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Changin into English blog...

hello everybody
from now on everything will be in english
this because of some nice friends all over who do not understand a word dutch/flemish

be aware of mistakes... -i will do my best to avoid them...-

Posted on April 19, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Worldmaps...

Did you know that on Arabic worldmaps Israel is not mentioned?
Peace is still far away. Too far.
As many roadmaps as you prefer.
And a Sharon that doesn't want to poor water to the wine.
An Arabic world that doesn't recognize Israel as a country, as a fact.
Long way to go....

Posted on May 19, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Birders to cross

Take a seat, this can take a while, he says after 2 hours.


She knocks on the door. 'Is there anybody?'
I come out of the toilet. 'Yes, me.'
'You shouldn't leave your things alone here.'
I look around me, I am the only one in the border,
nobdy else but security, they checked my luggage,
and they're checking me now, for 2 hours.
She looks quite angry. It is not safe, she adds.
I look into her eyes. 'You know, after 2 hours being stuck in
a border, somebody sometimes needs to pee.
I am not thinking of taking a backpack and 2 bags into the
toilet with me...'
'Next time you don't leave it' she says, and leaves.
'If there was a bomb inside, I would have had it explode here' I think.
But I keep silent.

The rest of this story I told too many times to too many Israeli's. You don't feel welcome. I repeat. But hey.... I'll spare you the rest...

Posted on May 19, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Beurthdee

I wake up late and the first thing I get is a sweet birthdaykiss. A little bit later, a sweet young girl stares into my eyes, innocent. She gives me a hug. I smile. My birthday is already a hit.
So this lazy day goes on

Posted on May 23, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Eurosong

Oh my god, after 3 songs Eurosong, we collapse... Austria convinces us.
Sigal puts a DVD en we enjoy very lazy a nice movie.
The whole day has been slow: wake up late, wach a movie, read a book, enjoying the sun, have a sleep, and finally end up at Sigals with Tamar and Dana.
Heaven... I became a little bit lazy since I am back.
But he, I think that's OK. In one month I'll be back in Belgium, working very hard.
-That idea makes me lazy I guess...-
After the movie, we zap to Eurosong, and to my surprise Belgium does pretty well8
Why Now I have to watch it to the end, imagine we win, while I am lying in my bed and could smile to all those Israeli and say we won -and they not... grin-
Between counting of the points, all kinds of thoughts struck my mind. How I became a real nomad by know, jumping from one 'home' to another. How my backpack became smaller and smaller untill the only necessary: a toothbrush and fresh underwear.
Being spoiled by friends, and be reallyreally 'home'
I wonder if everything would be as easy in Belgium.
(But probably I'll notice, since I don't have an appartment by now. Maybe I have to come to one of you to sleep some nights. Grin.)
The nearing end is strange. On the one side, I am really looking forward to see those friends, to spend time in the park, have parties, on the other side it will be so different/difficult to leave this home behind. This luxe-life. And this firends.
Meanwhile Belgium springs to the first place in Eurosong!!!
When we loose, in the last points, I kind of find it hard to believe, but hey, it is only a Eurosvisionsongfestival.
I wonder what the Belgian newspapers will write tomorrow.
In Blegium, a birthdayparty is going on now, I hope I am a little bit in yor thoughts now.
Hugs from here tot there.
And bubbels and strawberries.
Hope I have a late birthdayparty on July 2nd. Smile.

Posted on May 24, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Short story

'Layla Tov', I say to the soldier at the checkpoint.
The second one looks up, surprised.
'It's you... How was it inside?' 'Interesting.'
'It sucks inside' 'You think so? For me it was ok.'
'What are you doing there anyway?' 'I am a student photographer. I take pictures'
'Ah, ok. See ya.' 'Good evening.'
-a friend was sent back 2 times by know. I don't seem to have any problems here.-

As I walk out of the checkpoint
heading for home -where that may be-
I hear a woman singing.
Another 20 m before she will be checked.
Good evening, I say
Good evening, she answers, are you as happy as me today?
Because I saw you I am happy, I answer
Good evening, miss, good life.
And don't let the dogs bite you.
As I walk further away, I smile,
wondering what she ment by that,
wondering if she will easily get in.

The man in the sherut looks at me
his eyes are too shiny not to be drunk
I know this glance since the last 6 months
and know how to recognize it by know
This man is sitting too close to me
to be comfortable
Jerusalem- Tel Aviv 50km left
The uneasiest 50km of the Middle-East until now
He wants to touch my breast
I give hime a hit
Scared he turns away and starts making phonecalls
To his wife, asking where she is and if she will
pick him up.
I look at his keppa, I look at him.
Filthy pretender.

Posted on May 29, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Sigal throws a party...

Sigal throws a party, she organized one for the british council and the ambassador
When Tamar and I arrive, we're both surprised. Instead of the small thing we expected, this turned out to be a huge thing:ministers, famous people, ambassadors, etc. Television. Everubody is here.
A swimmingpool transformed to dancefloor, a huge watertower enlightens the place.
I get in as a 'guest' Amazing.
I can't deal with the difference between one day ago and now.
Yesterday I was sitting in a refugeecamp, now I am standing on a high class party...
I look at Tamar, try to explain. I realize for them everything is different.
They live only in one world. I cross those borders and fall from one extrem in another. I guess they'll never understand that.
If people ask me the way in Tel Aviv, I can't explain. I feel ashame after 6 months of being here not knowing more, I blame it on the Hebrew signs.
From every world I know a little bit, from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
Some times that feels strange.
Some times that feels good.

Posted on May 30, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Back into Israel

Yesterday we returned to Jerusalem -with an extremely easy passing border...-, were we dropped off the car and went on to visit the old city.
Pretty normal guiding there. Nothing special, and this rest was quite relaxing after the things we had done already in such a short time.
Nice dinner and seeing Omi after a month was great.
I hugged my teddy bear and enjoyed seeing him again.
Again I fellt asleep as a baby.
Today we visit the souk of the old city, pretty fast, and after a while I think I am dragging John around, so I low down the tempo.
For me, this is my home, and I know by know -almost- everywhere to go, for him it's his first visit to the Middle-East, and for that reason the souk is great. It gives you really a scent of the Middle-East.
But we have to go on, to Bethehem, where John meets Yasser. Me again, I am surpised by the hospitally people here: we get a fresh meal specially prepared for us. (and I am happy I thought of a present for Yasser) John gets a tour in the refugeecamp, which is enriching his mind I hope. Later on they share thoughts and discuss. Ideas for projects are born...
As we say goodbye, Yasser still thinks it is too short -he's right- and I explain John is only here for 5 days, which he spent almost all, so only one day left for Tel Aviv. Yasser sounds relieved. To him it seemed that John was only half a day in OC while the rest of his stay in Tel Aviv. With that he wouldn't cope...
He says goodbye, we head for Tel Aviv, ugly city.
But I met the nicest people, now my friends. John meets them too. For stories on that, check his site (www.baeyens.net)

Posted on June 3, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Heaven is in your arms

Off we go. Tamar and I leave at 5 in the morning to the airport. To take a flight to Eilat.
To be honest, I probably would have taken the bus, because 5 hours on a bus is nothing compared to what I experienced in Turkey. But the mqin reason is my growing dislike to fly in Israel.
Anyway, we're flying...
Arrived in time (which is a real miracle if you know Tamar -just joking-) I get suddenly the usual international security check-up.
And yes, we miss our flight.
Because? Just because.
Man, I am taking an INTERNAL flight, if I would take a bomb, I would take a bus, not a plane.
They checked all luggage anyway, so why the questionary
So here we got: stuck in an airport, waiting for the next flight...
To be continued...


Continue...
At arrival we take a cab to the border, where we go to the border. It is amazing to see how Israel gets money from this going out... A cab for 10 euro, going out of Israel costs us 20 euro each person. Egypt does well to. Going in for free, but the cab costs 10 euro each person, entering the desert costs us 6 euro each person. Only for going and passing.
Tamar gets a little bit upset by this. 'We could have taken a flight to Cyprus or something, all included' I smile. I know what the desert is and what it does, I know she will relax and afterwards forget why she payed this money anyway...
And when we arrive at our superdeluxe husha's I know I am right.
Suddenly rest and peace get into everything.
I said to John I was going to sleep here for 4 days. Well, that's what I did: sleep and read.
Heaven...

Posted on June 5, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Raging time and end nearing

had great times lately. really great times. and seems things got on a different level.
time of going is nearing and i know i will come back.
just started a new project. in fact not new. reorganized the november project as i want to refer to it. instead of 'my' exhibition' i will have a piece of art made by coincidence and internet. it will be realized by my ideas, but by the stories of 2 kids, one israeli, one arab. putted in a blog online.
I'll quote out of the project:
Those who now me will have seen that lately my mind was full of thoughts.
On the one hand the time to leave is nearing too fast. On the other hand I have to make this 'art'presentation and the feeling not having what I want is an understatement.
A computer full of stories, negatives full of accompaniing pictures and a mind full of thoughts. What more should an artist need? one could ask.

But then again, I am not an artist. grin.
I am somebody who tries to shake people. To wake them up and let them think.

One thing I have learned by now: time (even even almost none left) brings a solution.
And in the end everything will make sense.

Yesterday Sigal and I were talking, and suddenly all pieces of the puzzle fell together.
The fact that I am working on families, stories and pictures on both sides. That the Belgian embassy has up til 5000 for a cross working art-project.
The fact that John with his blogging system was here
The fact that there is Yasser with his possibilities in Daheisheh.
The fact that Sigal is here, is busy with art, and has all the connexions (as she puts it herself)
And offcourse Tamar, a perfect pr-lady.
These pieces match.
And even more, they can shake certainly some things.

So let's shake!

and shaking is what i will do...

Posted on June 9, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Busybusybusy

Sinai was relaxing, but in a way also revealing. In 3 weeks I have to go to work again, and several projects overwhelm me now. Which is good. I love he adrenaline of stress.
After 7 months of life like a little river, I have to get used to the stream again.
But those who know me, will know that in no time I will be back again. grin.
So that's what I am doing now here. Organizing.
Got a yes from the Flemish Government concerning a photoproject in Albania and Croatia. So I will be off in August.
Arranging with people to find places to sleep, to organize the exhibiton etc.
On the other hand, we decided to do the huge project I was talking about yesterday.
And here, with Sigal, there is this click. The same as what happened with Zabine in Belgium. One moment talking about something, suddenly saying 'But I am serious about it' and the other one answers 'Me too'. 'So let's go for it.'
Saying is one thing. Doing is another, they always say.
But when one day later we see eachother in the evening, I already wrote a sketch of the project, ordered the needed webspace, and Sigal already arranged important place to exhibit, and the french embassy to translate things to french. No way back now.
And that's how it should be.
Otherwise all these plans end up in a closet...
So there is me sitting and arranging things, now.
Inside, airco on.
In the streets hot weather rules. I didn't wear a pair of jeans since one month.
In fact to be honest, I am just walking around in my pijama-trousers in the streets (hey, H&M made really nice ones, nobody notices they are.) And I am not the only one

Got a little nice mail today after sending a song.
'Ine

you guys have no idea what a timing you have !
this is the nicest thing happened to me today.
having hectic time - can really work as my computer shuts down every 5
seconds and my e-mail address book is gone with the wind......

so thanks for the music !

so much of my love and affection belongs to you guys right now'

It made me smile.

Wanted to put the song on the server. But that's illegal, so I don't.

If you want to hear it:
the name of the musician is Fadel Shaker
the song is Ya Ghayen
"you are missed"

Great -Arabic- song.

Ya Habibi.
My friend.

You know, I miss you all.

So see you very soon.

Posted on June 10, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Example

Today i got impressed., in a chat kristien reveals that one of her students answered to the question 'who is your example in photography?'
'ine dehandschutter'
That the girl decided to follow photography after seeing my work on the women's jail...
I asked who the other students chose as an example: 'rineke dijkstra' etc.
I am truly flattered and happy.
Because somebody decided to do something because of my pictures.
And that's more than i expected...

I guess this is what everybody dreams of one day.
though I am still surprised why she chooses me.
I am a lousy photographer, who doesn't know a thing of technique and i don't bother to do something about it. i know a lot of photogrpahers, friends, that i consider better than myself.
Kristien keeps on telling me i take unscharp pictures (which is true sometimes and sometimes not, you have to know her to appreciate this. she's cruel with her remarks but it keeps you with your feet on the ground) and i have to do a lot of things twice before they are good.
But that's ok. Nobody said it would be easy.

The girl wants to take pictures of a women's jail, as i did before, by now 3 years ago.
Kristien considers it too fast. As far as i'm concerned, I think she should atleast try.
I remember my first year (I did it twice, by the way) and we had to choose a 'group' to follow.
I proposed 3 subjects: fishermen, the closure of renault and something else.
most of all, I wanted to do the closure of renault.
But Lieve, my teacher first told me it would be too difficult, too hard to get in. so I checked on the fishermen. everything was arranged.
I got back to lieve and said that I really preferred the other thing. So she helped me, I got in the factory and had a great time with 'the guys' of Renault.
Great memories there. and life stories.
I got it because I truly wanted to do it.

If she wants it that hard, she should do it.
If i was her, i would try another jail and another way (f.e colour instead of black and white)
i gave the contactname to kristien, so, unknown photographer, if you read this: ask her. and convince.

There are so many ways to tell the story.
In our second year, we had this stupid teacher, who gave us all the same subject, for half a year. (the year after us it was 'mobile') Everybody made something different out of it.
So why couldn't this girl make a blast out of it.

I waited a year before presenting my work to the 'world' because of legal reasons and people to respect and protect.
It travelled one year in Belgium and in september it can be seen in Openmonumentendagen, in Merksplas, near Antwerp.
For those who are interested. Enjoy.

Posted on June 11, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Melancholy

Life is truly not fair. I think to myself.
I am lying in a couch, having the opportunity of doing nothing. In fact I have all the opportunities I want. And yes I consider myself lucky.
Madredeus sings songs that make me melancholic.
I need these silences for a sec. The last weeks have been amazing. Synchronity in minds with so many people. Scary in a way, because you know for sure that this injection of knowledge will stop at a certain point.
My mind is full of thoughts. Questions raise about 'after november'. And I know what you think: let things flow, enjoy and time will bring relieve. I know all these things. Today I even thought: there is always a way back, so why don't take the jump. Maybe one has to be ready to leave everything behind to come back. I know this is a fact. And in the deepest me, all decisions are already taken.
Yesterday we went to see a danceperformance, and in the middle of this amazing thing I knew this was were Bart belonged to be. Where he would be home. I realized how his decision to dance must have been a relief to him. I never really saw him dance unless on parties, but here I saw he could be everyone of them. And I missed him, his hug, his smile and the blink in his eyes.
This is the difficult part of leaving everything behind. And I guess that is what John fears in a way: going to a place where you don't know anybody.
It is not the going that is difficult, it is the leaving.
When, in 3 weeks, I will take a plane to Belgium, that will be the difficult part: leaving. Not the going. Going is easy. It always was.
I will be going to my friends, to have fun in parties, and talk a different language, I will see my grandmother who will be quarreling on the fact that I will be leaving in 2 months and why I do this stupid things, my little brother that has grown, my sis that will be nagging around. My mum who will be silent, but smile and the pact between us that in that silence there is more than all the words we could ever say. My little monkeys that grow wild.
They will take away my thoughts of what I leave behind: other friends.
It will be hard to leave them. And like 8 months ago I seeked hide in the arms of a friend, I will do the same thing here. I know I won't sleep whole night, scared to miss a moment. A stomach that will feel like going to the worst exam ever.
Madredeus rolls me in my melancholy. Tears fall, nobody sees.
Music is the only thing that can do those things to me. Put me in another space and time.
Yesterday Kristin Hersh sung for me. 'Your Ghost'. It took me back 10 years in time.
Tamar asked me if I was thinking of Iris. Not at all. (She is associated with other songs...) Suddenly I was 16 again and remembered all the things way back when...
Everything came not through the telephone receiver but just glided into my hand and made the blaze in my nightgown.
My first real love, a parent's divorce, the running away, me staying at my girlfriends place, and putting this song on and on to learn me how to slow...
After 10 times and hurted toes ending up in bed.
It was heaven and hell. It was great.
She learned me a lot about me. And finally also how to dance.
Her mother that looked in silence, a little bit worried. But eyes that blinked once in a while.
She became my 'mother in law', not the cruel one, but the nicest one. She will always stay.
I didn't see her for 5 years now. So often I passed that door and thought of stopping, and visiting.
I guess afraid of breaking unwritten rules I didn't do it.
Today I tell myself that after 5 years unwritten rules have the rule to be broken.
Jeannine, wait and see, soon there will be a bell ringing.

Posted on June 12, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Yahoo!

ok i am looking to a full mailbox and don't know where to begin.
maybe i should say that by know the last week has been the most busiest of this year and therefore also the most furfilling.
not one night i was doing nothing. got great food (thanks sigal) and great performances.
we went to see beersheeva dance company (which can be compared to rosas or les ballets c de la b in belgium), we went to see the gotan dance project (french-argentinian techno tango. mireille and gio would love it!!!), we went to mayumanya (the israeli equivalent of STOMP, thank you arie for the free tickets), we saw a documentary in the cinemateque on the fence the israeli are building in Palestine. We went eating falafel/kebab with red boy and his friend, Sigal cooked the most delicious food (and guess what mum, i was the assistant, you would never believe it unless you saw...) and inbetween, sigal and i and the rest of our cosy team managed to get a lot of contacts for the 'linking-project' as i will call it from now on. Tomorrow I am seeing the Belgian consul on it, today we met somebody from the digital artlab (the sweetiest lady ever, open minded and willing to help). People seem rather enthousiastic about it, and Sigal and I wonder why everything is going so smoothly, almost too smoothly...
Other good news (yeah I know there seems no end to it. I don't know what I was thinking when I thougth that after the splendid year of 2002 everything would stop... it just keeps on going. and I am not complaining!!!!)
So the good news: just had a chat with Arie Scher, the man in charge for the scholarships: 99% chances of having one (yeah!!!!!! i am going/coming back) (Thank you Tamar to pushing it)
It is amazing.
But all the pieces of the puzzle fall together. And the questions on 'after november' get filled in. (as i expected it to be anyway).
Only my grandmother gets crazy of hearing this, I am convinced (Why do you want to go back to that crazy place because i am crazy.... -but i guess she figured that out by now-)

I ordered the D10 of Canon. It is quite an investment of money but especially of gathered time: no longer going to the lab to scan negatives, easily sending of pictures, etc.
At the rate I shoot film after 160 films I urned the camera back. (which will be in half a year I guess, when seeing the projects I have in the coming months...)

I am truly happy. Since in a way it seems that when there is linking and 'clicking', people do change things.
Guess that is what I missed in Bezalel (expected some people to organize things but everybody is so busy with the 'I' instead of the 'We'. And for me as a foreigner it is really difficult to do so. I don't have the needed contacts and language that brings me where I need to be -what happens in Belgium-
Realized what's the kick of organizing things, again, and man, I love it.
The talking, the dreaming, the ideas and realizing them.
For me that is the moment where the 'I' fits the 'We'.

So people in Israel: since next year my scholarship won't be enough to cover all expenses, I am looking for a job.
If you something in this sector (where knowledge of English, Frenach and Dutch are enough, let me know...

Yalla, I have to go work on those contacts....

Posted on June 15, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Wallen onder de ogen

wallen onder mijn ogen en geen tijd om voort te doen.
ik weet niet waar eerst gekropen.
een dossier aan het invullen en nu lekker snel doorgeschoven naar iemand anders.
help ik zink.
binnen kleine 20 dagen thuis.
en dan?
een volgende overrompeling.
2maanden dit hectische leven en dan terugkeer naar de rust.
here i come...

Posted on June 17, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Stupid day

there are these days, you should leave behind,
knowing that they never will have any use.
only few hours to go before the ending of this day and nothing to remeber, except for these words.
i will erase everything, with a little eraser, each word, every doing,
i will forget the mails, and the trafficjams, the words with yasser on the phone
i will walk towards the sea and load my batteries on the shore
with some music and new words.
this day has never been.
try to see the good things in life and don't loose energy: it is my own slogan
sometimes you just have to forget and go to sleep
and that is what i will do now...

not that it was a disaster today, just a bloody stupid day...

Posted on June 18, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Absorbing

Yesterday Tamar amazed me about her opinion. 'We should give the territories back' she said (she said it before, but for not with the same convintion I heard last night.)
The funny thing is that when I met her 8 months ago, I never thought hearing this out of her mouth.
There were always 'buts' in every sentence, and a defense to justify what is happening here.
Maybe it is because I have been here for 8 months now, and she knows me longer to know my opinion on things.
Or maybe it it because her opinion has changed in these 8 months.
Probably it is both. I really don't know.
My opinion has stayed the same, but by now I know the difficulties about this problem.
Because in every solution you think, there is the question that follows: 'And what then?'

About Tamar: I still think the weekend in Sinai has done a lot to this opinion. When we were talking to Egyptian and other Arabs (something what not so often happens to Israeli I guess) I saw how interested she was. And amazed.
And the position because she was the only Israeli was quite different.

Her words when some Israeli came in: 'My god, so much noise they make', it made me smile.
Her voice had gone to a more silent level by then.

It is still like that.
Sometimes Sigal says on the phone: 'You have to talk louder, I don't understand you like that.'

This is the funny thing when you stay in another country for a longer time: in a way you stay an observer, as a tourist you're the fast observer, you see, absorb and go.
When you really live in another culture, you absorb but also get rolled in it.
That's what happened to me.

During the six months I travelled to Daheisheh, I saw a baby become a walking kid, I heard it starting to say words that made sense. I saw Houssein growing into a little kid that starts talking sentences instead of words.
I saw an organisation at its start up and now with more kids than it can handle.
I saw happy moments, and sad, I heard soldiers shooting and things become more quiet.
I saw fights and people making peace.
I saw the frames in the wall changing to other places.
I saw other frames.
Life stayed the same, and yet not.

The same thing in Tel Aviv.
In the end it is only the table that changed place in that house, but I know other things in somebody's mind have turned upside down.
In a good way, I think.

Today, I gave a hug to this amazing woman. A little kid was looking to us,and couldn't be fast enough to hug us all.
So we were standing there, in the middle of a bunch of tables, with people looking to the sea. And 3 people having a hug.
It would be the same as standing in the middle of the Vrijdagsmarkt in Gent.
In two months, you might see the same thing there

Posted on June 21, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Jumping again

Yesterday I went to Marlene and Moshe, the parents of Tamar, to have another delicious meal (and especially the cake I love the most..). It will have been the last time before I leave and before they come to France.
Marlene asked me to make a résumé after 8 months of being in Israel & Palestine.
This was the hardest part I guess. How can one put 8 months in a 10 minute talk?
For me the last two weeks were the most amazing (and tiring) but all the time before was needed to come to those two weeks.
And the trip to the other nearby countries (Lebanon, Syria and Jordan) were also giving me a refreshing view on the conflict and the situation.
When I started to take pictures here, it was all very from a distance, the view from the foreigner visiting. In a discussion with a teacher I explained it that way. You can't jump into things without exploring them first. So the jump came later.
I had an easy 8 months, at ease, and in a way I was thinking I didn't do so much. But when yesterday I arranged all my negatives, I suddenly realized different things. I DID do a lot.
If I compared to what I did in my last year in the Academy, I am certain I did as much now (and even more)
So it is funny to realize that in 2 weeks I'll be in Belgium. It's even funnier that after 4 months I'll be back.
The opportunity of following another year is one not to miss.
And because of the free program here, it is possible to go elsewhere and continue with whatever I am busy (which is a lot).
The project of November, with the blogs turns to be a good thing, and still people are enthousiastic about it. Yesterday I received the email of the consul (I wish you could meet him.
People already asked whether I was planning to stay living here. They should know better by now. I do am that free little bird, that little swallow, that has to go after a while, the only connection is going to the homefront once in a while.
Yesterday I felt that this little bird has to go home. I read it in old mails and the fun I had last year. After 8 months you start really to miss those friends.
Nothing has changed and for them life just went on.
In a way, for me things have changed on that behalf. It won't be normal life. Because it is only for 1,5 months, with planning of new things and jobs. Besides that there are new projects. Things to do that rip me out of normal life. And heck, I'll take those jumps without any doubt.

Posted on June 21, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Belgian filmcrew in Daheisheh

Today I went to Daheisheh, 2 belgian people were coming to film something in Karama. I made the contacts, the links, and Yasser just preferred that I came.
Sometimes I have the feeling we don't have the chance to talk. To do the things we should (like setting up this server, making the emailadresses etc.) but in the end it was good to come and to enjoy seeing kids beeing so excited of being filmed.
The encredible thing the filmcrew did was buying a viedaocamera to have the children film their own things. And they gave the camera to Karama. Amazing.
I think they really believe in the idea of Yasser, about him trying to realize something good for the kids.
I am happy to see that I am not the only one believing his dream. Not the only one who is thinking he is just an amazing guy.
Because sometimes it is hard, to make that distinction. Here in this country there is always disbelief, and people fear other people. Because they may harm.
It is strange. I mean, in Belgium we might think: 'what does this guy want from me', but not 'Does this guy wants to kill me.' I might put extremes here, but in a way that is what most people fear. Who is sincere and who isn't? Where are all these extremists if you meet all these nice people in the streets.
I follow my instinct, my heart, and happily til now, I never missed.
The fact that everybody I introduce to Yasser, think the same as me, is assuring me I am right.
It was amazing to see how the kids prepared this play they did for the cameras.
I had to smile. And to write it down.

PS It was on the newsbalk in Bethlehem Television that Daheisheh was beeing visited by Belgian Filmcrew. You should have seen those proud faces...

Posted on June 22, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Birthdayweekend

Days of extreme silence are just there to silence the things I've done.
Vincent and John just returned back to Belgium, and here we keep the gap.
It has to cool down, to sink, to think.
A great weekend of fun, thoughts and incredible laughs.
My soulbro was quiet, but I think he had enough in his mind to think about.
There will be enough emails that follow and talks when I arrive in Belgium.
 
Tamar managed to delay my ticket with 3 days in order to stay for the opening of the exhibition. (i'll post it soon)
Great party afterwards, they say.
It will make me very melancholic I guess.
But don't want to miss it anyway.
 
Ever felt your stomach schrinking together? It started today.
Will this last for one week?
 
Short resume of the last days...
 
John and Vincent arrived Thursday night. On John's 30th birthday. So Tamar and Sigal arranged a whole weekend full of things.
First we went drinking champagne on the beach, and saw sunrise. (hehe, champagne with peaches because we don't have strawberries anymore)
After that, some sleeping and going to Daheisheh, where Yasser prepared an amazing surprise: birthday cake in a cafe in Bethlehem. Amazing. I guess I would have been as stunned as John if it happened to me... It was kind of surrealistic: this beautiful birthdaycake full of candles, a darkened cafe, and all the other people looking to us. The second time he got his birthday....
In the morning the kids of Karama (www.karama.org) sung Happy Birthday in Arabic for John, showed an amazing show, and John and I (instead of Vincent!!!) turned into clowns.
I wanted to do this, something to give back after 8 months, fun for the kids that don't have real toys or things to do. Something special. Like we used to have 'Nonkel Bob' coming over giving a show. Something not to forget.
I guess we succeeded. They laughed. They were proud to come and show their own thing.  
We made fools of ourselves, and had fun too.
At noon we dissapeared with the car to a vineyard, to Solomons pools, and drove the car to the fence.
The amazing fence, where everybody is talking about. We took pictures.
And suddenly, not totally unexspected, the Israeli Army came. Shouting, yelling, in Hebrew and later, to my surprise, in Arabic.
That we could not take pictures, that this was an army installation. I tried to say that this is in the news allover and that is 'just a fence', there is nothing more to it than this.
Yasser surprised us, by being very diplomatic and started talking. In the end he achieved that we could take pictures of the soldiers, behind the fence. Imagine! First you can't take pictures, and later they ask you to... Explanation needed please...
For me, again it was not th picture that was important, it was the way they came to us and did hat they did: trying to be an 'real soldier' by being rude.
The most amazing of it all: in the end the soldier asked us who we are, and to me: how old I was.
Imagine: they are trying to seduce you, with between you 5 metres of fence, and after being really unpolite for 15 minutes.
I started laughing and said it was ververy unpolite to ask a woman how old she is.
You should have seen how he coloured red... grin.
Later we arrived in Tel Aviv, where Sigal cooked (okok, John did the appetizer) and man, we had sooooo much fun. I wished Yasser could have been there.  
Sahar, I miss you! smile.
Claudio and Sahar were amazing to the point, and everybody lied on the floor laughing...
Again the night was too short and after a short sleep we went up north to the Golan, rafting.
(Well, real rafting can be cathegorized elsewhere... but our tour can be compared to the kajaklevel on the Ourthe. -why don't they have raftboats there-)
And as we would do in the Ardennes, we did the same here: eat fish at Dan's river.
As we drove to the kibboets where we would going to sleep, w saw this enormous glow in the horizon. Somethin huge was on fire...
John and I had this catch and needed to know what it was. And the rest just had to follow. So we started driving towards this huge fire. Amazing. How something dangerous can attrack you to see. It was a long drive but when we finally got there, it was amazing. One strip of kilometres grass was on fire. It looked so apocalyptic. But beautiful.
Just one strip. For kilometres. Fire.
We were near the Syrian border, and the area is full of mines, a fireman explained us. So they were not planning to stop the fire. Chances of getting exploded were to big. They just controlled it not to go to living areas.
I took pictures, but they will never show what is in our heads.
As the fireman said: enjoy, you probably see this only once in a lifetime...
Wit that memory we went to sleep, or not... The room in the kibboets made some of us realize we could never live there. (Atleast I couldn't)
And more tired than before we had another (last) day, to go swimming in the Galilei.
-Uglyyyyyy water....- But hey, Jezus walked on the water here, so atleast we had to try to do the same...
Guess now we are sure, we are not the next Messiah. Big grin.
Rushing home because this lady had a presentation to do. (another story for another time)
and to soon the end of this weekend came, and we dropped our friends in the airport.
 
That's when the gap was open.
Somebody to fill it?
 
Guys, when reading this: you can't imagine how they are missing you...
 
Soon more stories. Now some work for the open studios...

Posted on June 30, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Presentation in school

So let me tell you bout the presentation I had.
You can't imagine...
As I foresaw, we were too late (well I arrived 10 to 5, and the presentation started at 5...) On top of it, all my necessary pictures were in Tamar's bag...
So I already agreed on the fact that this presentation was going to be a huge flop.
And in the way of the selffurfilling prophecy, it became a huge flop.
To be very honest, I didn't give a nuts. On the one hand I made this kind of thing that provoked. (and I knew...) on the other hand I was soooo tired. I didn't even defend myself. It turned out to be a discussion amongst teachers (like all presentations) and they were very hard on me.
It was ok. In some points they were right, in other I know they reacted very Israeli, defensive.
I learned a lot. And I guess this is still the purpose of those things (I consider school to learn something, so it is ok to make mistakes. We even have to make mistakes.)
Just until the point that one teacher started to call my work antisemetic. That was too much, so I interrupted, and because he didn't stop, the other teacher interrupted. It was way over the limit. I thought it was pretty amazing that this guy that doens't know me at all, declares on bases of worl that I am antisemitic...
Anyway, in order not to get into politics, I kept quiet. They didn't experience the things I saw, and one could consider as a good reason to hate what is happening here. But I was not willing to defend things that I don't want to defend.
I think Israeli's are making a big mistake, but it is not to me to declare that. I am trying to show other things.
They didn't see it that way.
The whole bullnuts of art went through, and I still think it is bullnuts in a way. Make nice and soft things. Instead this became a huge thing and at least people had to think, because I made them to.
Nobody will believe that I made a different idea for my presentation and for my Open Studio. Everybody will think I changed my Open Studio because of the critics. But Tamar and I know better... For my presentation I wanted two projectors, for Open Studio only one.
Why? Because things are lacking. I don't know yet what I will be showing... But that is ok.
I started to make some presentation with texts and lomo's, with pictures in a different way, pretty arty.
And guess what, right after I went into Tamar's office to say I made some goodlooking bullnuts, Nahum, the teacher came, and looked to the work, was surprised it was mine and said: 'Really nice work'
I had to smile.  
People don't realize how difficult it is to make a good documentary, the work and mind it takes. Art is different, it is not easy either, but it is less involving. Less satisfying for me.
They look at pictures and say you're not involved, or it is like this style etc. Bullnuts. I dare them to ask to do the same, and talk then. All the art-critics...
This is what I learned from my art-teacher in high school: don't criticise unless you do it better. -So i started doing it. grin-
I am not a good artist, nor a good photographer. This is what they told me during 5 years.
Still I got the highest grades and achieved some things not so easy to get.
So I don't complain.
The times that critics could hurt me is over. So they don't.  
Sigal will say on this that I did looked pale and that this writing is the proof I am busy with it. Ok, maybe it is, but not as before.
I got out of the presentation (Sigal and Vinnie kidnapped me) and we went to the beach.
That was far more interesting, because it was real.
Evrything is relative.
Th eonly question I had afterwards was: DO IMAGES MATTER?
I guess the answer is still yes for me, and that is reason enough to keep on going.

Posted on July 1, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Tag the city

So I am feeling veryvery tired. The reason: hectic weekend, and hectic week. Presentations, exhibitions, saying bye to everybody.
Crossing around.
This morning I said goodbye to my Daheisheh-family, and hell, it hurted. Really hurted.
Everybody says it is only for 4 months, but it feels like lifetime now.
Yasser and I had this amazing conversation, and fun. Lately I see the light in their eyes, Amal is dancing around as a real bellydancer, Teher smiles, and even serious Yasser has to laugh his amazing smile.
I guess the coming over of the guys was fun for him: imagine all these guys together talking about girls....
Now I 've told him I fancy girls, we started looking together to the nice buts. grin.
So maybe he finds a companion in me now...
Anyway, I will miss him.
His mother kept on saying how she liked me and how sweet my mother was. I gave her the sweetest hug I had and she started crying.
It is amazing you know. I know hardly some words Arabic, and still we are able to communicate in a way, and more important to appreciate because of our smiles and behaviours. Again it prooves that language is not allways the most important thing (although it improves a lot of things)
 
So I was pretty sad when I went back.
Sigal was worried and knows I crashed (because of lack of sleep and my sad mood)
Tamar the same, but she had it sooooo busy with the exhibition I really don't want to bother her. (Although I could jump on her to get a sweet hug.)
I try not to think how I will miss them. And yet by know I already think I do, because I almost have no time left with them.
 
In 4 months you're back, they say, but I guess they also know there is the first 2 weeks...
 
After the artworks and everything I went home (at Sigals) and to make myself better I decided to stick all those stickers I took at the consulate.
They say 'Life is worth living' and 'We are all human beings' I saw them last time, and yesterday I took most of them (because they are just lying there, and me, I wil  
l stick them) The texts are translated in Arabic.
So I started to stick them in Tel Aviv, on my way home.
Everywhere you can see them now. (and very obvious they are leading to Sigal's place...)
I hope some people see them and think for a second about it.
I choose two important places. One is the bench of the homeless lady (who wasn't there now) and another was in front of the apartment of a friend of Sigals. When I met him he was very very sweet, but also very sad. He fought in Lebanon, and has so many bitter memories on it. It made me sad too. So I just hope he reads it too and tries to make his live worth living.
Further on, other ones are on ordinary places.
I hope the consul is not mad on me taking those stickers. grin. - I think not, you should now him...-
 
So I felt a little better after doing this. And when coming home Sigal was there, and we hugged, and everything felt ok.

Posted on July 2, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Exhibition and tattoo.

Yesterday Open Studio, the exhibition opened. It was fun. I show(ed) my Daheisheh pictures, and made some 'arty' stuff.
The last things I never showed to my teachers (if I showed my teachers any thing at all...) and they were quite surprised bout it. grin. It is contrary to what I do as a 'documentary photographer' but for me it all makes sense. Good sense.
So I made a new work yesterday in the last 10 minutes. Decided to do so. Because? Because I had some time left and I really wanted to make what I think. The words Tamar passed me suited so well...
So it was funny when Moshe Ninio, a teacher and art-critic asked me: this is new work. (I had to smile in myself, yes it is only 2 hours old...)
He started a lecture to me, on my work, which was quite interesting, but on the other hand it was an opening, and I was drunk because of vodka-orange and too hot temperature. I guess you can imagine how my conversation was.
He said my work was on blindness. Not of the people but of me.
So quite a critique again.
The funny thing was that again, I had to smile. It didn't matter.
I am not here to try to be an artist. I just want to have fun an ddo intersting stuff.
So when later in the night a man came to me to ask whether these pictures were mine (on Daheisheh stuff) and I confirmed, he said: 'Strong work'
You know, even if it isn't, it doesn't matter. Because I moved one person (who said it) and maybe others follow. And that's enough...
 
On the exhibition Debbie Baute came, a Belgian girl I was trying to meet during 8 months, and always there was a reason not to. It was nice to meet her. She wrote some stories for the Standaard diaries abroad. And when I met her, I was a little bit mad aboud myself not doing the effort of meeting her urlier. But I come back, and she'll be here. So nothing lost.
 
Great day, great memories.
Tamar, thanks for convincing me to stay some more days (but I guess that was not such a hard job)
 
Oh I got my tattoo. Finally after 10 years of speaking and 5 years of thinking what to put, a little swallow is born...
Don't tell to my grandmum!!!! She'll kill me...

Posted on July 4, 2003
in Living in Israel

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On a plane to Belgium

On the plane to london. K's choice in my ears. Two little nerds next to me.  
Tears fall all over. I don't know what the steward thinks. And I don't care.
The last months, the last days flash through my head and I don't know what has been going on.  
Images of completeness. Smiles, jokes. Fun. And intimacy.
The putting of the tattoo. A symbol. For the changement.
 
"I learned to let go of the illusion that we can possess
I learned to let go, I travel in stillness
And I'll remember happiness"
 
I don't know for sure I learned how to let go.
8 months ago I got on a plane and started to cry.  
Jump to nowhere.
Nowhere turned out to be an amazing place. Well not a place, a mind of state between people.
Again I have to let go...
It is not the going that is difficult, it is the leaving, I wrote before.  
And by now I know that's a reality.
I leave behind.
Nothing but friends (and some forgotten clothes...)
 
Tamar and Sigal smiled, 'you come back' they say. Sigal will be sitting on a plane next week, to Brussels, to see her 'Vinnie'
It makes the pain easier. I will be there, in the airport. To hug.
Tamar comes in August. I will be there. To love the blink.
The time will past fast, they say. I nod, careful, not sure about that.
I wonder where the fast time will be in the emptiness of the nights. Or in a studio that is empty. The laughing that stopped. The bedtimestories that are lacking. The talks on a roof or in a living room. The coffee. The little girl cheating on me. And later in the bed, putting her cheek against mine, and a smile. I still don't understand a word she says, and yet I know.
The feet in the water.
The hugs, soo many hugs...
 
