Tel Aviv Rooftop

Effects

2012-01-27T08:41:00.000-08:00

Messing around with some of the effects on Picassa, one gets to pondering how we see the world around us and what we make of it. Sometimes it just takes a small shift in texture to make us see things differently.

Casa

2011-12-10T12:41:00.000-08:00

Luck brought me to Casablanca but with only enough time to take a fewphotos in the early morning or evening. The old downtown area, near the port is graced with lovely old buildings, standing cheek to jowl with some badly neglected neighbours.

The sun setting on the paved area surrounding the King Hassan II mosque.

Spray coming off the Atlantic covers the Corniche (promenade).

The mosque itself is the 7th biggest in the world and has the tallest minaret. It was built on the water because, according to the Koran, "the throne of Allah was built on water."

Children playing in one of the magnificent but waterless fountains.

Setting up shop in the old vegetable market. The logs the man is facing seemed to have petrified into stone.

Breakfast before school.

Too many buildings look like this.

Not everyone's idea of cool...

Early morning shoe shine.

In the market.

Pancakes are cheap and popular.

The spaces onte walls are reserved for political campaign posters, according to party, a practice bequeathed by the French.

Here they are again. This time in the Medina (old city)

Deja Vu on Liberty Square

2011-10-19T06:15:00.000-07:00

A visit to Zuccotti Park, the epicentre of the Occupy Wall Street movement, triggered a sharp sense of deja vu. We'd flown in from Israel where the last vestiges of the protest tent encampments were being removed, only to find that they had been reincarnated a spit away from Wall Street. And what was fuelling the protestors here among the sleeping bags and placards was the same middle class anger with big business, with bad government, with the disproportionate distribution of wealth, in short: with the system.

There was also the same infuriating/intriguing refusal to be tied down to fixed set of demands.

References to the fundamentals of American democracy were a major motif. One man stood reading the Constitution out loud.

I copied the following passage from the New York Times Review (but forgot to jot down the name of the author): Sounds familiar? It would be hard to beat this as a description of the Daphni Leef school of the Israeli social protest movement, down to Daphni's Facebook invitation to join her and pitch a tent on Habima Square.

"This new protest style is more Rousseau than Marx. What the Zuccotti Park encampment calls horizontal democracy is spunky, polymorphic, energetic, theatrical, scattered and droll.An early poster showed a ballerina poised gingerly on the back of Wall Street's bull sculpture, bearing the words:" Occupy Wall Street" September 17. Bring Tent.". It likes government more than corporations but its own style is hardly governmental. It tends to care about process more than results."

But while the simlarities were clear, some of the the differences also emerged. For one, unlike Rothschild Boulevard, Zuccoti Park (aka 'Liberty Park') is named after one of the excutives of the private company that actually owns the park (!?) but is bound to keep it open to the public. The company was threatening to use force to evict the squatters. Moreover, and again unlike the remarkably peaceful protests in Israel, there was a very heavy security presence surrounding the protestors on Liberty Park with hundreds already arrested amidst allegations of police brutality.

Here's an excerpt from from Occupy Wall Steet's website containing flash reports on some of the events occurring on October 15 :

•12:09 a.m. Police have sealed the North and South side of Washington Square Park.
•11:54 p.m. Police in riot gear are advancing on peaceful occupiers in Washington Square Park.
•11:34 p.m. Police are massing at Washington Square Park. Police are moving on #occupychicago
•9:48 p.m. 3,000 at Washington Square now, about to have a General Assembly, 70 arrests total for today.
•9:02 p.m. 42 arrests on 47th.
•8:50 p.m. 700 reported in Washington Square Park. Music and food there.
•8:30 p.m. Scanner says riot cops in full gear, nets out, headed to the crowd, 47th and 6th.
•8:11 p.m. White shirt just ordered #NYPD line AWAY from barricades. Crowd ROARS
•8:08 p.m. Tension escalating, police ordering protesters to step away from barricades.
•8:02 p.m. Mario: 4 paddy wagons and arrests at 46 and 6th ave.
•8:00 p.m. Police are arresting occupiers at 46th and 6th.
•7:30 p.m. Unconfirmed estimates ranging as high as 50,000 people in Times Square.
•6:45 p.m. Police have trapped people in times square with barricades.

And while the media was focussing on the mushrooming protests, it was not embracing the protestors as wholeheartedly as the Israeli media had. Someone on Fox was quoted as characterizing the Zuccoti Park protesors as "filthy, dirty hippies".

None of which prevented the encampment from attracting a host of one person protestors glad of a rare stage from which to publicly proclaim their own agendas.

From the spirit of Woodie Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land..."

to people who just came to help out...

You can see more photos from New York here

Making Art Loving Art in Yaffo

2011-09-10T03:43:00.000-07:00

This weekend the annual Tel Aviv art festival took to the streets. We took a walk along Yehuda Hayamit in Yaffo, a normally nondescript commercial street in a mixed Jewish-Arab area that turned up some suprises. Outside the Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) building two dancers performed in front of a small crowd .

This trio of Arab girls had a strategic view next to spotlights and seemed entranced.

From the outside, the studio/salon at number 20 looked pretty dilapidated but the interior revealed this cosy area.

Further up the road, an explosion of primitivist colour.

Not often that you see a cellist playing at the entrance of a carpentry shop, so we were drawn in.

To find that the cellist had friends making electronic sounds at the back.

On the way we met Ahmad who was taking advantage ofthe crowds to display his bicycle technique. He agreed to have his picture taken on condition that it would appear on the internet. So this is for you Ahmad.

Watching video art projected onto a sheet in a trendy textiles shop.

This man, performing outside a health food store, was reciting passages from the Bible backwards. He then ran the recording through a computer programme that played it backwards, resulting in the syllables appearing in the right order (I guess you had to be there but it was impressive)

Recordings of the chant of this summer's mass demonstrations - "The people want social justice!" emanated from this artistic protest tent placed on top of a skip.

September 3 - the final demo?

2011-09-04T00:59:00.000-07:00

We were out on the streets last night, together with another 400-450,000 people, in what was optimistically dubbed The 'March of the Million'. The million didn't materialize but it was still the biggest protest ever held in Israel. All these photos were taken on the upmarket Kikar Hamedina (State Square), an ironic venue for a social protest

Encompassed by boutiques selling Tshirts for hundreds of shekels, hundreds of thousands of Israel's long suffering middle class came to chant, perhaps for the last time this summer "ha am doresh tzedek chevrati!" (the people demand social justice!).

An English speaking protestor turned the familiar graphic slogan "I (heart) Tel Aviv " into, "I can't afford to (heart) Tel Aviv "

The (religious) Reform movement touts a banner quoting a Biblical commandment to pursue righteousness

Like all the previous demonstrations, this one too, though noisy, was completely peaceful. On the outskirts it looked more like family outing than an angry protest.

Two dads? A dad and an uncle?

"If I were a Rothschild" ( Hebrew version of If "I Were A Rich Man" )

Yadayim lema'ala (hands in the air)

1 F-35 (new war plane) = 57 new schools

Israel is "dear" to us

Wake Up !

These two little fellows were captivated by the fiery speeches emanating from the invisible stage. The impressive students leader Itzik Shmuli talked of a generation of "new Israelis" that demanded a new social agenda. (Ms) Dafni Leef, the iconic, trilby-hatted film student, and the instigator and emotional "heart" of this summer's social protest movement, said that they had succeeded in changing the language. Instead of tzdaka (charity) people were now saying tzedek (justice).

The people on the swish balconies around the square (which is acually a circle) had a grandstand view. The rich have all the luck!

Young beneficiaries (hopefully) of the change in national priorities but meanwhile, just crushed against the cash dispensers.

Storm Clouds Over Summer of Love

2011-08-12T03:51:00.000-07:00

There are now 2,000 (!) tents and various other structures pegged into the former grass along Rothschild Boulevard and (according to a police survey) a total of 3,383 around the country. At this stage of the "revolution", as a stroll down Rothschild clearly revealed, the original "the rent is too damned high" protestors have been augmented , if not outnumbered, by the rest of am yisrael. A partial list includes doctors, psychologists ('Bibi, ask Sarah, what a psychologist earns is chara [shit]'), social workers, animal rights groups, environmental activists; Ethiopians, immigration seekers, divorced fathers settler "hillop youth", old age pensioners,Communists, Kahanists and Reform Jews who want to separate religion and state. Each has its own compound and conducts earnest seminars on the synthetic rush mats that cover the entire area. Some have fully-staffed information desks and cable TV while others are simple tent-and-megaphone jobs. I was handed a flyer by a man who writes that in fact, life is a picnic and that everyone could have a home by fitting out an old truck."...for residential purposes or for fitting out as a grocery store or school or garage. It's legal - my vehicle is recognised as my home and I go everywhere in it , parking for several months at a time. ..."

Environmental activists in an eco-circle

Another leaflet, was stuck into my hand by a girl from the 'Revolution of Love' group before she skipped off to join her blissful, friends who were dancing down the boulevard armed with a guitar singing "Love for Love's Sake." I learned from the leaflet that I was a "Good Soul", that the reason that I was here was because I was loved and, as soon as I accepted this great love, I could begin to place faith in myself and then go on to helping others..." Wow!

I was getting flashbacks to the sixties but as I picked my way through the sprawling encampment, these soon passed. With everyone and his savta (grandmother) jumping on to the bandwagon, I had the uncomfortable feeling that the tent city had passed its peak, had turned into a three ring circus and in general was beginning to overstay its welcome. Last Saturday saw the biggest social protest in Israel ever with an amazing demo (over 250,000 in Tel Aviv alone) and the government , by now well and truly panicked, has appointed a panel, including representatives of the protestors to propose a new social-economic agenda. This means gruelling weeks of hearings on how to real tacle the real economic dilemmas behind the slogans. The protest movement wants to stay in the streets as long as October if necessary as an ever present threat, ready to explode, should the government try to pull a fast one but will, indeed should, the tents really be there that long?

The pensioners and their care-givers who live along Rothschild lapping it all up.

According to today's papers, the police and local authorities are gearing up to serve eviction notices, or as one columnist put it, after the government embraced the protest movement, "Dr. Jekyll will soon be turning against Mr. Hyde Park". The pretext is that the police may have to deal with mas disturbances in September when the Palestinians request UN recognition and don't want to be dealing with two major scenarios simultaneously. The protest movement has been remarkably peaceful so far but if the police follow through with their eviction plans before the protestors feel that they've achieved something concrete, the summer of love could yet turn to violence.

'A revolution of consciousness'made out of a garland of artificial flowers

Also, taking up more of the headlines is the horrendous economic news from the US and Europe and the big cuts in the profits of Israel's leading holding companies, the hated "tycoons" who are among the the social protest movement's targets. The tycoons' greed may be worthy target but if they go bust, so does the rest of the economy, including the pensions of the middle class. Neither of these developments is going to help maintain support for strident social protests.

Facing a possibly violent eviction, including the possibility of violence and/or a prolonged anti-climax as the story turns from an authentic outpouring of protest to horse trading inside committee rooms, perhaps the smartest move would be to quit while you're still ahead and up stakes now. Claim victory, threaten a possible return to the streets if the government breaks its word and head for the committee rooms with the public still firmly behind you.

You can see more new revolutionary images here

Pictures from the revolu-tzion

2011-07-25T11:30:00.000-07:00

Taken on Saturday night at the ever growing tent city on Sderot Rothschild and later at the march to the square outside Tel Aviv Museum. The organisers hoped for 5,000 people. 20,000 turned up.

Mahapecha (Revolution) says the sign above the shack and behind it, 'Rothschild corner Tahrir'

It's hot ...

Gathering by the square. At least in Tel Aviv, this is a revolution of nice middle class young people who have been squeezed too hard and aren't going to take it any more. Nor are the hard pressed doctors. The head of Israel's doctors' association has just embarked on a march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, while fasting and vowing not to break his fast until the doctors' demands are met by the government.

Today, small groups of protestors blocked traffic at busy intersections throughout the country.

more revolutionary images here

Tent City on Rothschild Boulevard

2011-07-17T13:11:00.000-07:00

After the "cottage cheese revolution" on Facebook which forced the big dairy cartels to reduce prices or face the wrath of the consumer, a new protest movement has emerged and is camping out on swanky Rothschild Boulevard. Young people, some families with children, are protesting against prohibitively high rents which, combined with their low wages, make it impossible to make ends meet.

Economists say that 70% of Israeli wage earners would have to pay more than one third of their income to repay their monthly mortgage repayments. In other words, they can't afford to purchase an average apartment.

The "new homeless" have jobs, iphones and laptops but not enough disposable income to pay their constantly rising rents . "It drives me crazy" said one activist."Half of my wages goes on rent." "Add electricity, rates, water, internet and food and there's nothing left," said the mother of a son who was camping out.

The Rothschild campsite is already turning into a circus with all types of characters joining the fun. In his left hand this hand this man is holding a loaf of bread with '2003' written on it - a reference to kikar halechem (which means both a loaf of bread and 'Bread Square') the failed 2003 protest movement that set up a similar camp in a similarly upscale neighbourhood - Kikar Hamedina in north Tel Aviv. In his right hand he's giving Bibi the boot.

A variety of guitar players are on site as are all the TV stations, with everyone speculating whether this is the beginning of a real grass roots movement or yet another flash in the pan. Meanwhile, the housing minister is blocking all sorts of proposals for controlling rents while arguing that market forces should rule and the landlords' property rights should be respected. In some big cities (London, Boston, Rome) , large percentages of new housing projects are designated for affordable housing. If Tel Aviv wants to keep the young people that are its life blood, people who work in the arts, in the media , academics, it will have to find a similar solution.

Cafe de Renaissance

2011-06-14T13:18:00.000-07:00

Early morning, Cafe de Renaissance, 18th Arondissement, Paris. A young woman sits hunched over a book and cafe creme.

This regular was happy to be photographed with his first expresso of the day.

Most of the clientele look fashionably crumpled, the music is from the sixties but the decor remains meticulously untouched. In the Montparnasse Cemetery we came across the grave of Serge Gainsbourg and after a meal and wine at a local bistro we tippsily catch up with his wild legacy on Youtube.

Buildings from the inside

2011-05-22T12:24:00.000-07:00

We took a pleasant diversion from trying to figure out the significance of Obama's speech (and Netanyahu's response) by means of Batim MiBifnim (Buildings from Within), the annual two day event in which scores of public buildings, studios, businesses and private apartments throw open their doors to thousands of the curious - us included. We arrived at a project on a rooftop in Florentin where a group of artists had put together a creation built of wood scrap and other discarded junk. Not exactly a completed building, more an exercise in creative recycling.

Inside one of the newly created rooms a candelabra made out of upturned salt shakers.

In an old flower mill turned into a design studio we found another creative use for an ordinary household object.

Later, on Rothschild, I noticed that someone had knitted some socks onto the feet of Dizengoff's horse.

On Rabin Square, Tel Aviv's equivalent of Cairo's Tahrir, the newly renovated 'ecological pool' (water lillies, fountain, goldfish and all) revealed what had been hidden from the public and the public seemed to be lapping it up.

The Middle East is in turmoil, Obama and Netanyahu trade speeches in New York on the outlines of a Palestinian state but here on a warm Saturday morning in Tel Aviv all seemed tranquil.

Tonight there was a demonstration outside the US embassy though - perhaps the beginning of less tranquil times ahead?

Up Up and Away (yes)

2011-05-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

Yes, we had to get up at 3.30 a.m., gulp a Turkish coffee on the Rooftop and hit the road. But by about 6.30, this was the scene. Moran , our trusty 'pilot' is shooting blasts of hot air into the balloon that will take us over 'bitronot Ruhama' (the Ruhama Badlands). Anticipation among the ballooners - a mixed bunch of young couples, friends, a father and daughter (and us) - is running high.

With the balloon beginning to rise, we clamber into the padded cubicles that make up the basket - and, almost imperceptibly, the whole contraption rises into the air.

At first you are at tree top level.

Then, without noticing, a little higher, and able to make out the patterns on the mosaic floor of a Byzantine church.

And before you can say Phileas Fogg, you are several hundred metres up and looking down on a smaller balloon (the honeymoon flight) and across a wide vista of shifting clouds, the landscape suddenly illuminated by the rising sun (worth clicking on this one).

Sderot and Gaza are a short distance to the west, Hebron is slightly farther to the east, but in this elevated state you are aware only of the glories of nature. Up, up and away from the follies of mankind. Escapism, pure and literal.

From above, the landscape might have rendered by an abstract artist.

Two mules run across the newly harvested wheat fields. Moran takes us down, reminding us to hang on tight and bend our knees and we shudder to a halt across another empty field.

Exhiliarated and ravenous we toast each other with plastic cups of Cava, sit down to a hearty breakfast in an idyllic spot before heading back to the Rooftop - and the follies of man.

Slavery, Freedom, Cliches

2011-04-22T09:44:00.000-07:00

Another Pessah, the theme of which is "me-avdut le-herut" (from slavery to freedom), a motto with rich potential.

Of course the traditional discussion around the seder night table on this mighty theme is supposed to revolve on the story of Exodus from Egypt but the theme is too big to be contained by just one story, however epic. On one radio programme, a lot of people were using the Pessah motto to express the hope that they would find their way out of job slavery or possibly into a better paid version of it.

Another association this Pessah is of course what is happening in modern day Egypt. Shimon Peres wished the Egyptians well in their Exodus out of the repression of the Mubarak regime but also expressed the hope that this wouldn't lead "in the wrong direction". Meanwhile a group of distinguished recipients of the Israel Prize demonstrated outside the site of Independence Hall in Tel Aviv, where Israel's Declaration of Independence was made, to express support for a Palestinian state and their liberation (as well as ours) from the occupation:

[...] "We call on everyone who seeks peace and freedom for all peoples to support the declaration of Palestinian statehood, and to act in a way that encourages the citizens of the two states to maintain peaceful relations on the basis of the 1967 borders... The total end to the occupation is a fundamental precondition for the liberation of the two peoples," read their statement

I found myself googling the lyrics of the famous spiritual 'Go Down Moses'. In one version this carries the line: 'Tell old Pharaohs to let my people go' (as though more than one Pharaoh was involved). According to Wikipedia "A Hebrew translation of the song is a common element in the Passover seder in Israel," but I doubt if that's true. Singing 'Go Down Moses' is not part of the local culture and (strange but true) the word 'Moses' fails to appear in the Hagaddah at all!

