Once again at the end of summer,
there are lots of festivals on the streets of Jerusalem, Israel.
One of the most impressive is
חוצות היוצר ירושלים
Khutsot Hayotser, the International Arts and Crafts Festival,
which may be hard to transliterate from Hebrew,
but it is hard to miss, right across from the walls of the Old City.
This event has grown for the last 40 years.
At least once a year the Arts & Crafts Lane comes alive.
There is an Israeli Pavilion with 200 Israeli artists and exhibits,
Thousands fill the festival grounds
and some entertainers really stand out.
Mayor Nir Barkat was there on opening night and posed with potential voters.
Making the rounds, he stopped by Hadassah College’s Neverland booth.
Each night of the festival a major Israeli musical performer stars,
and last night Barkat introduced Shlomi Shabat to the Sultan’s Pool audience.
No Israeli event would be complete without food.
It was hard to push your way through the crowded main food court.
Families found places to sit, eat, rest and listen to music.
The International Pavilion had booths from Asia,
South and Central America, Europe, Africa and United States.
Bulgaria had a prime location, but their stuff still was still stuck in customs.
India was well represented.
The nice lady of South Korea had a variety of fans.
Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Guatemala,Turkmenistan and Madagascar,
Angola to Zimbabwe and more: so why not Canada?
Popular African musicians were among the many international entertainers.
This huge event will host tens of thousands of Israelis from August 5-17.
The Israeli news Channel 10 was there live for opening night.
But as usual,
no matter how large or how many people are out on the Jerusalem streets,
if there is no violence,
it’s not worthy of the mainstream media’s attention.
