Blogging Molonese

Ehud Banai was the main reason why I wanted to go to Israel with Yifat. I should have had more reasons to go. Honestly, we live so wrapped up in this whole Greater China capsule that the rest of the world nearly stops to exist. A display of the Middle Kingdom syndrome? Boy, how ignorant I still am.

If you want a more visual engagement, go to Flickr to see all the photographs, and YouTube to see the Video; Part 1 and Part 2.

The Route
Ok, keeping it concise: in Tel Aviv on Friday pm, Friday and Saturday are the weekend days here. I arrive at noon, having not slept does not deter me from hitting the beach and shops with Nirit (Yifat’s friend). I surrender immediately to the great lifestyle of the beach, good looking men, endless cafe possibilities, russian spoken on each corner, and a pace very different from my daily life. Today is Sabbath – the day to do NOTHING, surrender to god and his wishes. We go to Yifat’s friends’ place. I’m getting first-hand instructions on the DOs and DON’Ts, the latter being no smoking, do not use my mobile, no camera, do not switch on and off the lights in the house. Yifat’s friends are great, but take time to warm up. I do not feel the hospitality I’m used to in SE Asia, Poland, there is no outright warmth and questions coming your way. In a matter of time, they warm up and the evening turns into my first great Sabbath experience. They love Yifat and as a friend it makes me happy to see it.

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Negev Desert

Yifat hires a car and we hit Negev Desert, the southern part of Israel. Aric tells me to go north, but all the biblical references put me off. I’m fascinated by the deserts, the rock mountains. One stop before we hit the desert: car rental company, as I want to get a convertible 2-seater to have some fun over the next few day. I miss driving, miss the wind in the hair, the gear play in a good car. “Sorry, we have no convertibles for rent in Israel”. We settle for our Suzuki and hit the road. We come across come spectacular finds; cactus plantations (we still dont know what they are used for), vineyards, chocolate factories, Beduine towns, camels, creaative warehouses with locally made jewelery and clothes, feshly-pressed olive oil…

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The Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is a fascinating place. The lowest point on earth, at 643m below sea level, your ears popping driving down (I’ve only experienced it going up), amazing vistas. We stay the night at a kibbutz in En Gedi, overlooking the Dead Sea on one side and the vast mountain range on the other. I feel like we need a few more days to take it all in. The Dead Sea area is fully prepared to pamper and rehabilitate. The water feels like oil, nothing grows/lives in this sea, forget getting a drop in your eyes. Did you know you cannot swim in the Dead Sea? Your legs and butt get pushed out of the water so much so that you end up kicking the air. We do the sulpher-pool treatment, the mud smearing-n-drying, the swim in the sea. We feel fab.

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The Magic of Jerusalem

Jerusalem feels like a movie set, a whole variety of characters just popping up in front of me. Yifat drops me off and heads off to Tel Aviv. I have 3 days to myself. What can I say? How could I not have heard more about Jerusalem? It’s magical here. 2,000 years old of history, surrounded my magnificent walls, a tiny area of less then 1km x 1 km, it’s the home to the most important sites for Christians, Jews and 3rd most important for Muslims after Mecca and Medina. I choose to stay at the lively Muslim Quarters, my room room is carved out in rock, it has no windows, it’s over 1000 years old. I drop off my bags and can’t wait to start exploring. The Muslim Quarters are awesome; the noise, the chatter, the chaos, the amazing food and ever woman-hungry men. “Do you want a husband?” one shopowner seems to mean it. “Why not. You?” I reply. His eyes spark up, he was not expecting it.

The Christian quarters are everything I left behind in Poland and feel no sense of association with, only memories, and not the best ones. The pious, redemption-seeking folks of all Christian denominations; Greek and Russian orthodox, Coptic, Catholic. Jesus was supposedly crucified here. People drop on this spot, kiss it, repeatedly bow, whisper and pray. The priests are harsh, ever-unforgiving. The religion of guilt prevails.

The Wailing Wall comes to live right in front of my eyes. We go though a security check before entering the compound. I write my wish on a scroll and stick it in the wall like all good Jewish girls. I have a wish but I wont tell you want it is ☺. There is a segregation between men and women, women’s section much smaller but it feels as if there were more girls than men prying at the Wall. The Jewish Quarters feel like an intellectual heaven to nurture and cultivate the religion, the customs, the memory of the holocaust.

