So now our so-called liberal newspaper, Ha’aretz, is describing Jewish terrorists as ‘hooligans’, ‘extremists’, and hot-heads. None of the English lessons I had at school defined certain words by the ethnic or religious status of the people being described. Earlier this week our home grown terrorists exploded a bomb inside a Palestinian shop in Hebron, then yesterday two Palestinians are shot while driving their car on a public highway. It seems to me that these activities are identical to the bombings and shooting that the Tanzin, Hamas and others have been perpetrating on the Jewish public. Now we have Kach offshoot, ‘The Committee for the Security of the Highways’ committing terrorist mayhem. Where will it end? Are we sliding into the anarchy of Lebanon?
I took my family to a Street Fair last Friday while many of my colleagues were off to the Land Day Demonstrations at Araba and other Palestinian towns. I felt a little guilty that I wasn’t participating but it was my daughter’s birthday. The Fair was in Pardes Hanna about half way between Tel Aviv and Haifa. It reflected some of the dramatic changes in Israeli society over the past ten years. The fair is perhaps best described as combining the atmosphere of a New Age Festival with a Renaissance Fair. There were jugglers and stiltwalkers, a harp player and a one-man band. The food was rustic and organic and many participants wore costumes that were a blend of the Middle East and Medieval Europe. A good time was had by all.
Apparently the Land Day demonstrations went off successfully and peacefully without my participation. The police kept their distance and allowed the local Palestinian leaders to control the ‘hot-heads’ that might want to throw stones or damage property.
The Jews of Israel are now feverishly preparing for the Seder (Passover feast) and the ritual recital of the Haggada which retells the story of the slavery and Exodus from Egypt. But what of the quasi slavery of our Israeli prostitutes and foreign agricultural and construction workers. Will we remember them as we sit with our families on Saturday night and remember our own oppression so long ago? Will we stop for a moment and reflect on the oppression and hardship of others, of our cousins across the green line? My own family is also busy cleaning and preparing for the Seder, our first since making Aliyah (immigrating) last summer. We will be hosting a family from Peru who also immigrated are currently staying at the Merkaz Klita (Immigrant’s Hostel) which is not the best place to celebrate a holyday. The apartments are tiny, the children noisy, and sometimes the neighbors are of questionable character. So we will share our table with another family of new Israelis and wonder anew at the miracle of the Exodus and the realization of the dream, ‘Next year In Jerusalem’ which has been forever recited at the Seder. Perhaps the Palestinians in exile also have a mantra of returning to Jerusalem. We will ponder this as we read the Haggada this year.
Perhaps we all need a new mantra:
‘This year we’ll share Jerusalem’
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