israeli politics

The museum of Lochamei Haghettaot – Ghetto Fighters Museum –

I haven’t been there for ages and was surprised at its expansion.  Look at its site https://www.gfh.org.il/eng to see how it has widened and deepened our understanding of the partisans and the reasons for the resistance to Nazi mass murder.

I went there to find out why my aunt wasn’t in their archives since she was a fighting partisan.  In the end, I didn’t get any information about my aunt, but I promised to send them the information I had – for their archives, and then agreed to help translate information from Yiddish for them.  

a pretty common settlement for me.  I  give what I can and get nothing…

But the museum was full of teenagers listening – attentively – to elderly guides lecturing about statistics of torture, murder, resistance and compliance.  “Say you’re in a cattle car full of your neighbors,”  I heard an elderly woman tell the children, “and you can jump off.  But if you jump off, the rest of the people in the car will be killed.  What do you do?… And if you are a Jew or a German,  you’re put in a similar situation.  If you’re a German child and you don’t tell the Nazis that your father is in the underground, your entire family will be killed, what do you do?”

I’d never heard collective punishment explained like that.

lochamei HaGhettaot 1- Nov 24, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

The principle of tower and stockade settlements was first explained to me at Camp Seneca Lake when I was a counselor sometime between 1962-4.  A counselor who was a former resident of Hanita set up a day of games called tower and stockade that reflected his parents’ history.  

Because of the upcoming division between Israel and Palestine, Ben Gurion and other leaders wanted to set up some Jewish settlements that would be fait accompli, and if a tower and fence were present, the settlement would not be destroyed by the British.   Divided into British, Jewish, and Arab groups, we took our roles so seriously that I fell off a cliff while escaping the British soldiers.  

Hanita was the only place not already in existence when the program was initiated during the 1936-9 Arab riots against Jewish settlement.  Remote and unprotected, it was a particular challenge to set up.  The ruins of an old village, that was so old it was mentioned in the bible and appears on ancient maps, it was not easy to get to, much less defend.  

There is some of the history of the kibbutz on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanita

But there is a better film in Hanita itself.

It is on the border of Lebanon, and as I realized in striking up a conversation with a random villager who had a heavy Arabic accent, it shelters some of the Arab population escaping from the north.

 

 

 

 

kibbutz hanita – nov 23, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

After a week of meetings or medical tests every evening, we decided to escape from the perils of Tel Aviv to a kind of dream hotel on the Lebanese border.  Who knows when we’ll be able to do it again?  to escape I mean.  The truth is crashing in all around us – warnings from very reliable sources that something must be done to save democracy.   But what?  I keep praying that Yair Lapid will jump in at the last moment, join Bibi and chase the others away, but now Arieh Deri is going to be the replacement for the Prime Minister.  That means we will be not only living under a theocracy, but we will also be living in a  theocracy run by a group of certified criminals.

Will the magic of Maskit help to dispel the fear of the future years?  I doubt it.  But it will help.

maskit – Nov 22, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

Segregation is discrimination! | Moving in the Community (zazim.org.il)

 

To:The Likud party’s coalition negotiating team

Not at our expense!

Ha
Contact the campaign creator
The campaign was created by
Chen Agri
 
 

Outright rejected the demand of religious Zionism and Torah Judaism to enshrine gender discrimination in legislation. Segregation is discrimination!

Why is this important?

This morning (20.11) it was reported that religious Zionism and Torah Judaism are demanding that the Likud enshrine in legislation that gender segregation at public events will not be considered discrimination (!).

The fear of election results becomes a reality, and women, as usual, are the first in the crosshairs. We will not let these dark trends and policies pass. Gender “segregation” always falls on the women – whether it is a girl who cannot play in the league because the team in front of her is not ready to play with a daughter, or a woman who cannot sit at the front of the bus. Women are constantly excluded from the public sphere. Making this discriminatory phenomenon legal is dangerous and frightening.

Join the reading: separate is not worth! Women’s rights are human rights, and when extremist forces try to discriminate against women under the auspices of the law, we must and must act. Join now the call to the Likud’s coalition negotiating team to reject the demands of religious Zionism and Torah Judaism and to protect the basic right of Israeli women to equality. It is possible to stop the dangerous legislation if we act now as long as the negotiations continue. Add your name and share it in all directions:

 

help out Read Post »

israeli politics

We wondered when it would happen – after years of digging the subway in Tel Aviv, finally a hole has opened up in the middle of Ibn Gvirol street.  It isn’t very big, but it fulfills our terror of the dangers of all that digging.  

I’m almost as terrified of all those Israeli soccer fans in Qatar today.  It’s like something has to happen.  Something always happens at soccer matches.

 

holes in Tel Aviv – Nov 20, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

boy did  I not want to attend the housing co-op meeting tonight.  And I was right.  Usually, it’s a very friendly and comfortable evening since most of the tenants have been in this building since the beginning, over 50 years ago. But some of the men passed away, the women are getting old, and new tenants have arrived who would like a more modern establishment.  Their plan is to tear down the building and rebuild it with a security room and extra space.  The problem is that old widows don’t relish moving out for three years while the house is being rebuilt and expanded so there is an automatic tension in the building.  Suddenly the board has quit and half the people are dissatisfied with the state of the building, there was a lot of tension. And our old manager is now overworked and short on patience.  So Ezi took over.  And the first thing to happen was he was being blamed for things he did out of generosity.  People were screaming all over the place.  

This has been my favorite place for years = but the prospect of increasing our property value has  made us a little crazy.  At least the younger people.  The older people want things to stay the same.

 

co-op woes – nov 19, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

As I was finishing setting the table for Friday night dinner, there was an enormous boom from outside the window next to me.  A woman had crashed her car into the poles across the street and was sitting there in the ruins of her car, completely confused.  Everyone came out and as I kept bringing her water i realized she must have been in diabetic shock. the only good news is the chickens weren’t burnt.

accident – nov 18, 2022 Read Post »