Sarah screams in my ear: 'I don't know the answer to this day.'
Normally that is ok, but today, again it feels a little bit sad.
The purser comes around and askes whether I want meat or chicken. I order meat and think too late of the mad cows disease.  
As dinner arrives, and I see the meat, it looks like mad cows.
The Bordeaux of 2001 tastes too sharp.
On top of it a choir of babies start crying.  
I burst out in laughter. The woman next to me looks at me and starts laughing too. We're both sitting with headphones on high level in order to neglect the crying.
I guess I won't feel better til I am home and I will look for somebody to open arms and close them while I am inbetween.
 
Tel Aviv, I miss you.
My god, I miss you...

Posted on July 5, 2003
in Living in Israel

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On another plane to Brussels

On another plane, crossing the sky, going down to earth, coldplay in my ears.  
A song that represents this 8 months.  
And as I dive into the clouds I smile, it feels like heaven.
Suddenly all that I see is green land, and I have to smile, thinking of Tamar's words...
They would love it, and suddenly I realize what we have.  
Heaven.
 
I do miss Tel Aviv, and Daheisheh, but I love to land in here. The swallw that returns.  
That has to return to know what is left.
Things have changed. New buildings, new roads.
My grandparents pick me up, and suddenly there is my father with my shy little brother.
 
While driving to Ghent one day later, I can't stop loving my city.
It is soooo beautiful.
Maybe because I left it so long I can see its charm and beauty again.
And my god, it is so peaceful.
No stress, no police, no hurry, bikers on the streets, so many bikers, old charming houses,
The sun not to hot.
 
Everything is new again and I can enjoy: french fries, a normal little bread at noon  
(instead of the pittabread from Tel Aviv) the sun on my skin, the water, the stones in the street.
I enjoy.
 
I get little messages from everybody mailing, smssing and calling if I am back. Funny, I was missed a little bit.
And I end up at my old job. Where I am now. Working again. (All my days are getting filled very easily, invitations for dinners etc.)
 
 
I know it will be for short, and after that I will be leaving for the big black again. But by now I know
I will land well.
I always do...

Posted on July 7, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Israel goes crazy?

Today in New York Daily (and lots of other newspapers...):

Israelis hit Syria  
Avenge suicide attack by blasting Jihad camp
(By BILL HUTCHINSON)
 
Vowing to pursue terrorists and their supporters no matter where, Israel avenged a deadly weekend suicide bomb by blowing up what it said was an Islamic Jihad training camp in Syria.
The retaliatory strike, 10 miles outside of the Syrian capital of Damascus, represented a major new escalation in Israel's war on terror.
 It was the first time in three decades that Israel had struck inside Syria, which the United States repeatedly has slammed for its support of terrorism.
 
 "We will take whatever measure is necessary to defend our citizens, regardless of geographical location of these training camps," said Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
 
 He told CNN that Israel has decided "to enlarge the scope of our operation against the Islamic Jihad and Hamas."
 
 U.S. allies Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt and Jordan immediately condemned the strike, while Syria denied the site hit by Israel was a training camp.

What is going on?
Why are the Israeli ready to risk so much?
Why aren't they working together with the Americans in order to attack 'terroristic groups'?
Not so long ago the UN decided that groups like Hamas are terroristic groups and can be attacked.. So why is Israel attacking alone?
I really don't get it.

They are looking for peace? I don't see it, to me it looks like they are looking for war.

I think I should reconsider my flying ticket. I'll opt for open retour... For sure.

Posted on October 6, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Heaven is in your arms

Off we go. Tamar and I leave at 5 in the morning to the airport. To take a flight to Eilat.
To be honest, I probably would have taken the bus, because 5 hours on a bus is nothing compared to what I experienced in Turkey. But the mqin reason is my growing dislike to fly in Israel.
Anyway, we're flying...
Arrived in time (which is a real miracle if you know Tamar -just joking-) I get suddenly the usual international security check-up.
And yes, we miss our flight.
Because? Just because.
Man, I am taking an INTERNAL flight, if I would take a bomb, I would take a bus, not a plane.
They checked all luggage anyway, so why the questionary
So here we got: stuck in an airport, waiting for the next flight...
To be continued...


Continue...
At arrival we take a cab to the border, where we go to the border. It is amazing to see how Israel gets money from this going out... A cab for 10 euro, going out of Israel costs us 20 euro each person. Egypt does well to. Going in for free, but the cab costs 10 euro each person, entering the desert costs us 6 euro each person. Only for going and passing.
Tamar gets a little bit upset by this. 'We could have taken a flight to Cyprus or something, all included' I smile. I know what the desert is and what it does, I know she will relax and afterwards forget why she payed this money anyway...
And when we arrive at our superdeluxe husha's I know I am right.
Suddenly rest and peace get into everything.
I said to John I was going to sleep here for 4 days. Well, that's what I did: sleep and read.
Heaven...

Posted on October 8, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Tel Aviv calling

I got a phonecall today. From Tel Aviv.
And through a bad connection I could still understand almost all words.
I loved hearing the voice.
I loved reading words from a friend 'Yalla baby, come home.'
I enjoyed chatting with my pessimistic friend in Palestine.'It's fucked up.'

I guess it is strange to know that in 2 weeks I leave again.
And although this time things are totally different from my first time leaving for Tel Aviv, it will be still a jump in the dark.

It is always difficult and dangerous to go back to a certain place for the second time. Because you have expectations.
First time you never have, or if you have, you still don't know what reality will be like.
Going back to a place where you have been, is going back to something you know.

I try to drop the expectations, and realize things might be not as shiny as I would want them to be. Projects may be hard to realize. Pictures may be difficult to take.

One without expectations can't be dissapointed.
But who do we know without expectations?

Yes, I'll bring a bottle of champagne, and somebody will bring the strawberries, or the litchies, or the mango or whatever. And we'll sit on the beach.

As for the rest... We'll see.

We'll see. (smile)

Posted on October 9, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Flight confirmed

This reminds me of exactly one year ago...
But yes, it is the confirmation for next week...
Sigal and Tamar, be prepared...

SN BRUSSELS AIRLINES - SN 3291
THU 23OCT BRUSSELS BE TELAVIV YAFO IL 1910 2335
NATIONAL BEN GURIO INTL
NON STOP DURATION 4:25
NON SMOKING
RESERVATION CONFIRMED - L ECONOMY
ON BOARD: DINNER
AIRCRAFT OWNER :SN SN BRUSSELS AIRLINES
COCKPIT CREW :SN SN BRUSSELS AIRLINES
CABIN CREW :SN SN BRUSSELS AIRLINES
EQUIPMENT:AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A319
SEAT 13D NO SMOKING CONFIRMED DEHANDSCHUTTER/INEMRS

Posted on October 13, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Getting a visum

This morning I went to the Embassy of Israel in Brussels.
Although this embassy is not where the others are, this is probably the best protected... All the time one combi checking everything, and closed as a prison.
Israeli security guys checking everything, even my grandfather who was just parking the car and strolling a little bit while awaiting me (yeahyeah, he looks like an Italian maffiosi ready to explode embassies...)
Anyway, me going inside to get an visum would turn out to be me coming out of an emabassy without a visum...
Sometimes I wonder how complicate they make their administrative tools...
I called before coming: 'No problem, just come and fetch it'.
And then when you arrive:'Sorry you'll have to come back.'
'Why?' 'You need to bring the letter that says you got a scholarship.'
'Why? This embassy has sent it to me, so somebody in here should know. There has to be a copy here.' 'Yeah maybe, but you should send it.'
Give me a break...
And again the questions on the stamps in my passport...
C'mon, don't you see I got a stamp for Israel after the other stamps?
I have been there for 8 months already.
Security check all over...
Suddenly all these questionaries, all this paperwork comes back...
I'll be prepared.
Because maybe when I fetch the passport a next questionary, and when I catch a plane again and when I land in Tel Aviv I will have to repeat again...
Shall I just say I go to see a lover? :)

So this story: will be continued. Will she get a passport or not??? grin.

Posted on October 15, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Embassy story

Today I checked for my visum...
Well seems I have 2 sick persons now, and no visum yet...
Great.
Hopefully they work this afternoon and give me a call.

The woman on the phone was short with words. Don't know how to say this in English, in Dutch they say 'afgemeten', like she didn't want to spill a worth to much.
Prepares me on what will come.
Although I know Israel a little bit by now, the culture shock will be big again.
The goodmorning or friendly hello seems a waste of time, and can be dropped.
It happens all the time when you visit a shop or whatever. They look at you with amazed eyes, when you wish them a happy morning and after the visit a happy day.
They really don't understand.
(I have to explain this because otherwise my friends will kill me... This habit is applied to strangers, people they don't know, once they know you, you'll get anything. And exceptions do exist. -exactly these exceptions are now my friends ;) -)

After a short good bye the phone clicked and I was thinking: No visum yet... 4 days to go...

Posted on October 17, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Beautiful ladies from Tel Aviv calling

So got a bunch of mails... Sigal moved to a bigger apartment, and I can stay there for a while.
Sooooo curious to see (seems we ;) have a big garden.)
And guess what, it is closer to the sea than where I stayed before.
Will be reading books on the beach soon.
Only 6 days to go...

Let's party...

Posted on October 17, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Leaving

Only few hours to go... Flight Tel Aviv will take off.
There we go again...

Smiling from here till there.
(Put your arms wide open. Wider... Everything what's in between and more...)

For all those that I didn't see before take off: sorry. Have been running lately.
But you're in my head.
For those I saw: thanks for the magnificent hours. I enjoyed the bubbles.

Soo much ;)

Bubbles ready in my bag, to open on a wide empty beach in TLV.
I'll picture it.
(Standing in a T-shirt in 30 degrees... hehehe... to people in TLV: we have extreme temperatures in Belgium: 2 degrees today. Brrrrr. Looking forward to feel your sun on my skin.)

Posted on October 23, 2003
in Living in Israel

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I arrived

Who would ever assumed 4 days ago that I really would get here after all. The girls in the embassy decided after 4 days that I could get my passport -and this time it even has the right inscription: student at Bezalel. Last year I was studying at Tel Aviv University according to the embassy-
So I got on the plane, the funny thing was by check up in the airport they didn't understand why I had a visum. So I had to explain them. Funny world upside down.
At arrival I got the smootest entry ever: no questions, no check ups of luggage.
And there I was, standing in Tel Aviv again.
And some moments later: there they were, two stunning ladies, coming to pick me up.
Taking me home.
After long talks and cuddles and hugs, I felt asleep.
Safely arrived indeed.

Posted on October 24, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Dinner at Shelly's

Today shabbat. Having dinner at Shelly's. Tamar's sis.
And suddenly the Israeli noises come back...
I am not used to it anymore. It is a funny cosy evening, but heck I never understood how they can understand each other in soo much noise.
Television in the background, 6 different people having 3 different conversations above each others heads.
I silence the evening, because I am really tired. Got hit by the big hammer.
But also because I am looking at this thing from a distance while in my mind I compair to Belgium. I guess we were never noisy people and intend to shut up easier than f.e the Dutch but you should experience this to understand what I mean by noisy...
This little country is a country of screamers. Maybe this is why they are in the news all the time -although they say nobody listens to them-
And again openess invites me to feel at home. And yes, I know I can sleep on the couch if I want to, that I don't have to feel shy, and that I can feel as home.
We could never imagine it: sleeping at a friends of a friends place.
And yet.
The only reason why I don't? Because it is really too noisy... ;)

Posted on October 24, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Sleeping

Slept like 12 hours. Needed it.
After all the rushing at home, and the long nights the past few days.
Didn't feel the sea yet.
But will so, soon.
Tomorrow first day of school.
And suddenly I realize: I am back in Tel Aviv, I really am.
Sometimes all of this seems a long dream.
But when Tamar squeezes my arm, I know it is not.
I close my eyes for a second, want to keep the dream for some seconds longer.
Tomorrow the real work will start...

Posted on October 25, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Documentary projects

can get scholarships here...
Fifty Crows is an international photofund for photo documentaries.
Truly interesting.

Sophia Evans

Posted on October 26, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Rabin

While surfing the web I found this photo documentary.
A documentary photographer, graduated at Bezalel, the same school I am in.

What interested me was one of his links:
Murder in the Name of God : The Plot to Kill Yitzhak Rabin
Michael Karpin's and Ina Friedman's book describing the relegious zeoltry that led to the assasination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The book traces many of the leading figures of the Jewish extreme right and thickens the questions surrounding their envolvement in creating the dangerous atmosphere that led to Rabin's murder.

Rabin was killed already 8 years ago.
Nov 1st there will be a memorial wich will be gathered by thousands of people.
We'll be there.

By then somebody should explain me more about what happened that day, and the political environment.

Or I just have to read the book...

Posted on October 26, 2003
in Living in Israel

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School

"How can we not see here, immanent in the geometral dimension - a partial dimension in the field of the gaze, a dimension that has nothing to do with vision as such - something symbolic of the function of the lack, of the appearance of the phallic ghost?
. . . But it is further still that we must seek the function of vision. We shall then see emerging on the basis of vision, not the phallic symbol, the anamorphic ghost, but the gaze as such, in its pulsatile, dazzling, and expansive function, as it is in this picture."

Jacques Lacan, Seminar XI

First day of school... I forgot what it is not to understand Hebrew.
Now I remember. (After a long night of conversations, people talking in an alien language for 2 hours is too much. I almost dooze off.)
This program in school is not made for foreign students that not know the Hebrew language. One should be advanced.
I am not.

The quote above is part of a class I am supposed to follow.
(Imagine, I don't understand it yet in English or Dutch...)
I am interested though. Will be reading the books in French. :)

And Tim, our philosopher, can help me out...

(For interested people: Lacan might be interesting, Roland Barthes is even more for photographers with his book: La chambre claire)

Posted on October 26, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Israeli Barrier Turns Harvest Into Ordeal

Out of a newspaper:

Seen behind barbed wire, part of the separation fence Israel is building, Palestinian Zakiya Faid Shammasi, works in olive harvest Wednesday Oct. 15, 2003. Nearly three-fourths of Jayous' farmland, or 2,250 out of 3,000 acres, is now on the "Israeli" side of the separation fence Israel is building, cutting them off from the village itself. The residents, along with thousands of other Palestinians along the West Bank must now apply for permits to cross Israeli army controlled barriers to get to their fields and back. Israel says it needs the line of obstacles _ fences, trenches and razor wires _ to keep out suicide bombers and gunmen who have killed hundreds of Israelis in the past three years of fighting.

When the gate finally opened and the Israeli soldiers let eight farmers through to their fields, plaintive cries went up from the dozens left behind: "Please water my tomatoes." "Please please pick up some of my olive sacks."

The barrier that Israel is building in defiance of international protest is meant to keep suicide bombers at bay. But it's also cutting off thousands of Palestinians from their land and disrupting the West Bank's ancient farming rhythms, especially these days as the olive harvest, normally a joyous occasion, turns into a nightmare.

(by LARA SUKHTIAN Associated Press Writer, the whole article here)

Israel says that this wall will stop terrorattacks.
That it stops Palestinians to have food is also a side of the story...

images: Ine Dehandschutter, June 2003

We want to change and try to drop the wall in people's heads...: www.snowblog.net

Posted on October 27, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Sunset

Somebody asked me whether I touched the sea by now?
Yes, tonight I watched one of the magnificent sunsets, with wet feet.
While Coldplay was singing in car radios, I was enjoying the noise and smell of this sea.

Synchro all over again...

Posted on October 27, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Stuck to my comp

Yes finally, made it...
Networkwire to my comp and all the gates are open. This is what I've been waiting for (and what i've missed in Belgium being at home without a fast connection..)
Will be busy working around on the web. Just found out that there are good reasons to be on the comp...
So whoever is saying I am wasting my time on the web.
You've got it soooo wrong... ;)

Posted on October 28, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Party at Bezalel

And it was a blast.
Check pics here

Posted on October 30, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Memorial Rabin

Imagine 150000 people together on a square. Imagine the same thing in Israel (I can tell you that there is a huge difference in achieving this...)
This is what happened yesterday.
All the people gathered on Rabin Square, where he got murdered 8 years ago.
Youngsters, elderly, everybody, mostly left-winged.

For me it was a gathering of lost hope.

Most of the people in Israel divide time in 2 parts: before and after the killing of Rabin.
Several times I heard the question: What would have happened if they would not have shot him?
We'll never know.

150000 people. 1 day a year. Doesn't change a thing...
I wonder what Rabin would think of this if he saw it. He would be flattered, for sure. But I believe he would be dissapointed that they are just standing there.
That there are 150000 people who might change something, but don't. That in 8 years nothing changed for the better.

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Posted on November 2, 2003
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Michael Karpin continued

Remember some days ago I wrote something on Michael Karpin's book.
Suddenly Tamar comes to me and says: "This guy is the husband of a friend of mine."
Guess the world will always be a small place...
So I joked and said that she should look for a free copy because I am advertising his book on this blog.
Two days later I get the message that I can go and speak with him.
Really have to take that chance.
It might get me into another view on this situation.

By now my request to know more on Rabin and background has profoundly be furfilled by Sigal (cruising me through Rabin's site) and Tamar, talkingtalking and showing me Karpin's documentary on the conspiracy against Rabin.
Toda raba for that.

So hopefully soon more on that talk (have to prepare and read the book first though)

Posted on November 2, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Being back again

I guess last year I really wondered if coming back was such a good idea...
I mean, some times you ruin the memory by your expectations of a new journey.

I took the risk (and off course I backed myself up, with a return flight in December, just in case things went wrong)

But creating new moments and keeping the memories is possible.
I am truly happy that I came back.

The school has a different dimension, and except for the fact that the people are not longer strange individuals that speak a alien language, the fact that I get to be involved in the school aspect is helping a lot. I am no longer the stranger floating on an isle.
(The main reason for this is a discussion with my fantastic executive administrator :) and the back up of some other people that agreed on my point of view.)
I guess in every school you have this problem as a foreigner, but in the end it is the task of the school to do something about it.
My school did.

So by now off course I have to start working for this school :)
Piles of literature are being stocked in the toilet and near the bed.
Some of my thoughts will be reflected on this site.

Posted on November 3, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Uit mijn archieven

Dit fragment dateert van 22 december 2003, maar is nog steeds even actueel...
Na een bezoek aan Ruth Hiller, frontvrouw van new Profile, schreef ik de volgende tekst.
Het is boeiend om een verhaal te horen dat komt uit een andere hoek: die van de Israeli zelf.

Israël is de laatste weken in de Belgische media. Wegens Sharon. Het Belgische gerecht besliste immers dat Sharon kan vervolgd worden, als hij geen minister-functie meer uitoefent. Israël heeft in België nogal een vrij negatieve connotatie en de pro-Palestijnse betogingen zijn er talrijk. Maar we mogen niet vergeten dat in dit land ook nog andere mensen wonen, mensen die niet akkoord zijn met wat er in de bezette gebieden gebeurt.
Yinnon is zo iemand, hij is intussen 18, en weigert zijn legerdienst te doen, want hij wil niet meewerken aan de Zionistische staat, niet ten koste van de Palestijnen...

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Posted on November 4, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Uit mijn archieven II

Ook dit fragment komt uit archieven. 31 december 2002 vertelt mijn tekstverwerker me.
De vraag hoe en waarom mensen zichzelf kunnen opblazen, is er eentje die elke westerling zich stelt.
Na 8 maanden hier te wonen heb ik er nog steeds geen antwoord op, maar ik stel me wel de vragen bij het 'moslim fundamentalisme' dat altijd in de mond wordt genomen.
Als enkele weken geleden een jonge Palestijnse vrouw, advokate van opleiding en met een toekomst in het vooruitzicht, zichzelf opblaast in een café in Haifa, dan vraagt de rest van de wereld zich af wat er in haar hoofd omging.
We zullen het nooit weten.

Ik wandel door Palestina, de straten hangen vol met foto’s van martelaren al dan niet omgekomen bij zelfmoordaanslagen.
Een foto van de 95-jarige vrouw die enkele weken omkwam toont me geen terrorist. De vrouw stapte in een taxi, nadat ze boodschappen had gedaan op de markt. Goed en wel in de auto geraakt, ontplofte het tuig, door een Israëlische raket.
De verklaring van het Israëlische leger later was kort en formeel: ‘We waren van het idee dat er een terrorist van Hamas in de auto zat.’
En zo zijn er meer verhalen. In een taxi op weg naar Hebron vertelde de man naast me, een Palestijn, ‘We zijn niet veilig in deze wagen.’ Ik keek hem aan en vroeg waarom. ‘Wel als de Israëliers denken dat hier een lid van Hamas in de taxi zit, blazen ze hem gewoon op.’ Mijn hart sloeg een slag over, en tegelijk besefte ik waar de mensen hier mee leven, welke stressfactor hier heerst.

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Posted on November 4, 2003
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Uit mijn archieven III

Er zijn al een paar regeringen over gevallen, en zo verging het ook de laatste: de problematiek van de settlements in Israël en zijn bezette gebieden.
In het woordenboek vind ik onder settlement:
Main Entry: set·tle·ment
Pronunciation: 'se-t &l-m&nt
Function: noun
Date: 1648
1:the act or process of settling
2 a :an act of bestowing or giving possession under legal sanction b:the sum, estate, or income secured to one by such a settlement
3 a :occupation by settlers b:a place or region newly settled c:a small village
4:SETTLEMENT HOUSE
5:an agreement composing differences
6:payment or adjustment of an account

Het woordenboek verzwijgt echter in alle talen de verhalen van de mensen die hun woonst moeten verlaten omwille van de komst van een settlement.
Dit is het verhaal van Mohanna Abu Arab.

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Posted on November 4, 2003
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Going to my other home...

(preparing for evening call)

Yesterday I left for Daheisheh, to see my friends over there.
Itis only lying on a 1 hour drive from here, but for some reason I always forget it will take me 2 hours atleast to get there.
If I am lucky.

When I take the servicetaxi in Jerusalem, we are stopped by the army on the first crossing.
Ok, it will take me more than 2 hours this time...
I don't have a clue what they are checking, but they want all the passports. Probably they want to see if there are people here that don't have the Jerusalem ID.
Palestinians have two kinds of ID's (in fact three)
You have the Jerusalem ID, they are allowed to be in Jerusalem, because they live there, they are allowed to visit the Palestinian Authority. Then you have the Palestinian Authority ID. THey are not allowed to be in Jerusalem unless they have an special permission. This special permission is hard to get. People that work in Jerusalem get it, or when they have family there, sometimes they get a special temporary permission. But most of the time they don't. The same thing for somebody who lives f.e im Bethlehem and wants to go to Ramallah. He has to have a special permission. If he hasn't, they don't let him pass the checkpoint.
Because there is no work in the PA, and because sometimes people do want to visit their family, they sneak over the border. Hoping they won't get caught.
Check ups like the one in the service taxi are looking for this people (offcourse everybody has a fake Jerusalem ID if they are 'illegal' in Jerusalem)(most of the time the 'illegals' are men, working illegal in Jerusalem, to earn some money to buy food for home.)
Finally we can go, and everybody can stay.
20 min later we arrive at the checkpoint, where I pass without any problem.
Two Palestinians did not pass, they are standing, legs wide spread and arms above their head.
Several times when I passed this checkpoint I saw things like this.
Soldiers won't give an explantion for that.
It is rather humiliating to experience such a thing, even looking at it makes me feel sick...
Finally I arrive at my family. They welcome me in the streets: I am right in time. The music from the mosk is the call for supper. Ramadan is busy, and people are not allowed to eat from 4 in the morning till 5 in the evening. It is 5.20 and I am invited to join their supper.
It feels like home again.

Posted on November 6, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Suicide bombing

Few days ago I had a discussion with an Israeli friend.
The discussion was on suicide bombers.

I don’t agree what suicide bombers do. They consider themselves as freedomfighters, but after years of this fighting, I don’t see the results of it. As a matter of fact, I only see a lot of innocent people get killed.

Yet I think we should ask ourselves ‘Why?’ A question without an answer in this case, I still try to understand.

Some time ago, a man killed himself in Café Hillel in Jerusalem. With him a lot of others died, and several got hurt.
Sigal emailed this amazing letter from a father who’s son had died in this tragedy.
The story told how after everything that happended this father said that exactly because thee attacks the struggle for peace should continue.
It was a hopeful letter.
My friend Yasser got it too, and I don’t know if he read it till the end. He was upset because of it. ‘This is again telling the story from the Israeli side, and focussing on the Israeli ‘victims’, but the other side of the story is left out. What about the Palestinians that get killed every day?’ Of course this is not what the letter meant to say, but yet it has a point.
Point taken.
Yasser tells me he knew the guy who did it, 10 years ago. They were together in the prison (Almost every male Palestinian from the age of 16 on has been in jail..)
‘It was one of the friendliest and clever guys I ever met, so I was quite surprised to hear that hey had explode himself. I called to check it was really him, it was, so I asked how comes. Seems that he had lost family due to this war. That at a certain point hey could not take it anymore’

‘This is no excuse at all’, my Israeli friend almost yells.
‘It is no excuse that he is exploding innocent people because his family died.’
It is not, not at all, but it is an explanation.
I answer her, that on the Palestinian side also a lot of ‘innocents’ die. Children, women.
‘It is not the same, you can’t compare’
‘Why not?’
‘Because that’s war. That is soldiers fighting. We don’t go and explode ourselves amongst civilians.’
‘The only thing I see is innocent children dying on both sides. The only thing I see is useless fights while there could be peace.’
‘You can’t connect this to another.’
‘Oh yes we can, because if there wasn’t this thing going on in the so called ‘Occupied Territories’ there would be no suicide bombers at all. There would be no people so desperate to kill themselves.’ The suicide bombers is a monster this conflict has created.

Yasser told me on thing about it. ‘These people consider themselves dead already, they can get killed without a use, like most of their family did, or they try to fight and die while giving the world a sign: ‘Something is definitely wrong here, and you should do something about it.’’

Posted on November 7, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Checkpointed closed.

When I take the taxi to the checkpoint something strange happens: we get to another road.
What is wrong?
‘Checkpoint is closed,’ says the driver. ‘Why? He doesn’t know.
We have to walk a 100m to find out what is going on.
Yasser walks very carefully, slowly. ‘Something is wrong, Ine. Look, a army jeep there, another one there. ‘
As we near the checkpoint one of the cars is telling us to go back. In Hebrew. How am I supposed to understand? (After years of orders like this the Palestinians do understand what is said.) ‘The checkpoint is closed’, Yasser translates. ‘We are not allowed to go closer, we should go home.’ ‘You go’, he adds.
I smile a little smile, not so brave inside. ‘What will they do Ine, shoot you?’
Yasser stays behind, this situation is to dangerous for him (as a Palestinian), last time I went away, a army jeep stopped his taxi and pointed a gun at the drivers head, because this one didn’t understand Hebrew, so he didn’t know what they told him to do.

I go slowly towards the jeep. My camera in the air, and screaming that I don’t understand Hebrew. The megaphone answers in English that the checkpoint is closed for 2 days and that I should go back.
I continue.

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Posted on November 7, 2003
in Living in Israel

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On Vacation in Daheisheh

Ad!dict magazine has a new issue on Vacations. I offered them to do an item on ‘Vacation is the Occupied Territories’
So I went to Karama and talked with the kids on their ‘vacation’.

This is what they told me:

Hadir 14y old,

Last vacation I went to visit some friends. My family lives in Syria and Libanon (they are refugees there) and so we only can go to our friends here. I played basketball and went to swim on top of Beitjallah (a city near Bethlehem, only 10min from where she lives)
Last vacation was not so nice because of the occupation.
There are a lot of attacks, soldiers that come into our houses, and there are killings.
My family is afraid that something will happen to me, so I am not allowed to go and play wherever I want.
Sometimes our vacation seems to be a prison, because we cannot play whenever we want, there was a lot of cerfew, so we had to stay inside, even the windows could not be open because of the bullets.
Sometimes is is better not to have vacation but go to school.

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Posted on November 7, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Crashing

My thoughts run empty.
I guess a lack of sleep hasn’t done me well.
Why do the kids next door seem to kill each other at the most impossible hour in the morning?
I feel there is crying ready to burst out, and the only thing I can think about is my mum, whispering in the background ‘I told you, when you don’t sleep enough you are always a wreck.’
She’s right again.
I want to run, need the peace within itself. And don’t find it at this moment.
I don’t think I am the perfect conversation partner although I really try. I just can’t.
This is me, this is where I block.
I’ve been running for everything and nothing. To stress about things that had to arrive into someones computer, to stress about things that did not arrive in my computer, to run and be late everywhere, and to wait for other people to be late at me.
So here I am sitting, silencing things. Having people around me, but not really being into the conversation.
Not understanding Hebrew can sometimes be very annoying, today it is only satisfying. I let the words sound like little bees buzzing around. I close my eyes.

I stop.
I silently scream.

And I take a silent walk outside.

To find peace within itself.

Posted on November 8, 2003
in Living in Israel

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'The Mother'

Sigal took me to this amazing movie.
‘The Mother.’
British Council has to decide to do an opening with this movie.
They should.

It is a story on a mother and a father, I guess they are like 70 years old.
Or older.
Suddenly the father dies, and the story of the mother gets told.
The insecurity of elderly people, what to do with their life, when suddenly security drops.
How their children put them away in homes, and how the seniors of today are still smart enough not wanting to be there.
Their life isn’t finished at 70 anymore.
It is about sex, about children, about being the babysitter, about modern society tearing the elderly into pieces.

I cried several times.
And although the movie was a little bit too long, the time was needed to tell the story.

It made me think of my fantastic grandparents. Who are always there. Any moment.
My grandmother called today, she‘s sick. But she is also sick of worrying about me.
She should know better, she knows that I am being taken care of. (Tamar, maybe you should write a letter to her…)
Their infinite love for me and for my sister and my little nephew.

They are still together. I guess we see it as such a normal thing.
But what would the one do without the other? How would they survive?

In older days, children would take care of that. Parents suddenly move to their children or vice-versa.
These things have changed. Elderly people go to homes, or service flats.
Stick to each other. Or get out of the picture.

I remember the stories of my father. He moved to his grandmother when she got to be alone. And while I think of it, I have to say how I am proud of such a thing.

Movies like this and living in a culture based on family values make you think on this subject.
How we have lost to take care because a system is backing us up.
But the system is not backing up on love.

When the day is there, I hope that I will be one giving that love.

Posted on November 8, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Blogging

My mum has sent me an article on blogging.
In the end the article mentions that blogging will become totally unuseless and will dissapear for that reason.

Why I blog?

Lees meer "Blogging" »

Posted on November 10, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Moved

(me too tired after unpacking boxes, and partying the night before...)

It is so funny, I've checked my latest postings and seems I have forgotten to mention about it: I moved.
Well, Sigal moved. She had had enough and moved to another place, with garden. So I moved too. After filling up boxes for days, we moved in a weekend, and after moving, we have been busy unpacking all those boxes.
In the weekend we did a little dinner for friends (with my lovely Sahar, with the still unknown Kerenka, and off course Tamar)
So now I live in this amazing nice flat, with a huge garden (unfortunately it has been raining last two days. Real thunder. Love it)

Truly funny that I forgot to mention, seems I have been so busy with everything and nothing, with events happening and more.

I only noticed when my grandmother asked my address. Wich Sigal will post in the comments. Because I still don't know it.

So I've moved 5 times in as many months. It is getting a habit...

Posted on November 11, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Brief voor meter

Dag liefste meter,

Mama vertelde me dat je je zorgen maakte, omdat de stem in de telefoon verdraaid Hebreeuws leek, en je er geen jota van verstond.
Het was dus absoluut niet ik, want Hebreeuws is nog steeds Chinees voor me (op enkele eenvoudige woorden na).

Op school krijg ik dankzij Tamar nu ook Engelstalige vertalingen van mijn klas, en dat is een hele geruststelling. Zo kan ik op het einde van dit jaar misschien wel een diploma halen...

Verder woon ik met Sigal in een nieuw appartement. Met tuin, om lekker in uit te rusten na een lange dag.

Sigal stelde voor om een vriendin die patchworkt te contacteren, en als je dat zou willen kan je hier komen logeren, je krijgt zelfs de slaapkamer als je komt.

Verder helemaal niets nieuws onder de zon. Yasser en zijn familie doen het nog steeds goed, en het is verbazend te zien wat ie al met karama, zijn organisatie, deed voor de kinderen ginds.
Dana, van Tamar, is supergegroeid en speelt nu Superman met me.

Vandaag ga ik het dansstuk van een vriend gaan fotograferen, overmorgen een etentje met de consul en zijn familie en later terug naar Daheisheh.
Om te fotograferen en te kijken hoe we het internet-project nu helemaal gaan aanpakken. Het leven op zijn gewone gangetje.

Heel wat werk voor de boeg dus, zij die denken dat ik hier op mijn gat zit hebben het mis.
(Ik kan je vertellen dat zondagnamiddag, maandagavond en woensdagavond ik les heb, dus dan moet je niet proberen bellen.)

Soit, dat was het voor vandaag.

Dikke kussen (en ik hoop dat jij al bijna genezen bent)

Ine

Posted on November 12, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Dinner at consuls

Héhé, not so many stories on the web lately, though they are in my head.
Too much to write them at once.

Last Friday, I was invited at the consul’s house in East-Jerusalem. For a dinner.
A magnificent house, with a beautiful garden. I am not so good in naming styles, but this one dates from the ‘30s. Straight lines, huge windows, light coming in like a waterfall.

This is the first thing that I need in a house: light.
Light that smashes on the walls on bright and shiny days, or seems to touch the walls very softly when dawn starts to fall.
The second thing I need: atmosphere, the knowledge that the house has been living together with its inhabitants.
The apartment I used to live in, in Ghent, had it all: a tall ceiling of 3.5 m high (for which my sister might leave the house due to a high energy bill) and windows with almost the same height. A character, build by the first owners and the one that followed. The ‘Grandeur’ of those days.

I guess I hope that one day I can afford to buy such a house. I never intend to build a new one. Although the one my parents build has this certain modernism I really like, I still prefer old houses.

And that’s what I saw in Jerusalem. (Except, this one, was way to big for me, I can’t imagine cleaning it. Or I have to find myself a very rich love that pays the bills for the cleaner, the gardener, the cook, etc…)

The consul and his wife took the great task of restoring it as it was known in the ‘40’s, with original furniture and everything.

With the great dinner on fine plates, the right paintings on the walls, and many other details, suddenly everything seemed to be happening in a different era.

And there I was, amongst.
Enjoying as ever…

Posted on November 17, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Long journey

(© by Yasser AlHaj)

Every time I take a trip to Daheisheh, it is a true adventure…
This Friday, Damascus Gate is full of people, more than on usual Fridays, because of Ramadan.
Muslims visit on Friday the El Aqsa Mosque. But during Ramadan, people that usually go to the mosque in their town, want to come to El Aqsa. So Damascus gate is full of old ladies and men, and other that got a permission to go to Al Quds (Arabic for Jerusalem)
Around 3 PM, everybody is hurrying up to go home, to be there for dinner. Since it will be the first time that day, they are allowed to eat.

So there I am, standing, waiting for a cab.
All taxi’s are gone. All the streets are full of cars.
After 30min, finally I get into a service taxi that will drop me at Gilo checkpoint, together with 3 busses full of people.
I am lucky and will be one of the first to get through the checkpoint
But there another thing happens: almost all cabs are gone.
I am lucky to be in Bethlehem, where there are Christians, that don’t do Ramadan.
So finally after 1,5h, I arrive at Yasser’s, where, off course I am too late for the meal…

Still it is like coming home. But I am truly exhausted and pretty pissed off about this long journey (for only 15km…)

Later Yasser and I will go to a bar, to talk about things in life.
While he drinks coffee and I enjoy a glass of red wine, he will change my mood and make me smile.
Later when walking home, we will find myself a nice car, and joke about it all.

I stare at the moon, let nice thoughts pass by, make a short phonecall to hear nice voices in my ear and smile.

Again I am the lucky one.

Posted on November 17, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Another dinner

Yasser looks at me: “My mother invites you for Ramadan dinner tonight.”
I don’t know what to do. I have to be in school one day later, don’t have much spare clothes with me. But what will I miss?
Everything…
I decide to stay. I will take an early buss in the morning.
Yasser smiles happy, when he hears this decision, tries to prolong my journey, but finally agrees that leaving in the morning is a good option.
So I stay for dinner, which one has to experience to know what Ramadan is about. (Check some pics here)
The whole family gathers in a house, where several women are preparing the food, while the children help to bring the plates, everybody eats out of one plate, and I can’t feel anything else then a true close community. You feel that people take care of each other. Totally different from our ‘western’ culture.
And while everybody is eating, I can’t stop taking pictures.
The family is kind of used by it now, but still they don’t understand how one can choose for work instead of food.
For me the hunger for good images is bigger than the food.
And when later, after the dinner, I am still taking pictures, Yasser drags me to another house.
‘They gonna slaughter a goat’ I hide behind the camera when taking the pictures. I can’t stand blood. I am the kind of person that faints when having a scratch in my finger… But the camera is a shield, a filter through which I can see things from a distance. And thus I stay and picture the event.
I feel delirious of all these things, first of all I know I have some good pictures, secondly the harmony that one can feel during these days is fulfilling.
Although the situation is bad, people seem to keep on going.

When the next morning I leave for Tel Aviv, Yasser comes to say good bye ‘I see you next week?’
Off course he sees me next week. You can give me all the money of the world, I won’t miss the feast…

Posted on November 17, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Brief aan mama

Dag Liefste Mama van de hele Wereld.

Jij mailt me dat ik briefjes moet schrijven naar meter, dat die ongerust is.
Maar vandaag schrijf ik liever eentje aan jou.
Gewoon, even.
Ben bijna een maand hier nu.
En wat voor een maand...

Vorige week op bezoek bij de consul en zijn familie. Superlieve mensen.
Ik denk dat het voor hen ook soms lastig is om in dit rare land te wonen. Leven tussen bommen en soldaten die door de straten patrouilleren is toch altijd even anders dan het rustige Tollembeek.

Daarna een totale switch: Yasser en zijn familie. Ramadan etentje. Zoals je je wellicht wel herinnert van vorig jaar.
Ramadan, waar je overdag niet mag eten, maar velen toch niet volhouden en in het geniep hun sigeret roken, of hun koffie drinken, of stiekem eten. Om je dood te lachen.
Fanatiek noemen ze dat dan. Het is allemaal veel realtiever als je het van dichtbij meebeleeft (wat niet wil zeggen dat er geen anderen zijn)
Yasser's mam vraagt iedere keer naar jou. En dan moet ik iedere keer opnieuw vertellen dat ik in december naar huis kom en dat jij wellicht in april naar hier komt en hen zal bezoeken.
Steeds weer is het allemaal een verrijking.
Laat vallen die centen, laat me leven met wat ik heb.
Geen huis, geen auto, geen kleerkast vol met kleren (op die van thuis na...) maar wel die culturele verrijking.

