The Postman Doesn't Ring Twice (in Ajami)

Guess what, I wrote a complaint to our postal services and they answered the following:

"Your complaint has been received and referred to the relevant department for further treatment".
My complaint number is:

36395

Check it out out www.postil.com

Postal services in Ajami? Forget it.

Just a short update.

Remember last week's posting about our ex-post office?
Well today i met one of the postal clerks, a nice and friendly woman, who informed me it will take months (until July 2006) until they will reopen the postal branch in Ajami.

And in the mean time the elderly, invalids and poorer people who treceive their social insurance by means of the postal bank, will have to go to Jerusalem Boulevard, a busride or a VERY long walk away.

In the past, while renovating the branch they had a small caravan outside the branch in which most of the postal services were provided.
I contacted them to see if they can provided services again by the same means.

In the mean time, elderly of Ajami, forget friendly service

The lovely smell of citrus flowers...

Jaffa used to be known as a city of gardens.Surrounded by orange groves, the smell of citrus flowers was overpowering in the season, perfuming the night-air throughout the city.
No longer so. The air pollution in south Tel Aviv is three times as high as that n North Tel Aviv according to a recently published environmental hazards public health survey.

In north Tel Aviv there are three parks for every park in the south. Several southern schools are exposed to dangerous pollution.

"Because the area is a trouble spot" , the Peres Center for Peace

Just a quote of the architect overseeing the construction of the Peres Center for Peace, right here in Jaffa, in Ajami:

"The building is being constructed at 132 Kedem Street, at the eastern end of a seven-dunam lot. It will be about 17 meters tall, and will be built alongside the street. But if we are already talking about symbolism, it will have its back to the east and to Jaffa, and its face to the west, where the entrance will be in a transparent wall facing the sea. The building will be surrounded by a public park being planned by a landscape architecture firm. A central dilemma is whether it will remain open, as is currently planned, or will be fenced in "in order to prevent vandalism and damage to the building, because the area is a trouble spot," as Sheffer says."

No comment...

Police Obstucting BothTraffic and Pedestrians

The presence of the border police in their green jeep, next to Paul's Cafe, our ex-post office and Andre's ever busy icecream parlor have become a street fixture. We almost miss them, when they aer not there. At leats we know where they are and they are not bothering innocent passers by (although they bother quite a few of the young women and girls passing their jeep, with sexist remarks, not fit for quating here.

Yet lately they 've gone a little further. They not only block the pedestrian area, forcing all of us to endanger our lives by having to walk on the street, they now also stop cars right on top of the pedestrian crossing. It appears they really want us to break the law as wel as endanger our lives. The police, "our best friends". Yeah right.

No More Snail Mail from Ajami....

We used to have a small post office on Yefet: 2 friendly employees, a fairly long que waiting at any time, a good time to catch up with the latest neighborhood gossip.

Yet, like our market, the post is no longer, RIP, an ex-post office.
Why? No, this time we are not talking nasty real estate developers, nor collective punishment of Ajamis residents by a nasty bank's management (yes, after our only bank was damaged after a demonstration some years ago, the branch was closed and we have been bank-less ever since).
This time it is due to a typical Jaffa problem, bad infrastructure.
Suddenly the ground opened and where there used to be a floor, there now is a very big hole.
There have been times i wished for such a hole to suddenly open up and swallow me. This was not one of them.

Instead we have a locked door, a nicely worded note that the post office people are very sorry, but services have been terminated until further notice. No indication of when that might be, and what we should do in the mean time, where to get our registered mail in the mean time and generally what the elderly, for who a walk to the far away Jerusalem Boulevard branch is just a little too much, should do when they want to write their sons in the Gaza strip or their daughters in far away Uzbekistan..
There are such things as mobile post offices. All (illegal) settlements in the occupied territories have them.
Perhaps, maybe? Might they not just consider moving in a small postal caravan for the time being?
Come on guys, we need our mail, our social security, our pensions, we need to deposit cash for our relatives held under arrest or in jail, come on, we NEED YOU.

Jaffa Residents - Police Dialogue at AlRabita, Guess Who Didn't Turn Up?

We were there, about 20-25 Jaffa and south Tel Aviv residents,a few members of the press and - ofcourse- your truly.
It was cold, raining cats & dogs outside, yet all of us came, worried as we are, about what is happening in our community. And perhaps more than worried, angry and fed up with police harassment as well as rising street criminality.

After hot drinks and cookies, saying "hi" to old and new friends, we sat down for a mediated talk in Arabic and Hebrew about the police and us.


The police couldn't have been more clear about how they see us: they simply didn't turn up.

