There are no illegal children

A deep feeling of shame overtook me, at seeing the kids from Darfour, who may be arrested, imprisoned and deported any day now, during the demonstration against the newly formed deportation police and the terrible policies adopted by the current government. Small children, some of them were born here and know no other country.

They are fluent in Hebrew and attend Israeli schools. Their schoold friends joined them in the demo, their innocent faces serious, while upholding placards stating "we want Mozes back in our class" and "Don't deport our friends".

Perhaps 100 - 12o Israelis and foreigners stood together at a busy crossing in downtown Tel Aviv protesting the actions undertaken by the newly formed private police force that has one aim: deport foreigners from Israel. Even if they may be killed in their countries of origin.

In order to make their sick task easier, another law was passed making it a crime to assist "illegal" foreigners in any way. In fact an NGO volunteer or employee who e.g. brings food to a shelter, teaches Hebrew or voluntarily represents a refugee in the migration court can be send to jail for 20 years!

Ofcourse many of us will take the risk, but it will make aiding more dangerous and difficult. And less available. The foreigne workers in Israel and their families are weakened statusless people.

The state has now instituted a special police force with one aim "getting rid of them, but hook or by crook". After all, the worst they can do to us is jail us. But deportation is an entirely different thing.

I feel a deep shame, anger and frustration at what is happening. But i also feel a deep fear for Israeli society, there is something so evil and immoral about arresting and deporting a small child. A society that is able to undetake such an act is seriously and deeply flawed.

Extremist settlers in Ajami, will they ever stop?

Not too long ago a "hesder" yeshiva was opened in Ajami, in an old synagogue that had been standing neglected for some 40 years. Neglected, because the Jewish community of Ajami had left to better neighbourhoods (better at the time they left, when Ajami was one of the worst slums) and there simply was no need for a synagogue. The Jews (some 20%) still living in Ajami are predominantly secular.

Palestinians and Jews in Ajami live together, quite peacefully enjoying a relation of good neighbours. My very devout Muslim neighbours have the key to my flat, in case they need to get on the roof (which can only be reached through my home) or, more often, in case i loose my keys or forgot to water the plants on a very very hot khamsin day. We often meet for a coffee to exchange the latest gossip or a good cake recipe (usually followed by and exchange of the sweet results).
We dance at marriage parties and weep at burials, rejoice in the birth of yet another daughter or son. We each have our sources of good olive oil, za'atar and the best coffee and share those, while bragging ours is just that little bit better. Neighbours.
Enter the yeshiva. Let it be said, i have nothing against religion. However, i do have a problem with religio and its institutions being abused as tools for justifying violent acts and racism.

After the disengagement from the Gaza strip, many of its expelled settlers started to see the mixed (Arab Jewish) cities (most of Israel is very segregated) as the "next front" for nationalist activity. They do not hide their ideology. Just go to their websites.
They are also supported by Lieberman's fascist ideology and extremist right-wing Jews from the US and elsewhere.
They claim they want to "strengthen the weak and threatened Jewish communities". If so, why didn't they select Yafo Gimmel, which indeed is a weakened, predominantly Jewish neighbourhood.
In Yafo gimmel, there are many ppor Jews, recent and not so recent migrants from the ex soviet union territories and Ethiopia).
Instead they selected Ajami, where there is no Jewish community to speak of and the few Jews living there tend to be well educated and economically strong and yes, also secular (some having a strong cultural and or ethnic Jewish identity) and having little interest in this particular yeshiva's brand of fundamentalism.
The very well-funded yeshiva is buying up property wholesale, in expensive Ajami, for its community, intending to turn Ajami into a religious Jewish community. Disregarding ofcourse that its Palestinian residents have no reason to close their shops and restaurant businesses on shabat, their best business day and the Jewish holidays.
The settlers like to walk around in groups, carrying flags and making a nationalist show of themselves, in absolute disrespect of the feelings of their neighbours. Part of their behaviour appears to be aimed at provoking violence, perhaps to convince more peope like themselves to come and "save" Jaffa.
Save from what? It exsists only in their imagination and ideology. We have no need of "being saved".

Last week they won a tender for a piece of public land very close to my home. Publicly owned land, which should have gone to the Palestinian community, from whom it was stolen in 1948, (and once more some 4 years ago, when the municipality closed the market which functioned on that particular piece of land) and with whom there is a legally binding agreement to construct 400 public housing units to solve the very bad Palestinian housing situation.
Yet the land went to an ultra religious building society who sell land only to religious Jewish families. Imagine a group of ultra nationalist whites in the US buying up publicly owned land in the middle of a poor black community and then selling the land only to selected similarly minded whites who publicly proclaim they want to turn the community into a whites only area.
Non-religious Jewish friends of mine contacted the company and asked if they could buy a flat. in the project. They were refused as flats are only sold to "our people".