Gisteren nam Sigal me mee naar een joods othodox huwelijk. Je weet wel, die rare zwarte mannen, die je ook wel in Antwerpen ziet.
Sigal's zus is joods orthodox. Een hele uitleg hoe dat komt. Sigal's familie is een verhaal waard: haar broer is homo (en dat wordt volgens de joods orthodoxen niet aanvaard), haar zus joods orthodox, Sigal uiterst links, sommigen van de familie rechts. Zelf komen ze van marokkaans joodse afkomst. Kortom de hele complexe wereld in een familie.
En het mooiste van al: het is en blijft een hechte familie.
Ik denk dat het dat is dat me het meeste treft in deze cultuur: de hechtheid van families.

Het huwelijk was al even gek: mannen en vrouwen worden gescheiden door een soort muur. Waarna ze apart eten, en later lekker gaan gluren om elkaar toch te zien.
Ook de niet orthodoxen moeten dit respecteren, en plots zie je hoe al die mannen hulpeloos zijn zonder hun vrouwen... Elke 5 min komen ze even checken. Dan denken die vrouwen even een avond te kunnen palaveren onder elkaar. Mis poes.
En dan geheime afspraakjes tussen de muren door, met allerlei rare codes.
Opnieuw om je dood te gieren.

Ze lijken veel op elkaar die joden en moslims...

3 werelden op drie dagen tijd. Soms is het onbegrijpbaar, ongrijpbaar en probeer ik het duidelijk te maken aan vrienden, hoe raar mijn wereld soms is.
Hoe ik de kans heb om te switchen van de ene wereld in de andere, alsof ik door Barabas' tijdsmachine -plaatsmachine spring.

En dan als ik 's avonds in bed lig en denk aan alle rekeningen en alle andere zever, denk ik aan jou: dankjewel voor alles wat je doet.
Voor het lopen van ginder naar daar, voor het regelen van facturen en tentoonstellingen, en ander praktische dingen.
En dan 's morgens stuur ik dit mailtje.
Check je mailbox, er zit een kadootje in.

Kus.

ine

Posted on November 18, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Phonecall

Every week my grandmother calls, to check if I am still alive.
The same story today.
'We are connecting to the web', my grandfather adds.
'Why?'
Why, with their seventy something years old, do they connect to the internet, do they want to learn how to work with it.
'Because of you', is the answer.
I know that is not the whole truth.
They do because they are children of their time, and they want to be part of this next century, with its technology.

So soon, in a web near you: my grandparents.
Probably chatting with me, or trying to make a free overseas phonecall through Skype
I guess we'll be mailing instead of calling, from next week on.

:)

Posted on November 22, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Memory of a day...

After some amazing filled weeks, I took a day off.
Phones of the hook, mobile off, and portable disconnected and far away.
No running to places, not being late everywhere.
Just a quiet day, home.

And what a day...

Toda raba raba raba.

(Tomorrow the running restarts.)

Posted on November 22, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Art?

Yesterday I had a meeting with David Neuman, curator/director of Magasin3
He came to Bezalel Academy to give a lecture and do studio visits.

He had an interesting remark on my pictures: "They seem to be timeless and sometimes even placeless."

Never saw them that way. And off course when somebody says so, you start scrolling through your albums. To check.
I have to say, he has a point...

(Some extra info: Bezalel Advanced Studies can be regarded as the Israeli version of the Flemish 'Higher institute for Fine Arts' we get a lot of lectures by guestprofessors, from all over the world. Quite interesting.)

Posted on November 24, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Paralysed

‘Do you know where I am now?’
Her voice wants to smile, but I hear the break in it. I hear the tear that is stuck in a throat.
‘No, home?’
‘In the hospital.’
‘What’s happened? You’re ok?’
‘I am not sure. One half of my head doesn’t seem to feel anymore. But don’t worry, probably it is nothing, I’ll go for check up now, and call you back.’
I do not worry. I really don’t.
Till one hour later, I suddenly allow myself to think, to worry.
And the things I always was afraid of becomes truth: I turn out to be alike my grandmother.
Worried.
I wonder if I will become exactly the same. The one that calls me to see if I am OK, when a bomb in Istanbul exploded. Because she worried.
Anyway, I am worried. Send a short SMS, to see if there is news already.
No there is not, they didn’t enter the doctor yet.

Story will be continued…

Posted on November 25, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Safe.

When I come, in the late morning, most of Ramadan has passed, according to Yasser.
The kids went to buy toys (girls dolls, and boys guns, like everywhere in the rest of the world), and they went to see family.
For me Ramadan didn’t pass by. Everything that happens right now is Ramadan, and the feast. It is not something people ‘do’, it is something that they ‘live’.
And when I say ‘live’ I don’t mean the fanatic Islam, people are talking about in news.

It is a fact that the culture is different, from ours, and for that reason I talk with Yasser on possible futures.
‘Imagine.’
Imagine that Islam takes over in some parts of the world.
A thought that is not necessary ‘’utopia’, and probably it won’t be reached by war, but just by birth.
Every European country faces the fact that the population of Muslims tends to grow, while the other population grows grey, and their belief is rather ‘anonymous’.
So what will happen?

Lees meer "Safe." »

Posted on November 26, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Ramadan Feast

Ramadan is afgelopen, en net als in Belgie Kerstmis gepaard gaat met kadootjes, gebeurt dat hier met Ramadan Feast.

Omdat het leuk zou zijn iets te doen voor de kinderen van Karama, stel ik voor een actie te doen: 5 euro voor een kind in Karama.

Omdat het voor jou geen pijn doet in je portemonnee, maar voor hen een verschil kan betekenen.
(Het leukste zou zijn ze kadootjes te kopen, maar wegens lastige checkpoints en andere narigheden (taksen aan de grens etc.), doe ik het liever toch allemaal met bankbriefjes...)

Iedereen kan 5 euro storten via Pay-Pal (zie rechts), of mij gewoon geven als ik voor kerst en nieuw in België vertoef.
Schrijf een kort briefje (in het Engels) en steek het allemaal in een envelop.
Bij mijn terugkeer naar ginder, bezorg ik de organisatie de centen, zodat zij de kinderen een leuke uitstap kunnen bezorgen, of de huur voor hun 'gemeenschapshuis' een maand langer kan betaald worden.

Omdat alle kleine beetjes helpen...

Posted on November 30, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Apple geek

Being an Applegeek in Israel is a BIG MISTAKE...
My power-adaptor got broken and now I am looking for a cheap replacement.
This doesn't exist... Because... Apple is not very known in israel. Because... Microsoft doesn't implement Hebrew writing for Office Mac. And thus, all people that need a good office application buy pc.
Read more on it here and how even this becomes a political issue... -lol-

Secondly there is a monopoly on Apple by Yeda. And they are f* expensive...
So now I am here, my adaptor attached to my comp by rubber band, hoping that it lasts till Dec 22, when I return to Belgium.

Because it is cheaper there...

Posted on December 3, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Sick sicker sickest...

What does one do when sick?
Me, I read.
This morning, after some sleepless nights, I finished "La Prisonniere" of Malika Oufkir.

It is a book about a general's girl that was sent to prisonlife, together with her whole family for 20 years... Because their father did a 'coup d'etat'.
From life in palaces she is sent to hell, where they got no food and no real beds, being hold into the dark for weeks and months...

While reading this, you realize that this little cough I have is nothing compared what they had to endure all those years.

This story is prabably known by the generation of my grandmother and my mother, I only got to know this story through the book.

Wow.

Meter, if you didn't read it by now, run to the library and ask your sweet librarian to put it aside for you. (ISBN: 0553813021 for English, 2253148849 for French). Because I am sure you'll love this one.

Yalla, searching the bookshelves for another book now...

Posted on December 5, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Postboxes

I guess these days postboxes are getting a useless thing.
Except for bills and some advertisement, I don't seem te get a lot of mail there.
My mailbox on this computer is something else.

The world seems to be a small place.
My photoblog is visited by people from all over, and they are writing comments, mailing me.
People I never met, but yet sometimes get to see a little part of their life.
What is it that makes these communities interesting and addictive?
A common interest?
The idea of getting to know somebody who shares what you are busy with?

Yet, the mailbox outside of your house has something mystic. Now maybe even more than before.

While email is right here right now and immediately, mail by post, is slow, unpredictable and surprising.
A postcard from a far-away destination has this kind of adventure, which an email doesn't have at all.
I am not the person that is good in sending letters. I tend to forget them, or always say that I have to go to the postoffice to get stamps, half a year ater the letter is still there without stamp.

But more and more I have the idea of loving these stamps. Or the romantism that it contains.

Like analog photography. You don't experience the picture, the memory immediately, but you have to wait till this film is developed and processed.

So I initiate this little project: please send me a postcard from where you live.
I will post one back.

Ine Dehandschutter
Bezalel Academy
60 Salamestreet
66074 Tel Aviv
Israel

This project will be part of my exhibition here at Bezalel.
It has to do with pictures, randomness, thoughts,...
More on it soon. (First have to figure it out for myself...)

Posted on December 8, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Link of the day

Nothing really interesting to say today.

So check this link for more input: Ilkkaui Monen, a Magnum photographer.

Posted on December 9, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Forgot to mention

I have a new telephone number -dear friends, check your mailbox to know it-

And... Sigal's photoblog was mentioned on an Israeli site.
Wow she boasted immediately to the first place.

I guess we'll have some new subscriptions from this part of the world soon...

Posted on December 9, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Wall

Yesterday Kris Verhaeghen of Radio 1 called. To check how I was, and what I have been doing lately. And to resume what I will be telling on the radio.
On the S.N.O.W project. On Kosovo. If I visited the wall lately, if I have pictures of it. And more things like that.

That's the point where I start to doubt myself again.
What will I tell?
And off course I know there is enough to tell.

But in one way I want to look at all of this as on a 'neutral' way. Which in the end is pretty impossible.

For me the people I meet, are people. Not an Israeli, or a Palestinian, or a Belgian, or whatever.
And it is a fact that, where we are born, and how we live, which culture we belong to, will mark how we cope with life.

But in the end in this conflict the map above comes back: how are people supposed to live with it?

Just had a long phonecall with Tinne Verhoeven. Most of you will probably know her, because she was very often a telephonecorrespondent for the news of VRT. (Tinne is married with a Palestinian, lives in Ramallah with her children and her husband)

Again it is striking how both parties don't know so much of eachother.
Tinne asked me: 'Tell me, they really think they gonna be lynched if they come here, I suddenly realized this when I was in the airport last time and invited an Israeli to come over. He said that he'll be dead if he did so.'
Maybe Tinne should talk to some of my friends, explain her story, and vice-versa.
I don't know if many Israeli know how many checkpoints there are in West-Bank itself. And that every checkpoint has to be passed.
That going from Jerusalem to Nablous can take one 6 hours, even if he is a Belgian.

When last week, we were sitting with some Israeli, involved in the S.N.O.W project, together with the christian Arab lady of the BTC, I think the Israeli felt very ashemed of their people.
Ms. Matta was telling that she sleeps in Jerusalem during the week, to be able to go to work. She doesn't want to go through the trouble of the checkpoint every day. It makes her depressive. 'But atleast I am allowed to pass it.'

Most men between 16 and 30 are not allowed to go out of the village they live.
Probably because they are regarded as 'possible suicidebombers'

Tinne asks me 'They don't really get it, do they? They don't get that all of these things just make it worse.
When I am in the checkpoint with my boy of 6 and they kill some people, he doesn't understand. He doesn't understand why his grandfather has to give his oranges to the Israeli, because they are building a wall. I can't explain to him that it is nothing. Because it isn't nothing. Because grandfather looses his job, his land, and somebody has to feed the family...
How comes they just don't understand it?'

I have no answers...

(If you want to know more on maps, checkpoints, the wall, the conflict in general, from an indepent source, check the BBC coverage )

Posted on December 10, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Bomaanslag

From: "Marie France Coppens"
Date: Thu Dec 11, 2003 2:10:50 PM Asia/Beirut
To: ine.d@artichoq.com
Subject: bomaanslage

hoorde van een bompoploffing in centrum van Taviv...
Ook in Gaza zijn er kweddels
pfff...

No worries mom, I am alive.

Posted on December 11, 2003
in Living in Israel

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It is time...

Tori Amos is singing her songs, the television shows black, no noise, music in my ears.
‘It is time...”
It is time to go home, to feel home, to see friends, to enjoy their stories.
To enjoy family, and Christmas. Perfect food awaiting to be eaten.
I guess these things you learn to appreciate when it is all far away.
That’s when you learn to know the value of certain things.

What I miss? Going in the night to fetch French fries because I desperately feel the urge to eat them, walking the streets in Ghent, having breakfast at 4pm in the French bakery while the hookers drink coffee and the grandmothers enjoy their cake, sitting at a friends place, watching a video, with a glass of white wine, a baby-sit that jumps on me and hugs me to death, going to the flower market and bargain on the price, my grandmother that calls me to check on things and I that laugh myself to death, avoiding the questions, going to the shopping mall to buy things and end up with a bar of chocolate and bubbles and strawberries to eat in a park, ‘kriebelen’ on a back, lie in the couch at home, with my mom, watching a stupid series she is addicted to, and giving comments till she gets annoyed, go and walk in the woods with my singing brother, take my bike and the walkman and cycle near the river for an hour, lock myself in my room with a book and not come out till it is finished, put the music too loud and sing along when nobody is at home, driving a motorcycle to the sea, just to see it, a song in my ears and miss my friends on the other side of the world.

Posted on December 12, 2003
in Living in Israel

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How de body?

(with permission)©Teun Voeten

"Often I am asked if I don't get desperate from all the misery I expose myself to. The answer is a definite no. It is utterly amazing to see the strength and courage some people show in the most dire circumstances possible. The deeper the darkness, the brighter these traces of humanity light up."

out of "How de body" from warphotographer Teun Voeten

This photographer is amazing, and the book is a recommendation. -You can buy on his website- (recommended before and I do it again...)
After reading it, you get a whole new view on conflicts in Africa and how a documentary photographer isn't that 'romantic' as many think it is -Well that last one, I know by now...-

Anyway, he puts some of my thoughts into phrases, where I didn't find the words.

Enjoy.

Posted on December 14, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Francis McKee

So yesterday we had another lecturer: curator Francis McKee

He is a funny but interesting bloke, who knows a way with internet. Check this and click on the pictures.

The interesting part in his lectures are his way of linking within. At least what is interesting for me. He jumps from one thing to the other, but exactly that is what makes it intriguing (I am surely making a spellingmistake here...)
You kind of want to know what comes in between.

So we had this kind of interesting conversation on blogging, and if the blog is not a good exhibition place in the end.
I guess we sometimes need a wall.
But indeed I have to admit, the community of photoblog helps me to decide which pictures I might use or not, because the remarks I get make me see things I didn't see before.

Hope to see him soon on one of our blogs... Might be surprising.

Posted on December 16, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Flight home

Flying home soon.
Yes mom, I am arriving at 5 in the morning...
Poor you, poor me.

SN BRUSSELS AIRLINES - SN 3292
MON 22DEC TELAVIV YAFO IL BRUSSELS BE
DEPARTURE: 0110 AM BEN GURIO INTL NATIONAL
ARRIVAL: 0500 AM BRUSSELS
DURATION 4:50
NON SMOKING
L ECONOMY
ON BOARD: SNACK
EQUIPMENT:AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A319
SEAT 11D NO SMOKING
CONFIRMED DEHANDSCHUTTER/INEMRS

Posted on December 17, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Hallelujah...

Then shall the eyes of the blind
be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and
the tongue of the dumb shall sing.

Wondering when that moment comes.

Meanwhile enjoyed the music.
[Thanks Tmr, Moshe and Marlene.]

Full text here

Posted on December 19, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Hannukah in TLV Ben Gurion Airport

Taking a plane for Belgium.
Holidays became something pretty important to me and family.
When you are away for somemonths, these are the days that you want to spend home. [And yes, especially when it goes accompanied with presents ;)]

Having Hannukah in Ben Gurion. Only hours later Christmas will give another feeling. And home will be another home.

Posted on December 21, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Pour un meilleur monde

www.pourunmeilleurmonde.org
(by Thomas Laureyssens)

[Sigal you'll love this one..
Sigal and Yasser: they are still looking for a hebrew and arabic translation...]

Posted on December 23, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Christmas present

I asked before and I ask again.
Christmas is the time for presents.Why not give something to those who will really appreciate it?
5 euro. It's a cheap bottle of wine, a box full of crackers, a pair of socks, a 10-ride drive on the bus.
Or it can be pencils for a kid, or electricity for the light, a game of chess, or english classes for a girl.
You can make a difference.
5 euro seems to be nothing for us, it can be the nicest present for somebody else.

---

Ik heb het al gevraagd en vraag het opnieuw...
Kerstmis is de tijd van kadotjes, waarom geen kadootje geven aan iemand die het echt zal apprecieren?
5 euro. Een goedkope fles wijn, een doos crackers, een paar sokken, een 10 ritten kaart op de bus.
Of, een doos kleurpotloden voor een kind, een beetje geld om de electriciteitsrekening te betalen, een schaakspel, of engelse les voor een meisje.
Jij kan een verschil maken.
5 euro is een peulschil voor ons, maar kan het mooiste geschenk zijn voor iemand anders.

Schenk 5 euro aan Karama, een organisatie die kinderen van de straat houdt in Daheisheh, Refugeecamp:

Voor België:
Vertrouw je Via-betalingen per internet niet?
Stort het op KBC 747-0029782-30 met vermelding Karama nieuwjaarsgift.
Ik verzeker je dat het terecht komt op de juiste plaats.
[Mensen die me kennen mogen het ook natuurlijk aan mij bezorgen...]

Posted on December 27, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Flight confirmed

Today went to Connections to book a flight for TLV.
(hoped to see my friend Filip, who wasn't there...)

Flight confirmed:
We 07 Jan 2004
Departure 7:45 Brussels BRU - National/ Zaventem Belgium
(through Vienna by Austrian Airlines OS 358)
Arrival in TLV - Ben Gurion Israel 15:00 We 07 Jan 2004 OS 857

CU soon.

Posted on December 29, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Stuck

TMR was mailing: she's stuck in TLV, because of a terror alert.

Good news: Tel Aviv terror alert over

A terror alert in Tel Aviv was called off. The alert had been issued after intelligence reports that a major suicide bombing could take place sometime Wednesday and that the terrorists had already entered the country. As part of the alert, roadblocks were set up at all entrances to the city. A tire blowout in Tel Aviv was initially believed to be a suicide bombing aboard a bus, but within minutes police soon determined that it was harmless.

So yalla TMR, go. Have a happy New Year.
Still I do know that putting that nasty idea behind won't be easy.
So if it is only a movie for tonight: enjoy.

Also major terror attacks are forcasted for USA and Europe. (Probably this is what Bush aimed in order to get more votes for the next elections...)
Guess Ghent is safe enough to go to...

Posted on December 31, 2003
in Living in Israel

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Safely arrived

[clouds]

Hopped from rain (Brussels) to snow (Vienna) to clouds (TLV)

Vienna:

[Spraying our wings in order to have 'clean snowfree' plane]

Food on Austrian Airlines:

[I still don't know what it was...]

TLV from a distance:

Posted on January 7, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Telephonecalls

Time of telephonecalls is over. Grandfather and mother are definitely in chatting these days.
"She's running up the stairs" my grandfather writes. And after that "She'll write to you" followed by "Here I am" of my grandmother.

This little girl of 4 goes back to the middle age of telephonecalls, takes the horn and dials her father's number.

When I saw her lying, I wondered what will happen when she's 14... (remembering fights with my mother on too high phonebills, and we that had to work to pay off)

I had to take the picture. Burning onto disk how she and her mom can ressemble.
A little speakwaterfall...
A mo(nu)ment for within 10 years.

Posted on January 10, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Let's go to the sea

I remember it as yesterday: she, picking me up at the youthhostel after a terrible night (accompanied by several cockrouches). Not the person I had ever expected. Curls, smiling and probably younger and thinner than the image in my mind of an 'executive administrator'. An image build by telephone and email conversations.
In her sweet tiny car (full of scars) we drove to school.

'Let's drive to the sea', she said, after a series of sentences, one after the other, explaining why she didn't pick me up at the airport.
I didn't had to say anything. She explained a little bit bout the city, asked some questions but left the big 'Why' behind.

And suddenly after a series of houses, a turn, and the sea popped up.
A vast amount of water, quiet, simple. On the other side piles of towers, ugly.
But I only concentrated towards the sea.

My first real encouter with TLV. And with TMR.

More than a year later, TMR and I, in the same car, I hear myself say "Let's drive to the sea."

So we do.
Inbetween a vast amount of stories...
To much to tell...

Posted on January 11, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Absolutely Fabulous

They're back!!!
Eddy and Patsy, the hilarious duo, who always cheered me up when I was down. I have all the series on tape, and watched them over and over again. And every time I am crying myself to death with their hilarious behaviour.

From now on, this girl is sitting home at Sundays, to watch the new series.

Not without a reason...

Posted on January 11, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Interesting classes

My classes always turn out to be more interesting than expected. The speaker in front of the class might tell the most amazing stories, most of the time I don't understand a thing of it.
But I do find my interest elsewhere.
I never thought I'd be the dreamer of the class, the one that is staring everywhere and doesn't hear a thing, that is flying to other places in the world while sitting in an ordinary class room.
By now I am, without excuse, not without a reason (the hebrew...)
Again not understanding might have been the good choice, when hearing my class mates after the class, their class sucked, mine didn't...

(Written after a most interesting class by an artist on 'Mapping', my notebook is filled with wonderful ideas and remarks, and plans, dozens of plans...)(One of them is extending and realizing my 'Mapping of the world', and not counting in distance but in time, and thus realize a new map of reality, existing out of different layers, build by different persons.)

Posted on January 12, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Flashy

Have a lot of work this week.
Flash(y) photography.
Bought a brand new flash (because off course my CanonD10 doesn't support the cheaper/older models...)

I never kind of liked it, flash photography.
It is too surreal. But like every other thing in life, one day we'll have to do.
So I can better learn the advantages of it. And maybe start to like it.
(Have to admit, Tim, that this flash is superb. TTL makes it almost everytime right.)

But I am pretty sure that I will still like the natural light better.
Like this too soft light in a room.
Telling me nothing but white.

Posted on January 13, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Chat discussion

[©Sam Durant]

Some days ago I had a 'chat discussion'.
Somebody telling me that 'in America I'll realize what 'check up' means.'
I don't know if I'll be surprized (after being checked up several times here, and the worst one in Kosovo.)
So the discussion Europe/America came into the subject.
As said before I am not keen on the way of things there, and now.
This crazy war against 'evil forces' makes us wonder if the Cold War wasn't better after all. I mean, at least then we didn't have to wonder about possible bombings.

Somebody told me he was stuck in USA during Sept. 11. and was so happy to be in Europe afterwards: because at least the news was more on information instead on panicking.
I guess the panicking is understandable. After all these years, they are attacked in the place it hurts most: their own backyard...
But it is this panicking that causes what is happening now.
If people are afraid, they do crazy things...

Some days ago we had a lecture of an American artist from New-York.
The most common question asked here is 'Why are your works political?' and again it was asked. This time more with a reason and out of the mouth of a truly smart person.
The answer was not so surprising and yet: 'Because what is happening now in America, during the legislation of Bush. It is my world, I am living it and I have to say something about it. I can not avoid.'

Sam Durant seems to be one of the 'hot-shots', hyped artists in New York these days.
I don't like his old works so much, but the new are quite interesting, especially the series with the demonstration signs. Although didn't find an image of those...

A political work and yet so integrated, that it is not agressing you at all.
Guess this is what Bezalel teached me till now: looking for an other way to show things, so they are more easily accepted. And meanwhile still say what you think.
(Because whatever, whenever, I'll be still the foreigner giving an opinion, and whatever that opinion might be, I have to shut my mouth because who am I to tell this opinion...)

Posted on January 14, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Long day

This was a loooong day.
Working since the morning.
And yet not yet to sleep.
Will be horrible next weeks...

Photoblog.be, SNOWblog.net, Mo(nu)mentum.exhibition in Belgium, Vis a vis preparation, and Final Exhibition in Bezalel.

What else do we want?

Vacation... (N.Y. here I come...)

Posted on January 14, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Working

I am soo busy... One can't imagine.
For some of you it seems that I am stuck to my computer, but reality is different.
Since I am taking pictures for the British Filmfestival, I have been running around.

On top of that the first Snowblog class is set for next week.
I have to prepare that one (If somebody has classes for 12-years old prepared, please send..., I forgot mine in Belgium.)
Furtheron the radio station called and is coming within 3 weeks. (Fortunately this is the easy part)
The Kosovo exhibition is soon (and although I have to thank Bart for doing the hard stuff, I am still kind of busy with it.)
2 sites have to be finished soon, and Photoblog is growing too fast.
Not to forget the works for the final exhibition (although I have to admit: I don't allow myself thinking of that one yet.)

Shortly said: I LOVE this running around.

Guess I will allow myself a big bottle of champagne when in July I passed this year.

Which reminds me that there is still a big bottle in the fridge. We'll keep it for the first weekend of February: girls having fun, celebrating birthdays and one allowing herself to be OFF for 2 days.

Posted on January 19, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Things that make me happy...

A perfect fitting jeans
-especially when you get it as a present-
and a nice number on a bank account...
:)

Posted on January 24, 2004
in Living in Israel

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W32/Mydoom@mm

27/01/2004 11:05
Name : W32.MyDOOM@MM
Risk : HIGH
How: through Kazaa or in attachment in mail.
Recognize: mail subject 'Hi'

Again I am sooooo happy I am working on Mac and not pc...

Since 24 hours a new virus, that attacks pretty fast, has been infecting more than 300.000 computers.
Mainly in the US, but Belgium did well too -hey, we are a computer society...-.
I received some 50 mails containing the virus -though it is very obvious when a mail says 'Hi' that it will be a virus...-
Nothing happened since I am running a Mac -hehehe-
And I have to admit that my spamfilters will have taken more of those mails before I received them.

So see me going to NYC to buy a new beauty, and yes off course Mac again...

If you are unlucky and running pc, infected of not: more info on the virus here
(People in Belgium can always check the BIPT for latest virus warnings -well other ones too, since there is an english version-)

Posted on January 27, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Skiing

Seems it has been snowing in Belgium.
Well in Israel (in the north) is also snows...
Tomorrow this girl is going to ski ;)

Jihaaa. Can't wait to be on the skis again. Will charge my iPod full battery, good for 6 hours of music.

And then, watch and glide.

:))))

Posted on January 29, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Bus in TLV/Jerusalem

Today a bus exploded.
In Jerusalem.

I was sitting in a little bus -sherut- driving towards Petach Tikva, and some hours later I would take the bus home.

Taking a bus in this country is not like you do it elsewhere.
Elsewhere you don't think about it...

For me the first time on a bus in this country was CRAZY...
My heart was booming like a madman, and everybody entering the bus could have been a suicidebomber. You wouldn't believe which stress you're under, this first time.
The second time things went better, but all the ride, it is running in your head.
And you're looking at the doors who is entering.
After that I used to go and sit backwards, so I would not notice who entered, and if somebody would enter I would not know.
By now, I just take the bus. Once in a while, when needed.
Not any stress, not caring what might happen.
But still it is not, and it will never be, like taking a bus at home.
Because here, before, whilst or after, there is this little thought.
'What if...'

See the movie 'Too many busses'

Posted on January 29, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Redhead

©Sigal Cohen

Oh jeah, I have been skiing yesterday. I will remember...
-See my pumpkin-face now...-
Red red red, so red that Sigal forced me to go and see a doctor.
So we went to the hospital this morning, looking for a doctor who might add something new.
He barely looked at me and described a cream to put on the face.
And one advice: stay out of the sun.
So this is the main reason to provide you all with my ideas and links, otherwise I was probably visiting a cafe or a beach, since the sun is shining like a nice July-day in Belgium.

In going back home Sigal and I did this little game: she'd take a picture and I would make a variant out of it, and vice-versa.
Those pictures can be seen at my photoblog and hers.

Trying to build a camera obscura for my class next week, and preparing some documents, this is how a weekend day can pass...

Posted on January 31, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Red becomes brown?

Paul mailed me asking if the red turned brown.
Well it didn't do in my face...
The peeling is almost finished and I'll end up with a brand new soft skin.
But beeing on the skis for one day was worth it...

While I was going down a hill, Belgian radio called: 'Do I disturb you?'
I smiled and answered 'Well if you have a minute so I can stop skiing...'
She didn't believe me, we both started grinning. 'How can you ski in Israel?'

The proof?
Soon in pictures on my photoblog

As for now, I take 2 days off.
To rest, to sleep.

Posted on February 4, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Answer on the question: Make me a poem.

This is a story...

This is a story
About three girls
A jeep
Cameras
Smiles and mo(nu)ments
Driving through unknown roads
into waters
in circles, straight lines
and numbers
A journey that started
long ago and changed us all
A story of girls and a jeep
and more journeys to go
Love and friendship
Words and night talks
Morning coffee
And more...

Tamar and Ine

Tamar.
Palm.. as sweet as honey
Palm.. my source of information
Palm.. straight and irrect
Palm.. to give me shadow and protect.

Ine.
Here she comes with the charming smile
Here she comes with her creative mind.
Here she comes as a surprise.
Here she comes and makes me smile.

Ine, Tamar, with all my love.

(Three girls on a journey..)

Posted on February 7, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Weekend

Three girls on a weekend.
Girls in bubbles.
Bubbles in a glass.
Bubbles in bubbles.

And smiles.

Posted on February 7, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Back in town

A weekend away from everything, except from good friends.
That's what life should be more often.
Tx for superb days, with unfolded treasures in little boxes, hidden like suprises for more beautiful days.

Posted on February 8, 2004
in Living in Israel

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[A cup of love...]

[for u...]

Posted on February 8, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Looking for little lights in the dark

The sun goes down, I watch a fireball go into the sea, and some later the little lights of the city.
I won't be able to explain all of this, but a year ago all of this seemed a different world.

Coming from the other side of the world, with a certain media-made image of this country, I had to learn that the reality is different from the image I had.
To me all of this is usual by now, but for those at home, living in Israel still seems a heroic thing to do, with bombings and Al Qaida, hanging around somewhere. Sometimes it is hard to get back into that original image I had, but sometimes I should in order to understand the others again.

Busy building an exhibition which will be based upon the different between an image of reality and reality.
A hard task...

Where before I was always in search of what was, now I am in search of what is not.
A total different approach.
And looking for that is a search in the dark...

Posted on February 9, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Radio 1 arrived

Some months ago I was contacted by the program 'Buitenlandse Zaken' of Radio 1. If they could come for some days and do a radiointerview.
Off course they could.
And then the journalist feared coming, because of bombings.
Something which is for me a far-away reality, but in Belgium head-lines in the news, and thus a kind of fear, which I truly respect. Another journalist volunteered, Ann, and we started mailing, arranging everything.
Her questions made me come to the thoughts of yesterday.
And while phoning today, some days after she arrived, the words came up: 'The idea we have of this country is so different from its reality.'
I was so glad to hear those words.
Frankly speaking, the interview a month ago was nice, but always everything went back to the point: 'How can you live with the bombings'.
A journalist should have been here to make a relativation of those facts.
There is more to it than this.
Ann asked me to have an interview with Ruth Hiller, the woman behind New Profile
I came to meet her more than a year ago, and wrote a little article on her.
THis story is a different story, one of Israeli fighting their own system, not agreeing with what is happening in their country. Yes, they do exist, they are only not heard.
So, next week, Ann and I are going to her, to have an interview.
Another approach of trying to comprehend what is happening here.

I gave up on that last one... grin.

Posted on February 10, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Upside down world

I sealed my studio, taped the windows with aluminiumpaper, darkened the whole thing.
And after that, I made a little hole in the paper, letting a little circle of light into the room.
A wonder happened: an upside down image appears on my wall. Showing the outside of the sealed room suddenly as a moving still on the white wall.
My own camera obscura.
A test for my final exhibition.
An image of what these years have been for me: an upside down world.
Because all the images I had before have been melted to the ground and after that I could slowly start to rebuild them again.
Next to it, it is an upside down world, because this is in any way a crazy world, where rich countries attack the poor, without a reason. No guilt has to be proven.

Where are we heading for? I don't know.
With our feet in the air and our head on the ground... things might look a little bit more fun.

Posted on February 10, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Valentine dinner

[© by Dana Finegold]

The bell rings, the door opens, and suddeny this lady runs to me, jumps into my arms, kisses me.
I am lost. Totally lost.

And in her impossible language she starts to say amazing things I don't understand. But I can't do anything but smile...

The rest of the gang looks at us, smiling. They don't understand either.

I look at TMR, have this thought of asking if I can buy this little lady, but then I silent things and enjoy the moment, the hug.
And Dana keeps on charming everybody the whole evening. Throws kisses, turns butts, takes pictures, and finally drops dead in the sofa.

Inbetween we had an amazing dinner at home, with friends, eating too much of Sigal's great food.

What Valentine is about? Having the ones you love around. I couldn't have wished for a better evening...

Somebody asked me what Friday 13th means in my country...
My answer was: it can be anything.
Today it was everything.

Posted on February 14, 2004
in Living in Israel

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The wall

'The wall is a statement.'
'Why didn't you say this in the interview?'
Because. Just because.

Who am I to judge?

We are building walls, maybe the real ones are less dangerous
than the ones that are growing in our head...

Posted on February 16, 2004
in Living in Israel

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I am living in a perfect world.... ;)

I want to call Tamar, to start laughing and tell her what a fucked up world we're living here.
How did I ever decide to come and try to comprehend what is happening here?

This morning I met An, An is a journalist from Radio 1 Flanders. And we have had some short telephone calls and some longer mails a while ago, Radio 1 decided to send a journalist to Israel.
So we have set up some meetings, I tried to arrange an interview with Ruth from New Profile, and a guided tour in Daheisheh Refugee Camp.
Although I wondered if this would turn out right, since Yasser is in Europe for the moment.

This morning every thing that could go wrong went wrong... I couldn't get to my travelagent for the New York confirmation, so I didn't know if to go to the bank, so I missed my bus and the next one was delayed, my smsses to An didn't arrive which meant she was waiting for me, etc...
On top of that I couldn't reach Tamer in Daheisheh.
I decided once again that the road is the journey, and I hoped that An would have the same idea about that.
When we met in delay and for the first time in real time, I knew that wouldn't be a problem. She, for sure, is a traveller too.
So indeed in Daheisheh we had to improvise, and the point of view of the women in the camp seemed more interesting than the guided tour.
We managed to have things translated in poor English, but anyhow, again also for me it was interesting.
Once again Amal wouldn't let me go without food...
I guess they were impressed by the radiotools, because they said less then else, and they not knowing we would come were not dressed up for the radio so for sure next time they'll kill me for that. Grin.

The situation of the daily life difficulties were nicely introduced by occasional things said. And the funny news and really unexpected is that Gulud is engaged!!!
I was truly surprised and didn't know what to say suddenly.
All these months we never knew...
I remember Yasser telling me some months ago that he was suspecting something like this to happen, but as if it was an unwritten rule, things were kept secret. Funny.

Anyhow, I dragged An through the camp and from that place to the wall in Jerusalem. I guess also me was wondering if to go so, but when we arrived, both were impressed.
I never really bothered to come, because this part of the wall is only like a 100 meters long and so many times pictured for the news and other papers, that it is not really representative to me. People forget that the wall is not one line of concrete like this. Anyhow, some days ago, when driving from the north to home, I reconsidered that opinion after seeing a bog wall like that being built next to the highway...
The part I saw today was not a wall, it was a statement. 8 meters high concrete walls. Protected by army. Filmed by different crews.
And only a hundred meters further a smaller wall being crossed by Palestinians, coming on and off, students going home, mothers with babies arriving.
Amazing and unbelievable.
And ironic. Because this ig concrete wall was still allowing people to pass.
Which raises the question of its use...

Next stopover Tel Aviv, I tell An to prepare for a cultural shock, she only saw a little bit of Tel Aviv on arrival, in dark. I'll bring her to the centre of town, where nobody goes to sleep...
Changing minivans, walking busy streets, suddenly I see the questionmqrks in er eyes. This are the situations once imagined never to do. 'Never go into a cafe, neverwalk busy streets, never...' I recognise myself some time ago. I lasted a month, now I seem to have forgotten all of this, and it takes me some time to adapt.
Suddenly I realize how it is to be an Israeli and every time to be remembered that people fear this city.
Anyhow, when we go for a fast food, An prefers to sit outside -which surprises me again- I tell her about these thoughts and adaptations, we share ideas on our visions before and after, on which image news build of this.
I smile inside.
I try to convince her that things are better than she thinks, and we walk the streets til I drop her near the hotel. I guess the shock will run her mind for a while, and the sleep will come fast.

As I try to walk home I just pass one corner to see that the traffic is jammed and everything is stopped: police are controlling the area. I guess there is a bomalarm.... Indeed, a little cute robot comes out of a policewagon and drives towards a busstop to take a little box. Slowly turns it around as if it is playing with it. The tension is high and the curiousity too, people are watching the scene from far to close...
I am so relieved this happened after I dropped An. I guess this isn't encouraging to sleep only 300 metres further, and a first night in Tel Aviv. Anyhow this is one of the so many false alarms in this city.
Suddenly the lttle robot turns in a horrible monster, shooting the package, that indeed didn't turn out to be a bomb.
The end of an operation that probably costs around 2500 dollar and caused a trafficjam.
Meanwhile behind us a woman in a bus gets crazy, she wans the bus to go on, and starts attacking the driver, taking over the wheel, horning, until the police comes.

I look at the scene, look back at the robot, watch us all standing there, and start laughing out loud...

We are living in a fucked up world....

PS: An, sweet dreams

Posted on February 16, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Skiing in Israel

What a memory...

Posted on February 16, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Radiosilence

Going to Gaza and Rafa the next days.
Internet will be difficult connection.
Stay tuned.

Posted on February 19, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Out of radiosilence...

Back in town.

Posted on February 22, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Bus explosion

Coming from Gaza city, going back 'home'
When I take the bus at 8.30 in the morning, the news is already on: a bus exploded in Jerusalem.
'There we go again...' is my first thought. And indeed we go.
The radio keeps on telling the same story for hours and hours. In fact it is still on. And when the special report ends, the newsflash begins, continues with a next special report.
Reporters near the scene have to add something, with a panicking voice, while there is nothing to add. 'A bus has exploded.' That's it.
7 people died. Horrible.
But yesterday in Gaza, 3 people died in a shooting. As horrible.
And the boy that is lying without any special treatment in the house, one room big, is as horrible...
News has changed the last years.
Israel shows loops in his images. Images of a reporter running to the scene, and in the scene nothing to show, so they loop the running. Panic.
Panic that feeds the panic of the people...
The same situation is growing in Belgium.
The reporter in Bagdad, the guy that was always to late in the scene, or wasn't even there.
The reporters in the proces of the murders of Cools. They are waiting in front of the court. Most of the time the newsreader switches to live scene, and the proces is still busy. So the reporter adds: 'They are still busy'
And then to fill up they start repeating everything what was said seconds before in the news.
Instead of spending all this money is expensive radio equipment for live broadcasts, I want real information, backgrounds, stories, documentation.
Probably it would cost as much and add something to the news.
Now I just turn off the radio/television. They don't have anything to say, although their 400 channels...

14.30... News. 'a bus has exploded....'