"Blessed Rains" - Flooded Houses & Very Wet New Homeless

In Hebrew they 're called "blessed rains - "gishmey b'racha", but after more than a week of them, i tend to call them "gishmey k'lala", cursed rains.

Indeed, there has been an ongoing water shortage for many years now, due to (mostly industrial and agricultural) abuse of that very scarce resource in the Middle East: clean water.
There isn't much of it to begin with, in this areas of the world: The semi-arrid zone, confronted with extended periods of drought. But whatever there is, is quickly and seriously polluted by the industrial waste "produced" by Israel's ever more privatised and globalised industrial giants. In addition, there is over-use, which has lead to brine entering sweet water in the coastal aquifer, thereby rendering it partially useless.
Over the years we have used (and are still doing so) far more water than mother nature holds in stock for us. Our use of sweet water has been out of balance for a long time now.
On the other hand, it does rain, occasionally. And it has been raining in all the coastal plain for over a week now.
Not your gentle winter rains, but floods, a modern Noah worthy: Grey strom clouds, huge amounts of rain coming down in short time spans, dramatic weather, hailstorms fit for staying at home with hot chocolate-milk, under a blanket in a well warmed room (assuming you to have one and being able to pay for heating it, something not quite natural and normal for too many Jaffa inhabitants) with a good book or listening to music.

Good swimming skills are a must if you want to cross the street. Yefet is good for a multi-directional shower: rain from above and muddy rainwater wetting the pedestrian from all sides, whenever a "Dan" bus passes at break-neck speed through the huge fast flowing rivers of what once was , well Yefet street paving.
Jaffa is simply flooded, just like it is every year, only worse, this time.

Given the lack of water, it is a pity the rain water is not collected ofcourse, and the municipality has been doing some infrastructure work, creating a drainage channel in south Jaffa, yet obviously it has not been enough.
True, the rain is strong, yet should this come as a surprise? Why are we "surprised" every year? A few years ago a child drowned in its flooded home not far from here, in the "Pardes Daka" neighborhood. Pardes Daka, in spite of its beautiful name is not a paradise, and the orange trees that once used to grow there, have long since made way for shacks and huts in which very poor people live.
Every year, including this year, homes in south Tel Aviv and Jaffa are flooded, their inhabitants made homeless, their private possessions and furniture made worthless.
But ofcourse, who cares, they are poor people. Not the wealthy ones from North Tel Aviv, where the infrastructure of drainage channels are properly planned and maintained.
Houses in the same area, many of them the same houses, are floooded every year.

"So why don't the people move out?" you ask?. Well, obviously, they would, if they only could....
They have no alternative, as they are too poor and the houses are their only possession, which have become worthless exactly because of the flooding. Thus they are not bale to sell their homes and move elsewhere... (Would you buy a house, knowing it is flooded every winter?).

The houses in Tel Aviv and Jaffa are built on sand. The huge amounts of water move the sand and some of the houses become unstable. Almost every year houses collapse. Yesterday, in south Tel Aviv, in Kiriyat Shalom a 3-story building started collapsing. The people were moved out with the help of the fire brigade and the Tel Aviv Municipal spokesman informed the press they would provide the families with alternative housing for 7 days! How grand. And where shall they go afterwards?
What alternatives do they have? Another few families homeless in another 7 days.

Poor people usually do not have insurance, as they cannot afford to pay the high premiums demanded by the insurance companies for insuring the old houses. They need their small incomes to pay for food, clothing, school fees and study books for their children, electricity to heat at least one room in the house for at least a few hours every day.

My heart goes out to these newly homeless people.

Meeting on Law and Order in Jaffa - January 17th at 18.00 at Alrabita

This time in Arabic and Hebrew only, as it is very local: a meeting at the ElRabita on "Law and Order in Jaffa.
Tuesday January the 17th at 18.00 at the AlRabita Building in Yefet Street, Jaffa.

Paticipants:
Kamal Akhbariaye
Yousouf Asfour
A Police Representative


I'll be there and let you know what happened by means of O C C U P I E D!