Well, that's what is happening in Jaffa, in Ajami.
And it is happening in all the mixed cities: in Ramle, in Lod, in Acco and in Haifa.

We have seen the horrid results of this type of activities in Acco, when the homes and cars of several Palestinian families were torched by Jewish extremists.
In Acco, as a result of these actions, most Arab families left their nice homes in the middle class "Mizrach" neighborhood, scared for their lives after the days long progrom carried out against them by a mob of some thousand crazed "religious" nationalists encircling their homes for hours, until the police and the ambulances were able to save them.
It happened last year.

The Jaffa yeshiva receives support from the municipality and other offical state institutions. We are not talking about a small bunch of crazed idealists but about a very well-organized ,coordinated and well funded country-wide effort (with international financial support), aimed at creating a separate society. In other parts of the world they would call it "apartheid".

Are we next?

On Constructing 5-Legged Camels

"A camel is a horse designed by a planning committee"

Eco-friendly transportation is important. Period.
Tel Aviv is crowded, traffic jams are hell and the lack of parking space is somewhere way beyond hell. So travelling by bicycle or by public transport makes a lot of sense.

Sort of.
Sometimes.
In some areas.

I use my bike to go from A to B. It's easy, cheap and quick. No parking problems. I'm not so sure it is healthy, due to the awful air quality i breathe while pedalling my way between buses, vespa motor bikes (i read somewhere their exhaust fumes are about as bad as those of a truck, doe to the amount of small particles they emit) and the endless lines of cars standing idle in yet another traffic jam.

However, in some areas it is also dead scary. Dan bus drivers are my worst enemy. Egged drivers come a close second only because there are less of them in the areas where i tend to travel most, not that they are more bike friendly). Jaffa's Jerusalem Boulevard (Nouzha or Pasha in the past) is noteworthy as a very scare road for the audacious cyclist.

The municipality is known for its greenwash policy making: More parking lots , more highways, more huge road crossings of multi-lane free-ways, more cars in short. But they talk green. So they plan bike paths. Which is nice. Or rather, which could be nice.
The only problem being that those who plan them, have not seen a bike close by for years. Nor have they used public transport.
Otherwise, how can one explain the silly bike paths along Ibn Gvirol street? The clash between people waiting at the bus stops or going to and from the bus-stops which are located right on the bike paths is unavoidable. Not even a camel, but a five-legged, blind and deaf camelchik, that's what it is, the Ibn Gvirol bike path. Who could have thought of something so utterly idiotic?

And now they have started planning another bike path along Jaffa's Jerusalem Boulevard. Great, we need one there. Jerusalem Boulevard is one of the scariest places to ride a bike. I try to avoid that road as much as possible. But i cannot. It's central, it's where a lot of services are located, and i sometimes need those.
So a bike path would be great.

And planning it properly is important.

But there is just one small problem. The guys (i suspect they are guys, women wouldn't do it that way) doing the planning, are working on their own, without talking to others also planning in the same street, such as the developers of the light train and the public transport companies who are currently in the process of developing the new public transport system for Jerusalem Boulevard.

Just before Passover i participated in a meeting with the planners of the "light train's" green line, the first line to become active, supposedly in another 3-4 years. Construction has already started in Jaffa's Jerusalem Boulevard. From their presentation (they are very good at PR, that's one thing to be said about them), i realized other public transport as well as bikes do not really interest them. They are seen as a nuisance more than anything else. They are "the competition" and therefore their lives should be made difficult, rather than easy and safe. After all, if you cannot travel easily by bus or by bike, you'll take the light train.

So why cooperate?

As a result several municipal and traffic authorities and green NGO's are each planning their own thing separately and i cannot begin the image the possible result. A cyclist's bad dream, that's for sure.

Is the april joke on us?

Today officially the "Tel Aviv 100 years" party starts.

I like parties, in fact, i like parties a lot, but the one hundred years anniversary of Tel Aviv must be some sort of joke.
The first neighbourhoods of what was to become Tel Aviv, were founded as a part of Jaffa during the late 19th century. They were established by Jaffa's Jews, mostly by Mizrachi Jews who were tired of living in Jaffa's cramped old city.
"Ahouzat Bayit" (according to some historians established in 1909 by a shell lottery in the sands) was NOT the first Jewish neighbourhood established outside of Jaffa. But the founders of Ahouzat Bayit were mostly Ashkenazi Jews and perhaps that has something to do with the particular view Tel Aviv' likes to have and to present on its own history, the myth of "the White City, born in the sands".