Posted on February 22, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Afraid

People ask me if I am not afraid to live in this country, to go to certain places where you know it is pretty dangerous to be.
It is funny because when you are in those places, most of the time the ‘battlefield’ can be only a few km away, on the place you are standing, live just lingers on.
I am prudent, and watch very carefully what happens. If I think the situation is safe I will go on.
Some days ago I was in Rafah, near the Egyptian border. The shooting is frequent, and when, at night, there are no gunshots, children wonder what is happening.
Near the wall, there was no shooting at the time being, but I wouldn’t risk my head out there.
I don’t need a bullet in my brains.
If I was scared? No. I wasn’t.
But the night before going, my night sleep wasn’t peaceful, and my neck was full of stress.
So fear seems to be coming from the unknowing. Once you know it, you don’t have to fear anymore.

I guess the thing I am most scared of is to come to the point where I look at my life and have to view back on things. That at that certain time, I look back and think I’ve missed it…’
I guess I am afraid to miss life.

And maybe that might be my drive, making me travel, go on and try to live it to these limits.

Posted on February 22, 2004
in Living in Israel

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A report on Gazatrip

A reader wrote me, curious to know more about Rafah…
Well a short report.
I don’t have words to describe.
I really don’t.

Posted on February 24, 2004
in Living in Israel

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X-rayed

After a too long radio silence I am back...
And I'll SCREAM to you.
The only thing I'll scream to you is: never fly El Al.
Just had the most annoying check up ever. After flying on frequent basis to Israel, after being checked up a thousand times, and most of the time being checked up profoundly, this is probably the worst time ever...
ALL my bags were checked, if they could they would have ripped the thing open.
Every single thing was opened and even my wallet was checked on every single paper... -I don't even know if this is legal...-
This time they managed to take my photo material 'because they wanted to do a check up on the material'
I could cry... I had to let all that stuff there, on top of that I have to go and arrange things to get it back.
Off course I didn't agree, told them that I was there for 2 hours and they had time enough to check it. I screamed, I was angry, nothing helped.
There nice 'tactic' is very simple: we keep her as long as possible and let her have the choice: leave the material or miss the flight.
Again I had to run for my flight, and yes I was assisted, even to the toilet I couldn't go alone. Imagine. Outside of the door there was a security assistant.
This is why I think their security sucks. By now they should now who I am and what I do. My camera went through security several times, several times in and out Israel. They can see those stamps. I just arrived from NYC where this camera came along and was checked as well -There you just have to show that is is really working and not a fake thing- I am a photographer, have student visa, student cards and the whole thing.
What do they need more?
What will they do with the camera? Open it up?
For sure I am making a complaint about this.
This is why people don't like to go to Israel. The fuzz is just to much.
The joke of the Messiah is the best in this case; 'Do you know why the Messiah didn't return to the Holy Land? They don't let him in.'
Forget the duty free shopping for Tamar, forget the surfing in the hotspot area of Brussels Airport...
On top of all this, you are the last one to get your ticket and thus you get the worst place: in the middle. So forget about the sleeping. -Reason why I am typing this now-
You'd almost wished you had a bomb with you, just out of frustration.
The tiredness of the NYC trip is still in me, and this happening to me is the last thing that had to follow. By now I feel to do a internet campaign to boycot El Al.

This is a promise: I NEVER fly El Al again. They can even give me a flight for free.
They can keep their bullshit.
And to you guys: just be prepared.

A perfect alternative: SN Airlines, great food, nice stewards, and normal security check up.

Posted on March 4, 2004
in Living in Israel

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X-rayed part II

It was not enough that I had my personal guide to go to the toilet, or that accompanied me to the plane. A plane that missed his place in the row because 'security reasons', because of me a delay of an hour...
Not only I got the worst place in the airplane, probably a disguised security guide was somewhere close to me (El Al has armed security guys on every flight)
No, it was not the end.
Upon arrival in Tel Aviv, I got to know that my photomaterial would arrive 'after the weekend'.
Thank you very much El Al. What a professional way of dealing with things.
For me this is the 5th time I arrive in Israel, I have friends and the luck to have a third and fourth home here. Imagine you are a first time visitor.
I can tell you that last night, for me, they could bring my bags and my stuff, and I would have turned home never to come back. It felt so disgusting and not welcoming. Even if they were polite...

I guess it just made me more furious. The feeling of being chanceless.
Suddenly I started to understand the Palestinians a little more.
The anger you feel, because they are there and you are here. And they do what they want, and you can say whatever, nothing will change.
I guess it is the same in a checkpoint...

And they really divide the world like that: 'they' and 'us'.
So what do they expect? That we keep on talking as 'We'?

If only they'd realize how they make an impression of their country.
How terrible it looks to be welcomed like that.
No wonder tourists don't like to come anymore.
Don't blame the terrorists. Blame yourselves.

Posted on March 4, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Pourim in Israel

All these little kids walk in the streets, dressed up, going from one party to another...

View little movie (a .mov file, needs Quicktime)

Posted on March 7, 2004
in Living in Israel

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X-rayed part III

For those who wondered: Yes I got my camera back. Yes it is still working...
But the nice big scratch on the back wasn't there before...
El Al can expect a 'nice' letter from me.

Thank you all those who helped me contact them to get things on the fast track. (TMR, Arie, Sigal, Gal,...) And thanks for the others their support.

Posted on March 7, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Plato's Cave

“And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: - Behold! Human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.

I see.

And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.

You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners. Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?

True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?

And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows?

Yes, he said.

And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them?

Very true.

And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow?

No question, he replied.

To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.

That is certain.”

Out of Book VII of Plato's Republic

Posted on March 8, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Busybusybusy...

Snowblog.net should launch very fast...
More news soon.

Having great pics here, if only my scanner would work.

Murphy's law???

Posted on March 8, 2004
in Living in Israel

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In the air

I guess I told you guys some time ago that Radio1 dropped by to do some interviews...
Well here they are...

-Download m4a on Abu Dis (4mb)
-Download m4a on New Profile (4mb)
(©Ann Rootveld for Radio1)
(You'll need iTunes or another application to play it.)

Posted on March 9, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Long nights...

Long nights, longing for sleep.
A bit restless.

I guess I am getting less and less good in doing 27 things at the same time. I’ll finish allright, but having tasted the other possibility –namely doing one thing a time- made me question the first thing.
I love clean desk, I love to have a kind finished things, and lists.
That’s why probably I love also these little wonders called notebooks, you close them and suddenly you have –almost- a clean desk.(off course only happens when you really leave the rest of your desk empty and not like me fill it with all kind of stuff that you don’t really clean up becuase you have to run)

Working on snowblog, preparing a class now.
It is too late, but heck, I’ll sleep long tomorrow.
Then post it into the photolab, and know they can have it ready soon...

The wonders of technology, I guess we’ll soon hate it. Suddenly everything has to be ready at once.
We got so used to it.
In fact being in NYC, being away from everything, even not so keen on seeing the computer, made me realize: I really can do without...
As long as I have the right company, the one that distracts me enough to let things be.
And off course it is different to be on a trip or sitting at home and able to really work.

Posted on March 9, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Dance...

Yesterday we went to Jeomes Bel last piece: The show must go on.
Truly impressed.
I guess it is a piece of much controverse. A lot of people left the show.
But those who stayed really enjoyed it.

Jerome succeeded in putting with music and dance images in your head that only have to do with imagination.
The viewer makes the show himself.

Great.

A little video...

Posted on March 10, 2004
in Living in Israel

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News today...

131 people killed in Madrid 'massacre' as several blasts rock train stations.
More than 400 wounded in rush-hour explosions on commuter train; no claim of responsibility; officials blame Basque separatist group ETA.

Who said again that I am the one living in the dangerous part of the world?

Posted on March 11, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Bombing...

Bombing in Ashdod, yesterday afternoon.
How do I know?
Because my grandmother called in the evening, panicking...

Yes I am ok, and alive.
No, you don't have to worry -considering to open up that cathegory 'Alive and kicking' again, to leave messages after each bombing.
Grin.

So today another normal day at school...
Catch u soon.

Posted on March 15, 2004
in Living in Israel

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School

For those who still wonder what I am doing here:
the Bezalel Advanced Program is this

(and Thierry De Dob from Brussels is in fact Thierry Deduve... ;) )

Posted on March 16, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Her car broke down...

... so she took the bus.

In the evening she told me: "It has been at least 3 years since I have taken a bus. Imagine, when I got in, I started to think... Where is the best place to sit?
In the front? No, if a suicidebomber enters, it is in the front. In the middle, no the middle is not the best place, since there it mostly happens. The end? The blast out gets there. Maybe the front, since the driver almost every time survives..."

She is an Israeli, taking an ordinary bus...
Today, she could have been as well a Spanish lady, or a New Yorkish bloke...

Strange way we are heading for...
And yet, still, to me, it feels, like we are making our own enemies.

Posted on March 21, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Strange things

Indeed strange things are happening...
Fear is going high. Will the killing of this Hamas-leader mean something? Or will it pass?
I guess we can’t forget what happened when 4 years ago Sharon provoked when walking in front of the Al Aqsa mosque.
Is this happening again, but now after 4 years of terrible labour?
Is this fight heading for a real fight?
I don’t have a clue, but it seems that the clashes can follow...
On a bus in Jaffa (near the place where I live) people got wounded, in Ramat Gan, the north of Tel Aviv, a guy with an axe went crazy. In Gaza thousands and thousands of people were walking the streets. This will go on for the next three days of mourning.
Gazastrip and West bank are closed, no one in, no one out...
Stay in Tel Aviv, people advice me, but maybe, and for sure according to yasser, I would be safer there. Would I?

My main concern is the effect of these acts...
They can reach far beyond.
Today this already happened, in Basra, Iraq, some people attacked the British troops, yelling the marter’s name.
To me this act is nothing but feeding the hate.
Every normal state would try to solve this in a decent way, by recapturing the guy.
For sure there would be a possibility to.
I condemn the act.
Why? Because the consequences are influencing the world.

Many times I hear: wait until this terror comes into your country.
Nobody needs to make it come into my country, not this way. Feeding the hate.

Today I really had an interesting talk with a teacher, who said that what happened last year on my presentation was something what reached beyond her imagination. Teachers who saw the pictures I took in Daheisheh couldn’t detach them from their idea. They simply could not understand I saw things differently, without giving a certain co-notation to it.
Although last year I didn’t care about their impression, this remark is a kind of relief. That indeed I was right in a way, that I still can show.
Because those who thought differently, didn’t speak up that day.

It is the same thing with this: the action has happened, but I hope many that unfortunately don’t speak up now, don’t agree with what is happening.
A friend of mine in Belgium said: I hope those Israelis are in the streets tomorrow.
They won’t, they are just to scared right now.

This is what appears to be a nation led on fear...

Posted on March 22, 2004
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The news today...

©Ikziejegraag.org

Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was killed at daybreak Monday when Israel Air Force helicopters fired missiles at a car carrying the wheelchair-bound head of the radical Islamic group as he left a mosque near his house in Gaza City.

Hamas leaders vowed Monday to "cut off" the head of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, after their spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was killed in a missile strike by Israeli helicopter gunships in Gaza City.
"Sharon has opened the gates of hell and nothing will stop us from cutting off his head," leaders of the radical Islamic group vowed.

And then suddenly this news on the radio: www.ikziejegraag.org. Simple but o-so needed.
Art can be simple...

Maybe we should do this one in Israel too...

Posted on March 22, 2004
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In the air again

On Saturday, Radio1 broadcasts the interview with Yasser's grandmother (and me :) ).
Will be interesting to hear I guess, certainly after the recent events...

Tune your radio: www.radio1.be from Saturday on the web.

Posted on March 22, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Heaven is far away...

My mother isn’t coming to Egypt. No more free flights to Sharm El Sjeik, some days ago.
(I guess that won’t be a problem anymore, since I truly believe that many people will cancel their flights. So mam, check it out. But then again, maybe you want to be on the safe site too, so stay.)
The full impact of her not coming is something that stroke me minutes ago, when opening the fridge, seeing whats left over from once a big cote d’or collection.
She won’t be there to refill it again...
And suddenly I want to call her.
Please come. Don’t let me here, without chocolat. I really need those bars of heaven.
To close my eyes and forget what is here. To close those eyes and end up on the back of the elephant in the commercial. To have the taste for hours, to feel it melt on your tongue, slowly, creamy. And for hours you don’t eat anything else to leave the after taste in your mouth.
To feel heaven even when heaven is far away...

(more heavenly ads here)

Posted on March 23, 2004
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Out of Haaretz...

Assassination and its price

The Yassin assassination was justified, no less so than American assassinations (which have yet to succeed) of Osama bin Laden and his cohorts would be justified. But "justified" does not mean necessary and wise: To say something is "permitted" does not always mean that it is "worthwhile."  

Conclusion:
For days, in the immediate aftermath of the assassination, Israel will be forced to remain on high alert against the possibility of a wave of terror attacks, and expressions of rage in the territories and among Israeli Arabs, and perhaps in Islamic states. It is to be expected that the assault by the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security service on Hamas leaders will continue in this period. But the true measure of the decision to assassinate Yassin will be seen in months to come, after the storms abate: The wisdom of yesterday's assassination is to be measured by the extent to which moderates on both sides consolidate their positions, and the conflict moves from a stage of escalation to one of reconciliation.

The article here

Posted on March 23, 2004
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Update situation

Soit, riskeert u maar niet te veel, anders wordt ik ook nog ongerust.

My sissy is mailing me, now I know for sure that the news is telling the worst at homeplace...

Here there is a kind of tension in the streets, a silence before the storm.
You can feel it somehow.
I was wondering yesterday, if I was the only one, but in the evening I had a meeting with a journalist concerning the SNOWblog project, she made exactly the same remark.

So, they are sending missiles from Lebanon.. If it wasn't for my grandmother I wouldn't have known...
They are shooting the Gaza shores.
They are preparing higher security alerts.

Within 3 days we'll know more, I have the impression that nobody nowhere knows what will happen, and only when some strong person will decide something, something might happen.
But then again, there is no longer a real leader on the Palestinian side, and I don't expect the Old Man to call for a war.

So we'll see, like we always do.

And sweetest Oke, remember how you panicked last year with Iraq.
It is the same now.
I am ok. Don't you worry to much.

Posted on March 24, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Suicidal...

According to defense establishment figures, since the beginning of the intifada, there have been 29 Palestinians under the age of 18 who carried out suicide attacks, and 22 others under 18 who carried out "sacrificial attacks" - in which they opened fire and were killed - in the territories. Forty others under 18 were arrested on suspicion of intending to carry out attacks.

This is why US and others should invest in education and not in war.
War feeds hate, education tries to explain.

This is what we try with SNOWblog, explain that there is an individual hidden in every person.

The whole article here

Posted on March 24, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Kosovo

Last summer, i went to Kosovo.
I remember me saying that there was this certain atmosphere, which was in fact worse than in Israel.

By now I don't know which atmosphere is worse...
But this doesn't tell good things...

Posted on March 24, 2004
in Living in Israel

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New update situation

Israel en Palestijnen lijken te wachten.
Dat is wat Yasser me gisteren vertelde
Maar op wat, dat lijken de meesten voorlopig niet te weten.
Dat er iets op komst is, lijkt een onontkoombaar feit.
Hetdagelijkse leven gaat overal gewoon door, maar ergens is er die ongerustheid, onzekerheid.

Tel Aviv, vrijdag, de stad is leger dan anders. Meer mensen schijnen thuis te blijven, terwijl anderen er zich dan weer niets van aantrekken.
Dit is een realiteit al een tjdje lang, dus waarom het zich aantrekken?
Een vriend van me: nu zal er twee weken niets gebeuren, en net als we denken dat het voorbij is, dat alles weer terug 'normaal' is, dan zal het toeslaan.

Niemand heeft een geoie uitleg voor wat er recent gebeurde, de moord op de Hamas-leider Yassin
Dat e niet zuiver op de graat is weet iedereen, maar dat was Saddam evenmin, en die leeft nog...

Net nu Hamas, Fatah en de andere partijen zwaar aan het discussieren waren over wat te doen als Israel Gaza zou teruggeven, net nu slaat het IDF toe.
Net nu Hamas enigzins bereid was toegevingn te doen.
Niemand wordt verwacht nog te geloven wat Israel hen belooft, ze handelen immers steeds anders.
Het is niet een tegenpartij waar je kan op vertrouwen.
Maar dat zelfde argument wordt gebruikt door deze tegenpartij/ ze doen nkiet wat ze zeggen'

Yasser vertelt me dat Yassin gematigder was dan zijn tegenhanger.
Ik vraag me af wat gematigder is, dat ie minder zelfmoordenaars stuurt?
Maar laatons even niet vergeten dat Hamas vroige zomer een staakt het vuren verklaarde. Het antwoord uit het andere kamp is dat dit staakt het vuren ook snel werd verbroken. (volgens Hamas omdat Israel zich niet aan de beloftes hield)

Dit is een oorlog zonder winnaar, waar twee kinderen oog om oog spelen
En steeds minder ledematen overblijven in deze strijd.

Posted on March 27, 2004
in Living in Israel

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In the air again, part II

FInally the interview for those who missed it (in Quicktime format)
Download here (some mb's... so be patient)

Posted on March 28, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Paashazen via Paypal

Paashazen bestaan.
Ze opereren nu via PayPal.
Dankjewel Guido!

Posted on April 4, 2004
in Living in Israel

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What happened?

What brings one to sleep all day, to hide in the cosiness of a bed?
I jump immediately into the little cocoon in the bed, look for the warmest place, heat it up and stay there, hide for the day.
I close my eyes and start to dream, while still awake.

This is what a bed represents, next to be a place to sleep in, moreover it is a place to hide in, to ordain the books in my mind library, to wander around, look it over, touch the books and sometimes take one out to read some parts in it. And then find a link to another and in the end of the day you find yourself still there.

I look around me and see a pile of books. Opened. Left open on a certain page. And different from other books, the books change when you enter them. Sometimes they tell the story of a day, but the next time the same story contains more details, and the event becomes less important than those details, how the bottle was opened, or in the background this person appeared, walking with the dogs. Like your eyes focussing on different things.

Today I scrolled through the different houses I have lived in.
For that I had to go to the stories that happened there. A love, a hot summer and people sleeping in the hallways, a grandfather helping me moving from the one place to another.

All to bring me back into the different rooms, to see the interiors, to feel the wood of the floor, to see the holes in it, to take the dust away that has been gathering there for the last 7 years…
The way my television was placed and the memory that because of this television everybody came in the evening to my place, to lie in the bed, together and watch pathetic series.
Or the mirror, where once, after strange herbs, my face started to seem like somebody elses.
Or the door with the little board on it, one morning saying ‘I love you’

I guess we all have these memories. They slowly but certain fade away. They become a book that can be eaten by the mice in our memory-library and suddenly you find yourself holding nothing but dust, instead of nice memories.

That’s why some days, I hide, and time and space just turn out to be a trick of mankind, a try to organize what cannot be organized. Those days time doesn’t exist, once again it is proved to be particularly made by people. I am sitting in one place while meanwhile I am elsewhere.
I am busy taking the dust out of my books, busy chasing the mice away.

Posted on April 8, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Passover passed

And I am back...

The sun is shining like a Julyday in Belgium. No reason to stay behind a comp then...

Posted on April 8, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Interview with Erez

Just had an interview with Eres form Y-net, on SNOWblog. And Photoblog.
And some easy chatting.
It was fun to talk with another 'blog'addict. One which you don't have to explain what blogging is about.
And most of all one that is realistic enough what the dangers are...
Erez told me that he is doing this amazing project. After 2 years living in his neighbourhood, he realized he knows nobody and thus started to interview the people, take a picture and post te stories on the blog. (www.israblog.co.il/erez)-don't bother if you don't read hebrew..-
'Because there is more to life than sit behind the screen.
He is sooo right.
When we ended the interview, I wrote this, will close the pbook, walk outside and not touch it for the next 2 days...

Posted on April 8, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Home is...

Unlike my friend who thinks of moving to Costa Rica, and who thinks Belgium is a sad place, I do love Belgium.
I never intend to really live abroad. I will always have that brick in my stomach, aching to have a place in the country I was born.
Maybe it takes one 2 years to realize the really nice things about the home you were born...
Friends, family, and then the little things that make life so comfortable. So 'home'...

Like a good piece of steak with french fries and mayo, baked by your grandmother, or spagetti bolognaise by your mum, or the french fries from the 'frietkot' around the corner at 3 in the morning, or the shoarma place near the Fridaymarket.
Or the good parties in the Vooruit.
Or windy afternoons in spring and autumn. Or even a night with your little sissy, just in front of the tele. Or your little bro that has grown 4 inches again...

I guess the food is someties the thing I miss the most.
Last week I was walking through the supermarket with TMR, looking for these little things, like Cote d'or, or green gummies, or little banana candy, or a cheap bottle of champagne, or french cheese, or normal french bread. Or chocolate bread. Sonething that makes home home.
Everything was different...
Only few things ressemble what we have, and when they do, they are sooo expensive.
I ended up with Nutella.
And while everybody tried to convince me I have to try the Israeli choco, I became deaf, buttered my bread, closed my eyes, and was home home for an eternity tat lasted few seconds.

This is why being home will be great. To me shopping never has been a great thing, but it is one of the thins I'll appreciate when being back.
Sigal says I miss home. Maybe I do. Maybe a little bit. Maybe it is time to move on again.

The great search for 'peace within' has to continue, soon.

Posted on April 11, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Happy Easter!

One of days that you'd wish you'd had the sun of here and the atmosphere of home...
Reaching for the impossible.

Posted on April 12, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Quote

"Travelling is a lovely thing, the loneliness with unknown people in unknown places, beware to keep your energy for socialising, smiling, shaking hands, telling your story, the truth or the untruth. But sometimes you will meet an angel around the corner, an angel you will never meet again. When I am back, that's what I remember."

M. Kitty 'Sur la route'

Posted on April 14, 2004
in Living in Israel

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News today...

I think, the more I get to know, the more I want to close the television, get rid of the news and live a life far away from it...

Posted on April 18, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Holocaustday

Today was Holocaust day.
Sigal warned me for a noise that might come.
A minute later she jumped herself, when it started.
A minute long the sirens went on, making us stop for what happened so long ago.
Cars stop, the world stands still to remember.
The noise of the alarm immediately brought me to 44, the noise you hear so often in movies on that time.
When opening the window, the siren turns out to be just 20 meters away. No wonder…

The last two days all the movies showing on all channels are on the Holocaust. On the camps. On the sad stories.

And while the television shows us how in the 30s and 40s people were indoctrinated with the ideas of the SS, I wonder how much we are indoctrinated now.
By the television by movies like these, telling us how evil the people can be...
Like the game the American Army invented, where American soldiers are fighting against 'terrorists', clearly moslimfundamentalists...
Is it the task of an Army to make such games?

Posted on April 19, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Final show

I guess I look a little bit dizzy.
Cought by the sun and busy with the final show.
Still some solutions have to be found and in one month it is all happening...
This strange stress before everything comes falls over us.

These are the days that you wished we were one month further...

But then again, what would I think that day?

Posted on April 19, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Hamas-member killed

And again phonecalls from home.
'Everybody says that I am crazy but I wanted to hear you anyway, and yes, I know it is happening in Gaza and not in Tel Aviv.'
My grandmother sounds worried as ever.
How can I explain that we just go to the beach? How cruel this might sound?
Because we don't know what this army with its crazy leader decides to do.

Should I feel pity for this 'terrorist' / 'freedomfighter', when he orders people to explode themselves?
It is against all my ideas to support one of them.

But then again, I don't agree with this brutal killing either.

I am not a believer, not religious, but the ethics that lie in religions have a truth.
'When we become killers ourselves, do we become better than the original killer?'

Israel is very clear on its politics. They will exterminate Hamas before leaving Gaza. Because they can not permit itself not to do.
Because this is a nation of fear...

When I see the mourning on the killed leader, and the guns that are in the streets, and the thousands of people that are in rage, I don't see the persons behind it anymore.
It is a pity.
Because it shows the world only a fragment of the reality.

When I was in Gaza, some time ago, I could feel the hate, but next to that I also could feel the fear, and the desire for a normal life, just like everybody else.

Is that a strange desire?

Posted on April 20, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Blogging De Standaard Update

Well.
The interaction between blogs is the interesting part in blogging culture.
You ask, you say, you give opinions and get opinions. You share.
And sometimes you even get behind all that and get to know the real person behind.

My reaction to de Standaard blog was really appreciated.

Lieve, it's vice-versa.

Standaardblog, with this blog linked :)

Posted on April 21, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Graduation Show - Images are empty.

Images are empty, without the necessary context.

It is a statement. Is it true? Or not?
I question it, don't know the answers.

Does this image change when I say it is taken in Gaza Airport?
Which 'emotional' interpretation is added?
Does the meaning change?

What is the difference between hanging this picture on a wall in a museum, or printing it in a newspaper in an article?
It's context or lack of context?

Personal answers can be mailed to me and are greatly welcomed.

Posted on April 21, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Memory days...

These days in Israel are a series of ‘holi’days.
I don’t know if they are perceived as festivities so much since the history of this country.

Today is Memorial Day (after last week’s Holocaust Day), this day is a sad day.
All the died soldiers are remembered.
And since Israel never stopped fighting, many people attend memorial services.
Almost everybody has family that died in a war.
The war of ’49, the war of ’67, the war with Lebanon, or just dying in this everyday life of what they call surviving.

It is probably surviving. Since there was never one peace treaty accepted and thus there are a lot of ‘enemies’ to face.

Tomorrow it is Independence Day.

I guess this day became so important to them, after the holocaust, and after the several fights to keep their established country.
Flags are all around and are been sold in street corners, at traffic lights, in special shops that only sell flags.
I still don’t understand it, and heavy discussions with friends and acquaintances don’t make me ready to accept.
Maybe it is the view of ‘European’ like some say.
But to see them show so much that they are ‘Israeli’ is a strange thing to me.

When I come to think about it, I never saw a lot of Belgian flags on our independence day.
Last year I wrote how happy I was to see that Gent decided to do something special for the ‘new Belgians’ that day, the integrated immigrants.
And when I am honest, being abroad for so long, I realize how proud I am to be a Belgian. Raised in a democratic system, with a history of being occupied for so many times and yet established to be an independent country with very liberal thoughts.
How I believe that our kingdom stands for ‘reliability’ We are not doing so bad, I truly believe.
And of course there are things not to be proud of. But yet, we dare to criticize.

But never, never in my life, I imagine myself showing this proudness by carrying a Belgian flag.

Belgian flags are there when we win an Olympic medulla, or when the national football team wins a game (once in 20 years) and cars in the streets are showing how happy they are.
Or when the king and the queen do a parade and assistants of the royal team give everybody Belgian flags (because few will bring from their home)

And yes I am proud to be a ‘fille de Flandres’, but again, I never see myself walking with the Flemish yellow-and-black flag. Simply because the connotation of that is ‘nationalism’ and with nationalism ‘racism’.
It is that flag that the right-winged party, recently accused to be racist, carries around all over.
It is ok that the government and official instances show that flag. You’ll never see it labelled on me.

Posted on April 25, 2004
in Living in Israel

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The world is yellow?

Israel is going crazy because their favorite basetball team has won.
Really sadly it hurts to me.

I left my friends in West Bank, I could leave easily, for them it is impossible, the borders are closed.
Because of a basketball game...

My parents always teached me that my freedom reaches untill it starts to limit the freedom of others.
This victory tastes a little bitter for that reason.

(And I really don't want to hurt people by saying it, but it is just what I feel.)

Posted on May 2, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Dissapeared

I dissapeared. Somebody is whispering it through my email.
I am indeed silent. but yet not.
A life not lived in the internet is going full speed.

Last week I was finally at Yasser's place.
Although very busy it was enlightening.
Gulud got married.

Unlike our marriages this has a total different atmosphere.
Here one gets married and therefore leaves the house he has been living in during all his life.
Not so easy as we perceive it.

Truly interesting and showing what family can be about...

Gulud, success.

Posted on May 5, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Thiefs...

I don’t have so much in this world…
I managed to reduce ‘my luggage’ to a (still huge) 30kilo.
Containing the most important stuff in my life:
A power book, extra disk space, a digital camera, old analogue ones for back up, lenses, an I pod for music for the soul and some more general stuff.
All of it fits my backpack. And makes me a light traveller, a modern globetrotter, a digital nomad.
But surely I don’t wear it all the day…
Yesterday they managed to break into the house.
Everything is stolen. The cameras. The computer. Everything what made me a digital nomad is gone (except luckily me, what was hanging on my back on the moment of theft)

It made me realize 2 things: a good insurance is opportune in this world (thank you KBC, and thank myself of thinking about these things in advance, so now the damage is still there but less huge…)
Secondly we can live a life that is based upon 30 kilo, and even if 15 kilo of that is stolen, the world moves on.

A remark: one hard disk (of the 2) was saved, they didn’t see it. Both hard disks were bought to back up stuff, in copies, for if one crashed or one was stolen. My theory proved right.
All my pictures I took the last half a year are saved. (You don’t realize how relieved I was to see that there was one left…)
Digital management of files in a main back up will become important.
Me, I am running to a hard store, to buy with my last money again a second hard disk, to copy everything.
And a bunch of dvd’s to burn this same amount of info. Because when it’s gone, it’s gone.
Nobody cares about your info when they steal your stuff, and it is in captured in your tools.
(None of the negatives taken was stolen…)
If this hard disk was gone, probably I was now crying… Months and months of work –digital pictures for exhibitions and magazines- gone.
Lucky me, it is not…

What hurt most? Not so much the money that is gone (I will get part of it back, but surely not everything...) What hurts is my analogue 85mm 1.8 lens that was stolen. And a little watch I bought in Lebanon. The first very old but expensive in value, the other as old but cheap.
Both irreplaceable, I will never find one of the two again…

Yes, you can pity me.
But pity Sigal even more…
All her camera’s and computer are gone too, she is not insured.

Might be a strange request: but yes donations are welcome this time...
To enlighten the pain.

Posted on May 6, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Follow the red line, he says.

Follow the red lines to the second floor, and report what is missing there.
We get into grungy offices, where piles of paper hide office doors, leading to three women.
If we can make a report here. The three of them start to talk simultaneously.
Argue. That we have to go back.
Sigal whispers: we are just another file in the row… Never anything will come back to us.
All the hope indeed flies by seeing these unordered piles.
We follow the red lines back down and follow the blue ones instead.
There a little blue lady asks us ‘Yes’
We have to copy the list I brought, and then they put stamps and give out the forms for the insurance.
“that we went to suspicious camera shops in the city and that they were selling a stolen digital camera”
‘Well lady, I have to disappoint you, things like these come in 40 times a day, we can not help you.’
The last drip of hope just flew out of the office where people should make you feel secured.
If the cameras will come back, it won’t be through 'The police, your friend'...

Posted on May 6, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Heat

The heat falls over me. This is how I remember the Middle East. Too hot, too sweaty, but 100% the Middle-East.
A cloud of humid doesn’t seem to get into the air anymore, and wets every step we take.
I smile. Walking trough these streets where herbs are sold, I breathe and eat the perfumes.
Indulged.
If only the writer of ‘The Perfume’ could be here… He would be able to describe so you could taste the same thing I feel.

Posted on May 11, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Wireless blogging in a cafe

I am sitting in a cafe near the sea, drinking a coke and meanwhile surfing the web...
This is what life has become. We are living our future today.
The wire-access in the school is awful, my desk had dissapeared and working is hell.
So let's jump to town and be in the fuzz busy working.
Off course it is very a-social.
But hey I am enjoying a certain atmosphere and meanwhile I am working, chatting on the features of PhotoBlog, talking to my mom on the phone, accessing the helpdesk of PhotoBlog to solve people's problems.
Who said that working is boring?

Anyway, why I am writing this?
Because I just read this:
De steden Leuven en Hasselt worden in een zogenaamde 'hotspot' getoverd. Via een hotspot kan je met een pda of een laptop draadloos het internet op. Een hotspot maakt gebruik van de wifi-technologie. Vlaams minister van economie Patricia Ceysens en haar collega voor technologie Dirk Van Mechelen stellen dinsdag het project i-City voor. Met i-City zal 'overal' in Hasselt en Leuven draadloos gesurfd kunnen worden, aldus beide politici.

Update: Vlaanderen investeert 1,8 miljoen euro in het project. De partners leggen eveneens 1,8 miljoen euro in de schaal. Het grootste deel van het geld wordt in een studiebureau gepompt.

Imagine:free internet all over town.
When are they hotspotting Ghent?
Imagine sitting in the Blaarmeersen, with your laptop, and meanwhile working. Wouldn't mind.
Can concentrate anywhere...

Posted on May 11, 2004
in Living in Israel

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A journalists job...

As a guide and consultant living in Bethlehem, Palestine, I have regularly coordinated visits for groups of Westerners coming to see Palestinian reality with their own eyes.

Almost always those visitors felt afterwards that what they saw did not correspond with the image of Palestine they had before. Somehow the impact and scope of occupation were never really understood except after experiencing it first hand.

Why? Lots of causes are at play here, but perhaps none is so important as the influence of the media. I think three main factors have to be considered to understand the impact of the western media on the popular image of occupied Palestine (the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip):

The work situation and cultural background of Western journalists working in Palestine and Israel
The presentation of the news about the region, and
The boundaries of the debate within the media.

Read the article here

Posted on May 15, 2004
in Living in Israel

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My opinion?

A friend asked me yesterday if I would recommend people to come to Israel.
Well...
The last months have been very revealing. Showing another side of the story.
A story that is not led by the people I know, but by the people in charge of this country.

Some days ago I was standing on Rabin square, in a manifestation. The organisation claimed that there were 100.000 people. We had to laugh.
Later in the news, according to the police there were 150.000 people.
Strange that a similar amount of people at the Eurosong in Istanbul was only containing 20.000 people.
But hey, it made the news a day later: 150.000 people in favour of leaving Gaza.

Only few hours later the troops got into Gaza, into Rafah. 150.000 people fled out of there houses, afraid of being killed by the huge Merkabahs. (Israeli tanks.)
One of the biggest offensives since '67 according to CNN.

Is this showing that they want to leave Gaza? I don't really understand it.
And where were the 150.000 demonstrators?
Nicely watching the news, because, hey, they went to a demonstration, they do what they could...

The first smart words said by an American women on BBC came later that night, the Middle East specialist in Washington, saying that these things are not going the right direction.

That this way, only more suicidebombers are born, and more hate is generated.
That this is not the way.

If we all know this, why is it happening?

If the news says that Sharon intends to leave the settlements, but I see that now the army is protecting the settlers.
That in many settlements they are building.
What am I supposed to believe?
That they want to leave Gaza, butfirst attck it, as if they want to destroy anything what's left and then leave the people homeless.

What am I supposed to say?

I truly don't know.

Posted on May 19, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Hectic...

That's what life is these days... :)

Posted on May 19, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Flying

All images©Tamar Eres

What a birthday present...

Posted on May 23, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Too busy

Too busy to write my personal life now, the exhibition opens tonight.
Everything is ready. -it really is... Everything is up and running. let's cross fingers for tonight...-

Yesterday I managed to cut a piece of my finger...
In the stress of everything, we could go to the hospital, get it fixed. As if there was nothing better to do.
I am now running around with this bandage, like E.T.

E.T justs want to go home now, and sleep...

PS Thank you Boaz, for your help, so I could finish everything in time.

Posted on May 27, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Update

We made it through… I am still alive. And the opening has started, and PhotoBlog Is launched, and the SNOWblog’s first real gathering was a success.
Not that the days now will be more quiet… (The next SNOWblog gathering is in 15 days, my paper has to be finished in 15 days and PhotoBlog’s helpdesk is a non-stop activity.)

But let me make asummary for the last days, since some of you might be eager to know.

Snowblog needs some more lines than the 4 of some time ago.
The two classes that erer meeting each other on line were going to meet for the first time off line. A whole set up in the one school, with mutual mixed games and a meal were carefully prepared in the weeks before.
And while the kids were getting nervous to see each other, we were to see things realized.
On the day itself, we saw little youngsters, nervous, not knowing how to really meet each other, turning into people that have contact with eachother and were playing like they knew each other already years and years.
People changing addresses and walking arm in arm. Or playing football together.
The sight was stunning.
Somebody told me it is still a long way to go, that the work is not finished here.
I agree totally, BUT in the whole way to this point we managed to realize some little things:
Some kids in the class were touched and interested, some of them learned something of the language of photography and might question it when they see the news, some of them ameliorated their English and many of them were happy to meet the others.
And this little detail will explain the importance: only days before, the Israeli kids were afraid to meet the Arab kids, because of what was going on in Gaza.
This fear might be the main reason not to meet each other, and make a bigger gap, to build walls.
By such meetings that wall might get a hole inside, where people look through and just see other ordinary people. And that was what they forgot, that there are just other ordinary people there…
To me, this realisation for the kids will be crucial in further life.
When I hear one of them say in one of the first lessons: ‘How can you say she is beautiful, she is Arab…’ and in the last event see the same one play football with his Arab friend, then I think there is more accomplished that ‘just a meeting’
It is true that such events have to be repeated, since people tend to forget, and tend to get into the fear-system.
Just another reason to keep the project going. Follow it here…

The launch of PhotoBlog can be explained shortly: we went for a paying module, for the main reason that we can not keep on paying for the servers for more than 15000 people… or the more than 60000 visitors/day
As head of the helpdesk ;) I keep on track on possible bugs, or tiny misunderstandings, or in general explaining what is already explained somewhere on the site (mostly in the faq’s people forget to read…) With more than 100 payments in 3 days, I guess we are on the right track.
Some minor changes in the formula will be changed after a profound check up.
Keep happy blogging.