None of this was of the slightest interest to the vast majority of Israelis who celebrated seder night, like they always do, with a series of cliches and rituals that have been cleverly collected intio a short sketch by the comedy troupe Hagdud Ha-Ivri (for Hebrew speakers only).

Not Up Up and Away

2011-04-02T08:43:00.000-07:00

A big, airless balloon lying on a field near Kibbutz Ruhama

In honour of our "120th birthday" kind and generous friends bought us a special present - a trip in a hot air balloon, including an overnight stay in a 'tzimmer' (guest house), a champagne breakfast and a massage. This weekend we finally got round to using the voucher.

Since what our friends had bought us was what's called chavila (parcel of services), this first involved coordinating with every contact person in the chain: Hadar for the balloon trip, Gil for the tzimmer, Guy (who turned out to be a lady) for the evening meal, and Hanita for the massage. To cut a long story short, yesterday we took the massage (deeply satisfying), ate Hanita's supper and drank wine (excellent), stayed at Gil's tzimmmer (delightful in its stylish simplicity) and at 5.45 this morning were racing along the deserted, misty roads of the northern Negev towards Kibbutz Ruchama. The "ground crew" there had already called and told us to arrive chik-chak. And since the last thing we wanted to do was to disappoint the ground crew, we stepped on the gas.

An hour and a half later, we were still on the ground. The weather wasn't right, too much cloud cover and general poor visibility. Moran, the on-the-ground flight coordinator, told us that it was a rule that you had to have eye contact with the ground. Safety first. We'd be able to use our ticket for another flight another day.

Sixteen of us were supposed to get into this upturned basket, shown here with burners at the ready but with green light ever given

The prospect of flying up to a kilometre above the ground on a bright spring morning (with a camera in my hand!) dissolved into the reality that we were standing in a soggy field surrounded by mist. I thought of using this lead balloon metaphor for how turbulence surrounding Israel contrasts with the stultifying lack of diplomatic movement... but I'll spare you.

So... instead of the champagne breakfast, we picked up some sandwiches at the nearest gas station and headed back to our tzimmer (La Paz) on Moshav Sdeh Yitzhak where we bumped into one of the local residents.

Naturally, the visibility picked up as the day wore on and, heading home, we took a dirt road between Kibbutz Ruhama and Kibbutz Bror Chayil. This crosses a nature reserve which someone decided to call the 'Ruhama Badlands' on the English sign. In fact, at least in the height of Spring, after some decent rain, they weren't so bad at all. The land was green and the wheat was standing high in the fields. We saw eagles, a snake, a tortoise and what may have have been a fox (and may also have been a rabbit).

At the gas station, a Bedouin signed us on a petition to free Gilad Shalit and tied a yellow ribbon on the car.

This is a wide open landscape that goes on for as far as the eye can see. In a month's time it will be turning yellow. Caught in the Tel Aviv Bubble, you forget that there's a country out there.

Fantasies

2011-03-20T06:26:00.000-07:00

In our daily lives we play different people (colleague, parent, friend, competitor) and , as the number of roles increase, we stand to forget who the 'real' me is. Purim (like all carnivals) gives us the legitimacy to stop pretending that we're not pretending and play out a role in public.

A local couple showing their appreciation

After several years of tension and negotiations between the bar owners of Florentin and the authorities, this year, the police and the municipality decided to cooperate: they blocked streets to the area, set an 18+ age limit and gave the annual Purim Florentin street party the freedom to play loud music all night, sell alcohol on the street and generally go crazy. There are similar street parties on New Year's Eve and Independence Day.

Many people wore bunny ears. Japanese nuclear scientists was another strong theme.

Some people took to acting our their fantasies a little too vividly.

For others, Purim might not be the only time they dress up.

Time to get back to basics. Two little Queen Esthers, entrance to Suzanne Dellal centre.

RiP: A Remix Manifesto

2011-03-19T04:51:00.000-07:00

Thanks to J for sending me this excellent and thought-provoking documentary on what happens when the overly protected principle of intellectual property clashes with the freedom and creativity unleashed by digital culture.

http://vimeo.com/8040182

Here's the blurb:

"Immerse yourself in the energetic, innovative and potentially illegal world of mash-up media with RiP: A Remix Manifesto. Let web activist Brett Gaylor and musician Greg Gillis, better known as Girl Talk, serve as your digital tour guides on a probing investigation into how culture builds upon culture in the information age. Biomedical engineer turned live-performance sensation Girl Talk, has received immense commercial and critical success for his mind-blowing sample-based music. Utilizing technical expertise and a ferocious creative streak, Girl Talk repositions popular music to create a wild and edgy dialogue between artists from all genres and eras. But are his practices legal? Do his methods of frenetic appropriation embrace collaboration in its purest sense? Or are they infractions of creative integrity and violations of copyright?"

This documentary is released under Creative Commons Attribution — Noncommercial 3.0 Unported license.

Changes in Eden

2011-03-11T08:07:00.000-08:00

None of these photographs of old Tel Aviv shops are of Minimarket Eden

At the beginning of every month I get a text message from the local minimarket - Eden -which is spitting distance from the Rooftop. Wherever on the planet I happen to be situated, this text message will politely remind me that its time to settle my monthly tab. This is not the only technological innovation introduced by Nissim, the dynamic young manager. He started a customers club and there was also a deal (which seems to have expired) that returned your VAT if you bought for over 100 shekels. At Minimarket Eden, the shelves are well stocked with goods ranging from basic to organic, the prices are marked and the staff is helpful and friendly.

It wasn't always this way. When we first moved into the neighbourhood the minimarket was run by Arnon and his wife Aliza and was much scruffier and simpler affair. Arnon's father Yosef, who was the original owner, who used to help out in the shop, was the projectionist at the Eden cinema, the first in Tel Aviv, before it closed in 1974. He spoke perfect English which he learned from the British soldiers in the Mandate years.

Under Arnon and Aliza's management, the hygienic conditions were iffy, the supplies patchy and the prices a matter of speculation and sometimes dispute. Arnon, a chain smoker, had a cool style, a quick wit and political tendencies to the right of Atilla the Hun. Aliza's ringing voice would echo around the poorly lit shelves. She could hold basic conversations in 10 languages and was loud, sarcastic and funny. They served sandwiches and Turkish coffee on the spot. You could buy freshly baked beigele from the all night bakery down the road, or lahouh bread from the Yemenite Quarter, Kerem Hateimanim. Your tab was jotted down on a piece of cardboard. Aliza would have no problem reminding you loud, clear and in person that it was time to settle your account but also made exceptions for the old and the poor.

Arnon and I would often start the day with a fierce political argument revolving on some report on the 7 a.m. news, replete with mutual reciminations but always ending in a friendly handshake. Minmarket Eden was a sort of informal community centre with a noticeboard outside and a colourful set of locals who would hang out there to tell a story or share a joke.

At some point Arnon, tired of the long days, brought in Baruch, an oleh chadash from Uzbekistan to help out. Baruch was friendly but had a limited vocabulary in Hebrew which meant that communication was basic. Baruch took the morning shift and I began to miss my morning political arguments with Arnon. A year or so later Arnon had sold out to Baruch completely and was talking about opening a bar. Baruch ran the business for a while but soon was increasingly relying on his son, Nissim, who transformed the place into the technological marvel it is today.

Over the years, both the customers and the staff have changed too. In Arnon and Aliza's time most were local residents who had lived in Neve Tzedek through the years when it was one of the worst slums in Tel Aviv. These were traditional, low income mizrahi families. By the time we arrived they had already been joined a smattering of students and artists. Today, the mix includes Israeli yuppies and foreigners who have bought into the area as well as high-tech workers and diplomats renting apartments.

The workers at today's Minimarket Eden represent tribalized, modern Israel. Nina, hailing from Russia is at the checkout counter, Abed, an Arab from Yaffo, stacks shelves and makes deliveries, Shimon, another stacker, wears a black kippa and can sometimes be seen praying in the corner. Despite their differences they seem to get on well together. Nissim rules with a quiet but firm managerial hand and a very slight Russian accent.

From time to time an African immigrant worker, or perhaps asylum seeker, walks past Minimarket Eden, also looking for his place in the world.

+972 English blog portal

2011-03-05T14:42:00.000-08:00

Untitled

Came across +972, an Israeli English language blog portal offering news, comment and analysis from Israel and the Palestinian Territories and written by some talented Israeli bloggers with guest writers. Recommended for fresh views.

Taking my mind off Egypt

2011-02-05T11:12:00.000-08:00

From time to time one needs to take a break from the situation in Egypt and clear the head with a stroll around the neighbourhood. First, down to the beach to take in some sea spray on a brisk Shabbat morning.

Next, an encounter with some cheap scenery from a 1950s sci-fi movie. Actually, this was taken underneath the Shalom Tower. A fire broke out there a few months ago and these pipes are part of the unsettling, temporary infrastructure.'Unsettling' and 'temporary' are two adjectives that could describe our reality nowadays as popular demonstrations and revolts erupt around the region: Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Syria, Algeria.

Israel has been one of the few countries that has criticised President Obama for "throwing Mubarak to the dogs", with some worrying out loud that he could the same to us one day. Here, with what happened in Gaza and Lebanon fresh in people's minds, the instinctive reaction is to assume that the Moslem Brotherhood will exploit the chaos to seize power. Hopefully, the doomsday predictors will be proved wrong and Egypt will find its own way of achieving a democracy in which the Islamists will play a role without leading Egypt into fundamentalism.

Meanwhile, the residents of Neve Tzedek have more other problems on their mind. The ring of residential towers is closing in on the historic old neighbourhood and threatening its calm narrow streets with an influx of people and cars.The flyer above paraphrases Herzl's slogan to declare 'If you will it there will no towers' while advertising a public signing of legal depositions of oppoition to another megalominacal project, to the north this time, involving two 40 tower blocks and the tearing down of a school to widen the adjacent road.

With with everything changing so quickly around us I can't help wondering if Israel is going to be able to remain "a villa in the middle of a jungle" (the arrogant metaphor that Ehud Barak used to describe the difference between Israel and the Arab world surrounding it) for ever. The winds of change roaring through the Middle East are bound to affect us sooner or later. I get home and read that the gas pipeline from Egypt tro Jordan has been blown up by terrorists. The pipeline through which Israel receives 40% of its natural gas remained unharmed but supplies have been halted as a precaution.

And here ends my wander though the neighbourhood to take my mind off what is happening in Egypt.

Cairo Revolution

2011-01-29T11:40:00.000-08:00

Newspaper seller, Cairo, 2008

"They r coming. The people r coming. This is growing," wrote Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey 4 days ago, on what was apparently one of the last posts to come out of the country before the regime shut down the internet. But the word got around nevertheless and Mubarak's days (maybe hours?) seem numbered.

Cairo bridge 2008

Groaning under the weight of 30 years under Hosni Mubarak's oppressive regime and frusrated by empty promises of reform, inspired by Tunisia's 'Jasmine Revolution' and mobilized via Facebook, Egyptians are now bravely demanding that Mubarak step down.

A recent article on Egypt and its future by Terry Newman, a business consultant who works throughout the Middle East, failed to predict the revolution but offered some interesting data on why it may have erupted. Approximately one quarter of Egypt's population of over 80 million are aged between 18 and 29. $200 per month is considered a good salary. While economic growth has been fair, the gap between rich and poor has grown. Still, 16.5 million users have access to the internet, a threefold increase in the past 3 years."The ability of different opposition groups to organise has increased in tandem. Egypt's population is now better educated, more connected, and more exposed to the external influences of the outside world than at any time in its history."

Egyptian boys near Cairo, 2004

Anybody who has visited Egypt and has been affected by the spirit by the Egyptian people can only wish them luck tonight. Perhaps some of these kids are among the demonstrators?

Nile view 2008

All this is bound to affect relations with Israel as well. Under Mubarak these have been cool but correct with both sides maintaining a common front against common enemies like Iran and Hamas.

Artistic recreation of the 1973 'October War', (Yom Kippur War) Cairo 2008

Under a different leadership relations could suffer. Terry Newman's reasonable prediction is that, "the overall strategic alliance between Egypt and Israel is likely to endure, not least due to US pressure and the billions of dollars in aid that both countrries receive as part of a the peace treaty."

Cairo street taken from a taxi on an overpass 2008

Egypt, our big neighbour, still the leader of the Arab world, needs to be fed, housed, educated and employed at a decent level. No less important it seems, a young wired generation wants its voice to be heard.

How the internet generation will link up with the other disparate elements in Egypt (the Moslem Brotherhood in particular) to create a new political landscape, remains to be seen. A lot may depend on the army. Will it defend the establishment, or set out to change it?

Saturday night demo

2011-01-17T12:26:00.000-08:00

'Interrogate Me Too', 'Jews and Arabs Refuse to be Enemies', "Together We'll Protect the Democratic Space", 'Fighting for Democracy', 'The Geneva Initiative', Hadash, Peace Now. Just some of the banners held by some of the 15,000 or so demonstrators in Tel Aviv protesting the current wave of McCarthyism, and racism sweeping the country. The left, such as it is, got mobilized.

There were plenty of grey hairs among the marchers.

As well as some Anglos.

Although most of the marchers were young.

And one was very young.

Ghost apartments, ghost people

2011-01-08T08:08:00.000-08:00

Levi Yitzhak is a company well known for producing hamechiron , a listing of prices which is the bible of the second hand car sector. A few years ago it moved into the flourishing real estate field. Recently, it estimated that about 10,000 "ghost apartments" scattered throughout Tel Aviv were left locked and shuttered for most of the year. Nearly all of them had between 2 and 3.5 rooms and sold for 2-3 million shekels ($500,000-$750,000). Had they been on the open market you could have rented them for NIS4,300 -NIS6,500 ($1,100 - $1,600).

But you can't rent them because their owners are foreign residents who need their holiday apartments to be available for the next weekend getaway or month-long holiday. And since they don't lack the money, they don't rent out their apartments. And since they don't rent out the apartments there are significantly less apartmnents for rent, which is turn raises the prices of the apartments that are available. The result is that the locals - especially the students and young couples who make Tel Aviv the vibrant city it is - are being frozen out of the city.

It turns out that the largest single group of buyers are French Jews who prefer the "old north" area , especially the streets leading to the sea like Gordon and Bograshov. The Americans prefer the "new north" , Ramat Aviv and Kochav Hatzafon. But overall, the most popular areas for foreign home buyers is Rehov Hayarkon (on the seafront), Sderot Rothschild (smart and swanky) and Neve Tzedek (romantic - the home of the Rooftop). The wonderful but neglected old buildings in these areas have been restored and wherever the developers find that they can buy up and demolish entire blocks, they are building gleaming residential towers on them. But how many of these are left empty for most of the year, emptying out the city centre instead of filling it?

Another group of people changing Tel Aviv's demographics are the migrant workers and asylum seekers from Africa that are streaming into Israel across its long border with Egypt. Many of them find their way to south Tel Aviv and are doing menial jobs across the city. The large numbers of immigrants concentrated in the poor neighbourhoods of the south have set off a racist backlash fanned by rightist Knesset members.

An African immigrant collecting bottles for the deposit in Florentin

Tel Aviv wants to be recognised as a 'global city' and the muncipality has even opened a new department to promote the campaign. Global city or not it is certainly being buffetted by the forces of globalisation that are transforming the human landscape before our very eyes. Constant change though is in Tel Aviv's genes.

A Happy Civil New Year

2011-01-01T05:52:00.000-08:00

Shana ezrachit tova (a happy civil New Year) is what (some) Israelis say to each other in the run-up to January 1st.This is of course to distinguish the New Year that the rest of the world is celebrating and the Jewish New Year of official, Hebrew, Israeli culture. This year's Israeli calendar started on Rosh Hashana or alpeh be-tishrei in the Jewish clandar which happened to fall on September 9 . Since Israel needs to live alongside the rest of the world, we keep both calendars.

But a "happy civil new year" also struck me as a decent wish for the coming year because the notion of 'civil' so lacking in our discourse. Political and social processes have led to a fragmentization of society into niches (Jewish, Arab, secular, religious-Zionist, haredi, rich/poor etc.), each of which lives in its own segregated society. In such a world, Arab ladies pushing prams do not have contact with people who ride tandems, except when they happen to pass each other in a shared public space. With nearly 50% of Israelis agreeing with a gang of rabid rabbis that it is forbidden to rent apartments to Arabs, a civil new year in which 20% of the population are treated as though they are part of society would be a refreshing change.

Is it just me, or at the end of 2010 are people feeling a little isolated and directionless? The non- story of 2010 was the US-led peace process that crashed and burned before take-off. Some are saying that this was the year in which any any lingering hopes for a two-state solution have finally been dashed.

And if they are right, what does that augur for the future? The settlers (were they that way inclined|) might be raising a glass of Cava to a successful 2010 and an even better 2011 but we might all find out soon that the world is no longer interested. It has more pressing problems. Soon we - Israelis and Palestinians - might be left to simply stew in our own juice. If that happens we may find ourselves on the eastern shoreline of the Mediterranean, peering westwards in vain.

As 2010 turns into 2011, definitions of reality seem more blurred than ever. We spend more and more time in virtual realities - on the internet and on the 'reality' shows that now completely dominate our TV screens. A few miles from the Tel Aviv bubble lie realities that we prefer not to visit. We are aware of their existence but we prefer them not tol be a part of our reality as long as we can keep shut them out. In this country, there are large minorities of people living in alternate realities that, at best, manage to co-exist with each other in an uneasy truce. What is 'real' for one, often seems a fantasy to the other.