And if Tel Aviv is the "White City", then it needs to be asked: where is the black city? Jaffa? "Arous ElBahar", the bride of the sea, "Arous Falestin", the "Bride of Palestine" as Jaffa is historically known in Arabic?
The municipality is filling Jaffa with flags of the "hundred year anniversary of Tel Aviv - Jaffa.

Well, our Black City goes back several thousands of years. We don't need your festivals and parties. Even the life guard stattions on our beach have been decorated with the "100 Tel Aviv" flag. It wqould not at all surprise me if someone form Jaffa will carry out certain "corrections" to these flags. After all, this is Jaffa, and we exist a little longer than Tel Aviv's one hundred years.

The municipality is spending some 41 million NIS on the party. That same municipality doesn't have 8 million for the education of Jaffa's children.

Save me your April jokes, Ron Huldai!

Thousands marched through Jaffa against the war in Gaza

"Brothers, it's burning"*, stated a placard carried by a Jewish woman in today's protest march, eerily referring to ancient days, when Yiddish was common amongst eastern European Jews and a shtetl had been torched.

Something happened in Jaffa today. Something which is beyond the thousands who marched to protest against the war in the Gaza strip.
In 1948 the very large majority of Jaffa's 120.000 people strong Palestinian population was expelled, many in fact to the Gaza strip, others to Lebanon. The 3.200 who stayed behind were pressured into a position of "being quiet", not raising their voices.

No longer so.

Today the people of Jaffa raised their voices, loudly and clearly. Many have not heard form their Gaza relatives for days, others received messages of how their Gazan family members have been butchered by the IDF. How the wounded cannot receive treatment because there is no way of getting them into a hospital. How the IDF shoots at medical crews and ambulances. How one of Gaza's few hospitals was bombed and burnt out, no longer functional. And in Jaffa we refuse to be silent. Thousands marched through Jafa's rainy and dark streets in protest against the war, from the Charles Clore Park to the HaShnayim park, where two minutes of silence were observed, chanting for an immediate stop to the war for the sake of the children of both countries.

And on a more ominous tone: Some of the police man guarding the demo were masked. I wonder what this implies. Trying to see how we react to it?

And towards the end of the demo something weird happened. A guy with a camera posing as a writer for the NYT tried to interview me. By his line of questioning and the way he formulated his questions, it became soon quite clear there is little connection between him and the NYT. It seems more like he's from arutz 7 or other ultra right wing rag, sort of "under cover in the dangerous streets of Jaffa". Pathetic.

*Our Town Burns
Author and Composer: Mordkhaï Gebirtig (1877-1942)

It burns, brothers, it burns!
Our poor shtetl pitifully burning,
Angry wind with rage and curses
Tears and shatters and disperses,
Wild flames leap, they twist and turn,
Everything now burns!

In Yiddish:

Es Brent!
עס ברענט (גיבירטיג)

Es brent! Briderlekh, s'brent!
Oy undzer orem shtetl, nebokh, brent!
Beyze vintn mit yirgozn
Raysn brekhn un tzeblozn
Shtarker nokh di vilde flamen,
Alts arum shoyn brent!

Municipal budget lies

The Hirsch Centre in Jaffa is a special early childhood development centre providing services to Jaffa's youngest: testing, communication and play therapy, parents' groups and more. The centre treats over 1500 young children from Jaffa annually.
The municipality has decided to cut its budget by 50%, stating the different health-funds will make up for the rest. During the preparatory budget meeting the municipal representative even stated they already had a contract with all major health-funds and were about to close contracts with the others.

If the municipality had a Pinocchio nose, it would be very long now indeed.

The municipality closed a contract with exactly ONE health-fund, the tiny "Leumit", which insures about 2-3 % of Jaffa's population and on average refers 1 child per year (out of 1.500 children treated annually at the centre) to the Hirsh Centre!.
They are not even close to making deals with the other centres who have stated they absolutely refuse to do so according to the centers general manager, Ms. Amal Tatour.
Moreover, if they refer a child the parents first have to pay a fee 0f 150 NIS per hour for which they will get, after payment, a partial refund of 100 NIS. Thus every hour will cost the parent 50 NIS, which is a lot when you raise 3 kids on welfare of e.g. 2000 NIS a month!.
In addition, the healthfund will limit the amount of sessions to about 10-15, even if the child needs more.