The graduation project… Sounds like the Blair witch project and when looking at my finger, this is what it turned out to be…
Graduation shows are always the most tensed periods in a school-life. Suddenly everybody is trying very hard to be the best, to get the best spot, to show the nicest thing (something which in Belgium is very not done to say this, but in the end we are all ‘strebers’)
In Tel Aviv things are not different.
And the same as everywhere, also here, some people tend to do a lot, others manage to get away from it all and just take care of there own stuff.
It is the moment of truth, to see who is really part of the class and who is just a visiting student.
Anyhow, after weeks of stressing where works will be hanging, finally everything was hanging.
And the Camera Obscura in my room was perfectly working, at day.
Openings tend to be at night, so the last days I had been busy trying to solve this problem. Which was for sure easier to say than to do.
All the teachers seemed to know the solution, but many don’t realize the real power of day-light.
Anyway, the night before the opening we (Boaz and I) were finishing the extra hole in the wall in a ‘nice’ way, when suddenly my finger decided to be between the paper and the knife.
My other hand off course didn’t realize this and was working with as much power, to finish things in a perfect way.
Well, my finger was perfectly cut, I have to say.
Suddenly the top of my ‘pointing finger’ was pointing to the rest of that finger.
And I couldn’t do anything but curse. And afterwards head for the hospital, where an ER scenario doomed up, except that the whole ER room seemed empty and I was the only one to take care off. When the sweet nurse took my pressure, and had put my cut finger in a bowl full of something, I loosened up. I was safe and maybe something would happen, but at least they seemed to know what to do. That’s when suddenly everything was white before my eyes. Maybe it was a lack of sleep, maybe a lack of food, but I am sure my mum would say ‘You are just a sissy’…
The nurse took me to a bed, with my finger and the bowl, and there I was, lying in ER, as pale as one can be, eyes closed, and wondering where all those beautiful doctors were. It seemed pretty empty, compared to what they show in those series.
And next to that, most of all I was blaming myself, blaming for being so stupid.
I come to the Middle East, the boiled area of the world, where I visit all these amazing places, and other people declare me crazy to do so, and what happens to me?
Yep, I cut my own finger…
Great.
So now I am here, at home, with a piece less. They say it will grow. I guess something will stay behind (According to me it is a huge piece of my finger, according to Sigal it is nothing.
Again it is all in the eyes of the beholder I guess.) And yes it hurts. Especially when people hit it by accident…
So now, for an obvious reason, I tend to keep that ET-finger hidden from people.
As for the opening: it was a huge success, there was no space left for anything else. And I wonder how many people really saw the works in a proper way. The Camera Obscura turned out to be a frustration for the visitors, since when one was in and waiting for the eyes to adapt, other was glimpsing in and joining. But I don’t really care, they’ll come back, because this was a feeling for the whole exhibition: you were not at ease to see the works properly.
My works are being evaluated pretty positively, by teachers, students and the most important the visitors.
So yes, I am pretty happy about the end result.
Especially when there is this woman coming to me, and analysing the whole thing. And after the whole analyse, I realize she understood what it was about.
Two holes in a wall, two simple lenses in front of it.
It seemed simple and it is in fact simple (but you should have seen me in the preparations…)
And it just works.
So since that opening I am officially an artist… Grinning out loud.

Pictures of the exhibition will be posted soon.

Posted on May 30, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Press freedom?

Sunday Times journalist released and expelled.

28 May 2004 - The British journalist Peter Hounam of the Sunday Times was released on May 27 after being interrogated by the Shin Beth, Israel's domestic security services, for suspected spying in connection with his links to Mordechai Vanunu. He was expelled from Israel on May 28. He would henceforth be banned from visiting Israel.

Posted on May 31, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Shitshitshit

Apple Pbook screen faded...
Murphy in all sense.

Read you later.

Posted on June 1, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Apple at doctor

Snif :(

Back in some days I hope...

Posted on June 2, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Apple beauty

still not back :(

Posted on June 6, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Art critics

Only if you read hebrew...

Read it here

Posted on June 6, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Apple Israel sucks

Yes, I got my computer back.
We had to sign that I didn't accept any help.
Help??
Calling everyday, getting promises that weren't kept...
And the message that I would have to pay 45 dollars to open up the comp and then 300-500 dollars to fix it...
It was quite different from what I call help.
Not to mention the 'nice way' all of this was messaged.
Anyway, yes, I refuse 'help'
I will take it to my apple-center and be happy to pay there.
And I am pretty sure, their help will be different from here.

So yeda.co.il: get lost...

Posted on June 8, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Out of an article

Israeli militarism is about Israel's faith in this huge benevolent apparatus. The army is always described in terms of 'our boys out there', sons, lads, children, a poor, beleaguered David. That's us, the eternal victims. And the enemy is always Goliath, even the children who defied the IDF in Rafah three days ago and therefore had to die while demonstrating, empty-handed, in solidarity with the thousands whom the benevolent military had thrown out of their shacks and houses.

That same Sunday, 16 May, before the lethal convoy left on its way to Rafah, was almost a euphoric day among more moderate Israelis. On Saturday night, 150,000 people rallied in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv to call for peace, more or less. It was the largest rally Israel had seen for many years. The main speaker at the demonstration was Shimon Peres, foreign minister in Sharon's former government, a man for all seasons and suits. His excellent speech was broadcast live on Israeli TV, even on the state-owned channel, which has become almost a Likud station. Yet we shouldn't be surprised at the favourable TV coverage, just as we shouldn't be surprised that all three Israeli newspapers were very excited about the rally the following day, even Ma'ariv. 'We are not the Left, we are the majority of the people,' Peres declared. But that wasn't what the rally was about. And it wasn't about the IDF policy of daily killings: the strategy that ensures our war will never end. It was about the Gaza settlers and everyone's opposition to them.

It was only when soldiers were killed for no purpose other than to defend the settlers that public outrage brought Israelis to say: 'Something must be done.' This is a mode Israelis adopt from time to time. But this 'something must be done' always goes in two directions. The first leads to the demonstration square (and then back home). The second leads to the military operation that has just won ecstatic support. People in the West don't know that the demonstrators are people who love the army, that the peace movement in Israel is still deeply involved in the military love affair, that no peace demonstration in Israel has ever dared say that the military might be participants in atrocities or warmongering. The phrase 'war crimes' is not allowed at these demonstrations, because such words bring the army, not only Sharon, into the frame of 'evil'.

...

Since that attack, which turned into a blood-bath, there have been demonstrations in Tel Aviv every day. Not massive, but larger than before. Some are being led by Courage to Refuse activists. There were clashes with police, there were arrests, yet the majority of Israelis went silent again. The Supreme Court justices, the professors of ethics, the chiefs of staff: they might meet at a university seminar on 'Morality and War' or 'International Law and Terrorism'. But right now the army is busy.

According to the Israeli sociologist Alina Korn, there has been a ghettoisation of the Palestinians since the early 1990s. It's not bantustans that the authorities have in mind, but ghettos, detached from each other, dependent on Israeli military authority. The ghettos, which are already numerous, multiply, and the conditions differ from place to place. Ramallah is visible to the West, so life there is more bearable. Hebron is hidden. Rafah is entirely cut off. The Israeli army didn't kill the children in Rafah intentionally, it will be said. Who will remind us that for three months now, the army has been killing unarmed Palestinians demonstrating peacefully along the Wall that's going up in the West Bank?

Israeli families of dead soldiers or dead civilians get a follow-up, even on foreign TV, for they had a future ahead of them before they died. Did the Palestinian children who died in Rafah have any future? No. So they are dead, and it will be over in a few days. Palestinians don't get a follow-up, not even on foreign TV. Maybe there'll be a documentary movie, followed by some public discussion about whether to allow the movie to be publicly screened, or whether it's another sign of 'the new anti-semitism'. Nothing will be followed up. The Israeli army is secure. It calls itself the Israel Defence Force.

Yitzhak Laor is a novelist and poet who lives in Tel Aviv.

The whole article here

Posted on June 11, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Featured in Haaretz.

Yesterday Yossi came in, saying 'Hello Popstar'
Seemed that Haaretz published a long review on the show, with very very good critiques on what I was showing.
Jihaa.

Next week, we have jury, I wonder what the critiques will be then...

Posted on June 16, 2004
in Living in Israel

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The other side

Today I found this link.
A photoreportage of BBC showing the tunnels in Rafah.
Pretty interesting.
But to me, the most interesting is the link in the end, to the other photodocumentaries, showing the other side.

This country is having two stubborn sides, not ready for conversation only for confrontation, due to a lack of trust.

A true pity...

Posted on June 17, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Hebron diaries: Unusual photoexhibition

"[After the army] everyone travels to India and South America, they take the psychometric exams and hey - just continue on now and everything will be fine - we've forgotten the territories. I was supposed to be in Canada now working in a roof-tiling business - I have Canadian citizenship, too - but I realized that I could not go on unless I did something. I felt that I had to stand before society and tell my story and my friends' story."

Read the article here

Posted on June 18, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Saoudi's terrorized?

Yesterday following CNN for a while.
In a way it is a joke.
The only headline was this American in Saoudi Arabia being decaptivated.
I agree, it is horror, and I have to admit, my plans to go to Iraq have faded a little since that last decaptivation.
(I couldn't bear the idea of sitting there and knowing that they cut of your head...
True horror.)
But the news reports are so empty. Everything is repeated time after time.
The rest of the news vanishes and they suddenly jump to Bush to ask for his view on the matter.
Well then you can start to cry. For him this act stands for the 'evil powers of the enemy we are facing'

This is when I refer to David L. Altheide's “Creating Reality, How TV news distorts events”. A publication of 1976 saying the same thing as what we see today.

Maybe it is us who give the power to the terrorists, by giving them so much attention.
I am pretty sure, if the attention on Berg being captivated in Iraq hadn't been so huge, the Saoudi El Quaeda wouldn't have thought of doing it again.

Somewhere picked from a blog: I agree fully--if he [Johnson] isn't dead already, they'll take delight in killing him, because the feedback they get from such a thing is how much it breaks the spirit of Americans. True, this is a tragic happening, but the mass media, in my opinion is responsible for this type of event repeating itself. What we are shown on television is the angry terrorists and the sobbing, weeping (translated in the terrorists' world: WEAK) Americans, calling for an end to the violence. If the portrayals on the evening news were reversed--demonstrations in American streets demanding vengeance for our slain civilians and servicemen, and by contrast the terrorists being flushed out of their hiding places and groveling for their lives at gunpoint, perhaps we'd see a difference in the way these groups target our people.

Food for thought: I am under the impression we have within the U. S. some of the most cunning and skilled hackers in the world, some of which are in custody now for their actions. Why not let them work for early release by doing what they do best---and shutting down the websites where these videos and pictures crop up. Without a way to disseminate such media, the terrorists wouldn't get nearly the worldwide response to their actions they now enjoy.

Another food for thought on the 'objective news we get' is this
"The third biggest newsfeed in row is the Pentagon, the American ministery of Defense.
The influence on the American and Western opionion is huge, especially in times of war and peace, who is a threat for who and why.
"
This quote isn't mine, it comes out of Jaap van Ginniken's “De schepping van de wereld in het nieuws” (Creation of the world in the news)
Something to make you think about.

Posted on June 20, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Jury verdict

Francis McKee came to me today.
In his funny sweet Irish voice he said: ‘Hejj Ine, congrats with your wurks, I rreally like th’m. Good jub. After the critics during dinner everybody talk’d about it. Ronald Jeunes lik’d them too.’
I smiled and thanked him. Happy inside.
Somehow there was doubt for me, after the jury.
Always there is doubt, because we cannot take a distance from the scene. ‘It was not bad, but was it good?’
It was good it seems.
It was not bad at all J
And I wonder why this matters so much. Why does it always have to be good? Why do we want to be the best?
Anyway, I am happy. In the first place because I widened my borders. Doing this in my school in Ghent would have been a joke. I remember the one classmate that dared to make an installation. He really had to push that all the way. He was the first one. And yet supported, he was not having a tutor from within the department.
Here these borders vanish and people let you do. Maybe you end up on your face. Maybe not.
The feeling that you really achieved something is nice then.
It suddenly came to me, during the critics of Karine, that this is exactly why it is hard as well.
Karine made a kind of ‘club’ within her works. The club made her able to classify things, and show as many aspects as she has.
We can not longer be divided in a painter, a photographer, a sculputurer (the amount of students that cross the borders of their studies are the proof) But how do we want to be defined?
Ronald Jones said in an earlier conversation ‘Why do you want to divide between a documentarist and an artist?’ To me a documentarist is an artist, but yet different from what we generally accept under the definition of ‘an artist’.
What I made for this exhibition cannot be defined as ‘documentary’ I guess.

The funny thing during this jury: in soo many of the critics the history of Belgian painting came back. How it established, and grew. How it influenced. How one refers to it. All the time.
And I realized indeed, we have a long history of art that influenced the opinion of art.
Why in almost every conversation here, Marcel Duchamp pops up?
And yes we had a lot of art history in school, but always we started with Lascaux, instead of in the 19th century in our own country…
I happened to study in the same school the Flemish School studied and teached. And when I walk through the buildings, you can feel this kind of atmosphere of long time ago spirit.
Maybe that’s why I fell in love with the school in the first place.

Posted on June 24, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Graduated again ?

Heck, I graduated.
I did. (well almost...)
Only days after I realized that a decision in Belgium changed the value of our diploma’s.
I studied 4 years of Photography, giving me a, literally translated, Master in Fine Art, option Photography. But technically it is not an MFA (Master of Fine Art). Nonono, they could not give this to us. So this means that I have to do another 2 years of studying to get it…
And why would I get a Masters you wonder? Why not?
IF I ever want to teach it gives me a better wage. That’s one thing -not that I really intend to teach, don’t worry-
But studying is just fun.
Anyhow, the studies start not yet, so we have to wait atleast 2 more years, so I decided to check if I can follow it abroad. (England? Panama? Holland in the worst case scenario.)
I will be checking the scholarship department again ;)

Posted on June 24, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Heading for Daheisheh

Later today I will be heading for Daheisheh, to do a project with the kids.
Pictures to follow...

Posted on June 25, 2004
in Living in Israel

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The real danger of Palestinians...

-When they offer you a fresh onion and tell you this is traditional food and you should try it -and that it is very unpolite to refuse it-: DON'T DO it. They only will laugh at you and say it was a joke. (I didn't take it)
-When they want to show you 'magic' and put your head in a shirt, asking you to look up into the sleeve, DON'T do it, they will poor water into the sleeve... (Yes they had me there...)
-Don't let your phone lie around, it will dissapear and you'll end up looking for it, until embarred you ask somebodies phone to call yourself. (Yes, they had me there.)

Other stories are too embarrassing to tell... ;)

Posted on June 27, 2004
in Living in Israel

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The wall...

©Ine Dehandschutter, the Separation wall at Gilo checkpoint, the entrance with Bethlehem.

The part that is amazing is the fact that they have moved the border with more than 100 meters.
And more over, that they actually planned bus stations in front of the wall. (the station is already there.)
So foreign tourist can arrive with tourist busses and station them in front of the wall, then get out and visit Bethelehem -or the Jewish memorial that is there...-

Israeli goverment comments that the wall is ' a temporary solution'
I wonder if the finishment I saw is meant 'temporary'

Posted on June 27, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Point of view

I guess people sometimes wonder which position I take.
I am the photographer, the one who sees and documents.
It is not my task to judge.
In this story there are too many factors to play with.
This story is never black nor white.
Only thousands of gray...

Posted on June 28, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Hothothot

If I am NOT tanned when coming home in Belgium, it is because it is TOO hot to ly in the sun anyway...

Posted on July 3, 2004
in Living in Israel

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In Dheisheh

Last time in Dheisheh for a long time...
Saying good bye to everybody

Posted on July 4, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Lifter

Yesterday, in the evening I left Dheisheh.
Evenings are not so good, since the taxi's tend to go home and you end up a) without a taxi or b) in a veryvery expensive taxi.
If you have a bit of luck you can have a free ride with somebody. -Arab, since Israeli don't pick you up at check points...-
I seem to be the one with a lot of luck, a car stopped and took me to 'Al Quds' -Jerusalem in Arabic-
There the driver asked me if I wanted to have a drink, that's the point when I think of my mother's advice and friendly say 'no', but then he decided that he would take me to Tel Aviv.
I kindly refused, but somehow he convinced me. And yes, i was at unease, not knowing what would happen, could happen. And yes, it feeld discomfortable -but it would feel the same with any other guy that would take me-
The point is that in the end nothing happened and the guy dropped me friendly in Tel Aviv.
Without charging a penny.
During the drive we had interesting talks on life in general and life as a Christian Arab in Bethlehem.
It enriched my knowledge.

Risks worth to take. And stereotypes to throw in the garbage...

Posted on July 5, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Mossad

We, the Mossad staff, share the belief that:
Service in the Mossad is based on recognition of service to the nation, which we tender through identification with the nation's values, the nation's best interests and the purposes for which the Mossad was created.

In the course of our work we pursue justice, honesty, integrity, modesty, personal responsibility, trustworthiness, discipline and discretion.

We encourage excellence and goal orientation: initiative, creativity, resourcefulness and courage. We act with determination but are open to criticism.
The Mossad leadership undertakes:
To lead and to motivate, to accept full command responsibility and implement it constructively, to provide support, to lead by personal example, to delegate responsibility and to inspire.

Yeyeyeah....

Read it on their new released website

Posted on July 6, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Court to rule on Israeli barrier

The top UN court is set on Friday to deliver its verdict on the legality of Israel's West Bank barrier. [ found on BBC News]

Really wondering what the verdict will be...

Posted on July 9, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Tel Aviv hit by rush hour blast

One person dies and at least 20 others are injured in an explosion in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. [from Haaretz/BBC]

Deputy Defense Minister Ze'ev Boim said that it was likely that Palestinians who planted the bomb slipped into Israel from the West Bank in places where the separation fence has yet to be constructed.

"Following the World Court decision the attack is not so ironic as it was likely. The attack is proof of what we knew all along, that the high motivation of the Palestinian militants has not diminished," Boim told Army Radio.

Yesterday the beach was full of people, after 4 months of silence, feeling safe.
Meanwhile in West bank everything continues and on a daily basis people get killed or find themselves in difficult situations.
I wonder what they are supposed to do: be quiet and see themselves surrounded by a wall and thus captured in ghetto's -because, sincerely, this what it is, a big jail...-
or fight.
Although it is very obvious that attacks as these only encourage the Israeli government to continue building and to neglect the advice of the International Court.
_What makes us wonder about the meaning of this international court anyway...-

Posted on July 11, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Radio 1 send us on air again...

My mom mailed me thart next week we are on Radio1, Buitenlands Zaken (www.radio1.be)

Didn't see it on their site, but hey, it was probably in the air ;)

Posted on July 11, 2004
in Living in Israel

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FlightSchedule: Going home

All the bags are packed, some laundry is still drying. But yes: I am going home.
Will miss some of you like crazy, and happy to see the other ones again.

Flight: Austrian Airline
TLV-VIENNA, OS858 July 14, 4pm
VIENNA-BRUSSELS Flight: OS357 July 14, 7.40 PM
Arrival Brussels 9.40 PM.

See you there.
_If they don't keep me in the airport in TLV... But Arie's letter should help._

Posted on July 13, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Israel Rerouting Barrier Closer to Border-Sources

©Ine Dehandschutter

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel is redrawing the route of its West Bank barrier closer to its borders to ensure Palestinians are not cut off from their lands in keeping with a High Court order, security sources said on Tuesday. [from Reuters: Top News]

Posted on July 13, 2004
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Flying home today?

Hehe, Austrian Airlines just made a terrible joke...
A call: 'Your flight was scheduled for today'.
Yeah right....
Check again please. It seemed ok then.
Pretty nice of them to consider I might be still in bed.

Posted on July 13, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Israel Film Festival

©Ine Dehandschutter

Emir Kusturica was there to attend the openingsfilm. In the background the fabulous city. Super surroundings.
And a supermovie...

More on thefilmfestival.

Posted on July 13, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Get behind the computer...

She said.
She is right... I am off to the sea now.
Last day in Tel Aviv.
Catch u tomorrow in the Belgian rain...

Posted on July 13, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Not my words...

Fast track security check

And yet gentle smiles

Broken sentences

No words

Just technicalities

Pulling out stuff in and out of suitcases

While emotions are spinning silently

You DO write poetry...

Posted on July 15, 2004
in Living in Israel

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In the air re-emission

We were chosen third in the selection of most favourite reportage in Buitenlandse Zaken, resulting in a re-emission this morning.
Yasser, your grandmother again, she is pretty famous in Belgium now...

Posted on July 17, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Changes?

Dozens of Palestinian gunmen shot their way into the office of the Palestinian intelligence service early Sunday and burned down the one-story building, witnesses said.
An extreme offshoot of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement carried out the attack to protest Arafat's appointment of his intelligence chief, Moussa Arafat, to chief of the Palestinian security forces.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades says Moussa Arafat, also Yasser Arafat's cousin, is corrupt and is demanding "real" reforms.
The Palestinian leader has overhauled security forces recently -- a key U.S. and Israeli demand for restarting the deadlocked peace process.
The changes follow a sudden wave of kidnappings in the Gaza Strip that signaled a breakdown of authority.
The destruction of the intelligence office on the outskirts of the Khan Younis refugee camp was the latest violence.

Is something changing?

Posted on July 18, 2004
in Living in Israel

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French Jews 'must move to Israel'

Israeli PM Ariel Sharon urges Jews in France to relocate to escape anti-Semitic attacks, sparking French anger.
[from BBC News]

Right... This is of course the solution...

Posted on July 19, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Advisory opinion of the International Court in Den Hague

Read the advise of the judges here

Well we all know already that Sharon doesn't want to hear it.

Posted on July 23, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Israel takes in 200 French Jews

Two hundred French Jewish immigrants arrive in Israel, amid tensions over anti-Semitic attacks in France.

[from BBC News]
This is the result of one woman lying to the police, a journalist jumping on the story and Sharon urging to come.

I agree, the world is getting more and more nationalistic, but if you give into it, and more, over if you serve others higher targets -I truly don't believe that Sharon 'cares' about the families- then the story gets sad...

Posted on July 29, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Israel Plans Settlement Expansion, Defying U.S.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has begun work on a major expansion of its biggest West Bank settlement in a move certain to draw concern from a visiting White House envoy on Thursday, officials said.
[out of Reuters: Top News]

Yep, you read it right: EXPANSION.
When talking to the Palestinians in West Bank, this was there mere concern: pulling out of Gaza would have consequences for them, they believed.
These concerns turn out pretty in place.

The news shows only fragments of what is really happening, because many of the things are done in such a way that it is no news.

But in the end the evolution is worrying.

Posted on August 5, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Israelis 'could leave the Golan'

Israel could safely give up the Golan Heights in an eventual peace deal with Syria, Israel's army chief says.
[from BBC News]

Roger Hardy says something more on the subject:
Is a breakthrough likely?

There is some chance a discreet back-channel may be opened up so that Israelis and Syrians can explore one another's intentions.
The Israeli Foreign Minister, Silvan Shalom, has revealed there were indirect contacts seven or eight months ago, which were broken off after their existence was made public.

But Israeli analysts think Mr Sharon is only going through the motions.
Preoccupied with a controversial initiative on the Palestinian front, he has no interest in territorial withdrawal on the Golan as well.
Moreover he appears to be under no American pressure to engage with the Syrians.

For the Bush administration, the key issue is which side Syria is on in the "war on terror".
President Bush, like Prime Minister Sharon, seems more interested in punishing President Assad than rewarding him.

Posted on August 14, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Palestinian inmates on hunger strike

Palestinians held in Israeli jails go on hunger strike to protest at conditions but Israel says they can "starve to death".
[from BBC News]

Maybe the Israeli minister should follow some courses on how to speak tactically....
I guess it is not the perfect way to get into the good light.

Posted on August 15, 2004
in Living in Israel

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My paper

It took me some time but here it is... Plato's Cave.
My paper on our unability to read images without the proper tools.
A work on the influence of images and digital images in news. And a tool how to make an correct interpretation of such images.
Enjoy.

Download the pdf

(PS: Yep the file is password protected for editing and printing. Not that I don't believe in Creative Commons, I just believe that such a paper might lead his own life on the web.
If you want to copy paste stuff for publication, you can achieve the password by mailing me.)

Posted on August 17, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Sharon backs new settlement homes

Israeli PM Ariel Sharon gives the green light to 1,000 new homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank.
[BBC News]

This article from August 9 tells an opposite story.
No wonder the Palestinians stopped believing the Israeli.
I remember Yasser's words: C'mon Ine, tell me, what do you see?

I saw a big settlement with big cranes, 3 months later 3 more cranes were added...

Posted on August 17, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Twin bus bombs rock Israeli city

Sixteen people are killed in simultaneous explosions on two buses in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
[from BBC News]

Kinda strange expression: bomb rock city...
I guess more than the bomb itself, the reality of 'it is not over' hurts more.
The 'peace and quiet' of the last months is again lost hope.
On the other hand, it is not abnormal. What do people expect? That others just watch and accept what happens? That slowly slowly more and more ground is taken? (cfr. last message of Sharon building more settlements in West Bank)
It is a sad reality.

I don't know what I would do if somebody comes to me and says: 'You see this piece of ground, from today on, it is mine. Without any financial recuperation.'
I guess we would all shout if such a thing happens.

Posted on September 1, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Israelis begin barrier in south

Israeli bulldozers start clearing the ground for the southern section of the West Bank barrier.
[from BBC News]

Posted on September 5, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Cause and consequences

I have read 2 articles that are intersting to understand cause and consequences:
Hamas is a Creation of Mossad
Which explains how in the 70ies Israel was fearing the FATAH party of Yasser Arafat, resulting in sponsoring HAMAS. Later they would use and abuse the link for things that were in there advantage of not.
The second article explains how Hamas gets power in Gaza, by investing money they got from foreign 'sponsors' into heath, education and religion. A perfect way of 'my lord, my bread' and an explanation why they can get so much influence.
Fit the 2 articles together and get a better clue about the situation in Gaza.

Posted on September 7, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Situation in Gaza

I get some comments on my blog, of people acting-reacting on the recent 'terrorist' events.

My reaction is slightly different from others, due to the fact that last Spring, I visited such a 'hometown' of 'terrorists'.
When visiting Gaza City and later, Rafah, the reality was shocking.
People living in few square meters -compared to our 2 store houses...- and on less than 1 km, a huge wall, where the shooting doesn't stop.
It didn't stop for a long time now.

Read a short story here and see some pics here, here, and here

Nope, it doesn't justify things. It is merely a glance of what I saw and made me ask some questions.

Posted on September 7, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Israeli tanks enter north Gaza

At least 20 Israeli tanks accompanied by bulldozers and attack helicopters seal off parts of northern Gaza.
[from BBC News]

Posted on September 8, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Israel's Sharon Accuses Far-Right of Inciting War

©Ine Dehandschutter, 2002

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accused far-rightists Sunday of trying to incite civil war over his plan to withdraw from the occupied Gaza Strip and called for measures to curb such groups.
[Reuters: Top News]

What people didn't read so much between the lines is now becoming slowly clearer: by Sharon's proposal to leave Gaza, he got many opponents in his own party.
He now is even getting protecting from attacks from the right winged Israeli's.
These are becoming difficult times. Sharon seems to be shuffling between what his voters want and what he has in mind as a solution. And what the Americans want of course :)

Posted on September 12, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Israeli Arab team enter big league

An Israeli football team with Arab and Jewish players kick off their first big international match with Newcastle Utd.
[from BBC News]

Posted on September 16, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Off line

Heading for perfect silence and rest in Sinai.
Have fun you all. I surely will.
Took some books and a head for good memories to re-think.
A swimsuit and lots of laughs.
And NO computer. ;)
That's all one needs...

Posted on September 19, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Sharon vows to end rocket strikes

Israel's prime minister says a military operation in Gaza will continue until Palestinian rocket attacks are stopped.

[from BBC News]

Yesterday I was at an informal meeting at a Belgian consuls place. FIlled with Belgians busy on projects in Palestinian Territories.
The situation in Gaza was off course mentioned.
3 Belgians are stuck there, on only 3 km of the fighting.
They can not leave, since the borders are closed.
Only wait.
According to their phone calls 'it is war'.
People here -in Tel Aviv- are not really busy with it. A far away show. And yet.
Constant fighting is reported.
According to the newspaper a army commander said 'that the aim is not really clear'
What will happen when they stop? They get out? And then... things will restart. As always.

Posted on October 3, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Qassams in UN vehicle?

The last days in Israel an interesting discussion has been ruling the papers. Some days ago Israel IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) release a picture of a Qassam rocket being taken into a UN-vehicle. The Israeli and international opinion was shocked. And the function of the UN was questioned.
Immediately Peter Hansen, in charge of the UN in the Palestinian Territories accused Israel of saying things they can not prove. The Qassam would have been a stretcher, and few days later, IDF admits they are not so sure anymore and removed the accusing pics from their site.

Haaretz reported thoroughly on it.
Here and here
Israel wanted a justification to convince the world what they are doing in Gaza right now is right, the paper says.

But this article questions the most important question: What would Israel do without URWRA?

The writer of the article is an Israeli jewish woman living in Ramallah, and presenting a quite interesting point of view to the Israeli's.
Her remark in this article was this:
World Bank studies show that the direct reason for the collapse of the Palestinian economy and the scope of Palestinian poverty is the Israeli policy of putting drastic restrictions on movement within the territories. The UN food aid is preventing outbreaks of disease and the spread of malnutrition. How would Israel's UN ambassador, who is calling for Hansen's removal, respond to reports of malnutrition of an African-type scale, if not outright hunger, in the territories that Israel controls?
With in the end a little snatch to the IDF:
And as for the question of the Qassam or the stretcher: One hopes that the UN team that looks into the Israeli accusations will get to the real truth of the matter. Perhaps it also ought to have a talk with Zohar Shapira, a sergeant major in the reserves who is in the elite Sayeret Matkal unit. He participated in Operation Defensive Shield in April 2002 and was astounded to discover that the IDF was using military ambulances to surreptitiously transport troops on their way to apprehend suspects in Yazid, north of Nablus. His commanders told him that this was a war and that ambulances were the most protected vehicles at their disposal.

Indeed this is a war, with more wrong than right, with more losers than winners...

Posted on October 7, 2004
in Living in Israel

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UN warns of 'growing Gaza crisis'

A group of 12 United Nations agencies warns of an impending humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

[BBC News]

An article with scary numbers...

Posted on October 7, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Minutes of silence

For those who died in the last days, for no good reason.

Posted on October 9, 2004
in Living in Israel

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If I am a bigamist?

I smile.
This question is asked the second time in 2 weeks time.
Why? Because I am living in the Israeli side of this country, but still sympatize with the Palestinians, I am a bigamist?

I clearly looked surprised at the man who asked it first. Sitting in a company of people that all work and live in West Bank, I seemed somehow a stranger.
The second time, sitting in Daheisheh and being asked a similar question by a German peace activist, I didn't even bother.

People who know me, know what I think.
My parents raised me with several values, one of them 'Your personal freedom reaches as far as it limits somebody elses personal freedom'
Back then it was just one of those sentences. But now I get to understand them.
When you think about it, God's 10 sentences reduced in 1.

Clearly I believe that the Arab world is against Israel as such. And that idea is kind of scarying.
But I also believe that what is happening now, misses any lack of respect towards human beings. And limits others personal freedom. Which is as scary.

A bigamist?
I looked it up:
Etymology: Middle English bigamie, from Medieval Latin bigamia, from Latin bi- + Late Latin -gamia -gamy
: the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another

I am not married to any of them ;) so just forget about it.

Posted on October 11, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Scratches from being a soldier

In Israel, currently a wave of soldiers are not agreeing with what is happening, and especially not agreeing with the fact that they have to risk their lives.
I met this amazing 'kid' of 24, saying that the army scratched his life.

'We don't question going to the army, we just do. But when you are suddenly out there and the question is if you shoot the other or they shoot you, you realize it is not a game...'

I guess we don't have to wonder these things. We don't have army duty left, nor big wars to fight.
We don't have a public opionion to face, nor commanders to obey.

Yesterday the news revealed that the girl of 9 shot in Gaza with 28 bullets, was shot by one commander.
His soldiers refused to shoot at a kid. The commander said that she was wearing a bomb. Only after she was dead, the backpack revelad nothing but schoolbooks. A group of soldiers protested the happening by making a complaint to the army. Clearly the officer freaked out.

In West Bank, I am often faced with young soldiers, just out of school, that are scared of being in the dangerous territories and have already a finger on the trigger.
How do all these young kids come out of this war? What goes on in their minds? How can they cope with shooting at others?

More and more soldiers start to protest, under which some very important ones, like the 'Pilot's Letter' of last year, signed by some dozens of the 'finest soldiers'.
Being a soldier is one thing, having to kill is another.
And in cases like the recent attack in Gaza, where in 2 weeks time, more than 100 people died, these questions become pretty substantial for many soldiers...

Posted on October 11, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Israel extends offensive in Gaza

Israeli forces thrust into a town in north Gaza and kill a Hamas militant, as a Palestinian schoolgirl dies of her wounds.
[by BBC News]

The operation is the deadliest since the start of the Palestinian uprising four years ago and has left more than 100 Palestinians dead. ... Nearly half the Palestinian dead in fighting - which until now has been centred on the crowded Jabaliya refugee camp - are reported to be civilians.

In today's story less and less is told about the civilians.
The 'terrorists', the 'freedomfighters'.
It is indeed easier to paint the world in black and white, and off course we are the 'white', the 'good ones'.
But half of the people there are just stuck, didn't want to have anything to do with this fighting. They happened to be born in the wrong place in the wrong time.

I have friends over there, willing to cooperate with Israeli's, just to have a better life.
At this very moment, they fear every second if a rocket will hit their apartment or not. If a soldier will shoot their children.

One day, more than a year ago, I went to Hebron.
Changing cabs for 4 times to get not yet where I wanted, I suddenly started talking with a farmer.
He look at me, telling me his journey to the bank, that took him almost 4 hours by now.
But the most stunning thing he said, was: 'Maybe they will bomb this car, because a so called Hamas-leader is sitting in it. Or because they got the wrong information...'
I immediately looked around to find the Hamas leader, not to find him, but being left with the very uncomfortable fear that every second could be my last.
Hours later, I crossed a fictive border, to go to a settlement in Hebron, behind us the Palestinians, in front the Israeli soldiers.
An amazing silence between the 2 places.
I guess I was never so scared before in my life, with the feeling that guns were pointed at us.
That's when I decided that my life is so worth everything to me. It didn't even matter if what I felt was reality or just my idea.
I have the choice to come here, or to walk away, to leave these dangers behind me and go to a safer haven.
Not all of us have this choice.

Posted on October 13, 2004
in Living in Israel

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I believe in miracles, you sexy thing...

Congrats, sweet darling mine.

Posted on October 13, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Happy Ramadan!

To all of you.

Posted on October 15, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Gaza Withdrawal

The Knesset voted 67-45 to back Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposal, with seven abstentions.

Some lines that don't explain any sentiment of what is going on here.
Yesterday many sources were talking about the falling of this government.
Furtheron it is not unknown that Sharon is a target amongst extreme rightwinged already.

2 amazing things about this voting:
-Sharon said that who would vote against would be thrwon out of the government. -Where is democracy?-
-Atleast 4 abstentions were from the Arab representatvies in the Knesset -Why???-

Anyhow, Sharon got a back up from his government.
So, the withdrawal should go on.

The next thing on the line: When.

Will be continued...

Posted on October 27, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Arafat abroad.

Arafat abroad...
Is he dying or is he already dead?

Maybe for the west it is something not to bother, but surely in the Middle East, it is giving certain people some worries.
Israel is cracking his head on how to deal with his grave, while in Ramallah others are in crisis: who will take over?

Because who will?

The greatest challenge is to have a regime that can break the limbo and start peace talks again.
Well, maybe not peace talks, but surely just talks...
The PA will become another place in the Middle East where chaos tend to take over.
And only a strong leader can prevent it.
Chaos is something they surely don't need, because it will only be in the Palestinians AND Israelis disadvantage.

Meanwhile, the first question will be: can he come back, or not? :))))

Posted on October 31, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Arafat 'being tested for virus'

Arafat 'being tested for virus':
Aides to the Palestinian leader say doctors examining him in a hospital near Paris are now checking for a viral infection.

I wonder if he has the same virus that keeps me at home these days.
They didn't give me a heli to the airport, nor press attention.
So for sure I know I am just a simple soul on this world -grinning-

Posted on November 1, 2004
in Living in Israel

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'Suicide bomb' in Tel Aviv market

'Suicide bomb' in Tel Aviv market:
At least four people die as a suspected suicide bomb explodes in a market in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

This is the market I go when I go shopping. Not every week -I am not a good cook, as many of you know...-
Strange idea.
But frankly speaking, when you live in such a society, you become real hard, and take away all those thoughts.

Anyhow, an attack in Carmel market is like in the heart of Tel Aviv. It must have been very well planned, since most of the time there are soldiers protecting the area.
It is seconds away from the main shopping street.
Imagine that they explode a bomb in Gent on the Fridaymarket. That is what to compare it to.

Strange or maybe not, but it just happened after Arafat left.
After months of quiet, a bomb explodes.
To me, it shows that in the past it was also possible but stopped by the regime.
Now a regime change -even if it is for short- can show a different attitude.

For sure all checkpoints will be closed soon 'as a security matter'.
It is all in the explanation...

It is a strange feeling.
Feeling worried for my friends in Tel Aviv, and at the same time worry for my friends in the Palestinian Territories.
It is something none of them understand.
Tamar and Sigal sometimes say: you never say sorry for the Israeli's.
I do, I do think of the people walking in that market now, just shopping.
But seconds later the rest pops in my head. How people live now in Rafah.
How a friend of mine lives near the border and every night the shooting starts again.
And then Yasser says I go along with the Israelis.
And like that I will always be the foreigner that looks from aside.
And I just worry for both.

Posted on November 1, 2004
in Living in Israel

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"Mr Arafat is not dead"

Is he dead or isn't he dead???
Even on this matter there is no unanimity between Israel and Palestinians.
Grinning.

Posted on November 4, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Arafat 'between life and death'

Arafat 'between life and death':
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is not brain dead - but in a reversible coma, says one of his aides.

Hanging on.
Well, pretty obvious what is happening...
In Arab countries -and Jewish- the death are buried immediately after dying -while in christian countries this takes like a week...-
So Palestinians are preparing what is happening, while Israel is doing the same.
If not, a serious 'balagan' might happen.

Posted on November 5, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Arafat has 'brain haemorrhage'

Arafat has 'brain haemorrhage':
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is suffering from a brain haemorrhage, a top aide says in Ramallah.

I still wonder why his wife, who didn't see Arafat for 2 years, suddenly is so obsessive who is visiting him...
Could it be money?

Posted on November 9, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Palestinian Sources Say Arafat Dead, Others Deny

Palestinian Sources Say Arafat Dead, Others Deny:
PARIS (Reuters) - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat suffered a brain hemorrhage on Tuesday and aides said he had died at a hospital in Paris, but confusion over his fate grew as officials insisted in public he was still clinging to life.

3 days later, still the same question....

Posted on November 9, 2004
in Living in Israel

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The Fight for Arafat’s Fortune Begins

Arafat is one of the worlds richest men.

Sources close to the Palestinian leadership said a bitter fight had broken out over who should control the ailing leader’s fortune estimated to be between $4.2 billion and $6.5 billion.

Sources said Arafat has written a will transferring control of his assets to members of his wife’s family. Some of his aides, including former Premier Mahmoud Abbas who has stepped in as interim leader, however, believe the fortune belongs to the “beit al-mal” (public treasury), and should be transferred to the Palestinian Authority. The controversy started last week when Suha, Arafat’s wife, asked Muhammad Rashid, Arafat’s confidant and adviser, to prepare a list of the ailing leader’s fortune. According to Palestinian sources Rashid has said he would furnish the list only to the Palestinian Authority.

More on Al Jazeera

Posted on November 11, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Arafat's is death...

Arafat's life in pictures

Posted on November 11, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Calling Yasser

One of my good friends is living in Dheisheh, Bethlehem, West Bank.
His name is Yasser. Named after...

We had a long conversation on the other Yasser's death.
'He did many things I didn't agree with, but I have to tell you, I am sad, very sad.'