So a strange final wish for 2011 is for our perceptions of reality to become closer(and of course more "real')

A Happy Civil New Year

Storm damage

2010-12-19T03:16:00.000-08:00

This time last week a storm was raging with 100 km per hour whippings through Tel Aviv and causing havoc on rooftops (including The Rooftop which lost a few plant pots). Had I been braver I would have gone down to the seafront where the wind and high waves were ripping flagstones from the pavements. There was some serious damage at Tel Aviv port and I was told by an eye witness that an unhinged chasakeh ( a cross between a punt and an oversized surfboard, used by lifeguards), was seen floating on Rehov Hayarkon!

A week later (yesterday) the sea was still high and the sand level seemed to have risen considerably. This photo of the Banana Beach cafe where you normally sit on the beach and not on the raised deck.

The showers on the left were uprooted by the waves.

Above it all, migrating birds making their way south

Ashes

2010-12-04T07:25:00.000-08:00

These photos were taken in 2004 near the Carmel spa resort in the Carmel nature reserve near Haifa. I'm posting them not because they are particularly good but because they record vanished landscape. The fauna you see in these photos has been turned to ashes.

For the past three days, as we watch in horror on TV, fire-fighters from Israel and countries that have come to its aid, have been battling the massive forest fire on the Carmel, one of Israel's dwindling green lungs.

Click here for some dramatic press photos.

So far, the fire has claimed 41 lives and consumed 40,000 dunams of forest. Some 17,000 people have been evacuated from their homes and have mostly been adopted by friends, family or volunteers. Meanwhile it's the third evening
of the fire, it's getting dark and soon the planes dropping water on the flames, including a massive Ilyushin transport, sent from Russia, will have to stop work and the fire is still not under control.

One of the reasons that the fire has talen on such monstrous proportions is the lack of a functioning fire -fighting service in Israel. For years reports were written on the sad state of the understaffed and under equipped fire service and hence, in the grand tradition of Israeli bureaucracy, nothing got done. Apparently, the boys from the treasury thought it would be more cost-effective to skimp on fire-fighting and let the country burn. It is truly incredible that a country that presumes to attack Iran - knowing full well that the result will be the launching of thousands of missiles on Israeli population centres - has never bothered to properly protect the lives and property of its citizens from fire.

So, when this fire, apparently started by negligent picnikers near the Druse village of Ussfiya, began to spread, there were no fire engines to extinguish it. Ancient fire engines rushed in from other parts of the country laboured slowly up the hills. When they arrived at the forest there was no ready supply of water to fill them. After 7 hours they ran out of the proper foam. To all the countries that have helped Israel with planes, manpower and equipment in its hour of need - thank you.

After the forest fires in Greece, the heads of politicians rolled. In Israel the heads of politicians tend to remain firmly fixed to their bodies and their backsides to their ministerial chairs. Netanyahu and interior minister Eli Yishai are already preparing their defences for the public inquiry that is bound to come.

The next generation will be denied the pleasure of enjoying these beautiful, rolling and once green hills. But, if there is one positive outcome from this tragedy, it is that Israel will finally get a functioning fire brigade.

New York, Halloween, 2010

2010-11-21T03:48:00.000-08:00

Manhattan skyline taken from the Williamsburg waterfront in Brooklyn. Legend has it that the shoes represent the victims of crime gangs but New York seemed a peaceful enough city. People seemed to be more worried about the economic climate and (some) about the beating the Democrats took in the mid-term Congressional elections than about crime.

Halloween is a big deal in America. The locals hang skeletons, ghosts etc from their windows or scatter fake gravestones on their lawns. Fierce cut out pumkin heads are the dominant image but in a move obviously orchestrated by Pumpkin Producers of America, the vegetable also features strongly in Thanksgiving later in November.

Caught these people on the steps of a handsome brownstone introducing the delights of touching a large pumpkin to a baby.

This character and his friend were cruising the side streets of the annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade

While in the parade itself, a massive event involving thousands of marchers, all hell was breaking loose...

Taking some time off from the craziness: skateboarding in Williamsburg.

Wherever you go in New York, as in the centre of Tel Aviv, there seems to be life on the streets. This is probably because both cities were planned to integrate ground floor commerce and first floor housing. No house is more than a hundred yards or so from a corner store, many of which stay open till late, and this helps create a feeling of safety and community.

This graffiti on the waterfront seemed to meld into the real objects in the foreground (or vice versa).

In the local park, the regular Sunday morning baseball game is in full swing.

Entering Sheep Meadow in Central Park. The great broad expanse of lawn ringed by Manhattan's skyscrapers is breathtaking. And on the lawn itself, frisbee players, kite flyers, yogists and people who simply want to lie on their backs and look at the sky for a while.

Yom Kippur 2010

2010-09-23T08:13:00.000-07:00

Erev Yom Kippur, Rehov Herzl. A family walks down the centre of the normally busy street towards the Shalom Tower safe in the knowledge that they will not be mown down by a car.

Yehuda Halevi, a.k.a. 'rehov habankim' because the big three banks have their headquarters here. Bereft of human or vehicular activity - as though on the day after a mystety virus had wiped out the population - the functional office towers suddenly seem functionless and the arrows on the street are pointing to nowhere.

In this tempotrary deserted world the neon lights shine for no-one. All commerce halts. Capitalism takes a day off. Apart from the clicking of the superfluous traffic lights, silence reigns.

Rehov Shabazi, Neve Tzedek. Three women, one pushing a pram, walk home from the kol nidrei service that brings in Yom Kippur. They might be a grandmother (right) grandaughter (middle) and daughter (left pushing agrandaughter. Four generations sharing the same fast. The cafes and boutiques are closed, the yuppies have parked their jeeps elsewhere and the streets are given over to the pre-gentrification locals, many of whom are traditional or religious.

The next morning we take to our bikes and my camera spots details normally obscured by the traffic, pollution and noise, like this dance bar on the seedy end of Allenby.

An ingenious painting that conceals and enhances a bricked in window frame on the corner of Allenby and Idelson.

The chaotic contrasts in the facade of a building on Lilienblum. All too soon, the day is over, the prayers and the penitence are forgotten, the cars return to the streets and its back to work and keep your eyes on the road.

Transformed

2010-09-19T02:41:00.000-07:00

This is a photo of nos 8 and 6 - the twin beauties on the left. It was taken in 1927. There is reportedly an earlier photo of them taken in 1924, the year they were built, that shows them standing in splendid isolation, surrounded by sand. But by the time this photo was taken, pavements had been laid on Rehov Yehuda Halevi (they seem to be in better shape than the ones we have today), and the road, through still unpaved, seems smoother than the existing version; certainly smooth enough for the horse and cart clip-clopping towards Neve Tzedek. There's a spanking new electricity pole outside the Hadassah hospital (hidden on the right behind the imposing stone wall and a general air of gentility about the quiet street with its substantial buildings designed in what was later to be called the Eclectic style : a wonderful hodge-podge of European romanticism and eastern fantasies a la One Thousand and One Nights.

The "twins" were built by immigrants from Russia who had apparently smuggled out enough rubles to invest in the new Jewish enterprise taking shape next to Yafo. Number 6 started life as a residential building divided into modest apartments and was later leased to the state and served as a court. There were other courts along the street and when we moved into the neighbourhood in 1994 there was still an old man sitting behind a typewriter on the pavement who typed up depositions or whatever for the court clients.

Fast forward 81 years to 2008 and look at this photo taken from the Rooftop. Number 6 is forlorn. The court, transferred to more modern premises is long gone and no 6 has become a refuge for the homeless, junkies (I'd find used syringes in the front garden) and young rock bands making their first clip. But, hope, or rather, gentrification, was at hand. Restoration was chic and happening everywhere, the cheap textile shops had been replaced by sushi bars and boutiques and property prices had skyrocketed. Number 6 had been purchased by a foreign investor and boarded up to prevent entry to undesirables.

And a few months later, work began. We would awake to the roar of pneumatic drills, be driven demented by the harsh drone of a cement mixer, wait for long minutes next to our own parking space when the road was blocked by heavy equipment. I could go on. Yet, through thick and thin, we barely uttered a complaint, thankful that someone else was sinking millions into restoring at least one of the twins to its former glory.

By September 2009 Number 6 was well on its way to a new life as a refuge for a small number of millionaires who had already purchased a few huge apartments for millions. On the roof, a new structure designed for poolside (!) lounging and sunset-watching was taking shape.

This photo was taken yesterday. No 6 is nearly finished. Palms and bushes have already been planted in the front garden The angle of the shot hides the building materials in the front drive but you get the picture. Number 6 has come full circle, from genteel residence to genteel residence. But while its original occupants were new immigrants from Russia taking their first steps in "little Tel Aviv", its new occupants are more likely to be successful high-tech entreptreneurs or tycoons from abroad looking for a "different" holiday home. The junkies and the homeless have moved further south. Recently, the second twin - number 8 - was purchased by an investor. We're preparing mentally for more years of noise and dust.

Mid Life Crisis plays twice in one week

2010-08-21T08:56:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons I haven't been posting recently is the debilitating heat. This turns the brain into mush and rules out too much physical and even mental activity during the hot'n'humid season. Still, from time to time reality forces you to escape the aircon (home, car, office) and sweat. One of the few good reasons to leave the A/C is music. And so, a few weeks back, Mid Life Crisis, oblivious to the intolerable heatwave and flying in the face of reason, embarked on a week of intensive activity.

First came a Thursday night gig on kibbutz Maagan Michael at a 40th birthday party. The crowd was techie, and the air was ickie. As usual, we could hear ourselves at the end of the sound check but not a soon as we started playing. By the third number my T shirt was soaked. And there were about 12 numbers. The crowd was a bit flaccid and, with a few exceptions remained seated.

On Shabbat we were performing again, this time in the beautiful back garden of a private house in Rishpon, a moshav situated between Tel Aviv and Netanya. It was even hotter but the hipster 50+ crowd belonged to the rock generation and we played up a storm for over three hours. But playing hard in 80% humidity takes it toll. I must have looked a bit unsteady as I rose from the drum stool since someone came up to me and me if I was feeling OK. A memorable evening.

The next day (!), Mid Life Crisis started recording 6 new songs in an effort to 'release' a CD . The photos here are from the last session. Playing live twice during the previous week, made us feel like a real band. It also sharpened skills so by the time we turned up at the studio, we were 'hot'. Stay tuned for news of the album release party.

Smashing into windows

2010-07-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

Came home yesterday to hear from A that a large pigeon had smashed into the living room sliding windows with a loud crash, slid to the floor and expired. The poor thing had somehow lost its navigational skills and had not only decided to fly into the apartment under the Rooftop (instead of landing on the Rooftop itself?) but had also failed to notice that the space in front of its beak was composed of hard glass and not thin air.

For some reason it struck me that this somewhat bizarre occurence could serve as metaphor for Israel: blithely following a well known course, inately confident in its own powers (whatever the rest of the world throws up in its path), squawking whenever anyone dares offer a different orientation and then clumsily crashing into a situation seemingly invisible although, with hindsight, easily identifiable.

Like a solo pilot on autopilot our course is pre-charted and any further discussion therefore unnecessary. And since no-one else is interested in listening any more, we are now our only audience (which is what we always wanted anyway) free to twist and turn the arguments around ourselves without noticing that rapidly approaching hard spot.

And so, having lost whatever sense of inner direction we once had, we sing and dance to ourselves, the blind leading the blind.

Life's a Beach

2010-07-17T06:35:00.000-07:00

This gaggle of kids organised itself into a little dance on the water's edge

‘Chom yuli –august’, the heat of July-August, is the name of a song by Shlomo Artzi and the condition in which we all live, or , in the case of Tel Aviv with the humidity level over 90% - barely survive. To enter a car left in the sun is to enter a furnace, the pavements stick to the soles of your shoes and shade and cool become luxury items. School's out, the air-conditioned kenyonim (shopping malls) are full but for those of fortunate enough to live nearby, the beach is still the place to be on a sultry evening. So I thought some beach photos would be appropriate.

In the fading light, mysterious figures appear from the sea

'Alma Beach' is situated in the hypen in Tel Aviv-Yaffo and is probably the most heterogenous beach in Tel Aviv. Along a relatively short stretch ,Neve Tzedek yuppies, Arab families from Yaffo, foreign workers from Sudan, hipsters and tourists share the same space, if not always the same dress code. According to the Jewish calendar there are occasional influxes of haredim and on Shabbat, the beach is packed with families including lots of Russian immigrants. In this photo, an Arab family at sunset. The entire area behind Alma Beach was once the Arab neighbourhood of Manshiyeh that was later almost completely demolished.

Frishman beach awaits tomorrow's customers

frisbee in the night...

Black Days White Night

2010-07-02T05:20:00.000-07:00

Happy chassid graffiti Florentin, White Night

There's an astute line in a Hebrew song that could be translated as, "The worse our fate, the more we celebrate." Indeed as the last vestiges of Israel's international standing crumble before our eyes, as tens of thousands march through the country in solidarity with the Shalit family, as rumours of "a war in the summer" refuse to dissipate in the increasingly humid air ... it must be time for a street party!

White Night 2010, an all night arts festival ,covers the whole lit up city in hundreds of venues. We stayed reasonaly close the Rooftop starting out in the grubby streets of South Tel Aviv, south of Allenby. Here, the art exhibits had been craftily placed in unlikely locations leaving you with a question of whether life imitated art or..

Not part of the official programme : a singer performs in a Bucharian restaurant, Florentin

Also not an official art exhibit , a greengrocers featuring Rabbi Nahman from Breslav communing with the Creator amidst the fruit and veg.

No, not an ironic recreation of a hopelessly old fashioned window display. The real thing. Derekh Yaffo.

On dilapidated Hagdud Ha-Ivri (Hebrew Battalion) Street, which seems to be emerging as a hip place for young people, we stopped to catch a cold beer sold out of someone's house and watch a street fashion parade put on by the local residents. The refreshing thing about the show was that the "models" all lived in the neighbourhood. Here they are lining up.

And here they are lapping up the attention on the catwalk, a strech of red carpet laid out on the pavement. The clothes were donated (I guess) by the Tel Aviv designers mentioned by the enthusiastic mistress of ceremonies. Many of the designers' studios are located in the Gan Hachasmal (Electric Garden) complex a few blocks away. After the show, they paraded through the streets blowing whistles.

On the way we noticed a video art film in the display window of a bathroom fixtures shop. Called Independence Day, it showed a day in the life of the Latrun artillery museum, effectively addressing the fascination of Israeli society with the military.

Music outside a restaurant on Yehuda Halevi and on street corners everywhere, in squares, on the beach. In the course of an hour we covered three exhibitions, one fashion show, one shira be-tzibur (Community singalong) in a synagogue! In our defense we stayed because of the free food - excellent couscous with meatballs. Rothschild Boulevard, its Bauhaus buildings illuminated for the occasion, was jam-packed.

In Bialik Square we were promised a night of eclectic black music but instead found several thousand people too many for comfort and a white band. Feet aching. Time to head back home.

On the way, well after midnight, the party was in full swing: a young band plays jazz/funk on Nahalat Binyamin.

It was a night that reminds you why you love Tel Aviv. It was a night that made me forget that earlier that afternoon I'd received an automatic voice message telling me that my gas mask was waiting for me and that I should make arrangments to pick it up.

No legitimacy, no Pixies but thank you Joan

2010-06-06T04:57:00.000-07:00

Thanks Joan, it was great show

The flotilla incident has been dominating our every media moment for a week and shows no signs of letting up. The crisis whirling around the rooftop's situation room seems to be one of those historic moments in whicvh processes reach a critical mass and something has to give. Who will give, how much and to whom, is no doubt occupying the minds of the brilliant leadership (Netanyahu and Barak) who gave the green light for the botched op. Ban Ki Moon has proposed setting up an international commission of inquiry into the raid headed by former New Zealand prime minister Geoffrey Palmer. Not clear how Bibi-Barak will respond.

Meanwhile bad news keeps coming thick and fast. A quick snapshot as of 13.00 Sunday: ++Turkish PM Erdogan is not only demanding an apology and an intternational inquiry but according to one report is also considering breaking the seige of Gaza at the head of a Turkish navy flotilla! ++On the radio this morning former Mossad head Ephraim Levy was even asked if there was a chance of war with Turkey (he didn't think so). ++"From Frankfurt to Berlin to Dusseldorf - thousands of anti-Israel protesters marched across Germany on Saturday, hoisting Palestinian flags and calling for action against the "massacre" aboard the Mavi Marmara.... "We want justice for our comrades killed!" said Hamit Savas, a kefiyyeh-wearing protester in Berlin. "We insist on an end to the insane blockade of Gaza and freedom for our brother Palestinians....++In Sweden, dockworkers announced yesterday that Israeli ships trying to dock and unload goods would be "ignored" next week... Seven Swedish citizens were detained on board the Gaza-bound flotilla...++Norway announced yesterday it was canceling an upcoming special operations seminar because the Defense Ministry objected to the inclusion of an Israeli army officer in the program....++Paris, London and Dublin saw similar protests. In Dublin, protesters were angry not only about the Marmara, but also about Israel's stopping the Rachel Corrie yesterday, which carried Irish activists. ++In England, in Bournemouth, a coastal resort town with a large Jewish population and a Jewish mayor, there were calls yesterday to cut the city's twinning links with Netanya. ++Israeli Jews should get out of Palestine and go back "home," to Germany and Poland, senior White House Press Corps member Helen Thomas was taped as saying earlier this week, bringing calls for her resignation by Jewish organization B'nai B'rith.

and so it goes and so it will go...