The implication is clear: poor parents cannot afford this kind of necessary service for their young children and will not take their kids under these circumstances. At an age when many development problems can be preveted Jaffa's young children from weakened families, will not receive the necessary treatment.
This by itself is a major infringement upon the human rights of these children.

But the danger is larger than that, amal Tatour pointed out: As the majority of the Jaffa population are poor, people wil stop coming to the center. The municipality will conclyude there is no need for the services, as their will be no clients and the center will probably be closed in another few years.

The municipality points out that in other neighborhoods the services in these centers are paid for by the health funds and the population, but Tel Aviv is rich, and Jaffa is poor. So that comparison doesn't go very well.
In Jaffa the drop-out rate from the Arab public schools is 53%. And preventing drop out starts at a young age: if dyslexia and attention span disorders etc. are detected and dealt with at a young age, much suffering at a later age can be prevented.
The proposed budget cut raises serious questions.
Perhaps the municipality LIKES to keep the Jaffa population poor and voiceless?

Harassment in Tel Aviv's public sphere

Over the last few days i heard more and more complaints by friends and acquaintances about harassment in the public sphere. And i am not talking about isolated events.
Last week and elderly Palestinian woman donning traditional garb was attacked by people in a Dan bus in nearby Bat Yam. Her "crime"? She looks Muslim. When she tried to escape her attackers, the bus driver would not let her off the bus. She had the courage to file a complaint, but many other victims of this type of violence, which has become quite common, are not as courageous, or simply do not complain because they have no expectations from the Israel police.

Many of my friends have complained of similar events, especially women wearing a hijab. Some of the Israeli public are showing their hate openly. And they appear to receive silent support of many in their surroundings.

Palestinians employed by the Tel Aviv municipality cannot freely voice their concerns as they are being silenced by their colleagues and even threatened with dismissal. Another veiled employee was asked by her boss to wear her Islamic head-cover in a different style, as the "clients would be less scared of her" that way.

I am not implying everyone is as racist and hateful as described above, but i am talking about more than a few isolated cases. Many women from Jaffa are scared to go into Tel Aviv or Bat Yam as a result.
It appears we are entering a very dark age.

Over 50 thousand Palestinians and Jews marched together in Tel Aviv against the war in Gaza

While the IDF land forces entered into the Gaza strip and murdered at least 30 people, in Tel Aviv over 50 thousand Israeli Jews and Palestinians marched to protest against the war from Rabin Square to the cinemateque.

From Jaffa we left in 2 fully packed buses and many cars, carrying placards, flags and banners. Others from Jaffa came directly from the big demo which had been held earlier that day in Sakhnin.
The atmosphere in the bus was quite tense and sad.
In the bus information was provided what to do if you get arrested. Names and phone numbers of whom to contact in case you are arrested or someone you know has been arrested' so lawyers can be contacted immediately.
We knew the police had allowed the ultra-right wing lunatics to hold a demo as well, in the very same area, so there was potential for problems and violence. MK's Jamal Zakhalka and Dov Khenin were present.
Most of the demo went peacefully along Ibn Gvirol Boulevard. People shouted slogans against the war and placed the responsibility where it lays: the Israeli government of war criminals.
Yet at some point Gerardo Leibner, one of the protesters, was hit in the face by one of the lunatics protesting on the side. And when we were walking back another one threw eggs at us. Well fresh eggs are said to make a good hairconditioner, so perhaps one should say "thanks"?

When marching with so many good people, one feels some optimism, but the news coming in from the Gaza strip continues to be awful, the killing and the war crimes go on. There is no sign of a truce.

I'm starting to feel frustrated, not knowing well what else to do, except for demonstrating and shouting out loud. Except for making the voice of those who feel this war is completely wrong, heard and heard again.

Anti-War Demo opposite the Ministry of Defence

Some two thousand people gathered this night to protest, walking from the Tel Aviv Cinemateque to the Ministry of Defence in Tel Aviv's "Kiriya", shouting slogans in favour of peace and against the war-crimes committed by the Israeli government and the IAF.
The police, among them the horse brigade, tried to violently break up the demo several times, hitting the demonstrators who were trying to get away from the charging horses with their clubs and horse whips.
MK Dov Khenin adressed the gathering.

And for more information about civil action.
Video of the demo

Accessability - the opening tonight!

Artists for social change, a group of people from different disciplines, put together an exhibition dedicated to accessibility
The exhibition, which opens today at 27 Shocken street in south Tel Aviv (floor 10 -but accessible) deals with limitations put on people with different challenges by society.


