real politics – Page 9 – The Real Jerusalem Streets

Waiting for Windmills and Romney

July 26, 2012rjstreets

It is summer holiday now,

the Knesset is out of session until the middle of October.

In Jerusalem, Israel, when one says after the holidays,

it usually means a wait until after all the Jewish fall holidays,

not just two weeks in the summer.

We have waited a long time for the Montefiore Windmill

renovations to be finished

so that it can go into operation as a working flour mill again.

At the beginning of the week it clearly was not finished.

After all the waiting the Windmill finally got its blades,

but the main dedication will have to wait until the end of August.

I got to hear Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

when she was in Jerusalem, Israel, 10 days ago.

Gee, we were waiting then too.

US presidential candidate Mitt Romney is coming soon,

but I have not heard of any chance to hear or see Mitt Romney,

unless you have a spare $50,000 to give him that is.

In the miserable heat this week it was hard to work or think.

It was even hard to find anything amusing,

but these “walking” signs got me to laugh out loud.

Wonder what they are doing now?

We finally got our windmill.

Maybe they can advertise that we are waiting for an invite to see Mitt.

Oh well, the heat wave just broke and there is a cool breeze.

Now that is what we all have been waiting for.

A Protest for all Seasons

July 24, 2012rjstreets

Looking back at last July’s protest season,

I was surprised to see how much of this year’s is similar and yet is so different.

Then I realized that protests are not only held in the hot summer season

but there were also protests in the winter.

The list of protests on the streets of Jerusalem, Israel is a long one.

The ‘Free Jonathan Pollard’ protest banners across from Bet Ha’Nasi,

the President’s Residence, were removed before President Putin’s visit,

so they were long gone when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came to town.

Not long ago, even the social workers were protesting on the sidewalk

outside the National Labor Court for a decent salary.

This year’s social protest demonstration drew a fraction of last year’s crowds

as it marched to protest the lack of public housing on July 14 in Jerusalem .

When protesters blocked a major street and made loud noise late at night,

some people were so unhappy that they came out to complain.

Sadly, the way to get media attention has become more drastic

and the copy-cat aspect is even harder to comprehend.

The media loved the ultra-Orthodox rally against an army draft proposal,

but did you hear about a protest against racism?

In February, a lone man with an Israeli flag and a sign reading,

“no separation in nursery schools” for Ethiopian children

took over the same corner near the Prime Minister’s Residence

that Gilad Shalit’s family occupied for so long.

A tent was set up to protest against racism in Israeli society.

I even saw Gilad Shalit’s brother there once,

as one of the thousands of people who have come by,

including Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Pepe Alalu.

The tent structure grew to this before it was removed by court order.

Holidays have been noted and observed.

Groups are learning ways to be more inclusive and tolerant.

As we observe this week before the Tisha B’Av,

it is a perfect time for everyone to try harder to get along.

There will be more protests, but it is time to end discrimination.

Racist State

September 18, 2011rjstreets

This September, the opening sessions of the United Nations in New York

are to host “Durban 3” and a Palestinian bid for statehood.

The United Nations seems to have forgotten that,

it voted on November 29, 1947 to partition the British Mandate of Palestine

into two states, one Jewish and one Arab.

Jewish people rolled up their sleeves, collected funds to buy land and built the land.

The Arab nations rejected the partition plan and attacked the new state of Israel.

In May 1948 the Jordanian legion captured and occupied Jerusalem,

the land to the east toward the Jordanian border became known as the West Bank.

Most of the land in the West Bank is hilly, rocky and until after 1967 was empty.

In 1964 when the Palestine Liberation Organization was founded,

there were no Jews allowed

to live in “East” Jerusalem,

which includes areas to the north, south and west of Jerusalem.

Mamilla was a no man’s land, needed to protect Israel from Jordanian snipers.

Today Mamilla is a shopping mall,

busy day and night

offering employment to many.

Under Jordanian occupation in 1948, all the Old City’s synagogues were destroyed

and all Jews were forced to flee their homes in the Jewish Quarter.

The recently restored Hurva Synagogue is no longer a hurva, a ruin,

and stands in the center of the re-established ancient Jewish neighborhood.

The Kotel, the Western Wall Plaza is now open to everyone.

Arab families make use of the new light rail, when trains are working,

or ride the bus which is usually faster.

An Arab woman can walk alone unafraid in the center of Jerusalem.

Young Arab women sit and eat in the center of a main street crowd.

While the Palestinian Authority prepares to go to the UN for a state

which insists that it will not allow Jews and homosexuals,

Arabs live and work freely in Israeli Jerusalem.

At this new UN conference on racism,

will Israel once again be singled out as a racist state ?

Does the UN care at all about the truth?