Meanwhile, in Israel, a comment made by former Haaretz editor David Landau that Israel is at a "disconnect" from the rest of the world seemed spot on. Friday's weekend papers were full of patriotic portraits of the heroes of the operation, thousands demonstrated outside the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv, calling Erdogan a terrorist and the Knesset is deliberating whether to revoke the citizenship of an Arab Knesset member who took part in the flotilla. Yes, there was a left wing demonstration last night but according to Gidon Levy (since we didn't go I'll have to take his word for it) : "The left returned to the square last night - well-organized, restrained, polite and statesmanlike... mostly secular Ashkenazis. Real rage, the kind seen in government-toppling, occupation-shattering demonstrations, was simply not seen here last night. Here, among the Jewish left, people come to meet up with friends and feel good about themselves. Have you ever seen a left-wing demonstration in the world whose participants shout that they are "proud of the soldiers?"

Gradually bits of evidence are appearing that put a different light on the circumstances of the operation itself. The picture emerging in Israel is that upon rapelling onto the ship, our brave lads, carrying paintball guns, were surprised to encounter not peace-loving humanitarian workers but 50 bloodthirsty Turkish merecenaries who set about them with kives and iron poles, stole their pistols and held them captive. Some of these Turks had prepared battle plans and codes and wanted to be shahids (not the mercenaries presumably otherwise how could they have spent the money?). With their lives endangered by bloodthirsty "terrorists", they used minimum force killing only 9. Little of this seems to be percolating into the int'l media meanwhile but for most Israelis this confirms what they knew all along: the whole flotilla operation was a put up job engineered by Erdogan and the whole hypocritical world is out to get us again. A group of young right wingers created a take off clip on We Are the World that presses home the point.

Unfortunately, it doesn't matter much any more whether the navy seals from Flotilla 13 were the innocent victims of of a "lynch" by fanatic Turkish Islamic fundamentalists or "storm troopers" despatched by the evil Zionist apartheid regime to massacre peaceful civilians. In the court of public opinion, Israel itself has lost its legitimacy and judgement has been handed down. The seige of Gaza, is viewed as a moral abomination and it has become untenable. The flotilla incident just triggered off a storm of outrage that has been welling up for years. No-one is interested in hearing Israel's side of the flotilla story as long as the Gaza Strip is locked in and the Palestinians still don't have "freedom".

Something's got to give...

And this morning more bad news. 80's alternative rock band the Pixies suddeny cancelled their Tel Aviv show: "The Pixies issued a statement saying that the decision was not taken lightly and that "we'd like to extend our deepest apologies to the fans, but events beyond all our control have conspired against us. We can only hope for better days, in which we will finally present the long awaited visit of the Pixies in Israel."

Luckily for me I'm not a Pixies fan. I am a fan of Elvis Costello who cancelled his show a few weeks ago. I'm not going to judge artists who refuse to appear in Israel (although they could at least refuse before agreeing to play and then cancelling at the last moment). I am going to say thank you to Joan Armatrading who gave us a great show in Tel Aviv last night, reminding us what a great artists she is. Some members of the audience had managed to fit in the left wing demo before the show. Not a political word was uttered. We loved it.

I just have one question. In her publicity photo, why is one eye is covered by her hand?

The First Boulevard

2010-05-08T09:02:00.000-07:00

The cultural season is upon us and Tel Aviv is abuzz with people scurrying from one exhibition to another and in vast numbers. I missed the 'Fresh Paint' exhibition at the newly opened Hangar 1 at Jaffa Port but joined what seemed like thousands of people wandering aroundthe city yesterday and today clutching the catalogue of Open House weekend, known locally as Houses from Within .

Yesterday we joined an eye-opening tour along Jerusalem Boulevard (sderot yerushalayim) in Yaffo. The photo above will give you an idea of what it looked like in the 1930s under the British Mandate when most of its population was Palestinian.

This will give you an idea of what it looks like today.

Sderot Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Boulevard) started life as Jamal Pasha Boulevard after the Ottomon ruler of Syria and Palestine. In 1914 Jamal appointed Hassan Bek to run Yaffo. In the spirit of the Young Turks, the latter set about adapting the ancient city to the modern age. Work started on Jamal Pasha Boulevard in 1915. It was designed by a Jewish engineer from Haifa and the Turks were so pleased with the results that they asked him to design a similar boulevard in Damascus. The new boulevard, planted with Washington palms cultivated in the Mikveh Yisrael agricultural school (another Jewish connection), started at the Manshiyeh neighbourhood (now Charles Clore Park) and cut eastwards through the citrus groves ending abruptly in the middle of nowhere. This was happening at the same time that Jewish Ahuzat Bayit, sooon to be Tel Aviv, founded in 1909, was also beginning to develop to the north.

The idea behind the boulevard was to create the central axis of a new modern urban centre, and it worked. Under the British Mandate in the 1930s and 40's, Jamal Pasha Boulevard, by now dubbed King George V Boulevard, was a thriving commercial and cultural hub, with 5 cinemas, restaurants , cafes and public buildings. After most of Yaffo's Arabs fled in the 1948 war, many of their houses were occupied by new Jewish arrivals from Bulgaria. Thus in the 1950s and '60s the boulevard was transformed into Little Sophia', a bustling centre for the Bulgarian community which, among other things, had its own nationally famous Zadikov choir and its own football club - Maccabi Yaffo. Modern Socialist type residential blocks were built between the Arab buildings to house them.

Conservation architect, Amnon Bar Or and his team of students recently held a fascinating exhibition on Jerusalem Boulevard with the aim of finally bringing some attention to this neglected treasure and to restore it to some of its former glory. Since that also means paying some attention to the Palestinian built heritage of Tel Aviv-Yaffo, the exhibition attracted some political flack from the right.

It was called The First Boulevard. Click on the dots along the way to see the names of each building (in English too) and access photos and documentation (mainly in Hebrew meanwhile).

On the side of no 6 you can still make out the outlet of the 'Spinneys' sign . Spinneys was established by an expatriate Brit living in Alexandria who made a deal with the British Army to provide food and refreshments for the troops. They now own hypermarkets throughout the Middle East.

This was the splendid Alhambra cinema which showed films and held performances. The famed Egyptian songstress Oum Khoultoum wowed crowds here more than once on her way from Alexandria to more shows in Beirut; a tour that would be impossible today.

A shadow of its former self today, the Alhambra is is shrouded in green in preparation for its conversion to - a Scientology centre.

Along the way, various architectural styles can be detected behind the decades of neglect, grime and all sorts of ugly additions: traditional Palestinian, Art Deco, International, faux Oriental, Israeli socialist etc.

Here and there, the first signs of gentrication are appearing but it will take a new planning approach if Jamal Pasha/King George/Jerusalem boulevard is to be given the respect it deserves. As things stand a high speed above ground light railway is planned to divide one side of the boulevard from the other....

Happy birthday Herzl

2010-04-25T04:45:00.000-07:00

It's Herzl's150th birthday and there's not much celebrating going on. Just up the road from the Rooftop, on the corner of Herzl and Yehuda Halevi, several young men dressed up Herzl-style in a fake flowing black beard, a black suit with tails and top hat, handed out the flyer above . This reads:

Herzl's 150th birthday.
Today too it is no dream.
Believe, Act, Change!'

(I know I should have had my camera with me). Not clear who is behind the campaign. There was no phone number or website offering guidance on how to believe, act or change. On the other hand they were standing suspiciously close to Bank Leumi. Was this a government campaign to re-instill Zionist values among a wayward, decadent Tel Aviv public or perhaps part of the bank's marketing policy?

Even though Theodor Herzl is considered to be the "visionary" of the Jewish state and his inspiring slogan " If you will it, it is no dream" became the slogan of the political Zionist movement he created, he still remains a somewhat shadowy figure in Israel. Perhaps this is because, unlike other national icons, his complex task was to mobilise support abroad for an untested experiment and since he died well before its creation, his mark on the country is not palpable. Perhaps it is also because the strain of Zionism that became dominant in Israel's formation was not Herzlian Zionism.

As Natan Sharansky points out (in 'Defending Identity'), the vision for the Jewish state proposed by Austro-Hungarian borgeois Herzl was a diversified 'Mosaic mosaic' of Jewish cultures, all acting to mutually enrich. In contrast, the vision of the Labour Zionism of Ben Gurion and his fellow socialist Russians was to transform the socialist model of the 'New Man' into a standardized 'New Jew'. But Israeli society has moved on since Ben Gurion's day. It's certainly more of a mosaic today than it was 40 years ago; so in that sense, Herzl's vision prevailed.

On another, more depressing level a look Herzl's wiki biography also reveals that:

"In June 1896, with the help of the sympathetic Polish emigre aristocrat Count Philip Michael Nevlenski, he met for the first time with Abdul Hamid II to put forward his proposal for a Jewish state in Palestine. However the Sultan refused to cede Palestine to Zionists, saying, "if one day the Islamic State falls apart then you can have Palestine for free, but as long as I am alive I would rather have my flesh be cut up than cut out Palestine from the Muslim land."

This should provide a little perspective for those who think that the Israeli - Palestinian conflict began in 1967. On the other hand Israel is now a country of 7 million people while Abdul Hamid II and the Ottoman Empire have disappeared.So 10 out of 10 for the general vision.

"Local Herzl graffiti "If you don't want to will it, don't do me any favours"

Israel was created in blood and fire yet, in Herzl's novel 'Altneuland',

"Herzl did not foresee any conflict between Jews and Arabs. One of the main characters in Altneuland is a Haifa engineer, Reshid Bey, who is one of the leaders of the "New Society", is very grateful to his Jewish neighbors for improving the economic condition of Palestine and sees no cause for conflict. All non-Jews have equal rights, and an attempt by a fanatical rabbi to disenfranchise the non-Jewish citizens of their rights fails in the election which is the center of the main political plot of the novel."

Well, I guess that's why it's called a utopian novel. The creation of the Jewish state did of course create conflict between Jews and Arabs. In it, all non-Jews have equal basic rights on paper but not always in practice and large numbers of Jews are pro-disenfranchising them of their rights. So, 4 out of 10 on this passage Theodor.

"Herzl envisioned a Jewish state which combined both a modern Jewish culture with the best of the European heritage. Thus a Palace of Peace would be built in Jerusalem, arbitrating international disputes, and at the same time the Temple would be rebuilt on modern principles. Herzl did not envision the Jewish inhabitants of the state being religious, but there would be much respect for religion in the public sphere. He also assumed that many languages would be spoken, but Hebrew would not be the main tongue."

Get out of town Teddy! (see 'conflicts' above). Wrong wrong wrong. Zero points.

"Herzl also envisioned the future Jewish state to be a "third way" between capitalism and socialism, with a developed welfare program and public ownership of the main natural resources and industry, agriculture and even trade organized on a cooperative basis. He called this mixed economic model "Mutualism", a term derived from French utopian socialist thinking. Women would have equal voting rights - as they did have in the Zionist movement from the Second Zionist Congress onwards."

Not a bad stab. But following the collapse of cooperative and state run enterprises, Israel has now lurched too far the other way into what is termed "swinish capitalism". Five points.

Most Israelis are entirely ignorant of Herzl's ideas. He has become a sort of retro icon, his slogan, "If you will it it is no dream (im titzu ein zu agada)' is today as likely to be employed to sell weekend getaways to Turkey as to inspire a new generation of nation builders.

That's how the cookie crumbles. Reality rarely matches up to the original vision. Herzl got his Jewish state and that's certainly not to be sniffed at but he would certainly be less than happy about the shape it eventually took.

Still, Tel Avivians owe him a special debt:

"The name of Tel Aviv is the title given to the Hebrew translation of Altneuland by the translator, Nahum Sokolov. This name, which comes from Ezekiel 3:15, means tell— an ancient mound formed when a town is built on its own debris for thousands of years— of spring. The name was later applied to the new town built outside of Jaffa, which went on to become Tel Aviv-Yafo the second-largest city in Israel."

Happy birthday Herzl.

Corner Herzl-Rothschild

Negev 2 - A different type of Spring

2010-03-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

It's taken me a while to post some more photos of the Negev in the Spring, partly because I've been avidly following the crisis between the US and Israel that exploded during Netanyahu's recent visit to Washington.

Obama's demands, now being discussed by Bibi's mainly hawkish septet of ministers would essentially mean that Israel would have to show some serious good will towards the Palestinians, among other things by halting construction in East Jerusalem - anathema to Bibi's rightist and religious coalition partners and to Bibi himself. As a result, Netanyahu has been left exposed and it remains to be seen how far he will be able to rely on Obama in the future.

While the warm spring winds blow through the suddenly verdant desert, Israel's relations with its strongest ally are suddenly being put to the test, not a situation that Israelis are used to.

Netanyahu seems trapped like a moth in the harsh light of the crisis. If he sticks to his principles (preventing a the sort of concessions that would make a Palestinian state possible) he will be burned by Obama. In the unlikely event If he suddenly lurches leftwards, he will be burned by the Right and will lose his coalition.

The sensible thing to would be to ditch the Right, create a new government with Kadima and Labour and move forward with the peace process. While this could be the key to a more promising future, it runs against Netanyahu's nature. We can expect more arm wrestling with Obama in the days and weeks to come. Let's hope that Obama hangs tough and forces Bibi to climb down. Meanwhile, in the Negev, natural harmony reigns.

Negev 1

2010-03-07T07:56:00.000-08:00

Parking says the sign at the Cornfehl (?) Farm. Not seen in the frame is funky little restaurant featuring goat cheese with an outdoor deck overlooking a flower garden and an orchard.

Israel's real Wild West is of course the West Bank but the Negev comes in an honorable second place. The sun dries and cracks and blanches. The winds whip over the mountains and through the wadis and the flash floods carve out new terrain.

A politically aware post about a trip to the Negev should mention the miserable “unrecognized Bedouin villages” to the south and east of Beersheba, the large army firing zones off limits to civilians and what seemed like an inordinate number of prisons. But we were on a weekend getaway and were interested in getting closer to some of the local inhabitants.

Yeruham, perched on the edge of hamchtesh hagadol the Great Crater (diminished to only “Large” on the road sign) is home to a few factories (Negev Ceramica, the Phoenicia Glass Works) and a few thousand people. It's prettier than I had expected, well kept with lawns and lots of trees. On the eastern side of town the road dips into the massive crater and continues into the badlands.It’s restful on the eye to see horizontal lines instead of the vertical ones we’re used to in the city.

On the western side there's a park and a lake with some riotous bird life.

After the heavy rains the ground is still slightly damp underfoot. The wadis are filled with wild flowers and the hills are clothed in a green fuzz. Dotted around Sde Boker and Mitzpeh Ramon single family farms have sprung up (with a bit of help from Arik Sharon) offering accommodation, goats cheese, wine and that rare commodity - peace and quiet for stressed urbanities like us. One place consisted of teepees. Another of mud huts . We stayed in one of these farms: a strip of vineyards, some zimmerim (guest rooms) each with a private wallowing pool, a winery, and a gallery selling ceramics, wine and metalwork. It’s peaceful in the desert, the nothingness gets under the skin and irons out the mind.

In Ein Avdat the soft stone strata are reflected in the soft stream water.

While up the hill in Kibbutz Sdeh Boker, Paula Ben Gurion's kitchen in Ben Gurion's Tzrif (Hut) is also frozen in time. They told me that I couldn't take photographs inside the museum, but I couldn't resist...

Purim again

2010-02-28T09:14:00.000-08:00

Wearing silly hats, we forayed out for another Purim street party in Florentin last night 'erev Purim'. These photos were taken at about 11 p.m., that is just as things were beginning to warm up. My contacts had told me that the Florentin party had been cancelled this year but for once Facebook was wrong. While the police blocked off the entire neighbourhood to traffic, pedestrians of all shapes, sizes and appearances were soon filing in to make merry in the bars and streets.

Yes the picture to your right does feature three guys pushing a car with a larged stuffed rodent on the roof.

The male victim of this Draculess said that she wanted her photo taken.

In fact, I was regularly stopped by gaggles of people only too willing to pose for the camera.

They had made an effort (sort of) to get dressed up and seemed to want a bit of recognition for their efforts.

Some of them had a naturally exotic look,

while others, like this man wearing the mask of Yuval Steinitz the finance minister, were obviously trying to look bland.

I don't know about the hammentaschen (ozney haman) boys. I didn't hear them speak but we heard lots of American accents. This dubious introduction of traditional Purim symbols and costumes into Florentin's street party might be their doing.

A stroll down the boulevard

2010-02-20T09:25:00.000-08:00

We're having a heat wave ,a tropical heatwave. And while you are freezing, we're sitting back easing, enjoying the sunshine. And so on an unseasonably warm Shabbat morning we cycled down Sderot Rothschild, the fanciest boulevard in Tel Aviv.

An old chassid crossing the road against a background of posters advertising cool performances. Elton John, Rod Stewart, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan and the Pixies are all supposed to be performing in Israel this summer unless frightened off by boycott, divestment and sanctions.

At the bottom of the boulevard - the massive hulk of the new expanded Habimah (national theatre) building. Not only is it ugly and too big for its surroundings but the facing includes little sparkles which serve to make it look glitzy.

Three men each pushing prams containing twins! Were they all on the same pill?

Posters advertising a Peace Now demonstration against the policy of the Bibi-Barak government described by the poster as a "masked carnaval". I should be there (in the square outside the Cinematheque now) instead of writing this. The media seems to be playing up the possibility of a war this year. Hizbullah warlord Hassan Nasrallah threatened us this week that this time his rockets will be falling on Tel Aviv. It could be with Iran, Hizbullah, Syria, Hamas or any combination. Ho hum...

But this morning, on the boulevard people of all ages seemed relaxed.

Many doing what they most like to do.

While others seem to be carrying out group stares at trendy restraurants.

Crazy building, full moon

2010-01-30T07:14:00.000-08:00

On a steep side street in Ramat Gan sits a crazy apartment building. We went to visit it last night with Y who has just moved into the neigbourhood.

It was a moonlit night

The tentacles of alien creatures hung over the sides of the crazy building.

Their parents, possibly scavenging for food, roamed the neighbourhood

Surprising shapes inspired by Gaudi confronted us at every turn.

A concrete banana skin helter skelter wrapped around the exterior of the crazy building contains a staircase that allows the visitor to enter the beast from the outside and as well as from the inside.