I guess we, in the West, don't realize what happened. For the Palestinians, their symbol of struggle, the guy that kept on going, died.
In very unclear circumstances. -Was he poisoned, did he have aids, or another disease-
The question now is, if the hope which he represented, died as well.

In Yasser's eye, this is what happened. Things will get worse.
What will happen with the Intifada, which resulted in an economic disaster after 4 years of fighting against a giant. Has the battle silently ended. WIll Israelis succeed in putting a wall that surrounds the area.
Or will another uprooting grow and finally end in a civil war?

'Or something new, positive will happen?'
Inshallah.

Posted on November 13, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Arrived

without ANY problems.

What is happening? ;)

Tel Aviv, 20 degrees, cloudy.
But better than -Brussels, 4 degrees, raining-

Posted on November 19, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Trip to Israel

My trip to Israel ended, as fast as it started.
I went on invitation of the consul to present our SnowBlog Project to the guests at the King's Day.
I was honored to be mentioned in his speech, and am so grateful to what he did for the project.

Spending some time with great friends and over-viewing the last 2 years, made me wonder again.
What do I want? Where am I going to?
A woman asked me on the plane back home. 'So you are not planning to come back? So what are the plans for the future?'
Everything is vague. Simply vague.
But I am sure, as ever, things will pass my way, and before I know, I will be as busy as ever.

But now, for one moment I stop and stand still, look in my head and see wonderful faces of true friends on long distance.
I truly miss...

Posted on November 25, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Radio 1 call

Last week my mom called: you have to call Radio 1.
I was triggered. How do they know my moms number at Radio 1???
Grinning.
Anyway, they wanted me in the studio in Jerusalem for an interview.
I mailed them that I won't make it to Jerusalem, since I was running for a flight to Belgium.
So come to our studio's, they said.
Well that's where I'll be...

Sunday, on your radio

Posted on November 25, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Life just goes on

TMR and I in Cafe Hillel in Jerusalem, sipping coffee in cold rainy days.
This cafe was blown up several months ago.
Do we avoid it?
Can we avoid it?
Life just goes on...
This cafe or another, we will never be sure.
So what the heck.

I guess it explains the vitality is Israeli's and Palestinians: life has to be lived and now.

Posted on November 26, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Less violence in Palestinian Areas after death Arafat

After the death of Arafat, terroristic actions and violence dropped with more than 70 percent, according to Israeli authorities.

One can speak of stabilization.
But it is too early to speak of a change in situation.
Israel is avoiding to have violence to give the new Palestinian leaders a chance.

-Out of Gazet Van Antwerpen, resources Maariv-

Posted on November 26, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Sharon and Abbas 'ready to meet'

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas say they are willing to hold talks.

Some days ago the Belgian Consul in Jerusalem held a speech for King's Day. I don't remember the words by heart, but he said: 'when something changes, a new vacuum is created and it needs to be filled.'
Filling this vacuum in a right way is the hard task for the Palestinians today.
Avoiding violence, but yet, not give up their 'battle'
It seems that the vacuum indeed created hope.

Posted on November 28, 2004
in Living in Israel

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First violin, second violinFirst violin, second violin

The story of Wissam Tayam, the Palestinian violinist who played for Israel Defense Forces soldiers at the Beit Iba checkpoint near Nablus, aroused widespread public debate. But the women of Machsom [Checkpoint] Watch, whose Horit Herman-Peled filmed the incident, say that they saw no particular significance in it because they are exposed every day to much worse scenes. The women were even disappointed about the stir the picture of the musician created, when a picture of women and children crushed in the "carousel" (as the checkpoint's revolving door is called) goes by unnoticed.

The incident raised a number of questions. Among them: Is there place for association with pictures of Jewish musicians in the death camps, or is this another case of cheapening the Holocaust? Herman-Peled was shocked both by the banality of the incident and the indifference of those present, including the members of her own organization.

A video of a boy playing a violin at a checkpoint caused a public debate, while other incidents didn't do anything.

The first official reaction of the IDF Spokesman, received by Haaretz last Wednesday, stated that the incident was a case of "insensitivity" of soldiers at the checkpoint, who "deal with a complex and dangerous reality."

Anybody in Israel will tell you the difficult circumstances soldiers are in. Is this Palestinian a bad guy or not?
Is his guitar holding a bomb?

During the past year, 16 terrorists were caught in that checkpoint. Just two days ago it became known that a terrorist who sowed death in the streets of Israel smuggled in the explosives in a guitar. It may be that once burned by a guitar, one will be careful of a violin.

Correct. No doubt about that.
But yet, sometimes there seem to be 2 weights in the balance:
This week it was announced that a case, where soldiers shot at a vehicle belonging to the Nablus Municipality, killing Ahmed al-Karini, had been closed after the soldier who shot al-Karini had already been punished at a disciplinary hearing. The punishment: a week in military jail and another week's suspended sentence.

When asked for an interview, it is almost impossible to explain what Israel is about.
People here don't know the normalities, nor the real abnormalities.
We don't know where to situate the actions because we don't know the society nor the culture.
When a soldier shoots a kid, do we know in which pressure he is, what he saw or experienced in his past.
When we see a suicide killer, do we know who he is, what happened to him, and for which reasons he is doing it?
Who are we in Europe to judge?
And yet, why wouldn't we? Why wouldn't we say to 2 nations: 'hey guys, you are going crazy...'

Do they realize when he calls for a war 'In the name of God', or they call for a 'Jihad' -holy war-, or they say they are 'the Chosen People' they are all talking about the same God they re referring to?

Posted on December 2, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Ask Mozes...

While researching some topics, I found this amazing site: Ask Mozes.
With answers on: Are Jews Normal?

Posted on December 2, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Egyptians release Israeli 'spy'

Egyptians release Israeli 'spy':
Egypt releases an Arab-Israeli man jailed on spying charges in return for six students held by Israel.

2 remarks:
1. This means that Egypt and Israel are talking! -which is good news-
2. Israel releasing an Arab-Israeli man. Don't want to sound too negative. But it sounds as if it was a spy... ;)

Posted on December 5, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Bush Gives $20 Million Directly to Palestinians

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush on Wednesday resumed direct assistance to the Palestinian Authority as part of a renewed push for peace following the death of long-time leader Yasser Arafat.

Huh? Yasser, fill in those papers for USAid!

Posted on December 8, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Belgium-Israel

Today Belgium signed an agreement with Israel to make better trade, cultural exchanges and much more.
The signing was pretty important, because Israel needs these cooperations to get out of an economical impasse.
Belgium in that matter said at the beginning of the intifada that it would not support any side, until they started peace talks.
These peace talks started recently, and they keep word.

More cultural exchanges between Israel, Palestinian areas, and Belgium, is something I support.
It could become an interesting dialogue.
Me for that matter, am going to present work in a gallery in Tel Aviv, in May.
Nothing political, just art ;)

Politics... Belgium is as good in playing 'Janus' as many others.
While so called supporters for the Palestinians -see trial against Sharon etc.- big deals were done through the Antwerp scene of diamonds. And when there was a crisis in this area, when some politicians wanted to oppress Israel by boycotting their products, as fast the oppression was recalled, because of a fear of loosing the Antwerp diamond-scene.

Diamonds are forever...

Posted on December 14, 2004
in Living in Belgium, Living in Israel

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Tsunami hits coasts

All the newspapers are full of the disaster.
And they should be.
A disaster on christmas, aid should be started immediately, and in a way I even wonder why aid programs like they were there in the eighties, didn't take place yet.
I remember back in '89, the falling of the Ceaucesco, in Romania, and suddenly the aid that was started to help all those little kids.
Television did what it could and raised loads of money in programs that were watched intensively.
Today, spectacular news and yes Red Cross leaves, just like Medecins sans Frontieres. But no similar aid programs in cooperation with television.
No big moneycollecting. What changed?

Only shocking television. Why?
Because it hit several coasts and it is said to be the biggest hit in decades?
Or because there are so many tourists in that area?

Why do so little people remember Bam, last year December 26, 2003?

26,271 people were killed, as many as today are being counted.
I don't remember making soo much fuzz about it then.
I asked a friend and she said 'Bam?', where is 'Bam'? and later 'There were not that much death there'
The media does have an impact on our perception.
Today everything is bigger, worse, more horrible and scarier.
Am I just imagining or are we living in a world of fear...

Posted on December 28, 2004
in Living in Israel

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Blink ;)

Posted on January 2, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Israeli treatment in airport...

Today I was asked to check for cheap flights to Israel, since I might end up there quickly.

For a moment I considered checking El Al, but only the thought of it makes it worth to pay 100 euro more.
-Many others get a normal treatment, but by now, I realized I am on their list and it will stay that way...-
Reading this letter made me decide for sure: anything but El Al.

So it is not only me, who gets this treatment ;)

Posted on January 5, 2005
in Living in Israel

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And meanwhile, in Israel...

So with all what is happening in Asia, we dare to forget that on Sunday the Palestinians are electing a new leader.
But what is happening behind the scenes?
Shortly said, Abbas will win according to the latest statistics.
Meanwhile Sharon want to go through with his plan to leave Gaza, and he seeks new partners that want to help him, while many right winged people/settlers are against it. In Gaza it is not longer only Palestinians throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers. Settlers are joining in for opposite reasons.

It will take a long road to get there, but first, let's cross fingers for the Palestinian elections.

Posted on January 5, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Divorcing in Israel

At this very moment I am watching an Israeli documentary by Anat Zuria on 'divorcing in Israel'.
-Recently Flemish Television is giving many Israeli documentaries-
Tamar told me her story, and she should tell it to many others.
In Israel, in the Jewish belief, men and women can divorce -unlike the christian marriage that is for life- and yet.
Divorcing in Israel can be hell. Israel is a country where religion and state are linked -The Jewish State- and thus the marriage has to be undone by religious people, even when you are married without being religious.
Going further, in Israel one can only get married in a religious way, and if you want to get married without this procedure, you have to go abroad to get married. When you did this, still a divorce has to be done by the Rabbi.

The main problem is that the divorce is mainly entitled to the man, even if he is the one that did the awful things.
The man has to give permission to divorce.
He has to give a letter to the woman, stating that he divorces her.
If he doesn't want, it just doesn't happen.
Divorcing as a Kafkaesque struggle...

Posted on January 6, 2005
in Living in Israel

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A memory.

From the good old days ;)

Click to see the movie. (and yep, you'll need Quicktime to see it)

Posted on January 9, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Testtest...

Another old time memory to test videoblogging on this blog. Seems working right?

Btw: click to see the movie, and Quicktime needed.

Movie: taken in Tel Aviv, Bezalel. And yes, it hurted...

Posted on January 9, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Elections in Palestinian Authority

The elections in the Palestinian Authority went smoothly. But what happened in the disputed Jerusalem Area?

From a contact in Israel:
There seemed to have been two elections in Palestine on Sunday: the one conducted in the West Bank and Gaza, and the one in Jerusalem.

Voting day in the West Bank and Gaza was marked in many places by a mood of ebullience and celebration. There was singing, dancing, the firing of guns into the air, families strolling together to the polling stations.
Palestinian women’s organizations had spent weeks encouraging women to vote, and many women did show up for their first election, especially in urban centers.
While not all checkpoints were eased and not all Palestinians wanted to vote under an occupation regime, the overall climate was one of hope and a new beginning.

Voting day in Jerusalem, on the other hand, was marked by a flawed process.
The Israeli government could not prevent Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents from participating in the elections, but it wanted to avoid the appearance of Jerusalem being part of the Palestinian Authority. Therefore, the authorities designed a voting system that was a pearl of Talmudical caginess, allowing for the vote, but giving it the appearance of an absentee ballot being cast in Jerusalem for sending to a Palestinian state that was “somewhere else”.
Therefore, voting was carried out only in post offices, where marked ballots were handed to postal clerks who inserted them into special mailboxes, presumably to be “mailed” to Palestine.
Special attention was given to the location of the slot.
The Israeli authorities felt strongly that a slot on the top of the box would give the appearance of a real ballot box. Therefore, these mailboxes had slots on the side.
Here’s a photo (left) I took of a man at one of these red mail-ballot-boxes, behind a glass pane and inaccessible to the voter.
Note also the lack of privacy, with the clerk looking on as he leans on the counter marking his ballot, and the next voter edging closer.
Worst of all, only 6,000 Jerusalemites out of 125,000 were allowed to vote in town, with the rest dispatched to voting stations out of town, to which access through checkpoints was eased, but still not easy.

Under these conditions, many Palestinians in Jerusalem refused to vote.
And many were afraid to vote, in fear that Israel would regard that as grounds for canceling their Jerusalem residency rights. It’s no wonder that a Palestinian woman carrying a bunch of bananas stood outside the main post office on the Palestinian side of Jerusalem, handing out flyers that called Israel a “banana republic democracy”.
I too wanted to see the excitement on the other side of town, so I answered the call of Bat Shalom, a women’s peace organization, to help keep the extremist Israeli right from carrying out their threat to disrupt the proceedings.

Despite the many difficulties and Israel’s grudging cooperation, the vote did take place, leaving many Palestinians and even Israelis with a sense of elation. A real election was held – with real competition and no mud slinging – and the candidate who consistently called for an end to the violence and negotiation of a real peace was swept into power with 62% of the vote. Now the proverbial ball is in Israel’s court, and the excuse for not negotiating is long dead and buried.

Posted on January 11, 2005
in Living in Israel

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New government in Israel

Not only in the Palestinian side the start of a possibly huge change took place.
In Israel, also an important thing happened:
a new Israeli government – comprising Likud, Labor, and United Torah Judaism, an ultra-Orthodox party – was sworn in, thanks to Sharon’s wily brinkmanship with the extremists from his own party who oppose the disengagement from Gaza. The government will now have the parliamentary strength it needs to get out of Gaza, and Shimon Peres is back in power, defying age, wisdom, and public incredulity.

This is an important step forward.
Not many people are aware of what is really happening in Israel.
The last years Israel was led by Likud, the right winged part of Sharon. Labour ended up in the opposition. This changed yesterday, the part that was responsible for the Oslo-agreements, is back in the run. Sharon is still the Prime Minister, but he is stating a strategy getting Israel out of the settlements.
Something which is opposed by many people in his own party, which led to a very difficult political situation in Israel nowadays: the extreme right winged settlers stated that Sharon should be eliminated.
As written in a former post, soldiers get into clashes with settlers instead of with Palestinians.
And the anti-evacuation settlers are digging their own graves. Once considered the last of the idealists, support for the settler movement has plummeted among Israelis in the wake of recurring violent clashes with Israeli soldiers evacuating settler outposts. Today, the settlers are regarded as the anti-democratic, lunatic fringe. In truth, the vast majority of settlers are far more moderate, and would leave the territories in a heartbeat for the price of their property, but the fanatics are now setting the tone and image.

The future will tell which road will be taken, but the realization of the road map is one step closer.

Posted on January 11, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Sharon Cuts Israeli Ties With Palestinian Authority

The prime minister today ordered all officials to cut ties with the Palestinian Authority until it curbs terrorism.

Well, so far the trust in Abu Mazen...

More

Posted on January 15, 2005
in Living in Israel

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US special forces 'inside Iran'

The journalist who revealed prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib says US special forces are operating inside Iran.

Well... I am not sure.
But surely doesn't seem a way to actually solve anything right now.

I mean, while Afghanistan is off the media agenda, things are surely not peaceful over there. One could argue that they were not peaceful before the US attacked. I have to confirm. Still...
Iraq is not solved at all. (I still wonder if they are better off now then before. You can ask it yourself.)
So now Iran?

Israel has a nuclear program too and never admitted.
So when Mordechai Vanunu revealed it to BCC, he was actually kidnapped by Mossad and brought to Israel, where he was jailed for 17 years.
He was released last year.
Only weeks ago a video on the site was broadcasted on Israeli television.
It passed the military sensor -which allows broadcasts or not- but still Israel didn't admit they have a program.

So will the US invade Israel? ;)

More on BBC on Iran

Posted on January 17, 2005
in Limit of my knowledge, Living in Israel

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Palestinians Fear East Jerusalem Land Grab

The Israeli government secretly approved a measure that says it may seize land in East Jerusalem owned by Palestinians.

Via NYT > International

Posted on January 25, 2005
in Living in Israel

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In TLV or in Belgium?

Now playing: Out of depts from Idan Reichel, streamed through Skype, from TLV.

One for you:

Im telech

Im Telech, mi yechabek oti kacha
Mi yishma oti besof hayom
Mi yenachem veyargia, rak ata yodea.

Ve'Im telech, lemi achake bachalon,
besimla shel chag sheyagia,
yechabek oti cacha, cmo she'ata magia

Kshe'telech la'shemesh
etze basade hamuzhav,
boker ve'erev
Yare'ach yair et panai,
she'cholmot col hayom rak alecha.

Kshe'tavoh, tisa oti bishtei yadeicha,
misadeh lanahar tirchotz et panai
vetagid li milim cmo sherak ata yodea

You made me smile :)

Posted on January 30, 2005
in Living in Belgium, Living in Israel

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Israel to Speed Immigration for Jews in Ethiopia

At least 15,000 Ethiopian Jews will be brought to Israel by the end of 2007 under an accelerated immigration process.

Via NYT > International

I still think it is interesting to see how, while Europe is trying to stop immigration, Israel is actually encouraging it.
Immigration is Israel is interesting to Jews in the world. -To non-Jews immigration in Israel is 'just a little bit more difficult'.-
In the beginning, immigration was part of the idea to have a Jewish state. Kibbutzim were part of these ideals.
People wanted to start there country.
Later things changed.
Today immigration knows many other reasons: economical , zionist and demographic

The main reason to fastened immigration might be the idea that is rising: 'Arabs are outnumbering jews'

Demographic changes well underway in Israel and the West Bank may mean the Jewish nation could end up with an Arab majority.

Already, population statistics have sent shockwaves through Israel’s conservative Likud leadership – to the point that some Jewish leaders who once espoused a “greater Israel” that included the West Bank, are seeking to disengage themselves from the land of their Biblical promise.

"At the heart of this is simple mathematics," said the Guardian. "Forecasts from the United States' Population Reference Bureau show Israel's population doubling in 45 years, that of the West Bank in 21 years and that of Gaza in 15 years. In other words, Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and Israeli Arabs will outnumber the Jewish population by 2020."

Interesting brain-training: compare this situation to Europe.

Posted on February 1, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Growing pains

Just talked with Jossi.
I studied with him in Tel Aviv, and he was actually one of the first to welcome me in a strange place. Offering me to guide around and be there in case I needed something.
He recently went to paris, after being accepted to be 'an artist in residence' in a well known school -which name I forgot...-

'Ine, I don't understand. How did you cope with being in Israel all by yourself, alone. I somehow start to understand how you must have felt. Oh, but you had an organized study program and Tamar'

I said 'Excuse me! studyprogram??? After 3 months something like a study program started and we got finally our studios, remember, and the first 3 months Tamar and I didn't know each other at all.'

I suddenly remember that those were the loneliest months in my life -up till now-, I didn't know if to cry, to go back home or to stay. I remember going home was probably for the first time a relief.
Giving up was somehow no option in my heart. -And I have to admit, being alone in a such strange country was kind of shocking and I needed time to adapt and more time to understand-
So I went back.

3 months later I fell in love with the Middle East and its beauty. I got to know amazing women and good friends.
I experienced wonderful things, and travelled other sides of that same but o-so different Middle East.

So Jossi, be ready for surprises.
(And anyhow, Brussels is only 1.5 hours from Paris. So jump on that train.)

Posted on February 3, 2005
in Living in Belgium, Living in Israel

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Going to Tel Aviv soon

In March SnowBlog has a conference in Tel Aviv.
The conference is on interpersonal cross-group dialogue using internet.
Many software groups contacted us to cooperate and build the perfect platform.
Education and internet/software are getting closer to each other. New possibilities are revealed.

I am flying in 2 weeks to go and prepare part of the conference.

Posted on February 5, 2005
in Living in Israel, Projects - SnowBlog.net

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Flight confirmed

Flight Details :

SN3291:SN Brussels
DEPARTING Brussels on 23 Feb 2005 at 19:10
ARRIVING Tel Aviv on 24 Feb 2005 at 00:20

RESERVATION CONFIRMED
NON-SMOKING FLIGHT: Airbus Industrie A319

Yep, leaving again :)

Posted on February 6, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Israel, Palestinians to Announce Cease-Fire

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel and the Palestinians will announce a cease-fire at Tuesday's summit in Egypt to halt more than four years of violence, officials from both sides said.

Via Reuters: Top News

Is this the end of the Second Intifadah?

An end to hostilities
Is it over? Can we sigh in relief? I hesitate to say I’m hopeful. We’ve been down that road before. But all of a sudden, there is this tiny little warm spot that I can feel in my heart. Is this hope, after all?

Killian from Cafe Diverso called me today. He’s so nice and so sincere. Worries and upset are in the past.

Update: I'm such a softie. Watching the summaries of the Sharm el-Sheikh speeches on TV I couldn't help feeling a bit choked up. I couldn't.

From Imshin

Posted on February 7, 2005
in Living in Israel

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The Wall and Israel's Aims

If the goal were security, Israel would have built the fence a few km inside its borders. It could then be a mile high, patrolled on both sides by the IDF, mined with nuclear weapons, utterly impenetrable. Perfect security.

The problem would be that it would not take valuable Palestinian land and resources (including control of water), drive out the population, and lay the basis for still further expansion as Palestinians flee from the dungeons that are left, like the town of Qalqilya. So to interpret as a land grab seems appropriate.

These are not my words, but Noam Chomsky

Read more in Turning the Tide

Posted on February 10, 2005
in Living in Israel

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If you happen to be in TLV...

Damn, I arrive only on 24...

Posted on February 10, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Tel Aviv 25% cheaper

Next week I am taking off to Tel Aviv.
Did some counting.
The good news? Tel Aviv will be 25% cheaper than 2 years ago, due to the dollar/euro rate.
My apartment costed me 400 euro (which was equal to 400 $) 2 years ago.Today, I would pay for the same apartment only 300 euro due to the rates. But given the devaluation, the apartment would only be 250 euro -renting prices dropped-

Food, restaurants, renting a car, it all became cheaper.
For me, that is.
Tamar has no message to such news. For Israeli's and Palestinians, everything stayed the same.

In one year, if we dare to be optimistic, when the Intifadah is really over, Israel might become again 'the tourist place to be'.
All highly depending on the political situation...

Yallah. It feels good to know that I actually can do 25% more with my money compared to 2 years ago. It even feels better to realize I can do 35% more with this money compared to doing the same things in Belgium.

Because that's the bad news: money is fast spend in our very expensive little country...

Posted on February 13, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Fast withdrawal?

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says Israel's pull-out from Gaza will be coordinated with the Palestinians.

Brought to you by BBC News

Last time Israel withdrew from an area, the actual withdrawal was actually done very fast.

On May 24, 2000, Israel completed the withdrawal of its forces from southern Lebanon in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 425. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak pledged during his March 1999 election campaign to withdraw Israeli troops from Lebanon by July 2000.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak won a sweeping victory in the May 1999 elections with his pledge to pull Israeli troops out of Lebanon within the year.
On March 5, 2000, the Israeli cabinet voted unanimously for a full troop withdrawal from Lebanon by July.

We now can forecast a pretty fast withdrawal from Gaza.
Maybe by Easter this year?

Posted on February 15, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Landed in TLV

Someone wants to meet?
Just contact me :)

PS Erez, my old phone nr is still working. Hope to see you soon.

Posted on February 24, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Bomb

After 3 months of no suicide bombers, yesterday was one of long forgotten danger.

I am ok.

Posted on February 26, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Peace won't come peacefully

Official: Israel will strike Syria if necessary
The Israeli Deputy Defense Minister has said that Syrian targets have been attacked in the past and possibly again if deemed necessary

It's what I read on Al Jazeera. Sometimes I wonder if they just want to shock or really want to report truth -anyhow, Aljazeera's english version is read by mostly Americans and Europeans, its seems, reading the comments-

I look for a confirmation of this news, and surprisingly I find similar stuff on other actuality sites:
CNN reports: As Palestinian and Israeli authorities arrested seven people in connection with the deadly bombing in Tel Aviv, accusations of blame for the killings began to focus on Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Syria. Friday's attack threatened to shatter a fragile, three-week-old cease-fire agreement
The Dutch Volkskrant reports: Israël houdt Syrië verantwoordelijk voor de bloedige aanslag in Tel Aviv, waarbij vrijdagavond vijf doden vielen.

I wonder where this is heading. Why suddenly everybody is focussing on Iran and Syria.

We didn't hear the blast. We actually just arrived back in town after the blast and heard a lot of ambulances. According to the reports, it all happened to early, so luckily not too many people were at the night club yet. One hour later and the damage would have been 3doubled.

Last month I was in a conference in Paris, talking on peace education in areas in conflict.
The funny thing was that some adults there started arguing on peace, while ironically they are the ones supposed to teach children peace...
Anyhow, a Palestinian women, said, rightfully, that nobody can think peace will come peacefully now. There will always be extremists trying to stop the new peace talks. It only cannot stop people. One extremist should not be the cause of stopping the other thousands that really want that peace.
Because that is what is actually happening now in Israel/Gaza/West Bank: people do want peace in a way. After 4 long years of Intifadah, people are tired.
I need to go to Gaza in 2 days. Everything looked easy 2 days ago, now already it seems that things became more difficult...
Inshallah, we say here, that is Arabs and Jews.

Posted on February 27, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Hours before the bombing.

Tamar and I were walking the streets, shopping.
At a certain point we were in the middle of a large crowd and I thought 'I don't want to be here, too crowded. Too long ago since something happened, and no security here that can protect us from anything'
We went further.

After the blast I told Tamar. She said she had the same thought on another spot. In the Carmel market, where actually the last bombing took place, 4 months ago.

It is always in your mind, one long second short.
Then you burry the thought, and move on.
Till the moment something happens like before yesterday.
You allow yourself to think about it some minutes, an hour, maybe a little bit longer. And hten you move on.
Because there is no such a thing as stopping to live.

After one month living here, I realized it was useless to stay thinking about it, to not go into shopping malls or cafe's.
You just live an ordinary life. A little bit different...

Posted on February 27, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Flying back to Belgium...

One week of hectic meetings, loads of work, and long long drives.
It was fun to see most of you back.
And for those who I didn't see: do not worry, I am back in the end of this month, with more free time -Yep, I'll take one week vacation time extra-

I will have to say good bye to Tel Aviv and the sunny 25 degrees.
To go back to a -15 tonight in Belgium.
Could I change my flight maybe??

Taking a quick last run to the sun now.

Posted on March 2, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Web Radiointerview in Israel

The Palestinian organization Biladi - The Jerusalem Times and the Israeli organization The Jewish-Arab Centre for Peace, Givat Haviva, which are partners in the youth magazine Crossing Borders and maintain a long-standing, good and egalitarian working relationship, propose to create a joint radio station broadcasting in Hebrew, Arabic and English, which aimed at a wide audience amongst both people and provides messages of peace, cooperation, mutual understanding, coexistence and hope. It resulted in All For Peace Internet Radio.

The idea of a joint Israeli-Palestinian radio station is unique and innovative, and one through which we can bring the vast accumulated experience of both the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace at Givat Haviva and the Palestinian organization Biladi - The Jerusalem Times to bear through the electronic media and reach a new audience, previously not exposed to the message of peace, and bring to them our message.

They actually interviewed me on SnowBlog, and the broadcast is scheduled Sunday March 13, at 3pm and at 7pm Middle East time (thus meaning 2pm and 6pm in Brussels).
On their site or on 107.2FM, in Israel that is.

Posted on March 3, 2005
in Living in Israel, Projects - SnowBlog.net

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Israeli Investigator Says Financing of Outposts Was Illegal

The author of a report about the illegal financing of settlements said she had uncovered a pattern of law-breaking that presented a threat to Israeli democracy.

These stories are not new, new is that they are recognized by Israeli investigators.
Changes are happening.

(Brought to you by NYT > International)

Posted on March 10, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Now on AllForPeace Radio

The interview on SnowBlog is being broadcasted in moments...

Want to listen? Surf to AllForPeace and click on life broadcast
(at PM and 6PM)

Posted on March 13, 2005
in Living in Israel, Projects - SnowBlog.net

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The Cedar Revolution is happening now

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of anti-Syrian protesters, chanting "truth, freedom, national unity," flooded central Beirut Monday in Lebanon's biggest rally since an ex-premier was killed a month ago.

The biggest revolution in the Middle East maybe?

This is the result of a long happening evolution in this country.
When I was in Beirut 2 years ago, I learned that Christians and Muslims are still opposed to each other, but their point of unity is surely 'Syria needs to go out'. The revolution of today comes not as a surprise but as a logic event in a well developed country, controlled by a very conservative kingdom.

I stick to my point that AlJazeera is having a certain influence in independent news reports, which are clearly still colored, but yet much more reliable then former sources.

The Middle East is shaking with these events.
Arafat died and gave space to a new leadership.

Hariri was killed and leads to the start of a free Lebanon.
Iran is surely moving too.

Brought to you by Reuters: Top News

Posted on March 14, 2005
in Limit of my knowledge, Living in Israel

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A blog about Israel's influence on US policy

Why am I starting this blog? On such a delicate subject? Well, because I feel the need to contribute to an open debate on U.S. foreign policy, mainly in the Middle East, but also as policy toward the Middle East impinges on U.S. relations with countries outside the region.

We need to talk about it, because we're getting set up for a broadening of U.S. military action in the region -- and we need to debate whether or not doing this serves U.S. interests -- and to do that, we need to have a frank discussion of some of the ulterior motives, and yes, dual loyalties which are driving the policy process in the Bush administration.

Looks an interesting site to follow...

Brought to you by War Blogging

Posted on March 14, 2005
in Living in Israel

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The body

A fiction movie with amazingly well situation on how Israel looks these days.
I am watching it now and catch already inside language :)
Watch the movie now on Kanaal2

See the trailer
Read more on the film

Remarks:
-Sometimes too yellow colors, same technique as in SpyGame which is situated in Lebanon, see the extras on that DVD to know on the reason why-
-Parts are filmed in the nice garden (Garden Tomb) just outside Damascus Gate. Some people believe Jesus was buried there. Even if you are a non-believer, it is worth visiting. You kind of get the real spirit of Jerusalem there. And you see a really old tomb, like it used to be like in the year 33.
-Amazing integration of the political problem into the religious world in this film. Just like it is ;)
-The Old City of Jerusalem used to be my home for 2 days a week during 7 months. The atmosphere is well presented in this movie. Makes me long to see it again.
-The soldiers.... As many as in Jerusalem...
-Real Palestinians, real Jews. -And not like in SpyGame fake ones-
-Also real Hebrew.
-Shin Bet is the national secret service of Israel -Mossad is the international secret service of Israel-
-Integration of the rituals are real. So well documented script. -Talking about the not giving back of the jar-
-Missing on the scene of the bombing: the religious volunteers who look for human parts. Because the Jewish belief says you need to gather the whole body and bury it together...
-Interesting mindfood: the question is not if Christ did resurrected. But how would you feel if they found out he didn't? Same question asked in Dan Browns books: What if Jesus got a child?

-Mistake in the movie: the text in the end of the movie is in Hebrew, and should have been in Aramese.

-She says 'When I was in the army' Women in Israel need to go to the army too... 2 years.
-Did you know many archeological discoveries in relation to Jesus were found, one of them telling this: The skeleton of a crucified man: Although many thousands of Jews were crucified by the Roman occupying army during the 1st and 2nd century CE, almost of their bodies were discarded in a dump to be eaten by scavengers. This was a calculated design by the Romans to increase the horror and revulsion associated with crucifixion. But in 1968, the remains of a crucified man were found in a burial cave at Giv'at ha-Mivtar, northeast of Jerusalem. A group of five ossuaries was discovered in the cave. One of them contained the bones of two men and a young child. One of the men, aged from 24 to 28 years, had been crucified during the 1st century CE. A 4.5" (11.4 cm) nail pierced the victim's right heel bone.
Seems like the story behind this movie...
-Many of these discoveries are forgeries. For the money of course.

Posted on March 22, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Things to go and see in Israel/Palestine

Although I have been there a dozen times, I still managed to miss some of the things to see...

Must visit if I find the time:
-Yad Vashem, the museum in the Holocaust (very new, so I couldn't have gone there yet)
-The Israel Museum, where you can see the Dead Sea Scrolls, in the Shrine of the Book (shame on me...)
-Dome of the rock.

-Herodus' secret city.
-Dive into Herodus City, in Caesarea (well, I don't like diving...)

Things I did, but might be interesting for others to know:
Well, you have the very normal things to see such as: Western Wall, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Church of Nativity (Bethlehem), Massada, Red Sea...

But consider these ones as an extra tip:
Jericho with the watering system.
Garden Tomb to see a tomb dating from +- 33 a.C.
Galilei with on top the amazing beautiful and very modern church. (somewhere near where Jesus was said to have walked over the water...)
Golan (and in winter: go and ski!)
The little monastery near Jericho, hidden between the rocks.

Posted on March 25, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Beauty has cut itself off

Tonight I am meeting Vardi Kahana.

She is an Israeli photographer and made an incredible series about a young woman, dying of cancer.
Might be an interesting meeting...

Posted on March 29, 2005
in Living in Israel

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VideoWalk in a refugeecamp

Some seconds of video inside of a refugeecamp. Can be downloaded here (16mb).

The wall is closing. When I arrived near Bethlehem 2.5 years ago, there was no wall.
One year later, you saw it coming closed. Only months ago, there was a huge gap, now the gap is only like 4 meters width.

What bothers me, is the fact Israel builds it on other people's property.
Like I would say 'I don't want to talk to my neighbor, so I build a wall on his property....'
Not only, it is on Palestinians property, it also takes a lot of the property away from them.
It is not build on the Green Line, and although there were like 'accepted' checkpoints, Israel decided to take a 100 metres more. And thus taking like many square km's of land with olive trees.
I goes beyond the limit of my understanding.

A settlement near Bethlehem. I should put a picture next to it, dating 2 years earlier.
You would suddenly doubt when the news announces 'Israel is stopping to build settlements.'
This one grew the last 2 years in an amazing race.
Somewhere in the middle you see a crane, meaning they are still building.


Nur (means light), one of the kids in Dheisheh.

Note: I love this country, I have many Israeli friends. And Palestinians.
But I do oppose what is happening here.

In fact, yesterday, I couldn't help thinking that some weeks ago they opened this Museum for remembering the holocaust, while only some km away, people are faced a situation that sometimes reminds of similar systematization as known in the beginning of the German Reich.
Crossing a checkpoint is in any way most of the time very disgraceful and humiliating.

I know many of you will oppose this and give many reasons why it is rightful to do so, but I can only recommend you to go and experience it.
And then speak.

I am happy to hear and to see that the last months a big chance happened: people are again hopeful, and somehow, the situation has calmed down.
Let's hope Abbas keeps the faith.

Posted on April 3, 2005
in Living in Israel

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In the army...

In Israel men have to serve up till 3 years. But after that, it is not finished.
Men have to return each year for 1 month to serve reserve duty. Until they are 40.
They have to go back to their unit and do the stuff they learned in the army.
All of them.
(All companies know each male employee needs to do this, and the whole system is adapted. It is even so integrated that when you apply for a job, people want to know what you did in the army, and if you didn't do the army, this is seen as a disadvantage.)

A friend of mine avoids going back. According to him, the army does crazy stuff out there, and he doesn't want to be part of it.
So he simply doesn't answer to the calls of the army.
But last year, they tracked him, and kept nagging about it.
So he took the only solution: he went to a shrink and asked him to write a paper that he is not able to do so, due to psychological reasons. It costed around 500 euro.
After that, the army called him to make tests. Which they did. For a whole day. Finally they agreed and said that he did have some psychological problems.

That's how the story could end.
But it doesn't... Because he got a profile 21 (which represents the army code for psychologically unfit for recruitment), the office for driving licenses called him. He needed to some tests because he might not be capable to drive anymore.
They took him for 8 hours of tests. The questions were stunning 'Do you put all your stuff back into place?' and he almost failed it.
In the end he got a conversation with a shrink there, in which they said 'But in the army you said you take drugs, for depression'
On which he answered 'I lied'
'How am I supposed to believe you'
'Well, I can choose between shooting people or lying to the army, so I choose the latter'

Luckily she believed him, and he can keep his driving licence...

Want to know more about profile 21 and other stories: check this

Posted on April 3, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Back from Gaza.

I should syncro my iPod, so I can upload a podcast and let you hear my amazing experience:
'Hebrew Classes for Palestinians in Gaza'
Yep, there is hope.

Posted on April 7, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Rafah in Gaza

Posted on April 8, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Thierry De Duve in Tel Aviv

Thierry De Duve just arrived and will be lecturing tomorrow evening.

I guess we'll have an interesting lecture on Marchel Duchamp

Feel free to come if you happen to hang around in Tel Aviv: Sunday at 6PM, in Salamestreet

Posted on April 9, 2005
in Linking context, Living in Israel

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Little Feet

Sigal got her baby yesterday night.

We just back of seeing the little miracle.

Ps: the barcode is there so people cannot steal the baby.
Pps: No name revealed yet, but this is casual over here. The first 3 days there is no name given yet.

Posted on April 10, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Settlers about to protest in Jerusalem

Massive security appears to thwart plans by Jewish extremists to stage a rally at a Jerusalem holy site.

Brought to you by BBC News

Today is a stressful day, since the settlers are going to oppose the plans in Jerusalem.
It might mean the end of the cease-fire of the Palestinians...
Israel is doing what is within their possibilities to prevent it.
Even their right winged prime minister has no benefit from this demonstration.

More news will follow for sure...

Posted on April 10, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Leaving Tel Aviv

The planned flight for May is delayed to my regret.
Thus now, I have no clue for when I will be back.
The plane took off and in my last view on Tel Aviv I see the amazing neighbouring building of my wonderful host.
Home is where my heart lies.

The tears appearing in my eyes have to do with the knowledge that it might be for longer than I hoped, and I might have to consider all of this as the closing of a chapter.

A beautiful chapter. 2 years of amazing stories and as many adventures.
And wonderful friends.

In my ears:
Life for rent from the album "Life For Rent" by Dido
Clocks from the album "A Rush Of Blood To The Head" by Coldplay

Beautiful Day from the album "All That You Can't Leave Behind" by U2

I blink :)

Posted on April 11, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Yoav, the flutemaker

I met Yoav through Sobhi, my Palestinian friend.
Yoav makes flutes. Around 50-80 a year.

He showed us around in his little lab and I found myself stunned.
This is not only about working with the wood, it is loving it, hating it, destroying it when it doesn't work. Because more then working with the wood, it is all about the music.

Beautiful melodies are being whispered in that lab...

Posted on April 13, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Israel rocks. In otherone's words.