Welcome!

Arabic in the Jaffa Tel Aviv Municipal Council

Yesterday the first meeting of the Jaffa - Tel Aviv municipal council took place.

Omar Siksik, the Yafa list representative (from Jaffa) and the only Palestinian member, addressed the council in Arabic, which after all, is the second official language in the state of Israel. A week before, he made sure the municipality knew about this and would provide simultaneous translation. The official answer: no need..... Well there is a need, as the majority of the council members do not speak Arabic. That's how cultural wipe-outs work.

Huldai opened the meeting by placing it within a hundred-year Tel Aviv historical context, forgetting Jaffa's 4000 or so years of history.
As usual, Ron Huldai formed a coalition, but less usual, there is a strong opposition this time. And instead of quickly going through all the votes on the list in about half an hour, the meeting took a full 4 .5 hours. The opposition (Ir LeKulanu's 5 council members and Yaffa) opposed several of the propositions.

Huldai's coalition put itself comfortably in all the committees as well as municipal companies. 29 men were appointed to the various municipal companies. 29 men, not one woman, not one Palestinian.

And Huldai's coalition ate it all, voted in favour what prior to the elections some of them promised to fight. But fat salaried jobs and the belonging goodies (cars, expense accounts) do their things and as usual, the yes-men and yes-women of Huldai's coalition will continue to carry out their policiy of favoring the rich and wealthy, carrying out pro-car and non- green policies as we have been suffering over the pas 10 years.

Leib Ben Sara Street

Leib Ben Sara is one of those small dead-end alleys in Jaffa, close to what is now a military court. Until 1948 the building of the military court was a Palestinian family home. Many of the homes in the street were constructed during the period of the British mandate by middle class families. As part of the Naqbe the homes were "registered" (=stolen) by the Israel Land Authority as "left property" and some were rented out to people by means of a public housing company.
Others were "given" to the army, which uses them up to this very day. Quite a few old Jaffa buildings are in use by the army. "Occupied" would be a good term to describe it.
Many people have forgotten these buildings should really be put to the use of the local Arab community by means of the waqf or the churches, but that's not what i want to write about here. That's part of a larger story, i should pay attention to. It's just that the military court is located in this small street.

The first part (close to the court) of the street is paved, The rest is full of potholes which fill up with water during the rainy period and turn the street into dangerous walking and driving territory. My elderly friend Suham, who lives there, tripped a few times and as a result has to be hospitalised.
Some 5 years ago the residents asked the municipality to intervene and carry out the necessary and long overdue repairs. Promises were made, but nothing happened.

Suham decided to do something about it and organised a petition which was signed by all residents and sent out to Gilad Peled, the Mishlama's (Jaffa's impotent sub-municipality) head. Hopefully, in this period of local elections something will be done about it.

An answer had not yet been provided. The street is small, paving it properly shouldn't be a problem. Or at least filling up the pot-holes immedediately and carry out all the necessaru repairs within a few days.
But then, this is Jaffa and we are talking about an alley not popular with the wealthy new-comers. An area not favoured by the gentrifiers. But perhaps, with the elections coming, up the municipality will do something about it. Huldai is trying to prove he has improved a lot in Jaffa, invested a lot in the infrastructure. Some of these claims are true, but the investments have been made only where the very wealthy live and that is not Leib Ben Sara street.

Police beat up handcuffed boys in Jaffa

A fight erupted between a few young boys from Jaffa's public "Shem HaGdolim" housing estate and a yeshiva student.

The word on the street -which perhaps may be not correct- is that they plan to build a yeshiva right in front of a nearby mosque. To the best of my knowledge the yeshiva is on the corner of Toulouse street and Korchak street. But rumours have their ways. Perhaps they do pan to build another yeshiva close to the mosque.

In any case, a fight erupted. Apparently there had been words (death to the Arabs) and insults before, or so it is being said.

The police was called and they arrested three boys. The wrong boys by the way, not the ones who had been in a fight with the guy from the yeshiva. The kids arrested, were at home at the time of the fight.

While the boys were under arrest and handcuffed, the police beat them up. Another kid managed to film it on his phone camera. The kid bragged about it, stating he would complain about it or take the film to the media. As a result, the unlucky photographer was arrested as well and kept for more than 24 hours at the police station, his phone taken from him and the film wiped out.

While under arrest, the kids were threatened that they would go to jail for 5-10 years, as "we are dealing with activitןes against the safety of the state". Young boys, all minors, according to the juvenile law, from good homes, who had nothing to do with the fight yet were intimidated, while not having access to legal advice.