What a shame that most buildings are not crazy

Engrish, Hebrish

2010-01-26T12:17:00.000-08:00

What with everything being so gloomy and all (Iranians getting closer to the bomb, Bibi planting trees in settlements, International Holocaust Day tomorrow, it's cold) I thought I'd cheer myself up with some examples of Engrish and Hebrish I recently stumbled across.

My personal favourite.

Have they no shame?

Couldn't have put it better myself.

The rest are for Hebrew speakers. Here ' Navy vessel Nidkar' in Hebrew becomes 'my brother was stabbed" (that is in the Hebrew meaning of the English).

Similarly 'Alexandroni' (one of the regiments that fought in the 1948 War) has been transformed by the linguists attached to the street signs department of Tel Aviv municipality into 'Alex and Roni'. The guys who live next door?

Finally, a sign , obviously created by the department of philosophy attached to ma'atz, the public works office, because it raises profound questions about whether the material world we think we inhabit consists of no more than a series of abstract concepts. If you're a Hebrew reader, road 431will take you to Holon; however if you inhabit the world of English, the same road will take you to Bat Yam! English speakers will have a mayor accused of corruption but may get a sea view. Hebrew speakers will be closer to the licensing office of the ministry of transport.

Indian Summer

2010-01-16T08:07:00.000-08:00

While Europe freezes, Tel Aviv (and the rest of the country) basks in an Indian Summer with temperatures in the low twenties. The air is uncannily warm for January, at least in the middle of the day. The shadows start lengthen early on and by 5.30 it's dark. The springlike weather has brought everyone out.

"U.S. envoy George Mitchell will arrive in the region this week without a new agenda for renewing negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported on Saturday." according to Haaretz . Not an inspiring headline for those of us still interested in solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Probably the last thing on the minds of the picnikers above spreading a blanket in the soft sunlight (above) under Ilan Gur's sculpture of the Propher Elija (I think). In fact, interest in politics, especially the "conflict", is probably at an all time low in Israel right now. This week one of the few decent politicians left in the Labour Party - Ophir Pines - quit the Knesset, saying that he was fed up with everything and wanted to go home. And as regards the Palestinians Aluf Benn wrote in Ha'aretz this week :

"Let's assume the optimistic forecast by special U.S. envoy George Mitchell comes true and in two years the establishment of an independent Palestine is declared at a ceremony. The event will be broadcast on prime time, but most Israelis will opt to view "Big Brother 6," "Survivor 7" or whatever the next television hit is. Viewers will behave this way not because they oppose a Palestinian state but because they are indifferent. Palestine-shmalestine simply does not interest them."

Cafe in the Yafo flea market

Nor apparently does Palestine -shmalestine really interest the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships otherwise why would they both be making preconditions for renewing the negotiations that they know the other side will be unable to accept. And to top it all George Mitchell is plan-less. One briefly wonders, yet again, whether 'Palestine-shmalestine' is ever going to get off the ground and whether Israel will ever be at peace. But then the afternoon sun takes effect and the question fades into insignificance.

The light in Yaffo has a special quality. It seems to be saying: "empires will rise and fall and this light has seen it all and it means as much as the froth on the waves."

Balcony, Neve Tzedek, once Yaffo,now Tel Aviv-Yaffo

Three quotes on the State of Tel Aviv

2010-01-10T05:51:00.000-08:00

Enjoying the good life with not a thought for the rest of the country. Good or bad ? Above and below: Young revellers on Rothschild Boulevard during a recent street party.

"[...] In the last decade the Israeli -Palestinian conflict has degenerated into a desperate, hopeless, impasse with no bright horizon in sight. And around Tel Aviv the country is deteriorating into a lowbrow, narrow mindedness saturated with hate and prejudice, nationalistic and fearful of the other. When you place Tel Aviv in this perspective and without comparing it to European capitals, it is far from disappointing. On the contrary. And, as as the siege on Tel Aviv develops, its contrary nature become ever more contrary. In Tel Aviv it's normal to have sex with Arabs, to be a woman who was once a man, to go to a sperm bank to have a baby, to be homosexual, not to go to military reserve service or even mandatory service. In Tel Aviv it is not mandatory and no-one raises an eyebrow. In Tel Aviv people smoke joints in cafes. Everything that happens in other places behind closed doors happens here in the open, without shame, without the need to explain, make excuses or justify. In Tel Aviv the fate of the Jewish people and the Middle East conflict do not define who you are and do not define your existential space. In comparison with the rest of the country, Tel Aviv offers priceless freedom.[...]"

Rogel Alfer summing up the last decade in the Tel Aviv 'Bubble'. Ha-Ir 1.1.10

"[...] In 2007 only about half the 18-31 age group were certain that they wanted to live in the country..similarly only 59% of the secular public wishes to stay in Israel as against two-thirds of the traditional and religious pubic and 87% of the haredim who wished tostay... Only 47% of the voters for the (left wing) Meretz party in the 2006 elections wanted to remain in Israel. So the chances seem high of finding adults and the elderly, religious and haredim, and voters for religious and right wing parties among those who wish to remain in Israel; on the other hand, [there are] more young people, secular people and voters from the left who want to leave (Phillipov 2007). It may be stated with certainty that the latter groups are typical of the population of 'Tel Aviv state' - young people whose culture is cosmopoltian, who are devoid of Zionist roots and who are probably ignorant of the essence and geography of the Land of Israel"

Israel : Demography and Density 2007-2020 Evgenia Bystrov and Arnon Sofer

The Anglo-Jewish writer Jonathan Margolis, recently wrote an amusing piece in the Guardian called 'Not Jewish but Jew-ish ' in which there are connections to be found between the cosmopolitan culture of the 'Tel Aviv state' and the state of secular Jews in the UK.

"Apart from the not insignificant point that being a Jew is largely an inherited condition, it seems perfectly adapted to being an "–ish". I even wonder if the etymology of the word Jewish has developed to allow my race/creed/orientation/whatever to be available in Lite. There aren't many other things you can be born into where you can choose to live the "–ish" version rather than be an "-ist" or follow an "–ism". All we Jew-ish Jews do is to elect for the Ultra Lite option."

Read the whole article (recommended) here

Gentrification

2010-01-08T09:12:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've written about the neighbourhoods surrounding the Rooftop - Neve Tzedek, Shabazi, Florentin, Yaffo and the old city centre. All of them are undergoing rapid transformation as a result of the real estate spree that has ignored the economic crisis and is gentrifying formerly shunned neighbourhoods in south Tel Aviv.

Our little stretch is a good example.These photos, taken from the Rooftop, are of a building (one of a pair of twins) over the road, built in the 1920s. For many years it served as a court. By the time we moved in, in the mid '90s it was already empty and neglected and over the years degenerated into a refuge for the homeless, junkies and film crews looking for authentic locations. The first photo was taken in July 2006. The bottom one was taken a few weeks ago. Beautifully conserved and with a swimming pool on the roof, its rich new inhabitants will be part of the trend to move into old conserved buildings. Unfortunately for them, while we we will be looking at their building, they will be stuck with ours.

You can get an idea of what it's going to look like when complete here

A ten minute bike ride south and you're in the newly renovated shuk ha-pishpishim (flea market) in Yaffo. The grubby old alleys have been spruced up with fake cobbles and smart bollards and instead of the junk and heavy dark furniture that was on offer here a decade ago, cafes and restaurants with interior designs leaning heavily on the fleas market have appeared alongside designer shops, high end antiques and trendy hairdressers. New housing projects are bringing newcomers into the area and the old shuk is also developing a nightlife.

Retro is the rage. An authentic sixties lamp beside an old album by Hava Alberstein.

Not far away, the American Colony , until recently a collection of ramshackle wooden houses, originally imported from Maine in the 19th century, has been extended over the past two years into a quiet , tasteful area, with the new buildings echoing the style of the old. New residential blocks are springing up around it, along Rehov Eilat, one of the arteries that links Tel Aviv to Yaffo and divides Neve Tzedek from Florentin. If the plans to build 7 towers along Rehov Eilat are implemented, thousands of new residents will be flooding into this area.

A sea view, once not consdidered a big deal by Tel Avivians used to regularly encountering the sea, is now worth its weight in gold. And the higher you are, the more sea you see. Many of the purchasers of apartments in the luxury residential towers (like the one on the right below still under construction) that are springing up in and around the old city centre are foreign residents, often Jews who have come into an inheritance or hi-tech professionals working in Israel. Not the strategically placed balconies.

At the very foot of these towers lie the narrow alleways of Neve Tzeked. Behind them stands Migdal Shalom, Israel's first 'skyscraper' built in the 1960s on the ruins of the old Gymansia Herzlia school, an act now bemoaned by many. The building used to house another 'first' -Kolbo Shalom - Israel's first real department store which caused a sensation when it opened. The building itself was dubbed "the tallest building in the Middle East". Now, it in turn has being overtaken by rapid new construction and its famous wafer shape -once one of Tel Aviv's symbols - is being blocked out by the competition.

Sylvester

2010-01-02T04:22:00.000-08:00

No-one knows quite how to relate to New Year's Eve in Israel. Some people have started wishing others a shana ezrachit tova (a "happy civil" - as opposed to Jewish - "new year") but somehow this doesn't roll off the tongue. Religious people shun Sylvester entirely of course as an odious alien custom. But secular Israelis, i.e. those of us who are not averse to sharing some non-Jewish notions with the rest of the world, have been increasingly interested in joining the global party.

Strangely, instead of just adopting New Year's Eve as a totally non-religious excuse for a booze up as in other countries, in Israel, New Year's Eve is referred to as 'Sylvester' . Not clear how many Israelis are aware that this is named after Pope Sylvester (314- 335 AD) who was very chummy with Constantine, the first Christian Roman emperor. Apparently, since, "in the West, the liturgical feast of Saint Sylvester is on 31 December, the day of his burial and since this is the last day in the year , in German-speaking countries and in some others close to them, New Year's Eve is known as Silvester." Was it German speaking immigrants who brought the name to Israel?

Whatever the reason, Sylvester has caught on in a big way, especially in the Tel Aviv bubble, where every pub and club offered a Sylvester special. We, in our own tradition celebrated at the home of friends. After dinner and copious glasses of punch and wine, we sat around, each of us pronouncing our New Year's rezolutzia. The only condition from our genial host was that (in the interests of avoiding a cliche) we we were not allowed to ask for the release of Gilad Shalit.

One friend said that because of what is going on in the Territories he felt increasingly ashamed of being an Israeli and hoped that in the coming year he would be able to feel less ashamed. We all drank to that. A few turns and toasts later, 'J' was greeted with applause when she threw caution to the wind and wished, despite previous warnings, for the return of Gilad Shalit. 'I' (not I) responded from the left with a wish to see Marwan Barghouti released too and that also got a round of applause.

At about 1 a.m. we walked back to Trumpeldor Street where we had parked the car (somewhat creatively) in a no parking zone. There were maybe twenty cars there, but not mine. Sylvester or no Sylvester, the towing department of Tel Aviv municipality recognises no foreign interference.

Thanks to H for the pic. Note first photoshop attempt.

Old Central Bus Station

2009-12-19T04:38:00.000-08:00

No, not Gaza or Mogadishu, but south Tel Aviv, Neve Sha'anan, this morning. This is old Central Bus Station area. Once the alighting point for anyone arriving in Tel Aviv by bus, which, up until the 70s, was just about everyone. Now, it is the dumping ground for foreign workers, both legal and illegal, from scores of countriesas well as refugees from Sudan, poor Ethiopian Israelis and others at the bottom of the heap.

The shops that used to sell kitschy paintings and cheap chocolates have been turned into peep shows and brothels.

Gospel -like music emanated from the open door of the 'Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries, Tel Aviv' just a few doors away, apparently offering a more wholesome experience.

The old platforms have been dismantled to make way for a new tower project. Looking at this picture , it is hard to imagine the heaving, pulsing, sweating mass of humanity that once lined up here for the un-airconditioned hard-edged buses to transport them all over the country. Poverty,or at least austerity, had at least the advantage of bringing everyone together in such places: soldiers and professors and cleaning ladies and government offcials, new immigrants from a hundred countries with, seemingly, as many tongues - a Station of Babel.

Friday with friends

2009-12-18T09:20:00.000-08:00

A Friday spent with friends in the Galil celebrating the newly achieved PhD of Dr. M.

Friends who go back 30 years: all of us showing signs of wear and tear, some more serious than others. Memories rekindled and maybe some old animosities forgiven and forgotten.

On the drive home, the ever changing sky and birds flying south for the winter. Nature taking its eternal course.

MID LIFE CRISIS LIVE AT SUBLIME DEC 8

2009-12-06T11:57:00.000-08:00

Mid Life Crisis has been rehearsing hard for this upcoming gig - Tuesday, December 8 at 8.30 p.m at Sublime - Rehov Salame 53. We managed to put together three new songs (one of them even a politically correct environment song) to add to the roster of favourites. We will be rocking! Hope that you can join us.

To hear Mid Life Crisis:
http://myspace.com/mlcisrael

Marrakech

2009-11-01T07:18:00.000-08:00

The view from my hotel window of dawn rising over the Atlas mountains is a censored one. Had I pointed the camera down a fraction the first rays of the sun would have caught the empty street below my hotel room. This was punctuated by large holes in the asphalt made for some unknown purpose and now forgotten. On the other side of the road you would have seen a row of shuttered, empty shop fronts and in the mid-distance the ochre turrets and minarets of the Disneyesque new hotel area that is being flung up to accomodate the stream of tourists mainly from Spain, France and the UK.

I wondered whether the style of these hotels, with their acres of mosaic tiles, arches and intricate latticework wooden panels reflected what the Moroccan architects wanted or what they thought the tourists wanted.

A nerve wracking, seatbeltless taxi ride gets you the Medina (walled old city) which is where the real action is. Magnificent gates like the one in this picture open out into dusty, unpaved alleyways. Not all the gates are this magnificent.

To say that the Medina is where the old mingles with the new is a cliche so instead I'll just ask you to note the Crocks on this boy.

There seem to be two main types of souk. Those that cater for tourists and those that cater for the locals. Parts of the former category are an explosion of colours. The brain struggles to take in the flood of carpets, fabrics, intricately decorated wood products, lamps, jewellery, pottery, furniture and much, much more. Here, an artisan is using a foot lathe to carve skewers, probably an old tradition but his work is now designed for western tourists. There's still plenty of 'real' life though. Next door, you'd find a butcher or a hairdresser or a tailor which serve the local residents of the crowded Medina. In the second category - the souks for the locals only - you'll find a much greater preponderance of designer ripoffs, flashy watches and cheap shoes. In other words while the souk for the tourists is dubiously "eastern", the souk for the locals is definitely western.

It's late afternoon in the Jema'a el Fna, the massive square that leads into Marrakech's many souks. The mobile open air restaurants are setting up for business and Marrakech's female impersonators are warming up the crowd. As darkness falls they are joined by snake charmers, monkeys on chains, tea vendors wearing Moroccan sombreros, bands of musicians (banjos are popular), storytellers and turban-swathed crones selling false teeth, ostrich eggs and all manner of unctions and ointments.

One thing I like about this noisy, smoky, tumultuous chaos is that the crowd is largely made up of locals, out for a cheap night on the square. Many of the tourists prefer to watch from a safe distance on the observation balconies of the restaurants lining the square. I also found it intriguing that so many young Moroccan people in the crowd seem to be enchanted by the long-winded tales of the story tellers and the bawdy humour of the actors/clowns. At home, even if it's a simple one, they can flick on their TVs and see much more sophisticated fare but they don't seem to have lost their taste for a simpler type of entertainment.

The nightly party on the square predates tourists, is partly fed by tourists but doesn't seem to depend on tourism for its vitality.

More Marrakech photos here

Ajami

2009-10-10T13:26:00.000-07:00

Just seen the hard-hitting Israeli film Ajami, named after a neighbourhood in Yaffo a few minutes drive from the rooftop. Ajami tackles the plight of young Arabs, like those in the photo above, caught up in a tangled mess of crime gangs bound to an Arab honour system all intertwined with social exclusion from Jewish society, the occupation, the differences separating 'Israeli Arabs' from Palestinians over the Green Line and even the sharp class and religious differences between Christian and Moslem Arabs in Israel. All this is wrapped up in a rivetting and complex drama that leaves the viewer stunned.

Yaffo

In one scene inthe film, one of the Arab characters who has a Jewish girlfriend, says he is going to move in with her in Neve Tzedek. But Neve Tzedek is out of reach and he ends up overdosing.

Flea market Yaffo

The version we saw was in Hebrew influenced Arabic with Hebrew subtitles but I'm sure it'll come out in an English version abroad.

Go and see it.

Tabernacles and the city

2009-10-05T03:03:00.000-07:00

A succah on the balcony of an old house on Rehov Lilienblum, a spit away from the rooftop. In the background one of the luxury residential towers still under construction.

Succot. In Tel Aviv, as all over Israel, religious and not so religious people, erect a succah or booth or 'tabernacle' in their back gardens or on their balconies and spend time there during the week long Succot festival.

The custom derives directly from the bible.

"In Leviticus, God told Moses to command the people: “On the first day you shall take the product of hadar trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook” (Lev. 23:40), and “You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths, in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Lev. 23:42-43).

Why God should want future generations to know that he made his people live in booths remains a mystery. Nevertheless, the experience of spending some time in a succah, under the stars, or in Tel Aviv's case, under the street lights, does remind you of the transitory nature of human existence.

Succah covering the entrance of a kosher restaurant, Lilienblum.

How to Build a Succah. First, you need to erect the basic frame out of planks. Second, you need to cover it with green branches, otherwise known as schach. In religious neighbourhoods, this is distributed by the municipality. Then you need to decorate your succah with hanging fruit, rolls of tissue paper, pictures and anything else that comes to hand. Nowadays though, the sound of sawing planks and hammering nails has been replaced with the grunts of succah-builders twisting the pipes of their 'succah lenetzah' (permanent or eternal succah) that comes as a ready made kit.