It was my very first time there and obviously I had some "cliches" in mind. I was told the security was crazy at the airport and I was not disappointed. It started at the gate in Europe, special gate, additional security checks. Arrived there, I spend 15 minutes in front of the police officer asking weird questions. Is this your first time in Israel ? Yes. Do you have family here ? No. Do you have relatives ? Yes. What kind ? Friends. What friends ? Business friends and just friends. What are their names ? Yossi Vardi, Ouriel Ohayon and others. Where did you meet them ? In Davos and at business school. What is Davos ? It is the World Economic Forum event. What business school ? HEC in Paris. Who is Yossi Vardi ? The founder of the Israeli company ICQ (I joked on that with Yossi who said it was an insult). What is ICQ ? Are you joking ? No. It is an Internet company. What kind ? Instant messaging. When were you at school with Ouriel Ohayon ? I told you, in Paris at HEC. Is he living here ? Yes. For how long ? A year and a half etc etc. And now the fun part, I arrived without having an exact address, just the city name, Kinneret. What hotel do you stay ? I don't stay in a hotel. Why ? I participate in a conference. There is no hotel ? No, it is a camp. What is the address ? I don't know. Wrong answer :-) It took me another five minutes... Yat Siu had exactly the same problem, even worse actually as he asked the officer not to chop his passport because he goes regularly to Arab countries that may not like it and he got another special interview for asking that. Anyway, it was not so bad as contrarily to other countries, most police officers are very nice and young Israeli girls... which helps continuing the conversation.

Brought to you by Loic Le Meur Blog

Posted on April 13, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Talking to Tel Aviv

Just talked to Tel Aviv for an hour...
Damn, I miss it.
Sure, one day, I'll just go to the airport, pick a flight and end up there. _should be before July or after September, otherwise you die of the heat.._

Last week Airstop featured 249 euro flights to Tel Aviv... Why wait?

Posted on May 9, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Israel's Sharon Considering Delaying Gaza Pullout

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel is considering delaying a Gaza withdrawal until mid-August to avoid further angering settlers during a Jewish mourning period that marks the destruction of two biblical temples, officials said Monday.

Brought to you by Reuters: Top News

They must be joking right?
Palestinians were so hopeful last time I saw them. In my eyes this is really challenging the cease-fire.

Posted on May 9, 2005
in Living in Israel

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In my heart

Adam ["a man"] is a man
Time is a mere moment
[In which] he builds his world
And it blooms in his garden

In my heart
In my body
In my spirit
In my bosom
Is our land
Our blood
Our soul
Our lives

The salt and the sea
?

The truth
The light
Drunk or sober
In my eyes, my tears ["emotions"]
You are my love

David Broza & Wisam Murad sing for peace in Israel/Palestine

Posted on May 9, 2005
in Linking context, Living in Israel

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Bezalel Graduate

Tamar called, saying that my diploma is ready.
I can call myself finally a real post-graduate from Bezalel Academy of Fine Arts and Design.
Sounds rather ok, right. lol.
Should go and get it now...

Artwork ©Boaz 2004. (The window right to the soldier was actually my studio in Tel Aviv for 2 years)

Posted on May 21, 2005
in Living in Israel

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SN Airlines surprises

Happy Birthday!

Dear Miss Dehandschutter,

Time to celebrate with 2 Free Tickets of SN Brussels Airlines.

It is always fun to be surprised by birthday greetings, especially when they are accompanied by the option to get free tickets with SN Brussels Airlines to Europe or Africa for less air miles.

Enjoy your birthday - we look forward to see you on one of our next flights with your birthday ticket.

Sincerely,

SN Airlines

Recounting my miles. SN AirMiles rule!
Options to fly? Too many, a pity Tel Aviv is not Europe for this matter.
Now find that partner to accompany me on the flight...

Posted on May 23, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Haim Yavin takes a stand.

Israel’s prominent TV news anchor, Haim Yavin, took a firm stand against Israel’s occupation to the Palestinian territories which could sway public opinion exactly like what his U.S. counterpart did on the Vietnam war nearly 40 years ago.

Yavin has been the calm, objective face of Israeli news, the anchor of Channel 1's broadcast since the founding of the Israeli television in 1968.

known as "Mr. TV," Yavin is to deliver a documentary about the Jewish settlements in the West Bank expressing his pessimism and anger.

"Since 1967, we have been brutal conquerors, occupiers, suppressing another people," Yavin says in "Yoman Masa," or "Diary of a Journey," which he filmed over the past two and a half years with a hand-held video camera in the West Bank and Gaza. In the documentary, Yavin addresses settlers, Palestinians and soldiers.

Yavin dropped his mask on Tuesday, screening the first of his five-part series of documentaries, coming down hard against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its treatment of Palestinians.

The series, called “The Land of the Settlers,” prompted a call from settler leaders for Yavin’s dismissal.

Yavin's documentary comes at a time of heated controversy over the settlements Israel built in the West Bank and Gaza Strip after capturing the lands in the 1967 Mideast war.

By Aljazeera

Interesting I can say, especially regarding the news source...

Posted on June 1, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Israel releases 400 Palestinian prisoners

Israel begins releasing about 400 Palestinian prisoners -- promised under a cease-fire agreement between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

By CNN.com

Side-note: Palestinians are sentenced to jail for one month if they cross the 'border' with Israel.
(Border of the Palestinian Territory are defined by the Israeli and are not recognized by any other country.)
So if they release first 500 and then 400 prisoners, wonder about what they actually did.

Posted on June 2, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Memory of a past.

Remember the bird on my ankle.

Posted on June 12, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Homesick...

Longing for a new take off.
Need to go to my other home again. Feels like it.

Posted on June 13, 2005
in Living in Belgium, Living in Israel

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Israelis and Palestinians Agree On Demolishing Houses in Gaza

The agreement represented the first concrete Israeli-Palestinian cooperation in Gaza after many months of disputes.

Well, might be the best choice after all.
In 5000 years nobody will be able to claim they had important people/houses there...
;)
And the Palestinians can rest their pace: no corrupt leader will get the nicest apartments. :)))

Link

Posted on June 20, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Blue / Orange in Israel

Funny story straight from Tamar in Israel.

If you are PRO Israel leaving the settlements, you wear a blue ribbon. If you are against, you wear orange.

Seems there is a funny battle of words in the streets as more and more (cars) are wearing the ribbons.
And people wear orange T-shirts/blue T-shirts and quarrel about it.

More info here.
Get the ribbon here.
View a video here - and - here

I just ordered my ribbon ;)

Posted on June 20, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Memory of too long ago: a kiss from tel aviv

Click to see movie.

It was when I was only one month in Israel and people were still worried to death about me.
Horrible joke, horrible me... ;)
(2 years later, friends and family know better)

Posted on June 20, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Palestinian Gunmen Open Fire Near Hebron, Killing Israeli, 17

Gunmen killed a 17-year-old and wounded four other people in a drive-by shooting near the West Bank town.
Brought to you by: NYT > International

There we goo again...

Posted on June 25, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Look for the mistake

What's wrong with this image?

(Tip: Rightist Jews, Palestinians clash in Gaza: Reuters: Top News)

Posted on June 29, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Civil war coming up?

Gaza's Jewish settlements are reopened, a day after the Israeli military imposed a blockade.

Brought to you by BBC News

Yep, surely something is going to happen there soon.
Civil war?

Posted on July 1, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Switched my homepage

Today I switched my homepage from AlJazeera to Haaretz.com.
The heat is appearing in Israel, you'll notice.

Hilal Majaida, who was injured in a lynch attempt by right-wing extremists at an outpost in Gush Katif this week. Surprising levels of violence. AP

Posted on July 1, 2005
in Living in Israel

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The other side of the story

For me, by now, it is obvious to see the other side of the story as well.

When we say 'pull out of Gaza', we say 'People leaving their homes'

In Europe, it is easy to say 'Well, they have to go, it is obvious they are wrong', but we forget to see the human story behind it.

How would it be to leave a house, a home?

Posted on July 1, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Abbas invites militant groups into government: bad idea?

GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has
invited militant factions, including the Islamic group Hamas,
to join his government .

Brought to you by Reuters: Top News

Of course this idea is rejected by Israel and even U.S.A, but on the other hand, maybe it is not such a bad idea.
Or is it?

The situation in Israel is so complicated and hard to understand, let be, deal with it.
Taking the opposition into the government might lead them to a realistic view upon things. Otherwise it will just stay opposition, which, in that sense, opposes to everything...

Posted on July 2, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Orange in Israel

"Orange, orange everywhere, nor any drop to drink

You have to hand it to the settlers for pure determination. I was stopped outside my local supermarket last night by a woman who asked me if I wanted to drink a glass of carrot juice in support of Gush Katif.

I hate carrots (and carrot juice) at the best of times. Being coerced into drinking it for a political cause was something I never thought I would have to undergo.

I should be glad the settlers chose orange and not yellow, because the only thing I hate more than carrots is pineapple. "

From Haaretz Blog

Posted on July 7, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Israel's Cabinet Calls for Swift Completion of Jerusalem Barrier

JERUSALEM, July 10 - Israel's separation barrier in Jerusalem will cut off 55,000 Palestinian residents from the rest of the city, Israeli officials acknowledged today. Palestinians responded sharply, saying they will face daily complications in reaching jobs, schools and hospitals.

Brought to you by NYT > International

Wonder what this will give..
Considering the barrier will become somehow the new border, those 55000 will become what? Israeli? ;)

Posted on July 10, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Why Israel's security system doesn't work

Israel has several security measurements, and I can tell you, I experienced loads of them.
Because I am a single woman coming from Belgium, I am regarded as a possible threat. -singles might be seduced by Palestinians, and Belgians.. well Belgians are pro-Palestinians they say.-

I was held near several borders and checked for many hours, they guided me to my plane with a personal 'guide' -read guard- and once didn't allow me on a inland flight.

I coped with it, and I guess anybody would do if it is all for the security.
But yes, I complained about it, because to me, it doesn't make sense.
If they don't allow me on an inland flight, but they do allow me on a bus without checking me, what's the point.

Next article is telling you more about how bombings still can happen:

Shin Bet: Israeli Jew drove Netanya bomber
The Shin Bet security service said Tuesday that an Israeli Jew from Ramat Gan is suspected of having brought into Israel the terrorist who carried out last month's Netanya suicide bombing.

In the Netanya bombing case, the Shin Bet said Levy, along with Taibeh resident Sif Azam, drove the bomber and another Islamic Jihad man from the West Bank city of Tul Karm into the Israeli Arab town of Taibeh for NIS 1,000.

The Shin Bet said Levy has admitted to regularly transporting Palestinian workers and car thieves into Israel illegally. He also said he drove the bomber and the second Jihad man into Israel on the day of the bombing, but told security forces he was not aware he was transporting a suicide bomber.

"If he had known that these were terrorists or people on their way to carrying out something against Israeli residents, he would have done everything to give them up to the police," said David Zilberman, Levy's lawyer.

However, Shin Bet investigators said Levy should have suspected his passenger was a suicide bomber, in part because he was carrying the explosives in a large bag.

Azam said he did examine the contents of the bomber's bag and saw a smaller bag in which the explosives were hidden, but believed the passengers when they told him the bag contained burglary tools.

Heck, would you bring in people with burglary tools into your country, for 200 euro???

IDF officials said they were concerned about Israeli citizens' role in helping Palestinians enter Israel illegally.

They should be...

Know that Israel's system is taken as an example for the rest of the world, and Israeli's are teaching US, UK and Europe how to deal with terrorism.
I still don't know what to think of that.
Did they cope with it so well? Should their treatment become the norm?
(If you went recently to US/Paris/London airports, know that the tactics used there are similar to Israel's -They are indeed teaching those places how to deal with it-. So figure out for yourself what to think about it.)

Posted on August 2, 2005
in Limit of my knowledge, Living in Israel

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Travel Plans for Ine Dehandschutter...

Travel Plans for Ine Dehandschutter...

Flight #: SN3291 Airline: SN Brussels Airlines
.....................................................................................................................
Depart: 06:55 PM Airport: Brussels National Arpt
Brussels Belgium
.....................................................................................................................
Arrive: 13 August 2005 Airport: Tel Aviv Yafo Ben Gurion Int'l Arpt
12:20 AM Tel Aviv
Terminal 3 Israel
.....................................................................................................................
Aircraft: Airbus A319 Confirmation: LZ3KTD
Seat: Not Assigned Mileage: 2017
Class: COACH Travel Time: 4.25
Meal: Snack Stopovers: 0

HAHAA!

Oh and the weather forecast...:
Temp 30C
Real Feel Temp 32C
Winds southwest 11mph
Humidity 74%
Visibility 6 miles

Too humid, but what the heck...
Can't wait to see those settlers sweat ;)

Might jump to Sinai. -Or might not....-
But if so, Huug will envy me ;)

Posted on August 2, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Banksy does it again

I am a huge fan of him, since he managed to get some fake art work in a huge museum and it took long before one noticed.

Now he went to stencil West Banks Barrier Wall.

He's still anonymous -but maybe Israeli security knows his real name ;)-

Might go an see his works in real time, next week...

More here
.

Posted on August 7, 2005
in Linking context, Living in Israel

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Kick the settlers

Play the game:
Kick the settlers out ;)

Or let Ariel Sharon do it.

Reality will be slight different.
4 more days to go.
Guess I land over there in the middle of a fuzz.

Posted on August 11, 2005
in Living in Israel

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100.000 protest in Tel Aviv...

100,000 gather in Tel Aviv for anti-pullout protest

By Yuval Azoulay, Jonathan Lis, and Roni Singer, Haaretz Correspondents
Settler leaders unveil 'Orange Dawn' plan to attempt to disrupt the disengagement from Gaza.

Some 100,000 opponents of the disengagement plan gathered in Rabin Square in central Tel Aviv on Thursday evening for a protest rally over Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank.

Settlement leaders presented instructions for disrupting the evacuation of Gaza Strip settlements, set to begin in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The settlers' plan is called "Orange Dawn."

Participants received instructions on how to begin their protest after the Tisha B'Av fast, which ends Sunday night.

I know where to take pics tomorrow night...

Posted on August 12, 2005
in Living in Israel

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To the year 5765.

I travel tonight to the year 5765.
A 4 hours flight brings me to another continent, another now and a further past.
I'll walk in a country, where, the more I go, the less I understand...

Stories in Dutch of my stay in Tel Aviv will be posted here.

Posted on August 12, 2005
in Living in Israel

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What is going on here

Read this.

Posted on August 14, 2005
in Linking context, Living in Israel

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Little Alma

Posted on August 15, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Diploma

Finally :)
I passed. And how...

Posted on August 16, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Interesting story

Hundreds of important journalists from the top flight of the world media postponed their summer vacation and are pouring into Israel. Apparently the Holy Land has again become the most important place in the world in terms of the creation of news - otherwise the journalists would certainly not cancel their vacations. Hundreds of other journalists have already been here for many weeks and are boning up on the subject "in depth." And they are joined, of course, by the hundreds of foreign correspondents who are based permanently in Israel in numbers that exceed, in absolute - not only relative - terms the volume of foreign correspondents based in places where the world's fate is decided. The Israeli Government Press Office says that when the disengagement begins to be implemented in practice, there will be more than 6,000 foreign correspondents here.

In large parts of Africa, such as Niger, hundreds of thousands of people are dying of starvation and disease. However, as befits such an unimportant event, only a handful of journalists from around the world are there, in the form of a kind of "pool," in order to tell us about the horrors that are occurring on a continent which even God seems to want to forget. And, it turns out, humanity, too. Otherwise, humanity would send its representatives, the journalists, to report to them, to remind them incessantly, to rouse the world's conscience.

Read on. (out of Haaretz)

Posted on August 17, 2005
in Living in Israel

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FM2...

Just bought myself a second hand FM2.
Cheap cheap cheap, seems all nerds are selling their manual wear in order to buy that digital stuff. Good for me :)

There was a manual 20mm /2.8 (for Nikon), for little less than 500 euro (-18% taxes normally). In perfect shape. If someone of you wants it... Let me know. -

Posted on August 17, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Little movies of a splendid weekend

More here

Posted on August 21, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Survive Israel

While I am going back tonight -snifsnif- some of you might go on a trip to Israel.
If so, find here some survival kits to read.
How to survive Israeli drivers -yep, my mom will confirm they are even more crazy then Belgians...-

One Way Streets - No Way
You're going on a road trip and you've checked out the map to make sure you are aware of all the one way streets. You assume everyone does the same, right? Wrong! Don't be surprised to see 1) another car coming straight at you 2) someone backing up the street towards you 3) someone turning out of a laneway coming straight towards you. Also note that anyone of these vehicles may be a moving van, local garbage truck, speeding Mazda or, the worst and most dangerous, any one of the aforementioned on their cellphone. Survival tip: be like Linda Blair in the Exorcist.

And last but not least: How to survive Israeli men -for both men and women interesting...- ;)

Posted on August 26, 2005
in Linking context, Living in Israel

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Night swimming

Did some night swimming in Tel Aviv.
Now preparing to catch a flight. Will be back in Belgium at 5 AM.
Grumblllll.
Hate going back to awful weather...

Posted on August 26, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Hebron area settlers ask to be evacuated

Settlers living in the southern Hebron Hills said in comments broadcast Tuesday that they want to leave their community.

Eliezer Weider, a settler from Teneh Omarim, told Israel Radio that 80 percent of the residents have signed a letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon asking that they receive state compensation if they leave the community.

The request came after Israel withdrew 9,000 Jewish settlers this month from the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank as part of Sharon's disengagement plan.

Most of the 85 families living in Teneh Omarim believe that they have no future in the isolated settlement since it is located on the "Palestinian" side of the barrier Israel is building along the line of the West Bank, Weider said.

This is real news, since the Hebron settlers are known as the most hard core settlers of Israel.
I guess money does make the world go 'round.

Brought by JPost.com Headlines

Posted on August 30, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Jerusalem tour bus stoned by haredim

A Jerusalem city tour bus was stoned Wednesday in the city's Mea She'arim neighborhood by haredi assailants, police said.

Tamar and I walked there last week. Luckily we decided it was not wise to go inside of the compound.
Haredim life according to peculiar life styles, which are really interesting to read about in Wikipedia
Many of them don't believe in the state of Israel, since this can only be an act of God to establish it, and not done by human intervention (like happened now)
For a similar reason they refuse to talk Hebrew: they prefer the Jiddish.
Hebrew is the language of G*D and can thus not be used.
They cannot make image of G*D nor refer to him that's why they changed the world slightly.
To me the strangest habit is the wearing of the wigs by the women.
The habit origins in the fact that women should not tempt other man, and thus should cover.
But if you cover with a wig of your own hair??

As long as they are happy.

Brought by JPost.com Headlines

Posted on August 31, 2005
in Living in Israel

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You've got mail

It was a funny day when all the catalogues of Ikea arrived. The whole city of Tel Aviv was full of them.
Invasion of Sweden, in your mailbox :)

Posted on September 1, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Sharon After Gaza

What Israel's Prime Minister plans to do next

Brought by TIME Magazine Online: Top Stories

Posted on September 2, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Israeli located, 2 more missing in New Orleans

Three Israelis are listed as missing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Dana Koresh, Israel's Deputy Consul in Houston told The Jerusalem Post on

Look, this is the advantage of a good system.
In Belgium more than a week after Katrina, there are still 68 people missing.
Well, they don't even know if they are really missing...

Brought by JPost.com Headlines

Posted on September 7, 2005
in Living in Belgium, Living in Israel

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Israel + PA: 2 states?

The question is rising.
Let have them have a look at Belgium with its solution for Brussels.
Might do for Jerusalem?

Posted on September 9, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Israel declares end to Gaza rule; pullout imminent

JERUSALEM, Sept 11 - Israel declared an end to its military rule in Gaza on Sunday, clearing the way to complete its pullout and turn the territory over to the Palestinians on Monday after 38 years of occupation.

One can only guess what will happen next.
Positive minds think things will get better, let's hope they are right.

When one year ago, the rumor of withdrawal was whispered in the streets Palestinians never believed it.
Now, one year later, it happened. The gate was closed. 38 years of occupation ended.

Interesting side-note: The funny part is that in fact Abbas doesn't want that it is formally end, because then the Palestinians are not regarded as occupied, and thus Israel doesn't have to pay for some things anymore. (The convention of Geneve made this an obligation: the occupier needs to take care of the occupied)

Brought by Reuters: Top News

Posted on September 11, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Palestinian chaos abates in former Gaza settlements

NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Palestinian security forces took control in abandoned Jewish settlements in Gaza on Wednesday, ending two days of anarchy following Israel's withdrawal from the territory.

Well, this is not the scary part, there was nothing left to loot anyway, but this is:

Chaos erupted along the border after Monday's withdrawal as tens of thousands of Palestinians, no longer deterred by a lethal Israeli army buffer strip, clambered walls into Egypt and flooded cheap Egyptian town markets and appliance shops.

But Palestinian and Egyptian police clamped down early on Wednesday, restricting access to seven informal crossing points, security sources and witnesses said.

They said furious Hamas militants blew open a big hole in the border wall with a bomb but Palestinian and Egyptian police swiftly blocked the area.

Mohammad Amees, a Palestinian seen crawling through a small hole in the barrier, said the Egyptian Sinai town of el-Arish had been overwhelmed by visitors from Gaza. "All the shops are empty in el-Arish. There's no food, dairy products, and the electronics shops have been cleaned out," he told Reuters.

Israel expects that Hamas will use sneak roads to get bombs into Gaza, to attack Israeli towns, like the port of Ashkelon.

When talking to Tamar last week, I asked her why they didn't demolish their synagogues in Gaza.
She said it was never done, and Israel never demolished mosques when taking land.She thought that maybe they wouldn't destroy the mosques.
Guess that was a wrong thought...

Strangely the looters also demolish the greenhouses, which were actually left to give the Palestinians an opportunity to build an new economy.
There are already formal agreements on the export to Israel out of these greenhouses...

Brought by Reuters: Top News

Posted on September 14, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Dealers Smuggle Weapons Into Gaza From Egypt

(People entering Egypt after 38 years)

Palestinian gunrunners smuggled hundreds of weapons across the Egyptian frontier into Gaza, confirming Israeli fears about giving up border control.

Well, did we ever believed Gaza Palestinians would settle with 360 sq km for 1,4 milj people? That's 3888 people per sq km
(To compare: Belgium counts 339 people per sq km, and no, there is no mistake in my counting...)

Brought by NYT > International
Interesting article here (on prices of AK47, dealing of weapons etc.)

Posted on September 15, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Buy a piece of land in Israel?

Strange ad:

The Israeli Government has designated the areas surrounding and above the Lake of Galilee as a future touristic area. In these regions lie large areas of unused agricultural land. Which are ready for conversion into recreational use.

These pieces of agricultural land are bought by our organization and offered in smaller pieces of 100 square meters (ca 1,075 ft²) for 2,000 euro (2,400 dollar as per July 1, 2005). You can buy these via Kfar Shalom Galil.

Hereafter we will apply for conversion of the designation of this land with the Israeli Government into recreational purposes in order to build holiday homes Parcs. The value of the land will increase by this conversion.

As soon as this has been realized, the land will be developed further by our own organization or be sold to recreation project developers. The revenues are for YOU!

Against the value of your purchase you are entitled to stay for free at the accommodation of Bed & Breakfast cabins of Kfar Shalom Galil. So, for every invested 2,000 euro (2,400 dollar as per July 2005) you receive a free stay of two weeks and a 50% discount for further stays.

During your stay you can inspect your own land, possibly work it or reap its fruits. We have no doubt that this introduction has aroused your interest and curiosity.

Hmm, the pic doesn't show an interesting place, but it has to be said: Israelis turned desert into a blooming place, so you'll never know.
And a field of 10m on 10 is just a veryvery small garden... Just enough to put a tent on. LOL.

Oh, you have to check this video, shows how music influences your mind.

Posted on September 16, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Sad story: Palestinians smuggle Egyptian brides into Gaza

Many Palestinian men who flocked into Egypt after the IDF evacuated the Philadelphi corridor have seized the opportunity to search for brides.

Why? "Because the women are cheaper then in Gaza" and "Some of the men were already married and had decided to take a second or third wife after discovering that Egyptian families were eager to send their daughters to a relatively better life in the Gaza Strip, the source added."

Sad story...

The whole article here

Brought by JPost.com Headlines

Posted on September 20, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Puma shoes

I am a shoe addict, though at this point I only have 4 pair at my apartment -and 4 more at home-
The thing is, when I see the pair I like, I want. I want badly. I need...

In Israel I found this pair and though I wasn't planning to spend the money, I did.
Luckily. Due to the dollar rate and the nice euro -and probably a wrong labeling in the Puma shop-, I paid like 300 NIS or 'only' 54 euro -haha, u bet I made a good deal, online they are offered for 110 euro!-

Puma has beautiful lifestyle footwear, these days.
A mix between design and comfortable sport shoes.
I bought a pair of Mostro's some years ago, and I didn't take them off for a long time. (the fact that they have so many different variants of them, proves I am not the only one liking them)
I would buy 10 pairs of them, if it weren't for the fact Puma keeps on coming with new, beautiful (even designer's) shoes, that keep on seducing me...

Caro, want to hunt along for winter?

Posted on September 25, 2005
in Linking context, Living in Israel

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Israel arrests 206 terror suspects in West Bank

In raids across the West Bank overnight, Israel Defense Forces arrested at least 206 "wanted Palestinians," an IDF spokeswoman told CNN on Sunday.

Brought by CNN.com

I called with Yasser yesterday.
According to him, it is only starting now...
His exact words were 'Where are they doing this in West Bank, when actually it is pretty quiet these days?'
I have no clue.
Does anyone have a clue?

Meanwhile I do understand the fear of Palestinians. For them every good news comes before bad. And they are not even optimistic about the good anymore.

I’ve been constantly asked about my personal opinion –as a Palestinian- on this whole Gaza “disengagement” plan, I’d always reply: It’s good to have Gaza back, but be sure Israel didn’t do this unless it already calculated the benefits of this so called pullout. Wait and see, days will prove me right.
I knew the negative intentions will show up soon, and sooner than I’ve expected the Israeli plan in isolating Gaza, while expanding its territories and spreading its control over the West Bank, is showing to the whole world.
As usual, media is focusing on the suffering of the Israeli settlers who were forced to leave their homes, reporting their misery caused by dislocation, while covering the happiness and joy of the “evil” Palestinians taking over Gaza!
Now the Israeli government is taking advantage of its “peace gesture”; being in the strongest position ever, Israel now gives itself the right to expand the West Bank settlement… dare anyone say NO to Israel after its big historical “sacrifice”!!
So what I’m trying to say basically is: Israel has put other international power-countries in a position where they have no right to interfere nor condemn… so they believe they’re left no choice but turn a blind eye to Israel’s obvious ongoing occupation…
And this is only the beginning…

The fragment above is saying something alike Yasser's opinion.
Especially the part where they point out to the media tactics of crying settlers, and then, according to them, the tactical move of leaving the synagogues.
We knew they would show the world we're Islamic monsters.

I really have no clue if it is right information or not.
If it was prepared like that or not.
I do recall a conversation with an Israeli friend, saying to me and Tamar, after all the commotion of the settlers 'The thing is, whether they [the settlers] are bastards or not, this will turn out well for Israel, because it shows that we, Israeli are doing such a terrible thing to our people by throwing out of their homes.
We are really doing efforts to give land back to the Palestinians. It will be in our advantage.'
He is pro-green line and giving back the land, but was just pointing out the international effect of the acts of the government.

I think it is naive to accept that the withdrawal was without any other intentions, just like it is naive to believe that the war in Iraq was on WMD...

Posted on September 25, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Israel hits more targets in Gaza

Israeli aircraft fire missiles at targets in Gaza in a continued operation against Palestinian militants.

by BBC News

Well, they seem to take hard repercussions on the 4 wounded Israeli of last week...
A lot of raids, more then 200 people jailed 2 days ago and 80 more last night.
And this while Hamas plegded last night to stop their attacks.

"Continued assassinations will explode the entire situation. We are asking the international community, especially the US, to move immediately and put strong pressure on Israel to stop this," he said in an interview with AFP.
Try to understand their tactics.

Posted on September 27, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Humous, chips, salat

A happy Orthodox lesbian writes from the Diaspora with an eye on her return.

Happy, orthodox and lesbian in one sentence? U must be kiddin'

Read this post:
My mom, of all people, told me she knew I was gay since high school. My dad however, being the theorist that he is when it comes to determining how much money pizza delivery boys make (depending on whether they make deliveries using a tus-tus or car) decided that it was "the Rabbis" who made me gay.

LOL, but with some fine thoughts. Nice to read it in the rather conservative newspaper Jerusalem Post

Posted on September 27, 2005
in Linking context, Living in Israel

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Meanwhile life from Israel

I just called with Tamar, to share some thoughts. And to check what is going on -check a former post on recent events-
According to her knowledge people near Gaza spent the weekend in their shelters because of Kassam-missiles coming out of Gaza.
In Jerusalem a man named Nuriel was kidnapped and killed. Pictures were released today.
In Israel, the Knesset is going crazy and Likud is fighting (Knesset is parliament, and Likud is the party of Sharon, who is by now not really supported by his party anymore...)
Israel is striking back, and it is striking hard.
Israel is on the verge of a huge political crisis.

As Tamar told me: I am so tired of it. So tired, I don't want to hear it anymore. I even close the TV to avoid it.

When one sees the picture of Nuriel, one can easily see the similarity of pictures out of Iraq and else where. The influence of Osama, although many Palestinians believe he is not doing anything good for their cause, is all over the place. He became the new symbol for resistance in the Arab world.
Hamas called for cease fire yesterday, but their members don't follow the orders from above, it is clear the head doesn't know about the tail, as Tamar said.
And Israel gets scared. They are afraid they are loosing control.

I wonder if they didn't anticipate to this. If they didn't prepare for such events.
Having lived over there, and having seen some of the institutions in Gaza and West Bank, this is not surprising to me.
Moreover: the Palestinian men in control over these things were killed or captured by Israeli.
So what's next?
Capturing all possible new leaders? -referring to the 300 people captured in the last 3 days...-

Posted on September 27, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Deeply involved

For months and months journalists tried to find the tunnels in Gaza. (As the soldiers btw)
This is a truly amazing and profound reportage of what tunnels are about in Gaza.

A splendid Hamas-style beard conceals a very young, boyish face. Only the adult gaze seems to contradict the youthful features. Jaber is 18. His occupation: tunnel excavator. He didn't understand that he was actually given the green light by his employers to tell "the Jew" about his singular profession. He was dumbstruck. The mature

Brought by HaaretzMagazine

Posted on September 29, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Small questions.

"You said I ask only big questions, so here is a small question that has been bothering me for many years: Why does the telephone cable get all wound up, even if I never curl it? I have asked a few experts but haven't received an answer. It's infuriating."

Posted on September 30, 2005
in Limit of my knowledge, Living in Israel

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Happy Rosh Hashanah

Happy 5766!

Jewish New Year is celebrated during the first 10 days of Tishri (Tish-ree), the seventh month of the Jewish calendar. This time period is often referred to as the High Holidays or High Holy Days.

The Jewish High Holy Days usually fall in September or October. In 2005, they are celebrated from sundown on Oct. 3 to sundown on Oct. 13. (The observance of all Jewish holidays begins at sundown on the first day and goes through sundown on the last day.)

The year 2005 translates to the year 5766 on the Jewish calendar.

Posted on October 1, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Happy Ramadan!

To my friends in the Middle East.

Posted on October 4, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Kilo Meter: Your art in Israel?

p/s
just in case you dont understand the hebrew;
on the 3rd of november i'm opening a one night trans
gallery. i'm collecting 1000 images from different
artists. the first thousand that i get i will print
them as postcards and give it away on the streets of
tel aviv. the image will be used only for this purpose
and will not be for merchandise. the name of tyhe
gallery 'alef alef/alef alef/alef alef"- stand for -
index thousand / artists love / art (on) bycicle
the image has to be sent by mail as jpg 300 dpi 10x15
cmyk
thanks for your cooporation
karin

fyi: Karin is a friend of mine in Israel. We studied together at Bezalel Academy of Art&Design.
She does performances, and for the opening of the gallery/opening also of the new gallery year, she'll perform. (Check the image to see the email address clearly)

I already sent my images.
And you?

First 1000 images only, so hurry up.

Posted on October 12, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Against the occupation in Israel?

Sign the petition.

Posted on October 17, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Fear.

One of my friends in Gaza (who's name I won't disclose here) had the opportunity to study in Israel and he had some friends over there. He was very active in some projects, because believes in peace and cooperation with Israel.

Today I read this article:

Gaza gunmen abduct two men accused of collaborating with Israel
By Reuters

Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip seized two men they accused of collaborating with Israel on Tuesday in another sign of lawlessness in the territory evacuated by Israeli forces last month.

Suddenly, I fear for him.

He is not a collaborator, and doesn't agree with everything Israelis do.
But surely he is in danger and will be regarded as a collaborator for those who see every contact with Israel as collaboration.

It is a strange idea that Palestinians start to abduct Palestinians, and that now the danger is coming from within.

It also explains why back then, people were not eager to start projects with Israel, if now the same people are being charged without a trial.

Keep the faith, my friend.

Posted on October 18, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Gaza awaits first harvest from former settlements

Gaza awaits first harvest from former settlements:
Palestinians worry about exporting produce left behind by Gaza settlers

Basil Jaber, chairman of the Palestine Economic Development Company (PEDC), told a news conference that 1,500 of the 2,000 greenhouses left intact had now been replanted. PEDC plans to invest e33 million in developing them all.

Good news out of Gaza, that is.

Posted on October 20, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Meanwhile in Syria

©Ine Dehandschutter

While in Belgium news is all about the EuroSong50th fever, striking and bird flu, the Middle East is about to get another crisis.

Opinion divided in J'lem on whether Syrian regime change good for Israel:
Opinions are divided in Jerusalem as to whether the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime would be good for Israel.

The US tends to agree:

Analysis: U.S. in no rush to replace Syria's Assad:
It will soon become clear whether talks held on the Syrian question by U.S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with her French and Russian counterparts were successful or not. If successful, then the United Nations Security Council could act decisively against Syria. If the talks fall short of a decision, then the discussion will be dragged over months, as is the UN's way, and the momentum will disappear.

Moving Assad might be not such a wise decision, in my belief.

Many of the Iraqi insurgents are in fact believed to come from Syria.
Removing Assad, might mean a huge instability in the region.
Thus again: a danger to become a blooming place for Al Quaeda...

Lees meer "Meanwhile in Syria" »

Posted on October 23, 2005
in Living in Israel

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The war is not over...

Five people killed in Hadera suicide bombing

By Haaretz Service and Agencies

A suicide bomber exploded in the open air market in the coastal city of Hadera a little before 4 P.M. Wednesday afternoon, killing five people and wounding 30 others.

More here.

Posted on October 26, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Fear and loathing in the Middle East

I have been in Gaza for few times, and many more in West Bank.
This below happened to me too.
One needs to read and think about it. Those things are rarely in our newspapers, but o-so revealing.
-Keep on writing On the face!-

The first time I went to Gaza City last summer, the time I went with Gal to interview some PA officials, I was accompanied by a local translator and guide whom I'll call Khaled. He was in his late twenties and spoke fluent idiomatic American English - which he said he'd learned while working as a barman in a southern European resort city. Khaled wore his sunglasses perched on his close-cropped hair, and he liked to quote the lyrics of American rap singers like 50 Cent. He also looked a lot older than his age, and he knew it. It's because of the shitty life here, he explained.

According to his story, Khaled was born and raised in Gaza but went to Europe in his late teens to work and study. He returned to Gaza in 2000, he said, because he believed in the promise of the Oslo Accords - the promise of peace and normalcy, and an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He missed his home and his family, and he didn't want to lose his right of residency in Gaza as a result of a prolonged absence.

And now, he said bitterly, I'm locked in. Then he said - longingly, but not angrily - I can't believe that, 10 minutes' drive from here, there are ordinary people sitting in cafes and living a normal life. And I'm stuck in this... (and here he just waved his hands expressively at the donkey carts and badly paved roads).

Khaled told me and Gal the following story about fear:

Shortly after he returned to live in Gaza, a few months before the second intifada broke out in October 2000, Khaled went to East Jerusalem to meet a friend who lived in the West Bank. He had never been to Jerusalem before, and he had never - he said - met a Jew who was dressed in civilian clothes.

After Khaled and his friend went out for drinks at a bar in East Jerusalem, they got in their car in order to return to Ramallah. But they took a wrong turn and found themselves in an Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood in West Jerusalem.

"I started to sweat real hard," said Khaled.

Gal and I didn't understand. "Why were you nervous?" we asked.

"Because," answered Khaled, "What if one of those religious Jews saw me and my friend, recognized us as Arabs, dragged us out of our car and beat us up or killed us?"

Gal and I were astonished. I think we even laughed.

by On the face

Lees meer "Fear and loathing in the Middle East" »

Posted on October 27, 2005
in Living in Israel

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This is Israel too

Rinat was outraged to discover that the supermarket in which she has shopped for two years recently instituted a new policy requiring female customers to wear a skirt. She has decided that she cannot take life in increasingly ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem anymore, and plans to move to secular Tel Aviv as soon as possible.
(Written by In the face)

:) One needs to be there to understand this amazing contradicting country.

It is true what they told me: you can love it or hate it, but it never leaves you indifferent.
After 2,5 years, I have to admit: I fell in love with it.

Btw, read this post, and get a really good insight in what Israel stands for.

Posted on November 1, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Pictures reveal the world?

Modern photojournalism has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that pictures can, and often do lie.
...
The overwhelming majority of Israelis pictured in the western media have been soldiers in full battle gear. These images are usually juxtaposed against those of Palestinian women, children and elderly.The kinds of pictures that almost guarantee a photographer's work prominent placement are those containing both of these misleading demographic cues (e.g. soldiers in a tank near a boy on a donkey, Soldier holding M16 near a Palestinian woman, etc.)

If one were to think about this trend, it would strike the critical mind as odd that Israel seems to be populated almost entirely by active duty soldiers, and that there seem to be almost no adult Palestinian men. Unfortunately, when perusing newspapers and magazines, few of us have our critical minds engaged. Rather, we tend to let headlines, photographs and captions wash over us... leaving behind the ideas and messages that the photographers and editors intend.

This isn't to say that photos are an enitirely untrustworthy medium. On the contrary, there is an important aspect to actually seeing something (as opposed to just reading about it) that helps people internalize a message.

Read the rest of this article (By Treppenwitz)

Posted on November 19, 2005
in Living in Israel

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The inhuman face of the occupation

A pile of rocks and garbage are placed on the only exit road from the Sheikh Saad neighborhood in southeast Jerusalem. For generations, the residents of this neighborhood, well-to-do judging by the appearance of their stone houses, with a view of the Jerusalem hills from their windows, lived as Jerusalemites, with close family ties with the houses opposite, the houses of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal Mukkaber. About three years ago, this arbitrary siege of rocks was placed on the neighborhood, and since then nobody can leave or enter it by car.

By Gideon Levy

Many people tend to believe things are better in Israel now, tghere is not much terror in the news.
Luckily there are some known journalists like Gedeon Levy, who still keep on writing about strange realities in the awkward country.

Rest of the story

Posted on November 20, 2005
in Living in Israel

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For fun

More here

Posted on November 20, 2005
in Linking context, Living in Israel

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Buckle up, everyone, it's going to be a bumpy campaign

To those who don't know yet, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon set off a political earthquake late last night, Israel time. He's bailing from the Likud party and setting up his own centrist party. Oh boy oh, boy, oh, boy....