So much for democracy. "Acco" is closeby it appears.

The atmosphere on the streets is one of fear. Last week three flats in Tel Aviv's HaTikva neighborhood were torched by ultra right wingers. The common ground: all three flats were inhabited by Arabs. I call it a progrom.

Last week grafiti was sprayed inside a building on Jaffa's Jerusalem Boulevard; "Death to the Arabs".

Speaking to my friend Zeinab and others, we wonder what we can do to prevent further violence. And we don't really know.

Naji Needs Your Help

Naji is 5 years old, almost 6.
He lives in Jaffa, with his mother and sister.

He should go to kindergarten, but the only kindergarten willing to accept him is located on the premises of the Asaf HaRofeh Hospital and demands an emergency unit nurse to be present at Naji's side at all hours. The Ministry of Health is unwilling to pay for this and The Ministry of Education do not think they are responsible either., so Naji is at home.

Naji has no wheelchair although he needs one.

Naji has no leg supports, although he needs them, urgently.
Naji does not receive physiotherapy, although he needs it.
Nor does Naji receive speech therapy, which he also needs.
Naji needs much help. but he doesn't get it.

Naji is connected to a oxygen supply machine pushing air into his lungs 24 hours a day and needs around-the-clock care. Naji is unable to breathe for himself, because of a rare disorder, called "Pompe Disease"*. His very dedicated mother, Intisar, takes care of him. Every 20 minutes Naji needs to be suctioned in order to clean his airway. At night Naji needs to be turned over as he cannot easily do so himself. Intisar is always there for him, but she has little energy left.
His younger brother died from the same disease a year ago. The death of Naji's brother allowed the medical staff to understand the nature of Naji's problem. Naji is receiving medicine to stop the advancing damage, but much damage has been done.
Naji wants to live.

Naji is his real name and the child in the picture is him. I publish this picture on his mother's full request to do so, as Naji needs help and is not receiving it.

His mother is fighting for Naji's rights, but the bureaucracy is hell.

Oh and something else, Naji, who has serious breathing problems, is living in a flat surrounded by a sewage swamp. The house owner (public housing company Halamish) and the Tel Aviv Jaffa Municipality are fighting over whose responsibility it is to pay for the repair. In the mean time Naji cannot leave his home because of the swamp, yet cannot bear to stay home because of the stink.

Naji NEEDS help urgently, yours.

This article may be copied and spread around, maybe someone will wake up.

* Pompe disease is a rare (estimated at 1 in every 40,000 births), inherited and often fatal disorder that disables the heart and muscles. It is caused by mutations in a gene that makes an enzyme called alpha-glucosidase (GAA). Normally, the body uses GAA to break down glycogen, a stored form of sugar used for energy. But in Pompe disease, mutations in the GAA gene reduce or completely eliminate this essential enzyme. Excessive amounts of glycogen accumulate everywhere in the body, but the cells of the heart and skeletal muscles are the most seriously affected. Researchers have identified up to 70 different mutations in the GAA gene that cause the symptoms of Pompe disease, which can vary widely in terms of age of onset and severity. The severity of the disease and the age of onset are related to the degree of enzyme deficiency.

Newly homeless in Jaffa

Fauziyeh Dake, in her late forties, fainted when her teenage son Salim wanted to explode himself with a cooking gaz container in the centre of their living-room this morning, the moment the municipality goons and special police forces came to demolish the family's home in "Pardes Dake" in Jaffa.

One of the older sons of the family was murdered some 3 years ago in the infamous "Benny the Fisherman" murder case. Since then the family's youngest son, Salim, finds it hard to get organised and to live a regular life.
The family has been fighting a legal battle over the last 6 years against the demolition order that the Tel Aviv municipality took out on their only home.
The Dake orange grove, located in the center of Jaffa and Bat Yam's urban sprawl, is privately owned land by Jaffa's Dake family. According to the city development plan the grove, home to the large Dake clan, is considered agricultural land.
As a result there is no building plan and as a result of that, one cannot get a building permit. However, the grove stopped being a grove ages ago and the land is home to the large Dake clan.
Who cannot legally build any homes on it, because it still is "agricultural land".
Mousa Dake successfully fought a legal battle when the court decided it is in fact illegal for the municipality to take out demolition orders for homes in the pardes, but that decree did not help Fauzieh and her husband, Abu Jalal Dake, whose demolition order preceded that decree (appealed by the municipality in the supreme court). The municipality did not bother to inform them of the approaching demolition (which they should have, in writing) and took them by surprise. As a result nothing could be done to prevent the disaster. Destroying a family's only home is an act of extreme violence.
The illegal procedure used by the Tel Aviv municipality should not come as a surprise; If they would have warned the family, they could and would have gone to court and stood a good chance to win, given the new decision on the grove. But there are other interests.

