Friday, December 21

Carnival, festival or what?

Tomorrow, between 9.30 - 18.00 there is suppsed to be a carnival in Jaffa. In Ajami, to be precise, on Yefet (Hilwe) Street.
In Haifa they have the festival of festivals in Wadi Nisnas, celebrating Eid elAdha, Hanukkah and Christmas. The Tel Aviv municipality apparently thought that what's good for Haifa, is good also for Jaffa, and decided to have a street party. Especially with municipal elections coming closer, Ron Huldai, the major, needs to show he means well, after all, he latest remarks about sustainable housing were less than convincing for Jaffa's less affluent people.
So we're gonna get a party, organised by the municipality.

Quite truthfully, i like parties. And street-parties are even better. Besides, Ajami's businesses can do with some additional income.
But there is something very cynical about this one.
Faced with 496 eviction and demolition orders, we have little reason to be happy in Jaffa. And the municipality is behind much of this. It's part of their policy.

So we'll let the visitors know, we'll use this opportunity to tell them about what is really happening in Jaffa, so they'll look beyond the Christmas trees and children's drawings gracing the streets of Ajami. I hope the visitors will receive at least some understanding of what is truly happening here.



2 comments:

yudit said...

Oops, by mistake i hit the delete button, when i wanted to publish Gilighan Quayebuleqi's comment, so here goes:

Thank you for letting the world know what is going on in Jaffa. I found your blog because I clicked on the link in my blog where it shows me who else has the movie KANDAHAR on their favorites list. I hope you celebrate simply just existing, if nothing else.

Tamar Orvell said...

Good that you will include some daily reality information in the street fair to come. I'd suggest including information on your blog so people can stay connected to the daily reality via your blog (among other venues) after the tinsel and special treats are done.