Jerusalem: Green Light Don’t Go

The Jerusalem streets can be very dangerous.

truck on sidewalk

Many are too narrow for modern vehicles

and sidewalks are often blocked

illegal parked car

forcing people to walk in the street in traffic.

 The traffic lights in the center of town often come in pairs,

traffic lights

   many times the closer light can be red, while the further one is green.

Those unfamiliar with this system often unwittingly step in the cross walk

 in front of oncoming traffic.

cross walk

While some intersections are extremely complicated,

blocked traffic light

the corner of Shalom Aleichem and Keren Hayesod Streets

is especially dangerous.

street crossing in Jerusalem

 The red light visible from most angles

blocked red traffic light

is really green.

 Much more dangerous though,

Jerusalem street

the green light is really red.

big street advertisement

While this traffic light was always hard to see behind the street sign,

 now the large advertising sign blocks the line of vision,

green light

making it almost impossible to see the traffic light.

street corner in Jerusalem

Thousands of visitors walk from Gan Hapa’amon, Liberty Bell Park area

on Keren Hayesod Street towards town,

this is a tragedy waiting to happen.

Many tourists eager to get into town look across the street,

see a green light and continue walking.

This recent sign says it all:

road safety sign

“Be Careful on the Roads-It’s a Matter of Life”

ambulance

and hopefully, not death… or injury.

In Memory – Martin Luther King Jr

The United States celebrates a federal holiday

in memory of Martin Luther King Junior. 

In Jerusalem, Israel a street  has  been named for him.

Not a long street,

  but a new one  in one of the best neighborhoods,

off of Emek Refaim near the Liberty Bell Park.

           A few meters away is another sign,

    it is in memory of the eight people who were killed

there in a bus terrorist attack  in February 2004.

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr and those killed by acts of terror.

Negotiations, negotiations

After ten years of negotiations,

 environmentalists and common sense have triumphed over a developer’s plans.

The Valley of the Gazelles is to remain a green area,

just a little too late for the wildlife that once lived there.

How many more years of negotiations will it take to develop the park?

All of  Jeruasalem wins that this central,

last undeveloped spot near the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens

will remain as a public, natural space.

 Negotiations for the release of Gilad Shalit,

the captured Israeli soldier, are still the “buzz” in the news.

Everyone wants Gilad Shalit home;

no one envies his parents in their quest for his safe return.

The question in these protracted negotiations is-at what cost?

 How many terrorists are to be released for one captured Israeli soldier?

 Those in Jerusalem passing the tent set up by Shalit supporters

near the Prime Minister’s residence cannot help but count the days.

  Volunteers, preparing yellow ribbons,

wish him home for a very happy Hanukah.

With the Muslim feast Id al-Adha this past week,

talks have again slowed down,

so the press can only guess the outcome of negotiations.

  But from the other side of the street,

relatives of those murdered do not want

to see their children’s convicted  murderers

free to kill again.

 Many Jerusalemites were surprised this week to discover

that the Gilo neighborhood with 8,200 households

would be called  a settlement.

The settlement freeze announced by Prime Minister Netanyahu

should be a step towards renewed negotiations with PA.

   Meanwhile, on the streets…

   On Saturday night, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat

   stated that Jerusalem should not be  up for negotiation.

   In the Middle East negotiations usually mean ‘win or lose.’

   His vision is  a united city open to all,

  ” divided cities fail,”  he said.

   Not up for negotiations,

Government limousines waited over an hour

while the President of Costa Rica Oscar Sanchez visited

  the Kotel, the Western Wall on Friday and …we still need more rain.

Updated: March 19, 2015,

as the Valley of Gazelles is ready to open,

Gilad Shalit is long home,

and Bibi is re-elected.

And those negotiations with PA?