Part of the Dake family reportedly signed agreements to sell their homes to a wealthy land developer, Samuel Flato Sharon, who wants to destroy the existing homes and build another closed compound for the wealthy. Fauziyeh and her family did not sign such an agreement. Many other families don't either.
Many of the families who did not sign, have received demolition orders. Is there a connection there? Hard to prove but a question that needs to be asked.

Although the answer comes too late for Fauzieh and her family. Where can they go? Where can they stay? What will the future hold for them?

Salim, the youngest is supposed to be under house arrest. The only question is where? He doesn't have a house any longer....

Municipal Generosity

Yediot Ahronot carries an interesting article today about affordable housing in Tel Aviv.

The Tel Aviv Jaffa municipality will subsidize 2000 appartments for young couples in Tel Aviv, or so the title says.

However, when you read the article, one starts to wonder. The suggested solutions relate to young families with a monthly income of 9000 NIS. Now what?

The average income in Israel is about 7.300 NIS.

The minimum income stands at about 4.000 NIS.

Families on welfare need to survive on as little as 2.000 NIS a month (and sometimes receive rent subsidy for another 500 NIS).

To my understanding it is the poorest who need housing subsidy the most.

Yet this "revolutionary" project doesn't take them into account at all. Supposedly the housing ministry assists the very poor, therefore the municipality wnats to assist those who need it but do not receive aid. But in reality that assumption is a farce, the poor are becoming homeless quickly as they cannot afford the rent and the queue for public housing takes years and years. The tiny rent subsidy they receive -if they're lucky enough to navigate the burocracy involved- covers the rent of a doghouse at most, not a 1 room flat in Tel Aviv, for a family with 3 children...

The municipal (remember it's municipal election year?) "generosity" relates to wealthier groups of of young professionals perhaps.

Murder at the "Gagon", the Jaffa shelter for the homeless

The body of a man appearing to be in his forties (but homeless often look much older than they really are, life on the streets is rough and tough on the human body) was found early this morning at the entrance of the Jaffa "Gagon" shelter for the homeless.

"Gagon" is Hebrew for "small roof".
Today Tel Aviv has a few "gagonim", the Jaffa one is for men with addiction problems and in the Tel Aviv central bus station area there is another one for homeless women. There is also another one for non-addicted men. And many more are needed. Homeless people sleep in corners, in ruins, in building sites, on park benches and in the area of the central bus station. Or in bus stops in the main streets, or in the lovely little park next to the HaBima Theatre and the Rubinstein pavilion. Some construct small shelters out of boxes and plastic bags. Others try to attract as little attention as possible, so they will not be evicted by the neighbours.

During the day hours, when the Jaffa shelter is closed, many of the addicted homeless men hang around in the northern part of Jerusalem Boulevard begging for money from the drivers stopping at the traffic lights. Some give, others look straight forward, as if they do not see anyone, or play with the buttons of the car stereo or advanced GPS system. Homeless are sort of "see through" to many people, i guess.
Yet, each of them has a story to tell, and usually it is sad; Migration, alienation, a ruined marriage, unemployment. But once life was different, there were hopes, ideas and dreams.

This weekend's "Ha'aretz tells about 1000 homeless teenagers and young people on the Tel Aviv streets. Elem, an NGO, operates a day-center for the young, but no shelter. The young homeless have no where to sleep. Unless a cheap hotel with a client is considered "somewhere to sleep".

A man lost his life. There are wounds on his body. A fight between drug or alcohol addicts , they say. He hasn't yet been identified, apparently he wasn't one of the gagon's "regulars".
What kind of person was he?
Did he have a good childhood, with games and fun and laughter? Was he a good student or was school more of a punishment to him? Did he create anything or keep his poems in a drawer? Did he love anyone and was he loved? By whom? Will anyone cry for him? Will there be a minyan at his burial?
Will his grave be unmarked?


Homelessness is a matter of social justice. Homelessness is NOT God-given. It's a problem that CAN and SHOULD be solved, Shelters are not more than an emergency solution.
The Tel Aviv municipality started a special welfare unit for the homeless. I tried to contact them just before the holiday in order to receive aid for a young woman with retardation who has been -on and off- out on the streets for the last three years. They did not answer the phone nor return calls.

