Filth on Jaffa's Jabaliya ("Givat Aliya") Beach
The official bathing season opened a few days ago.A lovely sunny day brought out many to Jaffa's beach yesterday. Families with children, young people around a water pipe, teenage boys with their dogs, scuba divers trying out their material. The atmosphere was relaxed, the sea quiet and the lifeguards enjoying an easy day; no big waves, no dangerous undertow.
The beach, however, is downright filthy. True, the large debris brought in by the storm some weeks ago, has been removed, but the sand is full of...
all kinds on things you do not want to step into or on top of. It's gross. And unhealthy.
Municipality? "Mishlama"? You guys awake? Time to do something! And while talking about the beach, lately there has been a lot of vandalism on the beach and the stairs leading towards the beach. Garbage cans have been broken, bannisters destroyed, graffiti. It looks quite horrid. It would have been nice if all of that had been repaired prior to the onset of the bathing season. But worse, it's also unsafe. A lot of kids go to the beach. Municipality guys, wake up!! Are you waiting until a small child falls through one of the big holes in the fences?
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15 comments:
Wait a sec!!!!
Municipality guys?, where in this democratic, equal, open and plural society of yours are the municipality girls?
Because, the municipality and mishlama people on the decision making level are all males....
Excuse me, when there are vacant jobs the women who apply do not have the good qualification?
I would not be to sure with all these surgical makeovers nowadays, unless you of course are intimate with her.
To be honest, the lines I wrote are not meant to be funny, I am a toletrant open-minded social person.
The mishlama guys are al guys.... ex air-force buddies of the mayor, the good old boys network works overtime...
Yael Dayan is elected. She's supposedly responsible for welfare, but in Jaffa that's not much felt.
hi yudit.. given the name of your blog and your general gist.. was wondering how you feel about יןם העצמאות
i cannot mention the word "atzmaut" without its sister-word, naqbe..
nationalism of any kind has brought the world a lot of suffering.
say no more.. this wontgo any where pleasant..
better to leave it here..
;)
I think this is where the true discourse should start actually. All the rest is not more then circumventing the real issues. As long as we do not touch upon the real stuff, that is, recognizing the Palestinians and the trauma of the naqbe, of 1948, we will not be able to discuss peace on any real terms.
I could refer you to "City of Oranges", on Jaffa, which tells both narratives (Adam LeBor) or the more academic "Overthrowing Geography" (Mark Levine) for starters.
Of course if you want to continue believing the one-sided zionist narrative that's your good right. Most people here do. It's easy, nice and comfy.
how do you know what i believe..
i ask you about the independence of the jewish people and your only way of defining it is through its shortcomings..
that maybe a very responsible approach but its not anywhere near my view of the issue's core..
i dont know the story of your family and what they went through over the years to maintain their judaism and values and how many countries they were kicked out of again and again and again.. how many women were raped and slaughtered or humiliated but i do know mine..
i am also aware of our national history and its interface with our internal and external neighbours.. i dont require a reading list.. thank you in any event.. and im not in the least offended by your insinuation that you know more and that i should upgrade my knowledge to yours..
but the independence of the jewish people is for me a distinct issue that i celebrate as its own concept.. for me it relates to a dream of 2000 years.. and having lived all over the world.. not travelled - but lived.. i know that there is nowhere else on the planet that i am socially and culturally allowed to feel like a free jew..
i celebrate the fact that in some small turmoil ridden place i am allowed to do so.. and i bask in it 100%..
i also dont need to be reminded what views i am entitled to subscribe to or not..
see why i am not interested to enter into the discussion?
i be more direct and specificallyr articulate the reasons if you like.. but i dont think this will resolve much.. and i dont get the sense that you and i are really ready for that level of talk with eachother..
and i say this with all due respect.. seriously.. especialy given my appreciation for your visual art..
:)
i would wish you a חג עצמאות שמח but at the risk of offending i wish you merely a good day ;)
to quote you, Lirun: "say no more.. this won't go any where pleasant..
better to leave it here..".
I truly do not know what you think, but you said "say no more"......
Whatever your family (or mine, for that matter) went through, it does not justify other families' suffering. It's, from my point of view, totally and completely besides the point. Or perhaps, rather the opposite: as so many of us went through so much useless, senseless suffering, we should no better.
We can sit down and start a nice contest of victimization ( a very Israeli thing to do, btw). So?...
In 1947-1948 some 80.000 Palestinians from Jaffa lost their homes and became refugees. Those who stayed behind were put in a barbed wired prison-camp (Ajami). True, preceding was a horrid violent war with acts of terror against civilians on BOTH sides.
One cannot act and "talk peace" without recognizing the Palestinian suffering.
The refugee problem NEEDS to be solved.
Of-course one can act (i do not know if you do) like so many so-called Israeli peaceniks as if the refugee problem doesn't exist.
One can participate in all kinds of nice meetings with Palestinians (preferably in nice hotels abroad, paid for by the European community or whoever) from ones' own age group and similarly relatively advantaged background and do some encountering.
But all of that won't lead to much, as long as the core issues are not touched upon: refugees, the right to return.... on the one side, the democratic civilian character of the state of Israel on the other side.
Does the state wish to be a "democratic state for all its citizens, with true equal rights and opportunities for all" or something else?
Can a "Jewish" state be a democratic state? If so, in what way? What does it mean and how can the truly democratic character be promised? What if there are more non-Jews than Jews? Whenever people say "the demographic problem" i hear "discrimination".
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