November 6, 2019
The evening for the tel aviv section of 100,000 poets for change will take place this saurday. i have invited only a few on my friends because i've run out of energy, but i know at least three of the poets are going to be amazing.
should I read too? i don't know. nothing appropriate is coming into my head. but i have been translating some of these poets and actually enjoy reading them.
And now to the photos from yesterday. Once you go off the beaten road in this country, you can easily fall back thousands of years. The crusader building in < a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_Hanaton">Tel Hanaton is only partially excavated - financial considerations give more ancient sites and Jewish sites precedent i suspect - but it is an amazing construction and there must be stories about it somewhere.
more later
November 7, 2019
Just a regular day. We were supposed to pick the kids up from school and take one to the pool and the other home. But we were warned - it might be a bit tricky. There is a demonstration. There is a sixth-grader whose mother - illegally here since her worker status expired - was arrested and is to be deported. And now the immigration police were taking the child from school to prison to be deported with his mother. We found ourselves in a crowd of shouting children. "The people demand that children not be deported," "Minister Arie Deri, we don't abandon children," and most often "SHAME!" There were tears in my eyes as I joined the children - the leaders of tomorrow.
The sign says "We don't permit this in our school - Gavrieli.
It took a long time for the little one to come out of the school, and when i asked her what took so long, she said the teacher was explaining that these people had overstayed their welcome and were illegal. How could I counter a teacher? Second graders perhaps need to be protected. But there must be a more humane way to deal with children who were born here and know nothing about the Philipines.
November 9, 2019
yesterday was overwhelming - only because almost everyone had requests concerning tonight - the reading for 100,000 poets for change. where is it? they ask. 19 King George Street. what time? 8 p.m. where do i park? on hamaccabi street 2. who will be reading? 1Jereis Khoury, Payyam Feili, Lonnie Monka, Giora Fischer, Lal Tsipi Michaeli, Gili Haimovich, me. who will be there? i don't know. it may be crowded so be there at 8 to find a good place to sit. it may be empty so help me out keeping me company.
November 10, 2019
Perhaps I should be telling you about the wonderful evening last night, that you can see on youtube within the next few days, but my heart is pounding with a renewed energy. I was feeling incredibly weak after an overdose of coffee and an underdose of food and a consequently sleepless night. i cancelled every activity today and tomorrow - even a longed-for visit with Rivka Bassman - and planned to spend the day downloading photographs and videos of the incredible night before. And watch the memorial ceremony for Yitzhak Rabin. Despite the President's urging to forgive past quarrels about Rain and Oslo, rancor overwhelmed me when Bibi spoke about how he was not responsible for the schism in Israel's society that brought about the murder of the Prime Minister. And then Rabin's grandson, Yonatan BenArzi, gave the last elegy urging Bibi to take responsibility for the fact that there has been no government for the past year and step down until his trial is over. the camera was of course trained on Bibi.
I missed tonight's news so i don't know if this scene was reproduced anywhere else, but ah, here's a piece on it