Talk on the street is that three people, a woman and two men, have been arrested or at least brought in for interrogation.

Trying to tell the truth about the "liberation" of Jaffa

Some 20 - 30 demonstrators and at least 40-50 police men, including special forces (Yasam) and border police.
In spite of the law, none of those last two groups wore name tags on their uniforms.

At the etzel museum a small audience listens to a sound & light heroism performance,
We are kept at "a safe" distance, but using old pots and sticks as well as small flutes we raise a lot of noise.
Banners tell the story of the naqbe in Jaffa, of the acts of terror carried out by Etzel against civilians. Sixty years ago, the naqbe.

Reuven Abergil tells the story of how that happened, while the Brits and the Hagana conveniently looked in the other direction. They controlled the road blocks on the way to Jaffa and the Etzel people dressed to look like local Arabs, passed through with their weapons and explosives.
Bombs hidden inside a watermelon cart and a truck exploded in Jaffa's market. Children and women were murdered. The aim was to create terror and make the population want to flee away.

The police tried to force us to another location, close to the Turkish railway station, where no one passes by and no one can see nor hear us. So much for democracy. So much for our right to express our views and be heard.
We disagree to move to that far away spot. In reaction they bring iron fences and "cage us in".
More police arrive on the scene.

The atmosphere becomes uneasy, then violent.

Four (?) people are arrested, some are lightly wounded, one journalist's press card appears to have been taken away by a police man who refuses to identify himself. Some of the police become very violent.

The police move us even further away in a concentrated and violent effort. It appears the noise we make bothers some of the "etzel heroes".
Their public doesn't really want to know the true story.
But the true story can be well learned from the etzel themselves. Prior to "pc" language in the fifties and sixties, they published books about their "heroism" against Jaffa's civilian population as well as the acts of looting Jaffa's homes and stores.

The police actively assist in telling the Etzel narrative.
They do all to keep us quiet.

But we won't, we won't be quiet.


And by the way, i found a camera in the area of the demo. I think it belonged to participants, please contact me.

Join the party, demonstrate!

The Etzel (Irgoun) museum is having a party tonight, to "celebrate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Jaffa" on "Manshiye" beach, just north of today's Jaffa border, at the Etzel Museum, that architectural monstrosity next to Alma Beach. (in case you're confused by now, Manshiye was the mixed Palestinian Jewish poor quarter of Jaffa, around the area of the Turkish railway station more or less. Today's "Alma Beach" and the Charles Clore Park are located on what used to be Manshiyeh beach).

Jaffa, the "Bride of of the Sea", the "Pearl of Palestine", was destroyed in 1948. Jaffa's people were murdered and expelled. In 1949 there were less than 4000 Palestinians left in Jaffa (about 15% of the population prior to 1948). Jaffa was the cultural center for Palestine, with its theatres, cinemas, radio station, printing houses, newspapers, schools etc. About 85.000 Palestinians were forced to leave Jaffa. Many of their homes were destroyed and their property looted.

The irgoun used methods of terror and extreme violence, such as placing bombs in the market, in cafes, in a children's soup kitchen etc, all civil targets, killing innocent citizens. As they said it in their own words "to demoralize the Arabs of Jaffa".
And today they are having a party to commemorate these "heroic acts".

We 'll be "joining them" in order to make sure the other narrative will be heard as well. To make people understand that what is happening today in Jaffa, is a direct continuation of the other process, the "liberation", or rather, destruction, of Jaffa in 1948.

Join us at 19.00 outside the Etzel Museum, today, April 24th.

Land Day in Jaffa - Yom El Ard, YomHadama

Over one thousand people marched in Jaffa, against the ethnic cleansing carried out by big money in close cooperation with the public housing companies and the municipality. Representatives from all factions in Jaffa and beyond stood together, united. Jaffa's people, women, men and children, marched together for the future of their city, for their own future.
"Together we will stop the bulldozers", "The municipality destroys, the community builds" were some of the slogans carried by the participants.
After the march we convened in the park on Yefet Street, "Gan HaShanyim", where representatives from the various groups making up the Jaffa "popular committee against home demolitions" and political parties spoke about what they believe Jaffa's future should be. From sheikh Raed Salah, through Balad Knesset member Dr. Jamal Zehalka, "City for us all" (עיר לכולנו) representative Dov Khenin and Knesset member sheikh Ibrahim Sarsur to activist Reuven Abergil, of Panther fame, the message was clear: Jaffa is for its people, who will not move.