That skier is in a red zone—according to the key, if he hears a siren he must slide to a shelter immediately. Tel Aviv is colored like a ripe orange. In the case of a missile attack, I will have two minutes to get somewhere safe.

Continue reading “Another crack”