News of the Weird

Photo of graffiti on a trash can outside our post office

{posted by Kelli}

With the northern road trip done—a few hard hikes, yet more ruins, occasional sightings of Katyusha rocket holes, and the tranquility of a vegetarian vacation village—I am, true to form, looking ahead to this week’s overnight trip to the Ein Gedi Kibbutz, with more hikes and with pools both of the natural and built kinds. Taking a few moments now to share some odd tidbits from the news and a few observations.

>The Chicken-Swinging Holiday has come and gone. Friday’s papers were full of photos of a Jewish ritual, called kapparah, that I was hoping not to stumble upon as a witness: the symbolic transferring of one’s sins over the past year onto a live chicken, which is done by swinging the chicken counter-clockwise over one’s head while reciting “This is my exchange, my substitute, my atonement. This rooster (for men)/hen (for women) shall go to its death, but I shall go to a good, long life and to peace.” Then the chicken is slaughtered and is usually offered as food to poor people, similar to what happens to bulls after bullfights. This took place in markets and street corners throughout the city—even at the Western (Wailing) Wall. Animal rights groups in Israel are all over it; even people within highly religious circles are trying to put an end to it, claiming the practice is not in the Torah or Talmud but merely a superstitious custom.
In other holiday news, we’re in the midst of the month-long Muslim festival of Ramadan, where daily sunup to sundown hours of fasting are marked by cannon blasts.

>The two remaining embassies in Israel’s capital city of Jerusalem have joined all the other embassies in moving to Tel Aviv. Costa Rica and El Salvador recently relocated their embassies to the “cultural capital,” underscoring the world’s non-recognition of Jerusalem as the capital. (The original 1947 UN plan of partition, creating an Arab state and a Jewish state, called for Jerusalem to be an international city. In the ensuing War of Independence/Al-Nakba (or “disaster”; in our home we play it safe with the term “War of ’48”), Jordan won control of East Jerusalem and the Old City. In the 6-day war of ’67, Israel reunited/conquered Jerusalem and made it the official capital.) Is Israel the only country in the world where embassies aren’t in the capital city?

>The Israeli army, working with settlers, farmers, and left-wing activists, is promising a calm olive harvest for Palestinian growers this season, which runs now until Dec. Previous years have seen Jewish settlers burning groves and attacking farmers who attempt to harvest their crops. Central Command issued restriction orders for 16 right-wing activists, preventing them from entering the West Bank. Barring any violent incidents, some 40 tons of olives will be picked this year, although it remains to be seen what will happen to farmers who are cut-off from their fields by the separation wall dividing the West Bank and Israel. One glitch this year is that because of Israel’s policy of not talking to Hamas, each Palestinian farmer had to be approached individually for coordination purposes.

>In more successful cooperation news, there are no less than 200 “co-existence” programs in Israel, mainly targeting children. There are schools that teach Arab and Jewish students alongside each other, with curricula that include both groups’ languages, customs, holidays, and histories. There are mixed sports activities and art programs. There’s even a co-existence deaf school. On last week’s road trip, we tried (the timing didn’t work out) to arrange a visit to Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salaam, a village founded by Jewish and Palestinian Arab Israeli citizens and based on cooperation and equality between the two groups.

>Another theft of army weapons was successfully carried out last week. As in previous incidents, the unknown thieves stole grenades and missiles right off an army base. Before you assume these weapons will be used for terror activities (by either side), you should only know that they will most likely show up in assassination attempts of Israeli mobsters. Handguns no longer do the trick here since kingpins got bulletproof cars, so crime bosses have taken to firing missiles at each other. Ah, the ingenuity of Israelis.

>Had a taste of life on the other side of the wall recently. To get to Bethlehem, only a few miles south of Jerusalem, we first took an Arab bus (minivan, really) to the separation wall, then walked right through the checkpoint while showing passports, and then took a Palestinian cab the rest of the way to town. Coming back later that afternoon took considerably longer. The line at the checkpoint at the wall (which is covered in political graffiti—much in English—on the Palestinian side but is completely untouched on the Israeli side) was short but not moving. We stood with around 10 people also trying to cross into Israel, people who wait in this line, or any of the dozens of others along the border, each day with permits to work or visit relatives in Israel. Unlike most checkpoint lines, where you stand outside, this crossing is also used by tourists traveling between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and it is in a large, sterile sort of warehouse where orders are barked through a speaker. No one tells you what the holdup is; you really can’t figure out what’s going on or how long it might take to get through. The people we asked around us said it’s always like that.

>For the first time that I can recall, Sarah isn’t attending any High Holy Day services this year—not Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur—nor fasting on Yom Kippur. A Tel Aviv blogger wrote that she’s fasting…between meals. (A note on Jewish identity here vs. in the diaspora: in the states, “Jewish” is defined primarily as your religion, so Jewish identity is commonly expressed through synagogue attendance, membership, and involvement. In Israel, much of the Jewish population has never set foot in a synagogue—even on important holidays—but nevertheless considers themselves 100% Jewish. Judaism is defined as neither exclusively a religion nor an ethnic group but a civilization that includes both of these features to varying degrees for different people. Here’s a great commentary on the different perspectives on Jewish identity: When Golda Meir was Prime Minister, back in ’69-’74, she tried to encourage Henry Kissinger to make Israel a top priority. He sent her a letter: “I would like to inform you that I’m first an American citizen; second, Secretary of State; and third, a Jew.” Golda responded, “In Israel, we read from right to left.”)

Getting back to Sarah…what’s more, for the first time since the Hoover administration, she’s not wearing her Star of David necklace. After removing it to swim with friends’ kids at our neighborhood pool last month, she didn’t feel like putting it back on. “So,” you say, “you go all the way to Israel for the year, and this is what happens?” Go figure. (A note on pools: there aren’t many here, aside from the fancier hotels. Our local one, Olympic-sized, is one of only 3 public pools in the city, reflecting the region’s never-ending problem with water supply. During the Crusader period, European-style castles were built all over the country—our favorite ruins to explore—with the standard moat feature. Not being natives, the designers never thought of the lack of water, which prevented their moats from ever getting wet.)

Friends Rebekka & Tom arrive a week from Tuesday. Hope they have high camera capacity, as their visit is twice as long as Meryl & Kyle’s was, and those two filled up two memory cards—that’s 400 pictures in 7 days!