If you're religious, you'll eat all your meals and even sleep in your succah, invite neighbours in for a nibble and visit the succah of others.

If you're not religious, you've probably made your succah because of your kids. For kids, living in a succah is a bit like living in a tent. A young couple, from the old building next door, not having a balcony or a back garden, built their succah in an unused corner of the parking lot behind their house. Their little boy squealed with delight as the succah took shape.

and at night it went electric

All you need for a succah is three walls and a green roof. Neighbours on Rehov Stein tied plastic bags together to make the walls and hung a few branches on top.

'succah kshera lemadrin' (a 100% kosher succah) a passing man in a hat commented to me as I was taking this photo.

Italy 2 - eye of the beholder

2009-09-26T04:57:00.000-07:00

Synagogue, Pitigliano, three Jews left

When visiting a place as rich in history as Italy, the tourist (the photographer) can follow his/her own religious or cultural inclinations and take a personal trail. On Rosh Hashana we shared apple, honey and songs at 'home' in a converted farm cottage in Montefesciano. Christians might look for churches, Moslems for mosques, we tend to look out for synagogues. In the Tuscan hilltop village of Pitigliano we found one, part of a sort of Jewish heritage centre in what was once known as "La Piccola Gerusalemme"

Here it was sobering to recall that 'ghetto' is not only an Italian word but an Italian invention. The Jewish community of 500 that shared the complex of synagogue, bakery, slaughterhouse, mikve etc were confined to these narrow quarters from the middle of the 16th century until 1871 when Italian unification also brought emancipation to the Jews.

There are shops nearby professing to sell Jewish food, consisting mainly of hard, round matzas. One shop carried this mysterious sign having to do with slow food but including the word 'goym' (translations welcome)

Mysterious sign

In the old photo below, Jewish women baking bread, or maybe those round matzas.

And so the pleasure derived from the scenery, the friendly people, the quaint old houses etc. becomes diluted somewhat by knowledge of history, especially when it impinges on your particular group.

And, suckers for punishment that we are, was it just by coincidence that we happened to book a B&B in the Jewish Ghetto in Rome over Rosh Hashana? Here the security was tight as the small community spilled out of the great synagogue in a hubbub of expansive Roman chatter.

According to Jewish Italy ,about 15,000 Jews live in Rome today. Neither Sephardim or Ashkenazim, they are called 'Romanim', tracing their Roman roots back to the second century B.C.E., well before the larger Jewish Diaspora. This makes them the oldest Jewish community in Europe. They have their own language, a mixture of Hebrew and Italian, and their own culture. Like Jewish communities all over Europe today, they and their institutions are also in need of security 24/7. We hung out with the locals along the Jewish strip of shops, cafes and restaurants understanding little but enjoying the proximity to a warm lively, friendly community.

By coincidence, Saed Kashua, the satirical Arab-Israel writer who writes in Hebrew and publishes a weekly column in Ha'aretz, wrote about the same phenomenon of being lulled into an Italian fantasy before being jolted into reality this week - only from the Muslim perspective (worth a read).

For more photos of Italy click here

Italy 1 - Differences

2009-09-26T02:04:00.000-07:00

It's easy for someone coming from a Mediterranean country like Israel to immediately feel at home in Italy. The landscape resembles the Galilee, the Mediterranean menu suits our palate, the people are open and friendly. Given the outward similarities, the real points of interest are to be found in the differences. These images from a recent trip to central Italy (Lazio, Tuscana, Umbria) and Rome sparked some thoughts on how different we are but also on the howItalians appear to live in their towns and what, if anything, we might learn from them.

For example, the scene above (actually some sort of church statue shrouded in black cloth sharing the back of a van with some flowers) would not normally be encountered on the streets of Tel Aviv.

In Montefiascone, a town of about 13,000, a lady, dressed to kill, strides across a mediaeval piazza. In the background is an older less fashion-conscious local lady, and behind her, Il Caffe is a supertrendy, streamlined custom designed cafe-bar. Old-fashioned and high-fashion seem to coexist seamlessly even in this undistinguished provincial town, as in all the small towns we visited. This is a phemonenon one might find in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem but not in a town in the 'periphery' like Migdal Ha-Emek or Dimona. In Israel the Tel Aviv effect radiates only so far.

Locals congregate outside a bar in Pitigliano. The coffee/bar is an important community centre where old people can share a laugh, share the gossip - be part of things. Older Italians seem to take better care of themselves, and take greater pride in their appearance (although not in this photo) and to be more fully integrated into family and community than most older Israelis.

They appear to be good neighbours too. In the photo below a snazzily dressed gentleman of about 80 chats with a lady neighbour. Of course there are close neighbourly relations in Israel too but, as in much of the developed world, we are also increasingly closing in on ourselves and away from our neighbours and surrounding communities.

Lucky Italians, they have so much water, it flows liberally and constantly from their elegant fountains, their landscape is magnificent, their cultural heritage is rich and deep, their food a joy, their interpersonal relations a model. Unlike us Middle Easteners, they enjoy peace and tranquility. What more could they possibly need? (and why did God give it all to them?)

Lake Bolsena

Etruscan water fountain

But are they happy? No they're not.

A fairly recent Pew Research showed that the Italians are the most pessimistic people in Europe. Old people are those most dissatisfied with their lives, the economy is lagging and they are deeply concerned about corruption, crime and immigration. Only in the cultural field do they feel that the are superior. Go figure...

The eye of the tourist/photographer, is attracted by the patina, drawn to the picturesque but for the locals this is just the ordinary picture. Deeper currents pass unnoticed by the lens.

ARTTLV

2009-09-12T03:22:00.000-07:00

Workers rebuilding the tiled roof of the old house next to the rooftop. August.

Back to blogging, after another long break. Thanks to A for reminding me that I'm meant to be "archiving the city" and even for dangling the possibility of a mention in an important academic publication. I've also been taking a few more photos recently so here's a quick foray before we fly off the rooftop for a holiday.

Soviet/early Zionist style street art on Herzl this morning. September is art month in Tel Aviv and the ART TLV Biennale opened on Thursday. This wasn't one of the exhibits. We started by cycling down Rothschild Blvrd, one of several boulevards hung with hundreds of banners containing painting and photographs of Tel Aviv(for some reason can't find them now) . Then headed for the Betzalel gallery on Salame 60 where there was an excellent exhibition and we could wander into some of the studios of the resident artists.

One of the ARTTLV exhibition spaces was the cluster of Templer buildings at the foot of the mighty Neve Tzedek Tower. The theme had to do with urbanism (see site for details) and the totem pole like object in the foreground of the photo and the streams of tape hanging from the cassettes on the wall behind it (making a cityscape) are two of the exhibits. (guess you had to be there).

These old buildings have finally been restored as part of the deal that made the developers of the tower very rich. Under the original plans these three buildings were supposed to be for public use (such as the exhibition) but I hear that there are plans to rent them out as private cafes and galleries - we'll see.

This is what the entrance to one of the buildings looked like (taken from the inside). A few years ago we held a roudy, private Purim party in this same building (a friend connected with the project had the key).

Here's the couryard with the Templer building in the background and something artistic in the centre.

In Neve Tzek proper, the fight continues , the latest episode being another hearing of the District Committee , scheduled for Mondayto hear objections against devoting the planned Lieber building entirely to residential use without proper infrastructure. (See details below for Hebrew readers)

הזמנה לדיון בועדה המחוזית - מיגדל ליבר בואו להפגין ולהראות נוכחות בישיבת הועדה המחוזית, יום שני ה-14 בספטמבר בשעה 9:00 דרך מנחם בגין, קרית הממשלה, קומה 13 ת"א

Wall tile, Neve Tzedek, taken at twilight.

Last but not least, the wraps have come off no 6, upon which the rooftoop gazes, to reveal the first layers of plaster on this magnificent building. The end of the beginning or the beginning of the end?

Gay community hits the square and a new resolution

2009-08-09T01:46:00.000-07:00

Gay Pride, Rabin Square, August 8, 2009

After a long break - for which the lethargy induced by a Tel Aviv summer is only partly responsible - I'm back. It took a dramatic event and a fractionally less humid day to force me to return to blogging. But I also return with a resolution - only to blog when I have at least one of my own photos to display. The rest - whether it's the Israeli Palestinian conflict, religious vis. secular, planning disputes in Tel Aviv, Iranian missiles or what to do with refugees- you can explore yourself. If I'm to develop more skills, I need to concentrate on photography and let the words flow from the images, So, from now on, no pix - no blog.

The dramatic event was last week's murderous attack by a black-clad assassin a week ago at a club for gay youth on Nahmani Street called bar noar (youth bar). When the assailant had finished pumping bullets into his terrified victims, two were dead and 15 injured, some critically.

At first, the immediate suspect was someone from the orthodox community, some of whose representatives, including Knesset members, especially from Shas, are openly and vocally homophobic. Last night, exactly a week after the shooting we went along to a rally in Rabin square(the site of course of another murder bred of hatred and intolerance), to commemorate the victims and to show some solidarity with our gay friends.

Israel's President Still Can't Say the Word Gay wrote Gidon Levy in Ha'aretz this morning, and indeed, while the square was awash with banners, it was not overflowing. Those who were there were the local gay community and secular liberals like us (in other words the Tel Aviv Bubble). Most of the population would have rather been seen dead than in the square. Even some well known gay artists, like Yehuda Poliker, preferred not to appear.

But , despite the disappointing turnout, thousands of gays were openly demonstrating their anger and their determination that this be a seminal moment in their struggle for full acceptance. President Peres, though struggling within the limitations of his archaic vocabulary, was present and the education minister did publicly promise to inculcate tolerance in schools. The killer, meanwhile, is still at large.

taking up the fight

2009-06-28T12:15:00.000-07:00

Neve Tzedek (Nehushtan) tower as seen from the rooftop next to the rooftop. Another six are planned along the same road, two adjacent to this one.

The local Neve Tzedek community centre was buzzing with activity the other night with about 100 local residents cramming in to hear speeches and sign up to volunteer and contribute. Even some of the local celebs could be seen among thge locals. There was a catalyst for this sudden spurt of community action in our normally placid and increasinghly gentrified neighbourhood. This came in the form of a policy documentadopted by the Tel Aviv local planning and construction committee recently approved a policy document for building in the mesila (old train tracks) area running along Rehov Eilat/Derekh Yafo.

The document refers to an area of 128 dunams and includes seven towers. The new buildings will add some 650 residential units to the 750 now existing in the area. Included in the buildings referred to in the document is the 38 storey Neve Tzedek (Nechushtan) tower that was built 5 years ago and can clearly be seen from the rooftop. The additional towers slated for construction are the Lieber Tower, a 32 storey tower for residential or office use which will be even closer to the rooftop ; the Niva Tower, 28 floors slated for residential use; The Ha-atad Tower, 32 storeys for office or residential use (next to Lieer and therefore also highly visible) ; the Lapid quarter that will include two towers containing 150 apartments and the Eliphelet area that will hold two additional towers.

In view of the latest development, the ‘Residents for Neve Tzedek’ non-profit association believes that if action is not taken soon the battle will be lost. Neve Tzedek will quickly find itself surrounded by busy roads and high towers and will become a “traffic island” choked by car pollution and darkened for most of the day by the shade of the towers.

Hence the emergency meeting. Now the idea is to continue to fight the plans through the various planning authorities and at worst, to ensure that the area receives the green spaces and schools it needs. At best, the plans should be overturned and the whole vision rethought but it seems that too much money and too many interests are involved to completely halt the juggernaut of a planning process from steamrolling on.

Anyone interested in making a donation to the cause can do so by making out a cheque to

Residents for Neve Tzedek
c/o Advocate Roy Amsel
Rehov Har Sinai 5
Tel Aviv 65816

Oy Jerusalem

2009-06-14T01:28:00.001-07:00

A Palestinian neighhbourhood in East Jerusalem. Click not to see details like paved roads, public transportation, pavements, sewage and refuse collection.

A few days ago I took leave of Tel Aviv for a rare visit to Jerusalem , or more specifically to what is normally called 'East' Jerusalem (despite much of this being in the north and the south of the city) The occasion was a tour with the Ir Amim NGO whose optimistic motto is: 'An Equitable and Stable Jerusalem with an Agreed Political Future'.

Thus, only a 90 minute drive from the fleshpots of Tel Aviv, I found myself meadering (in a van) through the potholed roads of Um Tuba and Jabel Mukabar, Suhr Bahr, Ras el Amud and Silwan - in other words, places that most Israelis have barely heard of, let alone visited. There were no pavements, the garbage was collected only infrequently and some 9,000 children would not be going to school in September because of a chronic lack of classrooms. This is what Israel's 'eternal capital' looks like from the Palestinian side. To cap it all, the security fence (in some places an 8 metre high wall) snakes around most of 'east' Jerusalem cutting off hospitals from patients, children from schools, farmers from fields and customers from businesses. As much as it protects Israelis from terror attacks it seems also to demarcate which part of 'Jerusalem' Israel intends to keep for itself.

Here and there in the heart of these Palestinian neighbourhoods (some of them former villages annexed to Jerusalem after the 1967 war) , settler organisations with complete governmental collusion are buying out Palestinian houses and land to set up difficult-to-move Jewish "settlements" - 20 units here, 150 there. This is the same tactic the settlement movement has always used. Establish enough "facts on the ground" and they will never be able to budge us. This sort of activity has been stepped up in recent weeks and months.

The wider picture is of course Obama's renewed effort to jump start negotiations between Israel and the PA, negotiations that will never be concluded positively without a resolution to the status of Jerusalem. If there are to be two states, then Jerusalem is to be the capital of both of them. This demands redrawing the map of Jerusalem and dividing the city into sections of Israeli , Palestinian and probably some form of international sovereignty. The clumps of Jewish settlement inside densly populated Palestinian neighbourhoods are designed to place physical spokes in the wheels of this plan by further complicating an already complicated situation.

Under various peace plans, the 'holy basin' containing Temple Mount/Haram el sharif as well as the Mount of Olives and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (among others) would fall under international sovereignty and administration.

Indeed, even without this sort of malicious sabotage it is hard to fathom how the city can be both divided yet remain open and maintain several sovereignties without them continuously clashing.

President Clinton's "parameters" of 2001 talked of freezing a snapshot of the status quo: neighbourhoods containing Jews to Israel, Palestinian neighbourhoods to Palestine and the holy places under a special regime. But few other practical details of how all this might work in practice have emerged. For example there would have to be some sort of external barrier that would prevent militant Palestinians from exiting Jerusalem to carry out a terror attack in Tel Aviv or zealous settlers from doing the same in Ramallah.

But all of this is speculation, a long way down the road. Tonight at 8pm Netanyahu will address the world and we will have a better idea of whether he will submit to the American demand and say out loud that the goal of the process is a two state solution. If he does, Obama wins. If he doesn't Obama still wins because his confrontational position with Israel will raise his standing in the Arab world. Knowing Bibi's coalition contraints and sincere world view, the latter scenario is the more likely .

We - here on the rooftop and in other reasonably sane households throughout Israel - feel that entering a confrontation with our greatest friend and ally over semantics and settlements is lunacy but have also always belived that the entire settlement enterprise is lunacy.

This certainly feels like the beginning (if we're not already in the middle) of Israel's gradual decline to the status of international leper.

A Palestinian boy in the Old City of Jerusalem. What future for him and Jewish children in west Jerusalem?

For balanced information on the Jerusalem question: http://www.ir-amim.org.il/Eng/

Fallen king of the ratings

2009-06-01T11:17:00.000-07:00

Dudu in brighter days

With relations with the Obama administration rapidly deteriorating to crisis proportions, one would have thought that the possible loss of Israel's most stalwart ally would be dominating the headlines 24/7. One would be wrong. In fact the top story of the last few days has been the involvement of entertainer Dudu Topaz in physical assaults against TV executives

"Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court ordered an eight-day extension of the remand of one of Israel's top television stars on Monday, branding Dudu Topaz the ringleader in a series of violent attacks on TV executives. Topaz was arrested Sunday over the attacks on TV producer Shira Margalit two weeks ago, the CEO of the Channel 2 Keshet franchise Avi Nir in November 2008 and actors' agent Boaz Ben-Zion some six months ago."

The babyfaced Dudu Topaz was (it seems only yesterday) Israel's top TV personality, the 'King of the Ratings', MCing peaktime shows which involved a combination of stand-up humour and elaborate projects designed to pull at the heartsrings. Before that he was a successful comedian, packing halls and wowing fans all over the country. But gradually the ratings faded, the wrinkles deepened, the blue eyed boy of the 80s lost his slot on Channel 2 and his career nosedived. By all accounts, Dudu's (gargantuan) ego punctured, he flipped and ordered the beatings of the above from a next door neighbour with criminal inclinations.

No we won't

On second thoughts, there might be hidden parallels between the Dudu Topaz story and the Binyamin Netanyahu story. Both were national heartthrobs in their younger days. Both have the gift of the gab. And both are now sweating.

Bibi's formerly renowned rhetorical powers seemed to have been replaced recently by increasingly jerky arm movements. The political king of the ratings has today something of the air of an ageing TV show host making a comeback. Now he's been knocked off balance by the cool onslaught of the Obama administration into the very narrow manoeuvering space between his hawkish coalition and the heat emanating from Washington.

Dudu seems to be in frail mental condition and could be facing years in jail or other institution. He made a lot of people laugh and it's a shame. However, he's not the prime minister.

On the other hand, Bibi's mental state is reputedly lachitz (given to pressure). And so, yet again, the question is who will press harder: Barack Obama and Team America or Bibi's hawkish chums from Likud, Yisrael Beitenu and Ha-Bayit Ha-Yehudi. Not to mention the settlers who are already heating up the West Bank and Jerusalem.

If history repeats itself , the combination of a committed Israeli right and a small and passive left will again succeed in upsetting Washington's plans.

But I'm rooting for Obama all the same.

