Liberty Bell Park – Page 4 – The Real Jerusalem Streets

Jerusalem in June

June 14, 2012rjstreets

June in Jerusalem…the days are hot,

everyone seems to be moving a little slower

and taking a break for an ice cream or a cold drink.

School crossing guards are being trained for the next school year.

Before school lets out for the summer and the kids are home,

the Kishor Women’s Business Networking conference

attracted 350 business women from all over Israel to the Ramada Hotel.

Making the summer plans for children is a big headache this time of year.

While the abundance of summer fruit in season is a pleasure.

The Jerusalem Light Festival has been a big success this year,

if you missed it,

Damascus Gate as a giant pinball machine was a popular attraction.

Gan haPa’amon, the Liberty Bell Park, was full every evening

for the annual Shavua Ha’sefer HaIvri, the Hebrew Book Week.

Families came to look at children’s books

and sat on the grass enjoying the entertainment.

Religious books,

university publications,

and all kinds of books are on sale in the park until June 16.

Security was obvious, perhaps more so than in the past.

Protesters getting ready for more rallies for social justice

are getting headlines,

but there is so much more happening in Jerusalem.

Once again the annual and popular

Season of Culture and the Israel Festival

will offer dozens of cultural events

to thousands of people from all over the world.

And one thing everyone hopes for…

it will stay cool in the evenings.

Jerusalem Day – 45 Years United

May 22, 2012rjstreets

The list of events that took place in Jerusalem

on Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, is too long to print.

Thousands of people traveled by bus,

hundreds rode bikes in from Gush Eztion

and tens of thousands marched in the annual Flag Dance parade.

Jerusalem was a traffic nightmare with many sudden street closings.

A Segway was one way to get through the sidewalk traffic.

With so many lectures, tours and varied activities available now,

people tend to forget that from 1948-1967,

the Old City and the Kotel, the Western Wall, were under Jordanian rule.

Jerusalem was a small, sleepy town divided by a wall and barbed wire,

a place where some Jews could not even see their former homes.

Jordanian snipers no longer shoot down over No Man’s-Land,

now Israeli soldiers watch out from the walls of the Old City.

Distances are not so great,

and on a clear day Jordan is visible from the promenade of the Tayelet,

located in an area once mostly agricultural and under British control,

but now famous for its view of the Old City Walls.

On Yom Yerushalayim I went on a walking tour of the area.

We saw the United Nations headquarters

and a Monument of Tolerance.

How ironic that it was dedicated rather quietly,

around the time that 8 Mercaz Harav students were murdered.

To get to the center of Jerusalem,

where thousands of boys

and girls filled the streets singing and dancing,

I passed through the Liberty Bell Park.

Arab women and families who ignored PA-issued warnings

were there as usual enjoying the pleasant weather.

Tens of thousands of people filled the Jerusalem streets.

Not all were religious, not all were teens, not all had Israeli flags,

and not one fired a weapon.

While I do not condone their bad behavior,

a statistically insignificant number of trouble-makers at Damascus Gate

got the mainstream media attention.

I would like to share with you a few scenes you may not have seen.

Mamilla Mall was packed with crowds coming and going to Jaffa Gate.

Music and dancing filled the Rova, The Jewish Quarter plaza,

in front of the Hurva Synagogue, which in 1948

was completely destroyed by the Jordanians and recently rebuilt.

The Plaza near the Kotel, the Western Wall,

was full of people even before the Flag Parade arrived.

Remember

from 1948-1967

the plaza outside Jaffa Gate was not a safe place.

Families did not stroll in the Yemin Moshe neighborhood.

Walking around The Old City Walls was impossible.

Jordanian east Jerusalem was off-limits.

The sun was setting after a beautiful Jerusalem spring day.

Then the party moved to Gan Sacher, Sacher Park

where live music blared all night for a crowd of thousands,

oh…and what a Sleepless Night it was:

Jerusalem Day #45

More photos The Real Jerusalem Streets Facebook page

15 Real Photos of Arab Girls

15 Real Photos of Arab Girls

March 13, 2012May 14, 2020rjstreets

As southern Israel is being pounded with hundreds of rockets launched

by terrorists in Gaza, the world is silent.

A few anti-Israel photos have been circulating for years.

The photo of a man holding a dead girl,

tweeted by a UN media employee that received so much attention,

is the same photo that I saw in 2008 under the caption,

“Israelis kill a lot of Arab children.”

This was the Google search top result for images of “people who smile a lot.”

I was not smiling and later began to take pictures of real Arab girls.

First, on the hot topic of Israeli soldiers and Arab girls,

only in a Bahrain street theater photo will you see a girl lying under a boot.

Israeli apartheid supporters might find it shocking that in Jerusalem,

Israeli soldiers walk on the same streets as Arab girls,

by the Walls of the Old City near the Jaffa Gate

and in the city center. Often they seem to not even notice one another.

Arab girls can be found on the ground,

sitting and enjoying public performances,

or just relaxing

in Jerusalem’s public parks.

Of course…the same goes for boys too.

Where else would a Muslim girl be seen alone in the park with boys?

And famlies enjoyed posing with this snowman last week.

An Arab girl might be dragged along by her mother,

but in Mamilla Mall, most girls can be found happily shopping, both day

and night with no sign of BDS, Boycott, Divest or Sanctions.

Sitting on the steps in Mamilla Mall while texting on their phones,

or sitting at a table alone,

shopping late at night at the Rami Levi supermarket,

or selling Rav Kav cards for the Jerusalem light rail trains…

these are real photos of Arab girls and young women in Jerusalem.

The world is ready to accept faked captions,

how about the truth?