The Armenian Quarters are such contrast; serene, mysterious, seemingly empty in spite of having 1000 residents living here, shopowners are reasonable and kind, I do my shopping here.

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Ehud Banai’s Concert

I make my way back to Tel Aviv, Ehud Banai’s concert is tonight, up north in Caesarea, at an ancient Roman amphitheater. Ehud was the trigger for me to make it here all the way. An awesome concert. Why does the world only know Bob Dylan? Amazing setting, music-loving crowd, people party and dance with hardly any booze and no drugs.

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Observations and Reflections

The first thing that hits me hard is the ever-present military, the accepted gun-culture, 18-years-olds who belong somewhere else in other countries. I find it hard to accept but get reminded that Israel is ready for an attack at any time.

Daniel told me that the Israelis are like cactus – prickly on the outside but soft inside. I cannot agree more. So when you first arrive and interact with strangers, it’s the thorns you encounter first. Politeness is not a quality here, but then again, it all depends what culture you’ve been brought up in.

While driving through Tel Aviv, we see an old man standing by a car that just broke down. Yifat offers him a drink – he waves his hand in a rather unfriendly manner and says ‘Don’t need it”. We meet a 5-year-old boy at a waterfall, an animal appears, Yifat hushes him up so the animal does not run away for her take a shot. “You cannot order me to do things!” the boy exclaims. Where is all this coming from?

I thank Brenda for making me go to the West Bank (Ramallah). I’m completely ignorant of the source of the conflict and the impact it made on the Palestinians. I meet Blinne who works as a human rights lawyer in Rammalah, she spends 3 hours educating me. I’m genuinely horrified at the abuse the Israelis inflict on the Palestinians. I never knew that the West Bank was not ONE land; instead it’s split up to pockets of tiny land areas, Gaza Strip being off-limits even to the NGOs. The point of view is that Israel never existed as a country, after WWII it was created for the Jewish people as a result of the guilt all countries felt after the Holocaust. I ask Blinne why is that so, since there is evident existence of the Jewish race, language and values prevalent around the world. She explains that these are Biblical references to a group of people once existed not as a country but as a community, same as the Gallic people did – who today live in Scotland, France, Ireland and who share the same language, facial features and cultural references.

Whatever the argument is, the sheer fact that the intimidating walls, the customs control and their methods, treatment such as cutting off water supplies, women delivering children at the borders as Israeli customs stops them from getting to a hospital on time – is disturbing enough to make you sick in the stomach.

Rammalah is a ghetto and so is the rest of the West Bank. Gaza Strip is the most densely populated land on our planet, people are not allowed to travel in our out of it. I meet a few Palestinians in Jerusalem and pick their brains. They seem resigned and have no hope that things will ever change. It seems like the technique of eradicating this nation is well on track.

Blinne says she does not hate the Israeli people, only feels extremely disappointed that people who cherish learning and are inquisitive by nature choose to ignore what goes on behind that thick barb-wired wall and conveniently surrender to government propaganda.

I admit not to embrace all the conflict issues, far from it. What I see however tells me something has gone terribly wrong here.

Israel might be on track with its Palestinian agenda. What I see however, is a country of rather edgy and aggressive individuals. People of high IQ but low EQ (emotional intelligence). It may work for them at home to succeed and prosper. I wonder however how well they would fare in the outside world where you’ve got to play by the rules set by others. I have a friend who fought in the Iranian front against Khomeini once. He said that once you kill a man you would never be the same person. Your sense of values, especially the sense of remorse and empathy change.

We are at the airport, leaving for Istanbul today. A 21-yr-old-looking girl is interrogating me for 15 min, asking the same questions over and over again about the trip; purpose, agenda, who I met, when, why and back to the same questions. She’s doing a great job. She really is. She gets all holiday stories out of me, less the West Bank visit. What she does not know is that the system has turned her into a rather suspicious, untrusting individual. It saddens me to see people as an outcome of an ill system. I also escaped one, this is why I find it hard to go back to Poland, even for a short casual visit.

Part 1: Israel & Palestine

Part 2: Israel & Istanbul

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 20th, 2007 at 7:24 pm and is filed under Travel Stories, Israel, Palestine cause. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.