Mid Life Crisis Plays Sublime

2009-05-13T13:04:00.000-07:00

Mid Life Crisis in all its glory

Sunday May 10. A balmy evening. In Ramat Gan Stadium Fifty thousand fans have gathered to see Depeche Mode. Meanwhile, in a rock club in grimy south Tel Aviv, 'Mid Life Crisis' a four piece rock band, incapable of identifying even one Depeche Mode song, take to the stage.

This was MLC's second pro gig, this time at Sublime, an upgraded venue with a real stage, even a raised podium for the drums! We managed to run through 16 songs with a minimum of mistakes, the sound was reasonable, and a rocking good time was had by all.

Plans are afoot to upload some of the show to You Tube (depending on what it looks and sounds like). Meanwhile, to hear 5 Mid Life Crisis recordings including the newly added 'With A Bit of Faith', go to www.myspace.com/mlcisrael

Danny Zilberman playing those sneaky riffs in the foreground, me at the traps.

Danny Blumberg on bass guitar plays to dramatic effect

Danny Z in classic pose

Guitar lickin' Zev Labinger

Someone under 50 seems surprised to be enjoying himself

The audience - ok, consisting largely of the friends and family of the band members (special thanks to Z&W) - showered us with applause. Depeche Mode couldn't have had more of an adrenalin high.

Satisfied punters at Sublime. Could there really be a market in Israel for an ageing rock band playing original material in English?

Open House

2009-05-08T09:22:00.000-07:00

A room in ha-blok

Following in the footsteps of other major cities, Tel Aviv has been holding an 'Open House' weekend for several years now. The local version is called batim mi-bifnim or 'houses from the inside'. The event, which opens up scores of private homes, workplaces and public buildings and spaces to the general public, becomes more popular ever year. After all, who isn't interested in peeking into other people's habitats? Consequently we met long queues at some of the buildings we'd planned to visit and decided to move on. There was still plenty to see though.

The day started on a green note at the community organic garden in Maoz Aviv, a charming quiet and very green neighbourhood in the north east situated next to the luna park. From small beginnings the garden is now used actively by 40 families in either general or individual plots. The municipality provided the land and the water. The families contribute 50 shekels a month to cover expenses like new plants. Even people who don't use the garden regularly leave their fresh garbage in the active compost heap. In fact we learned a lot about compost heaps - apparently a growing fashion (they don't throw meat and fish onthe pile in Maoz Aviv ). I resolved to start a communal compost heap in the back garden.

Moving on and still in green mode, we visited the "ecological apartment" situated on a picturesque corner of Bialik Square. This is the kitchen whose walls, according to the note, were painted with of flour and milk! The residents are eco activists who run an NGO called A Tree in The City. http://www.citytree.net/ (Hebrew only). Another lecture on compost (yes you can chuck meat and fish on the heap) and I was ready for some plastic and steel.

But first. more organic kitchen

Over the road, is 'bauhaus tel aviv' , a modest but stylish collection of Bauhaus artifacts, with stress on the tubular chairs that have become modern classics. This was not part of the tour but worth the visit.

Taking the time to see buildings not normally visited whetted the appetite for forays into corners often passed but never entered. Thus inspired, we stopped at Tel Aviv's first cemetery on Rehov Trumpeldor (which actually served the Jews of Jaffa before Tel Aviv was Tel Aviv).

Amidst the crumbling gravestones lie the remains of some of Tel Aviv's and Israel's luminaries: Arlosorov (Zionist leader), Dizengoff and Rokach (early mayors), Haim Nahman Bialik (national poet), Moshe Sharett (Prime Minister) and others - "All the streets ," as A put it.

Many of the old gravestones carry the photographs of the deceased, an un-Jewish custom I always thought but today too, you see photographs on the gravestones of immgrants from Russia so it may be an eastern European thing.

Next stop was a four storey building on Rehov Barzilai near the now trendy gan ha-chashmal (Electric Garden) area. This started out in the early thirties as a set of elegant apartments built in the international style. As the area deteriorated in the 60s and 70s, the building, with its well proportioned rooms, high ceilings and beautiful floor tiles, was let out to small businesses and left to decay. In the early 90s a young couple rented the entire building and tastefully converted it in to a busy post-production studio called 'Edit'

Walking up the central stairwell at Edit. Click to check out the different tiles on each floor.

detail of modernist, early 30s tiles.

editing corner at Edit - each room has different theme.

Next stop was to ha-blok (The Block) which , it turned out, is the location of an Isaeli reality show. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details of the show (and intend to remain so) but what we saw is that a nondescript abandoned 60s block on the corner of Mazeh and Begin had been partially converted into 6 very small apartments, each of which was named after a different young couple (Ma'ayan and Roi, say). Some sort of competition was involved. The rooms, all overly designed and none, to my mind, attractive, were obviously slapped together for the show. Here an ABBA video on a loop competes with Marilyn for no apparent reason.

A dispiriting room in ha-blok

This morning, together with another 300 people, we took a tour with environmental activist, TV journalist, foreign affairs expert and now Knesset Member Nitzan Horowitz through central Tel Aviv: from Dizengoff Square to Gan London next to the Dan Hotel on sea front. The theme was urban sustainability

Ma'onot Ha-Ovdim (Workers Residences)

Along the way, Nitzan (below) pointed out how once throbbing Dizengoff with its smart shops, bohemian cafes and vibrant street life had been handed over to the automobile in the 70s. Historic Tzina Dizengoff Square, surrounded by magnificent International Style buildings (see today's lovely Cinema Hotel for inspiration) was raised to allow cars to flow underneath. Once its connection to the street was severed the whole area went downhill. Today, this end of Dizengoff is a collection of run down buildings, felafel joints and cheap bazaars. The solution: restore the square (actually a circle) to street level and market forces will revitalize the whole area.

Further along the way we stopped at ma'onot ha-ovdim ('workers residences' - see above) built in the 30s in a utopian vision that, according to Nitzan, holds the secret to urban sustainability today. This was the "affordable housing" of an earlier age. Three sides of modest apartments surrounded a large central lawn , protected from the busy street outside , where children could play safely. The apartments were originally populated by a mixed bunch of factory workers, intellectuals and Labour Party workers. In today's terms this would (apart from the party hacks) be considered a good "mix" of types of population. Thirty seconds away and you are on busy Dizengoff street , hence also a good mix of residential and commercial use. The third elelement for sustainable urbanism - an efficent, integrated pubic transportation system with dedicated public traffic lanes and limits on private car usage - was less of a problem in the 1930s.

MK Nitzan Horowitz

Tel Aviv argued Nitzan, is already an "excellent city" but, with a bit of thought and planning, could be a "model".

Protection

2009-05-02T08:02:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, a flyer appeared on the front door handle. It carried the slogan "Protect Yourself - Right on Time" (sounds better in Hebrew) and showed a map of Israel (and the West Bank) divided into brightly covered sections. Each section referred to the amount of warning time you'll have to reach your "protected area...in the case of an emergency" (read: "if your area is attacked by missiles").

If you live in Kiryat Shemona you have zero time. Lucky Jerusalemites have 3 minutes.The rooftop and the rest of Tel Aviv will have 2 minutes. We don't have a mamad (reinforced room) in this old flat but 2 mns would probably allow us to reach the bomb shelter on the ground floor in time - although the security window in there is stuck half open. If not, we'll head one floor down and seek protection in the stairwell. The folks from the Home Front Command advise us to keep water, food, batteries, first aid and even an internet link in our safe areas, since, it appears, we could be stuck in there for a quite a while...

The flyer is part of a campaign to better prepare Israel for the next war which, in all probability, will see missiles flying into major population centres. A nationwide exercise is planned for later in the month. Ask the Home Front and they'll tell you that it is better to be doing this now while Israel is not in an emergency situation. Ask other observers and they'll tell you that is part of the preparations to launch an attack against Iranian nuclear facilities.

The question of whether Israel will or won't do this has become a national obsession. Some say that the reason that Barak joined the government was because he shares Bibi's existential concerns regarding Iran. As if the flyer and the media attention were not enough, my day (unusually cloudy and cool) is being further darkened by an article by Aluf Benn in Ha'aretz with the catchy title Is Netanyahu bringing Israel closer to a 'second Holocaust'?

It starts with:

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's actions are shaped by a profound conviction that Israel will be in danger of extermination if Iran has nuclear weapons at its disposal. Removing the Iranian threat to Israel has been Netanyahu's main goal for years, and the Iranians' progress in this realm has only reinforced his
awareness that the fateful hour of decision is fast approaching."

and ends with:

"As long as the diplomatic process continues, and Obama is asking Israel to hold off on any action, it is too early to declare that a war against Iran is
inevitable. But Netanyahu's rise to power is clearly bringing Israel closer to
such a conflagration, because of the gravity he attributes to the Iranian threat
and his belief that he is tasked with saving Israel and the Jewish people from
destruction. Anyone who thinks of himself in such terms and is also talking
about history books will not want to be remembered as the prime minister who
served when the Islamic Republic, whose leader considers Israel a "filthy germ,"
became a nuclear power."

A Skpe conversation with S in the UK revealed that the Iranian issue hardly featured in the British press. When I told him that it was dominating ours, he dismissively waved one hand and, with the other, took another swig of whiskey. The fear and loathing that the Iranian nuclear enterprise understandably evinces in Israel is being talked up by our politicians in an orchestrated fashion. This is partly designed to convince the rest of the world of the seriousness of the Iranian threat but (judging by the British press) if the rest of the world remains unconvinced, this may also eventually paint the Israeli leadership into a corner. If diplomacy and sanctions fail, they may feel that there is "no choice" but to take military action.

My fear therefore is not that Iran will launch a nuclear strike against Israel (it knows it would get one in return) but that Bibi will launch a strike against Iranian nuclear facilities that will lead to (non-nuclear) war with Iran (and probably also Hizbullah and Hamas) in which thousands of missiles will be launched at the rooftop and the surrounding area known as the State of Israel.

Where did I put that flyer ??

Tel Aviv's spirit 100 years young

2009-04-17T09:04:00.000-07:00

Carmel Market

Travels over and returned to roost on the rooftop, it's time to catch up with Tel Aviv's centenniel celebrations.

Despite the official opening - a successful big bash in Rabin Square with lasers, fireworks and major artists - and the year of parties and events to come, a tangible sense of excitement is noticeably absent, at least amongst Tel Avivians I know.

The explanation to this paradox is perhaps to be found in the article (thanks to A) by Tel Aviv columnist Ben Zilka that opened the special centennial year edition of Ha-Ir (The City) -"cool" local paper popular with lefties and the cultural circle. So, as a public service, here's a translation of a few passages. And since this piece eloquently sings the praises of everyday life in Tel Aviv, I'm interspersing a few of my photos of ordinary Tel Avivians.

Purim street party

Second hand book stall on Allenby Street

Today is Your Birthday by Ben Zilka

"....Despite one's professional duty to devote this column to the birthday, we wouldn't be telling the whole truth were we to say that excitement over the festivities is keeping us awake at night. After all, this coming weekend, like all the other weekends in the city, will be crammed with events that are no less attractive. And, with all due respect, we had already made other plans for our days off.

Bride and groom, Carmel Market

"In the south of the city for example there's a big buzz about an exhibition in which a lot of artists are going to take part and the word is that "everyone in town will be there."Clearly we're going to put in an appearance ourselves. At a club not far away from there there's a party, nothing special, the sort that happens here all the time, with famous DJs from abroad and similar attractions and we thought that maybe we'd drop in. Apart from that there's our regular evening at the bar that always manages to lift the fatigue accumulated during the working week, the regular Friday meeting at the cafe and perhaps also the beach, weather permitting. So, all in all, we don't have that much time to spare this weekend...."

Miko the mechanic, Florentin

"... Tel Aviv has traditionally turned its back on ceremonies and titles dictated by this or that establishment, and this time too, even though the party is being held in our honour, it's reasonable to assume that we won't depart from this custom . This is also how the history of Tel Aviv - born exactly 100 years ago - came into being.The sanctity of place never applied to us as it applied to , say, the city elders of Jerusalem where the divine aura emanation gazes at them from every corner of the city and and directs them to act according to its conditions. Nor does any spirit of heroism hover over us , and our city is not named after fallen soldiers whose legacy- whatever it might be - we are supposed to uphold."

' Matkot players' , hotels section of the boardwalk

Girl, Florentin

Young mums on the beach

"This does not mean to say that Tel Aviv is a city without a past, but rather that its past is woven into its daily experience: we sit in cafes just as Dizengoff and Rokach [former mayors of Tel Aviv] sat in them, we sip the same glasses of alcohol as Bialik and Alterman [renowned Tel Aviv poets] and the sea is, it goes without saying, the same sea. "

Beachfront

Fashion conscious street cleaner, corner Allenby/King George/ Sheinkin

Singing waiters, Tel Aviv Port

"The city's poets and authors sang praises to its cafes, to its nights, its streets, the trees along its boulevards, its women, its night life and its beaches. None of them ever glorified the memory of its dead or its fabulous past, just its daily routine and the joy of life that they experienced. In this way, for a hundred years, we have learned how to look back, to the point where the commemoration of any historical event, be it even the city's birthday, appears alien to us."

Friday afternoon drummers, 'Drummer's Beach'

Abu Hassan, "mythological" humous joint, Yaffo

Never too old to folk dance, Shabbat morning on the beachfront

If , nevertheless, we stop for a moment in Rabin Square, we won't be looking back to the day on which Tel Aviv was born, we will simply be celebrating what it is."

Shuk Levinsky

Fishermen, Jaffa port

Purim, Florentin

Yom Kippur, Yehuda Halevi

Berlin

2009-04-15T02:36:00.000-07:00

'Museum Island', Berlin, formerly part of East Berlin

Considering that it embodies the two evilest empires ever - Nazism and Communism - a quick trip to Berlin revealed a pretty laid back city. Berlin's turbulent history seems to have been successfully subsumed into its flourishing tourist industry while its liberal zeitgeist has transformed it into a magnet for young people.

Berlin's devastation by the Allies and its subsequent West/East division also forged the nature of its revitalization. After the communist side closed off the border, West Berlin's need for working hands led to activist immigration and asylum policies. Today, about 14% of the population of the united city are of foreign nationality while another 12% are descendants of "international migrants" and have either become naturalized German citizens or obtained citizenship by virtue of birth in Germany. With about 25% of the population being "outsiders" it's not surprising that Berlin has become a symbol of the cosmopolitan, global city.

Street art in the borough of Kreuzberg, home to many immigrants from Turkey.

Reminders of Berlin's Jewish life and - more often - death, are scattered around the city. The stunning Jewish Museum tells the whole illustrious and painful story while the controversial, impressive Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (see pic below) covers an entire block but, at least for me, did not have a deep emotional effect. While some visitors seemed to be pensive, others, especially kids, treated the whole affair as a kind of maze, which, of course, it is. An official is on hand to shoo youngsters off the tops of the symbolic gravestones. Whatever your view on the monument, it is but one of many visible signs that Germany society has internalised the lessons of its dark past. Surrounded by sad monuments to the past and by the free roaming grandchildren of the war generation, it was difficult to complain about the way Berlin is transforming itself.

Today, Berlin's community numbers about 12,000 people. We saw armed guards outside every Jewish institution we happened to pass. This was a reminder that while another Holocaust is unthinkable, the Jews of Europe, sadly, still need protection from some of their neighbours.

Tourists at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

The nondescript park and parking lot shown below cover the site of Hitler's bunker, the site of his suicide together with Eva Braun. The relatively smart residential buildings in the background were built, in clear view of the West, by the East German authorities for their ruling and intellectual elite in a last ditch effort to show that they too could build stylishly. A neat spot to sum up the last days of these empires. Fake GDR memorabilia can now be purchased from Indian hawkers on street corners while we didn't see any Nazi memorabilia on sale at all, even at the flea market. Thus are the mighty fallen

Decadent Berlin, which the nazis hated, seems to have a sneaky way at poking fun at pompous politicians. The Fernsehturm TV tower (needle with a golf ball on top) - now Berlin's icon -was erected by the communists as a symbol of modernist, secular superiority over the tradition-laden religiosity of the bad old world. Trouble is that at certain times of the day the sun's rays create a cross on the globe, thus gaining it the nickname, The Pope's Revenge.

Even the dramatic impact of Kennedy's 1963 "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in West Berlin has been dampened somewhat by the controversy over whether these words can be taken to mean "I am a doughnut."

Tourists on Trabi (lousy GDR car) Safari near one of the last remaining stretches of the wall

There's a certain style that, judging by the number of hat shops encountered, never seems to go out of fashion in Berlin.

War becomes war tourism. Choose your bike tour: Berlin's Nazi past or the dungeons of the Stasi?

But all that's behind us now. After reuinification once depressed and still cheaper East Berlin attracted students and artists thereby transforming neglected and grimy neighbourhoods into cheerful places with a bohemian edge and upwardly mobile real estate prices.

Hanging out in a neighbourhood flea market. The stallholders were terrible bargainers. If you offered a significantly lower price, they immediately agreed. In the Middle East this is considered to be unacceptable practice. Could this be the secret of peace in Europe since WWII?

You can see more photos of Berlin here

and the whole of my webgallery here

Playing for change thru-you

2009-04-07T23:45:00.000-07:00

Kutiman live

As a Pessah present I wanted to upload two amazing music videos that have been circulating recently. Apart from being superb musically and visually, both are uplifting in that they involve so many musicians from so many different countries. They also both use carefully blended performances of music to tie everyone together. The musicians, who have never seen each other, are linked either actively or by the producer to one another. Everyone is in a different place yet everyone is doing the same thing in perfect synch. It's probably that aspect that gives the viewer that uplifted feeling. The multiculti mix also enriches in ways that would be impossible in an ordinary production.

Since blogger won't let me upload the videos from you-tube, I'll just give the links and hope for the best.