Read more

More on BBC

Posted on November 22, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Walter van Beirendonck in Tel Aviv

Comics meet pop art meets fashion

"My aim is to change the limits of fashion," Belgian designer Walter Van Beirendonck once declared in an interview. That somewhat presumptuous statement by Van Beirendonck, 50, an extravagant sort who likes to wear tribal jewelry and sports a wild beard, is tangible in the shipment of his modest designs that recently arrived at the radical comme il faut store in the Tel Aviv port.

Charming green or red cotton skirts with black and white polka dots, zip-up pink wool cardigans that prompt a smile, and the eye motif that appears throughout the collection - indeed create an original encounter between comics, pop art, naive art and fashion.

Van Beirendonck made his breakthrough during the British Fashion Week of 1987. He got on the bus as part of the Antwerp Six Group, which left from Belgium for London, along with Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten and Martin Margiela. He was part of what was then considered the alternative that Antwerp designers offered European fashion, and at that time he founded his colorful line, Wild and Lethal Trash (W. & L.T.).

More here

Posted on November 23, 2005
in Living in Israel

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The majority...

Don't we all want a little bit of peace?

Last summer my neighborhood in Tel Aviv was filled with these colors, it seemed a new movement was appearing. Now few months later, indeed it seems ordinary people are having their voice heard.
Israeli's are beaten down in their belief and protest marches in Tel Aviv are seldom big.
Yet a silent protest is growing: it is peaceful but clear. 'We have had enough. We long for peace.'
Quite understandable: a whole generation grew up in constant conflict. I guess they are pretty tired of it all.

These people are the silent voices, the voices that are never heard in the media, that are mute in international newspapers.
I guess today silently grab our attention.

Posted on November 23, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Intriguing article on Hebron

Ghost town

A first visit to Hebron after almost 20 years. A strange feeling prevails when one exits the gate of Kiryat Arba, descends in the direction of the Cave of the Patriarchs. It wasn't Shabbat, it wasn't a Muslim holiday, it was noontime, the weather was glorious, and the streets were empty. Along the road from Kiryat Arba to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood, a kilometer and a half of road that winds among old houses and market streets, we saw perhaps two Palestinians walking.

Posted on November 24, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Ahmadinejad and Israel

Ahmadinejad and Israel: Khaira's stand on Ahmadineja's statement on Israel

Why do I post this?
Because Khaira is a well educated guy, he's living in Kuala Lumpur, and is part of the design team of LifeLogger

I believe in freedom of speaking and people should be able to express what they think.
I think Khaira represents a growing majority of people that react to Israel in this way.
If it is right or wrong is not the question. The question is why?
And how was this image of Israel and the Palestinian Territories built.
I still believe it is all a matter of media.

After living 2 years in Israel, my opinion is more pronounced and less black and white. (I guess it is an advantage not being Jewish and not being Muslim, and easier to stay neutral on the matter.)

I believe it is scary though, when people start to follow what leaders say.
And I mean this in several ways. I have the same opinion when an Israeli leader expresses his feelings of hatred in this way, and Shabra and Shattila is something amazing.
I went there and was stunned about the conditions those people live. Years later the refugee camps are still full of bullet holes. That also expresses how the Lebanese government acts upon the
Palestinian refugees: not so good.

On that matter I have some other remarks: the Palestinian uprising didn't not happen only in Israel, in Jordan at the same time the Palestinian uprising was oppressed with military actions, many refugees were killed. Palestinians are not wanted in Jordan, nor in Lebanon and neither in Egypt, which refused to take back Gaza...

That's also a reality of the Middle East.

The Middle East is so much more complicated than we understand over here...

Posted on November 24, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Airfoil

What do you do when you feel homesick for another country?
You install Airfoil, look on the web for your favorite local radio station of that country and stream the radio through your stereo speakers on volume 10.

Happy thanksgiving Tamar and family, I wish I could attend the dinner tonight but it is too late to grab the flights to Istanbul - Tel Aviv.
(Enjoy the turkey in 25 degrees ;) )

Posted on December 2, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Five die in Israel suicide blast

Five people are killed and dozens are hurt in a suicide bombing at a shopping centre in the Israeli town of Netanya.

The images on tele are showing the impact of such an attack.
These are the personal stories beyond those news images.
As always life just goes on in Tel Aviv, I called Tamar and she didn't even mentioned it...

[via]

Posted on December 6, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Dilemma

During one of the group workshops for Israeli and Palestinian journalists in Amman, the facilitators asked us to talk about professional dilemmas. We split up into national groups and chose three people from each group to make a brief presentation about representative dilemmas each had experienced. Then we came back into one large group to listen to the stories and discuss our reactions.

One of the Palestinian journalists, a cameraman who works for an international Arab television new station, told the following story:

During the IDF invasion of the West Bank in 2002, the cameraman happened to be filming a street scene when a group of militants (Islamic Jihad? Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade? I can't remember which one) grabbed a teenage boy they accused of collaborating with the Israelis. They stuffed him into a car and sped off to a nearby refugee camp. The cameraman jumped into his own car and followed them. It was quite dark by then, so he managed to stay out of sight.

Once in the refugee camp, the militants stopped in an open lot. They dragged the boy, whose hands were by then tied behind his back, out of the car, forced him onto his knees and prepared to shoot him.

The cameraman was filming the entire incident from behind a pile of rubble.

The boy was crying. He begged the militants to allow him one phone call; he wanted to call his mother to tell her he loved her.

The militants refused and prepared to shoot the boy in the back of the head. Just as they aimed their guns, the crying boy screamed out, "Mom, I love you!"

Then they shot him.

So here was the dilemma the cameraman faced. If he broadcast that footage, he would have to live with the knowledge that the mother of the dead boy had seen it. She would never be able to forget the image of her crying son, pleading to be allowed to tell his mother that he loved her just before he died. She would never forget the image of those masked armed men, of seeing her son's lifeless body flop sideways to the ground.

The cameraman, who had several children and a wife to support, would also have to worry about the militants hunting him down and shooting him for broadcasting the footage.

On the other hand, if the cameraman did not broadcast the footage, he would be hiding the truth about summary executions from the public.

So what would you do? And what do you think the cameraman did?

[via]

Posted on December 6, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Israel expands arsenal to prepare for possible nuclear war with Iran

AP:
Israel is expanding its military arsenal to deal with what it views as the greatest threat to its existence: a nuclear attack by Iran. It has acquired dozens of planes with long-range fuel tanks to allow them to reach Iran and signed a deal with Germany for two submarines reported capable of firing nuclear missiles.

read more HERE

Huh? I thought the days of danger for a nuclear war were over...

[via Israpundit]
(Remark: Israpundit is an extreme website, with extreme visions... Linking doesn't mean I share the same ideas.)

Posted on December 9, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Shy

Oh, how I recognize this situation.
People tend not to believe it, but I am rather shy. I really am.
I am pretty good in hiding by talking a lot, but when it really matters and it is not for 'business', I am a little shy girl.

Ask me to speech in front of 100 people, and it probably won't be a problem. Ask me to talk one-to-one and I'd hesitate.

This is probably why I like the idea of speed-dating (for business): you have to do it, there is no choice.
It's like standing before the benji-jump with your feet tied to the cord: going back is rather impossible.

I hate receptions or drinks before or after lectures: there is always the choice of hiding. Of not mingling. Of just drinking something without talking.

I remember going to Israel with the same idea: I HAD to do it. I had to overcome this fear.
And it could only be done by leaving on my own, and being faced by problems that only knew one way: solving them.
There was nobody to pick me up at the airport, nobody that would help me find an apartment, or to guide me in finding my way around.
But there was also nobody to judge me on who I was.
Life as a new start.

I learned a lot, and these days, I find myself on these situations where I am much more easy than before.
Where I start talking to people, and I push my limits.
Easier than before.

But still, when it comes to real personal stuff, I'll hesitate...

Posted on December 11, 2005
in Living in Belgium, Living in Israel

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Egyptian-Israeli trade expected to rise 130 percent this year

CAIRO - Egypt's trade with Israel is expected to rise 130 percent this year, according to the latest figures. The increase is the result of a U.S.-brokered agreement that has created an estimated 15,000 Egyptian jobs, an indication of how better relations can produce economic growth.

Well, a 130%....Wow.

[via]

Posted on December 12, 2005
in Living in Israel

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AlefAlef

Karin Mendelovic, a friend of mine in Israel, Tel Aviv, did a performance on Rothshild Bld. She asked people all around to mail her a picture. The first 100 pics were printed and distributed in the streets.
You can see a pic of the event there. (I love the way she walks with the package as if she was a bomber. Lol)

It makes me miss Tel Aviv...

Posted on December 15, 2005
in Living in Israel

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Meanwhile in Israel

Kinda was off world recently.

But reality bites: Sharon had a stroke. A major stroke.
Doesn't look too good over there.
(I was never a supporter of Sharon, but let's put it this way: at least he was going somewhere instead of walking on the same place)

Posted on January 5, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Meanwhile in Israel

Just called with TMR. Seems things are not so positive.
Elections are near, no-one expects Sharon to come back, and the motivation to vote is far away.
It seems that many democrats were going to vote for Sharon (in his new party), something which many of them refused to do while he was with the extreme-right party.

A bummer. Since everybody knows that Sharon was pushed by the USA, to define final borders, and fulfill the roadmap.

So what's next? Seems this country goes in waves: just when things seem to go in the right direction, it takes a turn.

Posted on January 6, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Meanwhile in Israel...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Doctors tending to Ariel Sharon are concerned that the Israeli prime minister has not shown signs of emerging from a coma and may take longer than hoped to regain consciousness, hospital sources said on Friday.

[via Reuters]

Posted on January 14, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Totally jetlagged

and sleeping for 2 days onward.
Updates from tomorrow on ;)

Posted on January 23, 2006
in Living in Israel

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ThinkIsrael

Hmmm, why I left for Israel back then??
They surely didn't have this campaign running back then.
(And guys and some girls: they beach really isn't filled with these beauties. -Well, not the WHOLE beach, that is...-)

Think Israel, promocampaign for Israeli tourism.

(I do admit seeing the promo, I long for flying to Tel Aviv, rather than going to cold Paris...)

Posted on January 24, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Meanwhile in Israel/Palestina

Polls: Fatah leads Hamas by up to 11%

Posted on January 25, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Labane

I am enjoying a piece of bread and some labane, brought from Israel.
Remembers me of the good old times, of sitting on a beach, or sitting in a refugee camp. And enjoying the moment.
Tx Tamar, for bringing it.
(If their is something Israeli and Palestinians should find mutual resemblance, it is their food ;) )

How to make labane

Posted on February 10, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Meanwhile in Israel: 'Iran to expand its role in Palestine'

'Iran to expand its role in Palestine':
Iran will have an expanded role in the political future of Palestine, German news agency DPA quoted Hamas leader Khaled Meshal as saying Tuesday in Tehran.

Mmmmm, not sure if this is such a good idea...

Technorati Tags: israel, palestine, iran

Posted on February 21, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Article on import in Hebrew

Interesting article on imported Arabic words in Hebrew.
Well I think I would call exporting your language a good way of importing your culture, but I am not sure many will agree ;)

Yasser of Karama is interviewed in it.

Technorati Tags: karama, israel, palestine

Posted on February 27, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Memories

An updated guide to Tel Aviv (only online, off line publishers don't seem to make money out of it...)

Digging for some memories...
My market: HaCarmel
My shopping street: Sheinkin
My first years neighborhood: Florentin
My second years neighborhood: Neve Tzedek
My beach: Banana Beach

In the 1980's, Neve Tzedek recaptured its former prestige, and has since become a stylish yuppie residence with plenty of restaurants, galleries and designer shops.
The architecture of Neve Tzedek is definitely one of the highlights in the area. Beautiful old houses restored to grandeur by modern architects and designers.

Mmmm, suddenly feeling home sick for that other home...

Technorati Tags: israel, travelguide, telaviv

Posted on March 21, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Aaaargh, the limitation of being on only one place

One night I was talking to this amazing thinker, who was fantasizing how we might evolve.
She stated that before telephones were cables and now things are cable-less and we are still able to transfer stuff through the air.
So actually thinking of transferring 'ourselves' or transferring 'our ideas' through air suddenly isn't that 'science fiction' anymore.

We both drunk too much and we had loads of fun talking abstract.
But later on, the ideas stayed: she was indeed right, imaging being able to be in different places...

It would be very convenient these days:
Friday there is 1) BlogCom in Antwerp, 2) Hisk Ravenstein Galleries 4) Art Brussels in Brussels 5) CatClub in Brussels.
Now there is a tiny possibility to do this all in one night.

But imagine, just imagine for a sec. ;)

(Btw, the DJ Jane Groupies formed a group on Flickrrrrr :))) )

Technorati Tags: artbrussels, blogcom, catclub, physics

Posted on April 20, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Mac Mini arrived

Jihaaaaaa. (Big smile)

Remarks:
Unpacking the MacMini is a true delight.
Remember when you were a kid and the package was more important than the present itself.
With Apple it is almost the case: the package rocks...

Second remark:
Front Row is FABULOUS.
I know many of the Mac-users are disappointed in the Front Row features, but heck... It is exactly what I was looking for.
And for the other extra's, I installed another similar MediaCenter: MediaCentral. Free and even better (also features TV and non Quicktime formats. I guess I'll use both media centers.)

Third:
I want to feature this site which offered me a lot of nice extra's: Cool Os X Apps.
Like syncing your mac's without the expensive .mac account

Technorati Tags: apple, macmini

Posted on May 15, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Israel

Once in so many months I get homesick fro my friends in Israel and Palestine.
Today I saw Manneke Pies' series by accident
Hmmm. Longing for the beach again.

Technorati Tags: israel

Posted on June 7, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Israel...

Yep, I have a history with Israel.
I have been living there for over 2 years. (Many of you know by now, some don't..)
I am back since end 2004, and I have a pretty dual relation with the country I lived in. I sometimes miss it. And sometimes I don't understand what the hell they are thinking/doing.
I clearly have a different view on their politics than what the press reveals over here.
Many people asked me if I was scared while living there, but I wasn't because it really isn't what most people think it is.

If you want to know what is going on now over there, check Lisa's blog. She's a Canadian Israeli journalist, going very often to Palestine and giving a clear view on things.
She lives in Tel Aviv, and walks the same streets I used to do. I recognize my corner, my coffee shop and my restaurant...
I also recognize the streets she walks in Palestine.

But most of all I recognize her words...

I always feel a bit as though I've landed on Mars when I return to my beloved Tel Aviv after a day in the West Bank, Gaza or the tense border areas. It's so strange to walk around this sunny, happy, sophisticated little city that shows absolutely no sign of being just a short drive away from a conflict zone. Really, if you didn't know - well, you wouldn't know. I tried unsuccessfully to shake off the sense of gloom and foreboding that has dominated my mood since the politicians began beating the war drums last week.

I thought about my conversation with Abraham, the secretary of the kibbutz. He told me that his partner was in Tel Aviv that very day, meeting their lawyer and a Palestinian businessman from Ramallah to discuss the joint establishment of a company on both sides of the Rafah-Kerem Shalom border. They plan to build a terminal for the purpose of exporting Palestinian produce via Ben Gurion Airport. "The armies and politicians cannot reach an agreement," he said. "But we can. We see the potential for peace and we believe that Kerem Shalom will be a very important place when peace comes."

I asked him, at the end of the interview, if he was optimistic about peace.

He looked at me straight in the eye and said slowly, emphasizing each word, "If I wasn't optimistic about peace, I would not be here."

And he smiled, warmly and directly.

Posted on July 7, 2006
in Living in Israel

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It is all about power

and it is so pointless...

The closure created a shortage of food products such as milk, meat and fish, also due to Israel's prohibiting the Palestinian fishermen from going out to sea. The World Food Program warned yesterday that due to the fuel shortage, the flour mills and bakeries would grind to a halt in two or three days, as would the water pumps and sewage system.

One can and may not understand why they don't allow food import or fisherman to go out and fish.

So pointless.

Technorati Tags: pointless

Posted on July 7, 2006
in Living in Israel

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The unseen horror

©Ine D

While in Belgium and probably the rest of the world the news on Israel is already cold, horrible things continue.

It is a fact there is 1 Israeli soldier being kidnapped. And I guess not many agree to this action. It is indeed horrible.
Yet still, pure from a military point of view: there is a war being fought and there are victims on both sides.
(The battle continued all the way, and the kidnapping must be seen in the perspective of this ongoing battle, not as 'the first action')

Since the kidnapping already many innocent civilians were killed.

I link to a story in an Israeli newspaper.

These stories don't catch the news over here.
Don't ask me why, maybe because they are not spectacular enough.

Yasser mailed me, furious because of all these actions. He is mailing each 2 days pointing out to the victims in this useless battle.
More than 23 this weekend only. Including one Israeli soldier, being killed by friendly fire.

The result of all these actions?
A poll was held:

Of the 1,197 respondents from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, 66.8 percent expressed support for further kidnappings of Israeli civilians while 77.2 percent backed the Kerem Shalom tunnel operation and subsequent kidnapping of Israel Defense Forces Corporal Gilad Shalit.
The poll also showed that 60 percent of the public supports the continued Qassam rocket fire into Israel as opposed to 36 percent who oppose.

My question:
If the army is able to exactly locate the heads of Hamas, and kill them with high profile weapons, why do they need to invade Gaza now?

In my opinion, the kidnapping is perceived as a provocation and Israel willingly welcomed the provocation.
Just like back in 2000 when Sharon walked near the mosque in Al Quds, and the Palestinians welcomed that provocation.
Little stupid children playing with way to big weapons...
Give them a football, and have them have the battle on a green field...
It would be much more fun watching them.

Want to know more on this ongoing conflict? Watch Panorama tonight.

Technorati Tags: israel, palestinians

Posted on July 9, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Look who's been kidnapped...

Hundreds of Palestinian 'suspects' have been kidnapped from their homes and will never stand trial


written by Arik Diamant 05.07.2006


It's the wee hours of the morning, still dark outside. A guerilla force comes out of nowhere to kidnap a soldier. After hours of careful movement, the force reaches its target, and the ambush is on! In seconds, the soldier finds himself looking down the barrel of a rifle.

A smash in the face with the butt of the gun and the soldier falls to the ground, bleeding. The kidnappers pick him up, quickly tie his hands and blindfold him, and disappear into the night.

This might be the end of the kidnapping, but the nightmare has just begun. The soldier's mother collapses, his father prays. His commanding officers promise to do everything they can to get him back, his comrades swear revenge. An entire nation is up-in-arms, writing in pain and worry.

Nobody knows how the soldier is: Is he hurt? Do his captors give him even a minimum of human decency, or are they torturing him to death by trampling his honor? The worst sort of suffering is not knowing. Will he come home? And if so, when? And in what condition? Can anyone remain apathetic in the light of such drama?

Israeli terror

This description, you'll be surprised to know, has nothing to do with the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit. It is the story of an arrest I carried out as an IDF soldier, in the Nablus casbah, about 10 years ago. The "soldier" was a 17-year-old boy, and we kidnapped him because he knew "someone" who had done "something."

We brought him tied up, with a burlap sac over his head, to a Shin Bet interrogation center known as "Scream Hill" (at the time we thought it was funny). There, the prisoner was beaten, violently shaken and sleep deprived for weeks or months. Who knows.

(Personal remark, while I am certainly no leftie on this matter, I do have questions on what is happening now.)

Technorati Tags: thingstothinkabout

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Posted on July 13, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Escalating violence

Yep, usually I am pretty down to earth when things happen in Israel and around.
Most of the time it's 'a passer by'. I mean the violence never stopped all these years, but sometimes it was getting into the news sometimes not.
All depending on what was happening in the res of the world.

Now things are slightly different: there is an escalation, and it's like 2 kids arguing, Olmert getting back to Nasrallah and vice-versa.

Like Lisa says: And once again, I wonder when the politicians will learn to act instead of react. As usual, none of the politicians are thinking - not with their brains, anyway. It seems to me that when Israel does exactly what the enemy's leader (Nasrallah) wants it to do, it is probably doing the wrong thing. C., if you're reading this: remember the time you told me that Israel's entire foreign policy was based on the expression, "I'm not a sucker"? I never forgot that, you clever girl.

I'd recommend you to read the Lebanese Bloggers, and you'll get a quite different insight on Lebanon. I was there 2 years ago, and it was great.
I is a splendid country and Beirut rocks. Finally after all those years they renovated the centre (destroyed by the Israel/Lebanese war in the 80's)
It is such a nice city.
Israel and the news are right: there are a lot of Hezbollah people, and I was stunned to see them on the streets, stopping cars to get money for their war.
But a majority isn't Hezbollah. And having a peek into their daily life and hearing there opinion can give a different insight in this reality.

Technorati Tags: lebanon, war, world

Posted on July 15, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Interesting comments

Israeli and Lebanese people commenting to each other on the recent events.

Technorati Tags: people, war

Posted on July 15, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Pictures do lie

Putting things in perspective.

Technorati Tags: photography

Posted on July 20, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Discussion last night on Israeli repercussions in Lebanon

Situation today as told by Yael living in Tel Aviv:

I debated tonight whether to take my books and watch the sunset on the fluffy orange-cushioned chairs at my now second-favourite coffee spot at the port --just down the street from my apartment --or whether to go to the one on the corner of my street. I decided for the one just a stone's toss away since I also needed to pick a few things up at the nearby store. I was halfway through the hd nouns in the dictionary and just begun to sip on my iced coffee when police cars, with no sirens on began converging in the area. The were coming to and and fro from every direction. They were little police cars and police paddy wagons. They were everywhere. Cell phones started ringing and people started paying their bills and leaving. Me and one guy were left. Yeah, there was a suicide bomber on the loose the word was. And it was a woman. I looked at the guy and was like, noooo you don't fit the description. I decided to finish my coffee. No one was going to target a place with just 2 people in it.

Went to the store and the activity had more than heated up. Cars with sirens blaring were now zipping all over. A very big helicopter with a search light was flying around (still flying around). I came inside. Checked the news. Bomber caught just down the street. NOT THE BOMBER THEY WERE LOOKING FOR. There is at least another one out there....

****Update: Terror alert lifted. 3 terrorists, including the female suicide bomber, arrested a 30 second walk from my apartment. That seems to be the lot of them. I can see the corner they were arrested on from my window.

Is there an answer to this conflict?

It is easy to condemn what Israel is doing (and let me set things straight: I don't agree with many things), but it is so damn easy to condemn if people are not aware on half of the situation. We are not.

Technorati Tags: israel, lebanon, war

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Posted on July 22, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Stunning...

Reacting on being bombed is one thing.
Bombing like crazy is another...

Click to enlarge.
Bombs dropped on Lebanon..
I received a mail by an Israeli opponent group, saying that the IDF is bombing with depleted uranium.

Why?

(Now, I am interested to see the other map...)

Posted on July 31, 2006
in Living in Israel

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What is this war about?

Everybody is condemning Israel, and certainly after what happened in Qana, Israel should ask itself what it is doing.

Read Robert Fisk's words on the attack.

... the odd thing is the idea that for the Israeli military that somehow it’s okay to kill all these children; if a missile is launched 30, 90 feet from their house, that's okay then. We’ve got some film to show the missiles were launched; that's okay then. I mean, did the aircraft which dropped this bomb, a guided weapon, by the way -- they knew what they were hitting. It’s a guided weapon. We know that because the computer codes have been found on the bomb fragments. Did they say, “Oh, well, then, the man who launched the missile is hiding with the children in the basement of the house we're going to hit”? Is it the case now that if you happen to live in a house next to where someone launches a missile, you are to be sentenced to death? Is that what Israel thinks the war is about?

I’m sitting here, for example, in my house tonight in darkness -- there’s no electricity -- next to a car park. What if someone launches a missile from the car park? Am I supposed to die for that? Is that a death sentence for me? Is that how Israel wages war? If I have children in the basement, are they to die for that? And then I’m told it’s my fault or it’s Hezbollah's fault? You know, these are serious moral questions.

The real question is 'why'. Why is all this happening.
Is this only about 2 soldiers being kept, probably already dead.
Or is there something else going on?

Technorati Tags: israel, lebanon, robert fisk, war

Posted on August 1, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Now get worried...

'Bij een luchtaanval op vrachtwagens met fruit aan de grens met Syrië vallen meer dan twintig doden.'

'In an air attack on trucks with fruit, at the border with Syria, more than 20 deaths are reported.'

Many of you might get furious about the deaths.
I focus on 'border with Syria'...
Get really worried now...

It is probably true that only outside intervention will prevent a substantial escalation in the coming days, but there is no sign that such intervention will come from Washington or London (where Tony Blair's government too lays the blame at the doors of Syria and Iran). This might just have been the occasion for the European Union to use its influence, but there is little sign of leadership from that source; and suggestions from the United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan and from Tony Blair that an international peacekeeping force be sent to southern Lebanon have been firmly rejected by Tel Aviv.

Unless Hizbollah decides that it has achieved sufficient political progress by demonstrating Israel's vulnerability, it is unlikely to hold back. Even if it does, the IDF will not willingly exercise restraint – the memories of its previous defeat in the 1980s are a heavy, embittering weight on the minds of senior Israeli military officers. That is one reason why the current crisis is so dangerous and could well escalate across the region.

(from)

Even Israel is aware of the danger. (Article from Haaretz)

So yalla Verhofstadt... it's Europe's call this time. the US and London are clearly not reacting, and meanwhile the danger enlarges.
Even Olmert wants to be sure an international army comes in, before it stops attacking...

Technorati Tags: israel, lebanon, war, syria

Posted on August 4, 2006
in Living in Israel

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The U.S. administration is troubled...

The U.S. administration is troubled by what a senior Defense Department official termed "a rise in Syria's self-confidence."

If I were in the Pentagon I would be worried about Israel's rise of self-confidence...

Out of BBC Q&A:

How will others regard it?

In Lebanon and throughout the Arab and Muslim world any significant expansion of Israeli ground operations in Lebanon will be seen as an illegal occupation and increase demands for an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli troops.

Even moderate Arab governments (some of whom are not enamoured of Hezbollah) will likely accuse Israel of escalating the conflict despite diplomatic moves to end it.

Radicals and jihadis will probably welcome it as a new cause with which to attract recruits.

Posted on August 12, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Telephone conversation with Israel

I am in Tel Aviv. We are on the beach. If it weren' t for television, radio, or newspapers, we wouldn't know a war was going on.
But my friend, she lives in the north.
She says all the houses down her street are destroyed.

Technorati Tags: tel aviv

Posted on August 12, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Hallucinant

See this documentary on a Israeli team getting into Lebanon.

Eze balagan...

Technorati Tags: lebanon, war

Posted on August 30, 2006
in Living in Israel

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City Guide Tel Aviv

I want to go, I want to go...

Technorati Tags: tel aviv

Posted on September 7, 2006
in Living in Israel

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After17

After17 is a Chinese online-magazine I collaborate with.

In their recent special issue, they used pictures made by Israeli, Israeli-Arab and Palestinian children.
It became a beautiful piece of work, worth checking.
Some of the pictures were taken in the SnowBlog project, some by me, and some by some friends of me, and some bloggers I read (Lisa Goldman, we finally worked on a project together!)

The honors entirely go to dear friend Moko Chen, and the photographers themselves.
Congrats!

Too bad I don't read Chinese...

Technorati Tags: after17, war

Posted on September 8, 2006
in Linking context, Living in Israel, Projects

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Shana tova

Happy 5767!

Technorati Tags: shana tova

Posted on September 21, 2006
in Living in Israel

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How do the blind eat?

Yesterday thanks to Zabine, I went to a dinner in the Vooruit.
'Blindelings' was a dinner where you eat in complete darkness. Your guided by the blind waiters/waitresses who bring you dinner and wine.
It is an amazing experience, and inbetween the dinners you get the chance to talk with your guide, or listen to a concert.

I have to say I was extremely tired, and drunk already too much wine before dinner. So after 2 hours it certainly was enough (it is actually very tiring to concentrate and eat dinner without seeing anything)
Especially the concerts lasted too long for me.

But it was fabulous to do, and interesting to talk without borders (remember you don't see anybody), ask rthe questions you always wanted to ask a blind person but never dared to do so.
All of us where curious to see how things would look if the lights went on. I am pretty sure people just didn't bother and in the difficulties of eating, it must have been a nice view...

And I am sure some sneaky stuff happened over there... (When being in these circumstance, I am convinced touching gets a whole different meaning...)

The show is fully booked. But when we arrived, it appeared some of the tables were booked by companies, and a lot of those people didn't show up...
So if you are interested: don't hesitate to go over and try to get in anyway.

Technorati Tags: blindelings, vooruit

Posted on September 22, 2006
in Living in Israel

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The Bank, episode 2466

Just came back from the bank, and my suspicion is right...
4.02 fixed, on 25 years. That's the percentage I get today.

Rising mortgages, banks annoucning rising percentages??
They are going down ladies and gentlemen...
(Actually on 20 years they dropped a whole lot.)
Don't let the banks fool you!

Discuss, discuss, and discuss again.

Technorati Tags: banks, mortgage, fortis

Posted on September 26, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Real entertainment

Now you can watch the episode in streaming video, here. Arabic and Hebrew speakers will get it all, but for English speakers here's a summary:

Moderator Rafi Reshef (monkish haircut and glasses): Here, Zvi, they can see you. It's just your modesty that... Do you want to ask a question?
Zvi: Can I ask a question?
Rafi: Of course!
Zvika: [Starts to ask a question in Hebrew]
Rafi: In Arabic, Zvi, what's wrong with you?
Zvi (in Arabic): If you can hear us at Al Manar, at what time exactly will the secretary general (Nasrallah) give his speech?
Al Manar anchor, smiling gleefully: Look, we're on a live broadcast on Israeli TV, Mr. Nazer. Look, the Zionists can see us now. This shows how important Al Manar is in passing on credible information and how shocked the Israelis are.
Mr. Nazer: Maybe those responsible for Israeli television are afraid that the Israeli public will prefer to watch Al Manar, so they decided to broadcast it directly on Israeli television! Hahaha!

(The Al Manar guys didn't answer Zvi directly, of course: they're not allowed to talk to the Zionist enemy.)

Now that's entertainment!

Copied from On the face

Technorati Tags: o the joy

Posted on November 17, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Blogging and its influence: under-estimated?

Blogging was the hottest human-interest story of the Lebanon-Israel crisis of 2006. On 18 July, less than one week after the conflict began, I summarized the phenomenon in a post for my own blog, titled ‘The most blogged war?’ I didn’t realize then that the question mark was utterly superfluous. Not only was this the first time in history that residents of two countries at war were able to maintain an ongoing, uncensored conversation in real time, but it was also the first time ordinary citizens were able to provide grassroots reporting in real time. In the same post, I used the term ‘surreal’ to describe the experience of chatting with Charles as my country’s air force bombed his city.

Read the whole article

Technorati Tags: blogging, israel lebanon

Posted on November 21, 2006
in Linking context, Living in Israel

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Peace Oil

“It’s extra virgin, great on salads and a lubricant for relationships in the Middle East.” Peace Oil, is olive oil produced in Northern Israel by a staff of Arabs, Jews, Bedouins and Druze working together– and as most of you know this is a rare occurence. The oil is pressed from organically grown Suria olives, and is produced by hand– in fact the olives are pressed in the mill only hours after they’re taken from the trees. Profit from sales of this product are used to support peace and reconciliation work in the Middle East. Hopefully with these kinds of projects barriers can be broken down and replaced with understanding and respect. A bottle of the good stuff runs at about 10 Euros, and if you order yours now you’ll have it in time for the holidays.
Via Treehugger

Technorati Tags: peace, olive oil

Posted on November 24, 2006
in Living in Israel

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Gaza Airport

I got a mail from Block Magazine, a magazine that seems similar to our A Prior.
They heard about my works I took at Gaza Airport some years ago and were interested in seeing them, considering them for print in their next issue on Occasional Cities:

Block 4# Occasional Cities (April 2007) examines contemporary paradigms of temporality in urban areas through local and global projects and texts.
This volume is a part of “Occasional cities. Post-it city and other forms of temporality” an international project that sets out to investigate the different overlapping uses of urban territory, through the perspectives offered by architecture, urban design and the visual arts.

And again I find myself in the Middle East, scrolling through memories:

The background:
I was brought into Gaza Airport by my taxi driver, who found it important to show me around. I landed over there by accident.
It was the second time in my life I saw an empty airport (only 2 years before I had seen Bagdad Airport empty, but no luck in taking pictures over there.)
Here I was allowed to take pictures.
Nothing so surreal as an empty airport.
The silence struck me.

The pictures:

Technorati Tags: block magazine, gaza airport, a prior

Posted on December 6, 2006
in Living in Israel

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1 minute of silence for the victims of holocaust

Today we remember the victims of the holocaust.
It is a sentence in the news, a short item. We know it because we read it.
Afterwards.
In Israel, this remembrance is more present: at a certain moment of the day, all sirens start to sound. People stop walking. All cars stop. Everyone gets quiet. The world stops turning for one minute.

The first time it happened when I was there, I wasn't aware of the what or the how, and it was really really strange.
As if all freezes, a moment out of a science fiction movie where one pushes the button and you are the only one left moving.

And then I thought it is the most respectful thing we can do: stop the world for a minute and remember.

Video

More info

Technorati Tags: holocaust, stand still

Posted on January 28, 2007
in Living in Israel

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The Most Pointless Summit ever.

The official version:

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Israeli and Palestinian leaders reaffirmed a commitment to peace at talks she hosted on Monday and she would return to the region soon.

Now what do you think really happened in that room?

(Condoleeza Rice, Ehud Olmert, and Abu Mazen enter.)

Rice: Welcome to our three-way summit. You are here. You are sitting down in the same room. What a great accomplishment. Now, let's get this out of the way. Why can't you guys all just get along? Let's make some peace.

Read the rest at An Unsealed Room

Technorati Tags: israel, summit

Posted on February 20, 2007
in Living in Israel

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At Batibouw

My dad designs kitchen, and as long as I know it, I went to Batibouw. One week a year we were 'released' in the palaces at Heysel.
The last years, I kind of accept the question of my dad helping him out.
Coz, it has to be said, though it isn't my profession and it will never be, I do know a lot about kitchens by now.

I accepted this year, but the condition was internet would be available. The fair is full of people, but they don't always come to visit your thing. And thus, actually, a day at Batibouw, turns out to be a long day...

I arrived at 10, after a long trip, where apparently everybody seemed to go to Heysel, leaving no free seats at the train, nor metro.
(O the horror, how I would have loved to stay in the warm bed this morning...)

Anyhooo, I arrive, open up the computer and there it pops up: 'wifi'
And then the following message:

I repeat for those who cannot read and because of total agony:
3 euros for 15 minutes!
3 euros for 15 minutes!!!
And then after the first 15 minutes .20 euro/minute.
With a maximum of 120 minutes.

Ok let's count: that would make 24 euro for 2 hours.
Let's say you would skip the 120 minutes limit and you want to be online for 6 hours, which is reasonable in my case, knowing I am a webdesigner.
That's 72 euros...

If there would have been Telenet Hotspot, that would have cost me zero...

F* Batibouw Bastards...

Technorati Tags: bastards, batibouw, wifi

Posted on February 27, 2007
in Living in Israel

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Food Mood

Yesterday I spent a whole day at Batibouw, and it was hellish.(Seems I was not the only one thinking this thought)
I was pretty happy to stop a little early and hang in a bar in Brussels with a friend.
I was so dead tired, but gained some energy when seeing the atmosphere in the city.
I love Brussels to walk and hang around. It is so... divers.
And I don't know it that well. So there is always something to discover.
Z. invited me to a restaurant. BarBik. Not that expensive but heavenly good...

A should-do-againer.(Not the batibouw that is ;) )

Technorati Tags: barbik, batibouw, food, brussels

Posted on March 3, 2007
in Living in Israel

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A circus in Palestine

There are many projects in Palestine, and as I have lived there, I cannot stop saying many more are needed.

One to highlight: First Palestinian Circus School.
Nothing spectacular, just a little initiative. But in these cases, all drops help...
An artist asked 101 other artists to change a chair into art. THey are being sold in favor of the project.
Buy your chair here.

Technorati Tags: circusschool, palestine, 101chairs

Posted on March 5, 2007
in Living in Israel

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Stuff I hate..

Stuff I hate about traveling with Israelis:

1, Too loud. They all talk as though they are in their living-rooms at home and the kids have the television turned up too high. They are immune to the glares from Europeans who can't get away from the high-volumed conversations without going into the bathrooms.

2. Fashion Victims. On the best of days Israelis are never going to be accused of being fashion plates. Just walking down an Israeli street is enough to hurt the eyes and offend the senses. The few who actually dress with any semblance of taste are those who were either born abroad or have spent significant time on shlichut (working outside the country). However, based on my observations, typical Israelis must save their most outlandish get-ups for when they go on vacation. The women all were belly shirts... even when they are senior citizens and grossly overweight, and the men all seem to favor an evil mating of capris & cargo shorts worn with tank tops, flip-flops and lots of gold neck chains.

3. Rules are for other people. In the airport, on the plane and just about anywhere in a foreign destination, Israelis seem to delight in flaunting the posted/accepted rules. They smoke where they want... stand where they want... and line up for absolutely nothing. In fact, I watched in amazement as some of my countrymen and women used an orderly queue of Europeans as a sort of slalom course... weaving in between the gape-mouthed Brits, Swiss and Germans to reach the check-in and passport counters. Those little rope things? Those are for other people to stand between and behind. Israelis simply detach the rope from the nearest stanchion and walk through to the front.

Nope these words aren't mine (though they DO reflect my feelings about it...)
They are written by an Israeli himself.
Well if they say so themselves, who are we to object ;). (see me blinking towards all my Israeli friends.)

Update: in an anwser to Treppenwitz (check the comments)
It is probably because you don't know me, but I am pretty sure most of my readers do so: I have many Israeli friends.
Most of those readers do know I have lived there for 2.5 years.

In that knowledge the rest is written.
As a smile towards them,
without the positive stuff (coz I don't agree with that part, and to me the part I like about Israelis is quite different from what you mention)

To clarify that part:
I love Israeli's for the part that once you know them and they know you and like you, they will move the world for you (which is a resemblance with their Palestinian neighbors, and a huge difference to Europeans)
By now I like their directness (which is often confused with rudeness, though as you know yourself, they are very rude and very often.)
I love the fact that people give you the key to their house and mean it when they say you are welcome to stay.

Technorati Tags: humor, israelis

Posted on March 9, 2007
in Living in Israel

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2 minutes of silence

In Israel each year they have it: Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers.
The secial thing about it is the 2 minutes of silence (almost) everyone respects.
I was stunned to see the whole country freeze for 2 minutes, in exactly they way they stood (while siting people stand up).
Really amazing.

Check it out for yourself in this video.

Yom hazikaron
Uploaded by Lisang

Technorati Tags: israel, meomrial day

Posted on April 23, 2007
in Living in Israel

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