The first is by an Israeli musician Ophir 'Kutiman' Kutiel who, after after months hunched over a computer in Tel Aviv emerged blinking into the sunshine to announce that he had completed the thru-you project. In this he has mixed you-tube clips from anonymous and (formerly) amateur performers to create 7 superb tracks Go to http://thru-you.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tprMEs-zfQA&feature=PlayList&p=88C4BAB8ACE6684C&index=0&playnext=1

According to music site The List "Israeli producer Kutiman has become an overnight internet sensation by mixing an album entirely from samples of YouTube videos. The online album Thru You (thru-you.com) has become so successful that (at time of writing) the site hosting it is down due to "overwhelming traffic"."

The second is Stand By Me performed by street musicians from all over the world. This was produced by the Playing for Change foundation programme whose goal to create a "music movement" that would "inspire and improve communities in need around the world through music". The on-site recording technique is different but the results are equally inspiring.

I've just seen that they have a new song recorded with the same technique -Bob Marley's 'One Love' . This includes contributions from an Israeli singer called Tula filmed in Yaffo.

Enjoy.

Armenia 2

2009-03-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

A few more impressions of Armenia, particularly the capital Yerevan , which is home to a third of Armenians. The photo above of a photographer's display window includes a few national heroes, including Charles Aznavour.

A warm, inviting office building from the Soviet period. Smart new shopping parades are however beginning to erase the oppressive Soviet architectural legacy.

Stunning sheshbesh (backgammon) boards on sale in a Sunday morning Yerevan street market. The game is popular all over the Middle East as well. Although almost 100% Christian, Armenia felt like part of the Middle East too and there was an obvious mixing of cultures.

Banjo-playing old dude, Yerevan street market. We heard some traditional Armenian music at a restaurant, belted out by a mixed duo in traditional dress. A bit too strident and Balkan for my taste.

The cathedral-like food market in Yerevan suggests a Soviet stab at capturing the atmosphere of the east. As soon as you walk in, determined moustachioed men wielding knives, hack out slices of fruit stuffed with nuts and stuff them into your mouth: an aggressive (and effective) marketing ploy.

Laying a wreath at the memorial to the Armenian genocide. There is a nearby grove where various international figures and bodies have planted a tree in memory of the victims. Jacques Chirac, for example. However trees planted by US, UK or Israel were not to be found (there was a tree planted by the Armenian Jewish community). All these countries, and more, are wary of infuriating Turkey, but upon exiting the well-documented exhibition of the Armenian genocide, this knowledge didn't help me feel less ashamed.

Armenia is proud of its cultural heritage but as a strageically located small country with very limited resources it needs to find a more stable niche in the chaotic post-Soviet era. Conversations with locals and a bit of reading revealed a pretty sad political picture of Armenia today.

Following the (Feb 08) election result, opposition protests began in Yerevan's Freedom Square, in front of the Opera House. On March 1st, the demonstrators were violently dispersed by police and military forces and President Robert Kocharyan declared a 20-day state of emergency. This was followed by mass arrests and purges of prominent members of the opposition, as well as a de facto ban on any further anti-government protests. (Wikipedia)

Locals told us that you could distinguish the cars of the different business oligarch clans by their number plates. If they ended with 500 for example, they belonged to the oligarch who had the monopoloy on the import of concrete.. or whatever. And in fact the black SUVs of these powerful families could be seen all over Yerevan. As if to verify a story I'd been told, we pulled up at some traffic lights next to a smart black van driven by the 14 year old son of an oligarch. He fleetingly peered down his nose at our scruffy taxi before returning his attention to a pretty and heavily made up 14 year old girl. The lights changed and he left us in the dust. The police, I was told, are too scared to enforce the law against these characters.

A police car circyling a bust of Sakharov....

Armenia 1

2009-03-28T09:10:00.000-07:00

'Please do not bargain' reads the sign on the babushka stand in Yerevan's market.

The opportunity to spend a few days in Armenia, mainly in Yerevan the capital, gave me with a taste of life in the southern Caucasus, a part of the world not often heard about until trouble breaks out there and one not often on our minds here in our own turbulent Middle East. But after learning something about the complex Ngorno Karabakh conflict (too complex to go into here) I couldn't avoid noting some comparisons.

Kids in the Tigranashen village, Armenia, once populated by Azeri citizens of Armenia and now by Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan. The population swap was carried out in the last days of USSR.

In case you were wondering, "Armenia is a landlocked mountainous country in South Caucasus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Located at the juncture of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, it borders Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan to the south." (Wikipedia).

Of these surrounding countries, the borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan are closed, just as Israel's borders are closed to its north. Like Israel too, Armenia has had its own Armenian genocide, its diaspora, and its occupied territories. So, all in all, I felt quite at home.

Armenian soldiers on the streets of the capital Yerevan

The history of the Ngorno Karabakh conflict is long and convoluted. Suffice it to say that today, Ngorno Karabakh is a self declared Republic now populated only by Armenians that is de jure part of Azerbaijan. The Armenian army also controls another 9% of Azerbaijani territory in buffer zones around Karabakh. The oil rich Azerbaijanis are however buying up arms and threatening to retake the region by force. Meanwhile, the Minsk Group (Russia, US, France) is supposed to be working out a diplomatic solution. Russia supports the Armenians. Turkey supports Azerbaijan. The Armenians want the Turks to recognise the Armenian genocide while the Turks have been softening their line on relations with Armenia somewhat. The Armenians, nearly all of them Christians, are also keen to maintain friendly relations with their neighbours the Iranians. Got all that?

A cinema in central Yerevan. The Armenian language reigns but until 1991, this was the capital of a Soviet Republic so people also speak Russian. The town , we were told, was also full of Iranian tourists, celebrating the Iranian new year.

Rosanna was born in Ngnorno Karabackh, fled the war, and moved to three different countries before returning to Yerevan. Her aristocratic family is trying to regain the land it lost to the Soviets. Like all Armenians she would like the Turks to recognise the 1915 genocide and for Mount Ararat at which she's gazing in this photo, to again be part of Armenia.

This Armenian couple in the isolated village of Eghegnavan are refugees from Baku in Azerbaijan. There, he was an oil drilling engineer, while here they live in poverty. They show us the deeds to their house in Baku where, they said, their neighbours turned on them overnight. Some 32,000 Armenians were exchanged for over 600,000 Azeris in the "ethnic cleansing" during the Ngorno Karabakh war.

Like the Promised Land, Mount Ararat, actually situated in Turkey, can be seen but not reached.

More photos of Armenia here

Good taste, bad taste

2009-03-21T00:02:00.000-07:00

The old Turkish Ottoman railway station in Manshiyeh, Yaffo, that stood empty and neglected for decades has recently been beautifully restored as a venue for events and exhibitions. The trains that use to take passengers to Jerusalem and back are now just quaint props. They should have replaced by a fast train line to Jerusalem but this will have to wait for the coming of the messiah.

Meanwhile 'The Station' (hatachana) in its new guise is open for business, the first event being an art fair called 'Fresh Paint'.

Part of the floor of the main station has been turned into a sort of disco dance floor. with constantly changing designs.

The place was packed and so were the walls. My eyes now move instinctively towards the photographs.

The one below caught my attention. It''s an obviously staged photo of a young soldier showing off his new uniform, his mobile phone, his muscles and his aggressive dog to a group of younger admirers around a water tap. The scene could have been taken in any one of scores of development towns or poor neighbourhoods. The scene is an exercise in bad taste and a comment on the tendency of ordinary Israelis to worship the military and its accompanying status symbols. Click for details.

In the same spirit, this weekened's Ha'aretz magazine carries a story called 'Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques - IDF fashion 2009' revealing some of the stomach turning designs ordered by snipers for their T shirts. Something's happening to our society and it's not good. The reports from soldiers who served in the Gaza war of the killing of civilians, fits this depressing pattern. In a different vein, I loved this installation of hundreds of little plastic 'Keter' chairs, made actually of clay. The front rows contain the 'reserved' sign that divides the elite from the plebs and the whole scene triggers associations of too many public events.

.

Razor blades, old brigades, Mid Life Crisis hit parades

2009-03-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

1.

This old advert for 'Shalom' razor blades slowly peeling on the dusty window of an abandoned parfumeria can be seen as symbolic. I liked the fact that Shalom was a NEW........ISH PROCESS, although it's obvious that some of the letters have been erased. Might this have been a NEW JEWISH PROCESS? or maybe it was ENGLISH PROCESS. In any event, like the blades, shalom seems to have been superceded.

2.

Rehov Alexandroni, presumably named after the Alexandroni Brigade that fought in the 1948 War, receives a new interpretation for English speakers. Apparently someone at the municipality thought they'd be more interested in meeting new people than in hearing about boring old Brigades.

Photo credit: Fred Black

'War Zone' by ageing rockers Mid Life Crisis was played today on the coolest music station in Israel -106 FM. This makes the second time that our song has been played on the radio thereby proving decisively that we're not too old to be rock gods. Details of a gig in April coming soon.

Mid Life Crisis - now a radio sensation

Yaffo transformed

2009-03-14T05:10:00.000-07:00

Every few weeks I take a bike ride through Yaffo (or Jaffa or Yafa) Tel Aviv's much older and much neglected sister, to watch it is changing before my eyes. In the old port area, the massive rusty hulk of a hangar that used to house fish wharehouses (before the sea almost ran out of fish).....

has been transformed into the skeleton of a what will likely be an industrialised shopping mall with galleries and and restaurants, pretty much like its recently regenerated sister Tel Aviv Port that was originally built as the Jewish response to the 'Arab Revolt'. This is part of the gentrification (some would say 'Judaisation') of Yaffo that is being fostered by the combination of planning from city hall and market demand for authentic Mediterranean real estate.

Yafo - charming old Arab houses, mosques and churches, arches and alleys, shocks of colour and light - fits this bill.

Back at the port, the municipality is beginning to put some life back into the still unrenovated port by putting on small exhibitions and shows in the old wharehouses, like this jazz band.

This new development of small flats, many owned by non -Israelis - near the old Flea Market (also recently renovated) is one sign of many of the revitalisation/exploitation of Yaffo. Another is the battle between the authorities and many Arab residents who received court orders to vacate their properties to make way for new developments, without, they say, proper compensation. Arab and leftist groups claim that the Judaisation of Yaffo is (again) driving out the local residents.

New additions to an old building like this one in the Flea Market capitalises on the demand.

Further south a massive parking lot is being laid out (one day to be covered with houses and hotels?). This leads (if you circumnavigate the numerous obstacles placed in your path) into a park undergoing landscaping that will eventuallybe part of the promenade that will end up in Bat Yam. Meanwhile it looks sterile, and out of place.The north imported into the south.

This used to be the site of a stretch of "beach" that was used as a dumping ground for Yaffo's building refuse. The contractors have recycled its different components creating temporary artificial mountains.

Yaffo with its large population of Arabs and new immigrants from the FSU has plenty of problems: poverty, drugs, crime, schools that lag and social services that sag. From time to time there are minor eruptions of violence: a demonstration by Arabs gets out of hand, Jews throw rocks at a mosque. The sort of Arab-Jewish violence we saw recently in another mixed city - Acco - could reappear in Yaffo.

Yaffo, a beautiful, unkempt time bomb. Already bereft of most of its original Arab population, neglected, ignored riven by tension between Jew and Arab, Moslem and Christian, and now reinvented as a sterile real estate location to satisfy the Mediterranean fantasies of the rich (while ignoring the problems of the poor).

According to a Palestinian history of Yaffo:

"Every Palestinian in Jaffa is either directly facing eviction by the municipal authorities, or has a neighbor or relative who faces such eviction, an estimated total of more than 500 families are in this situation. The two main excuses for eviction are lack of licensing -- especially since licenses are almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain -- or that the family is considered illegal squatters in their own home which is registered as state property."

Local committees are fighting the authorities for housing rights.

And into this expolosive mix, slap bang next to the Moslem cemetery, the Peres Peace Centre is arising before our unbelieving eyes.

Like the megalomanic fantasy of a Norwegian lumber merchant, it imposes itself on the local environment like an alien from the planet Peres. This is what one writer had to say about it in Ha'aretz:

"It looks like a fortress, blocked in on all sides, full of firing positions, completed alienated from its environment and therefore almost canceling it out and ignoring it; this alienation is no stranger to Israel and is only becoming stronger as the years wear on."

Purim 2009, Florentin

2009-03-10T04:43:00.000-07:00

For the third year in a row Florentin was the site of the biggest and bestest Purim street party in town. So big, that the crush on some street corners made breathing, let alone movement, impossible. These photos were taken at about 1 a.m. and people (all of them younger than we, many of them stranger looking) were still streaming into the area.

It goes without saying that in Tel Aviv, Purim is just an excuse to dress up in a costume, act silly and get drunk. Consequently it beats other festivals hands down. Click to enlarge pics.

There were many tipsy angels in the crowd.

As well as delegations from the east.

Everydoggie was getting into the act.

Some went to extravagant lengths to gain attention.

While others preferred to find a quiet corner and contemplate deeper meanings

Moose meets leiderhausen in what could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

MLC issues a single and more

2009-03-07T09:37:00.000-08:00

1. Mid Life Crisis has from time to time stirred from its winter hibernation, first to produce a single of 'War Zone' and then to make a proper recording of 'Bit of Faith' . We've distributed the single to radio stations but, strangely, have yet to be swamped by lucrative offers. Next move - more gigs.

2. This, believe it or not, is what the view from the rooftop looked like today, a pseudo-summer with temperatures in the mid 30s! After driving through the open oven that were the streets of Tel Aviv, we took a look at the new photo exhibition - 'Tel Aviv Time 2009' - at TA Museum and part of the city's centenial celebrations. Somehow the exhibition failed to work as a whole although there were some memorable photos. Instead of the brash buldings and renowned nightlife, the photographers focussed on back rooms, private corners, the hidden underclass, urban decay. Needless to say, many of the photos were of people in photogenic South Tel Aviv. Here's one of mine.

Purim 2008. Florentin

I'll be checking out the Purim street part on Monday night for more memorable images.

Jacobson article

2009-02-24T12:06:00.000-08:00

I've been hearing tales of woe from Jewish friends in the UK as the fallout from Gaza turned into rallies condemning the "Holocaust" there. They described a prevalent atmosphere, not just of virulent criticism of Israel but also of a frightening anti-semitism. However it took an article by the brilliant Anglo-Jewish author Howard Jacobson to better comprehend the insiduous way that anti-semitism lies beneath the discourse.

Read it.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/howard-jacobson/howard-jacobson-letrsquos-see-the-criticism-of-israel-for-what-it-really-is-1624827.html

Beginning of the winter

2009-02-21T08:07:00.000-08:00

The heavens opened a few hours after Bibi got the nod from Shimon to form a government. "The start of the winter," said the forecaster on the radio in view of the drought and heat this winter.

Maybe Kadima will join Bibi's right wing government and maybe it won't. In any event the situation is critical. As someone wrote in the trendy/lefty Ha-ir local TA paper, it's romantic to be a leftist again, for the few to huddle together in companionship and wallow in the glow of being special.

Lone tree still survives development along the old Ottoman train line

In these situations the thing to do is to take a wintry walk around the neighbourhood in search of other versions of reality

Horses in Neve Tsedek raised a smile from the locals. People stuck their heads out of the windows and strangers started talking to each other.

A recent and intriguing news items not related to the elections was a report that

"The Obama administration has given the Palestinian Authority a "green light" to
talk to Hamas about forming a Palestinian unity government, a PA official in
Ramallah said over the weekend. The official said that Washington had also given Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak the go-ahead to resume his efforts to achieve reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. "The new administration has a different policy than that of [former US president] George W. Bush," the official told The Jerusalem Post. "The administration of President Barack Obama believes that a Hamas-Fatah government is good for stability."

Since Bibi's election promise was "to topple the Hamas", this does not augur well for future Israel-US relations. And with the possibility of a two-headed government in Israel and a similarly shaped creature in Ramallah, Obama will now have to bash at least four heads together to make some headway.

Street art in Florentin. Walls Start in the Head

Someone painted a pink shadow behind a tree in Neve Tsedek

Tel Aviv 1938

2009-02-14T09:51:00.000-08:00

B sent me a film of Tel Aviv in 1938 , part of the Steven Spielberg archives. check it out by clicking the link.

Above: one of a series of photos I've been taking under the working title 'Mad Veg'

Worse yet...

2009-02-11T11:52:00.000-08:00

Meet our new (old) leader

The weather yesterday, polling day, was nasty and squally, especially later, when the results started coming in. We spent the day pleasantly enough though. After morning coffee we exercised our civil duty at the polls at the trendy local community centre. On the way we met M, a neighbour in charge of running campaign volunteers at three polling stations for the Meimad-Green Movement Party. He took one last shot at convincing me to vote for them before running off to find more prey (they almost got in). Then breakfast with friends, one of whom was happy that she had decided to vote for Tsipi Livni, since that was the only way of blocking Binyamin 'Bibi' Netanyahu's rise to power. Finally a homewarming visit where politics was off the agenda. In fact, the day passed so pleasantly that by the time the three buildings of the Azrieli centre were lit up to show the exit poll results...(the real thing was in different colours)
and Kadima squeaked ahead of Likud, it was easy to forget that the figures also showed that the right bloc had a 10 seat lead on the left. Without going into the details, this means that it would take an act of God for Livni to form a coalition. Consequently, the heavy set gentleman below, Avigdor "Yvette" Lieberman , head of the Yisrael Beitenu party is very likely to be Bibi's second in command. Oy!
Worse yet, while Bibi's real desire was to head a centre-right coalition (with Kadima and possibly Labour), since Kadima is demanding first crack at forming a government, Bibi has no choice but to pre-empt it and form a blocking majority of 65 MKs that would include some real headcases in the form of the National Union. In short this would be hard-right/religious government that would quickly collide with the rest of the world.

On the third hand, there are a few cynics on the left who argue that it has to get worse before it can get better. In other words, a dose of international sanctions might be just what the doctor ordered for the populace to wake up to the choice between taking the peace process seriously or suffering the consequences. Since we (and the Palestinians) are incapable of sorting out an agreement, a hard right Israeli government might be the trigger to finally prompt some serious international intervention.