המרכז לפעילות יהודית ערבית ביפו
المركز للنشاطات العربية اليهودية في يافا


מזמין אתכם לערב בנושא:
يدعوكم لأمسيه بعنوان:

חוק וסדר ביפו?
نظام وقانون في يافا؟



ערב המוקדש לדיון בפעילות המשטרה ביפו
المساء مكرس للنقاش حول عمل الشرطة في يافا


· האם גורמי האכיפה באמת עוזרים למגר את הפשיעה?
· هل تعمل السلطات فعلاً على كبح الجريمة؟
· מהי המדיניות לגבי מעצרי קטינים?
· ما هي السياسة بالنسبة لاعتقال الشبان القاصرين؟
· מהם הכלים בהם משתמשת המשטרה ביפו?
· ما هي الادوات وطرق العمل التي تستعملها الشرطة في يافا؟
· מה התושבים חושבים על הנעשה?
· ماذا يفكر أهل يافا بالنسبة لما يحصل؟

בהשתתפותם של:

-יו"ר ועד שכונת עג'מי וגבעת עלייה-כמאל אג'באריה
-נציג המשטרה
-יוסף עספור

باشتراك:

- مندوب لجنة حي عجمي وجبليه- كمال اغبارية
- مندوب عن الشرطة
- يوسف عصفور

הערב יתקיים ביום שלישי.01.06 .17
المساء سيقام يوم الثلاثاء 01.06 .17
בשעה 18:00 במבנה אלראבטה, רח' יפת 70, יפו.
الساعة 18:00 بمبنىالرابطه, ييفت 70, يافا.

נשמח לראותכם تسرنا رؤيتكم

למידע נוסף: للمزيد من التفاصيل:

פיה فايا- 0524434697 איהאב أيهاب- 0509495946


ביום רביעי 01.02.06 יוקרן הסרט "גשר על הוואדי". يوم الأربعاء 01.02.06 يعرض الفلم "جسر على الوادي" פרטים נוספים יפורסמו בהמשך. معلومات اضافية ستنشر مستقبلا.

Parading the Streets in Jaffa - Devide & Control?

Over the last few days Jaffa's streets saw several parades:
It started on January 2nd with the Christmas parade of the orthodox Christian scouts, who joined forces with the Muslim scouts, the Jewish scouts, the Catholic (Terra Santa) scouts and -unbelievably so- the police orchestra.
They walked the streets, playing songs, holding flags and it all ended in a joint party at the local Arab Jewish community center.
A few days afterwards (on friday the 6th) another parade, this time that of the other Christian orthodox scouts, festive, colorful, playing carols and handing out sweets and shooting of some fireworks and confetti.

Today, the first day of Eid ElAdha, the Muslim scouts had yet aother parade of their own.
The parades, all of them, are fun. The participating children proudly walk the streets in their uniforms. Their not less proud parents and friends applaud them from the side lines.
The police close off Yefet Street.
The atmosphere is festive, fun very special.

Yet the fact that different parades are held by different bodies over such a short time span, should also raise questions.
Jaffa is devided into so many factions. Each with their own organizational bodies, leaders and activities.
The needs in Jaffa are so big, yet instead cooperating we are devided, much less powerful than we could be, if we only worked together.

If we only could define our needs together and pool our resources, work together to realize our rights and improve the situation. If only...


.

eid
jaffa

Continued Destruction in Jaffa

The heavy noise of a bulldozer, sounds of falling pieces of concrete, building blocks, rooftiles, the dust and smoke smell made it clear even before i arrived at the scene: one more old house destroyed in Jaffa, another piece of history down the drain.

No, the house wasn't particularly beautiful, but it was the last one still standing in the shuk area (the Jaffa Market).
The destruction of our market was started several years ago.
It was done the usual "Jaffa" way. A weathy developer, some say Dudi Appel, but i might be mistaken, suggest a new project, a shopping center, no less.
And ofcourse, some private houses.
Ajami is beautiful, it's close to the sea, not far from the French embassador's house and the fancy Jewish Arab Community Center, in short, prime property, "a good investment", as they say.

Yet the area was home to regular people as well as our market.
Some of the market stall owners were offered money to move elsewhere. Others were made to understand "the Jaffa way", they better move it. When someone explains you something "the Jaffa way", u better grasp it, quickly.
In the end the market was destroyed. There no longer is a food market for us. No more fresh and cheap vegetables and fruit, no longer a place for the poor to gather some free fruit&veggies at the end of the week, no longer a place to meet and gossip, in short, no more market.
The buildings were destoeyed and with it a way of life, our way of life.

Building after building went. Today it was the last sunrise on the one, the last one still standing. A home to a family. It was old, so perhaps a few generations. If i recall corectly it had a lemon tree in the small yard. Lovely old wooden shutters, high celings, old tiles.
Perhaps the inhabitants were given some money in order to move. For sure they have been given lots of promises.

How is this done?
The usual way:
The house is usually owned by Halamish or another public housing company. It was left in 1948. The original owners (or rahter, their children and grand children) are perhaps in a Lebanese refugee camp, in Gaza, in the US or in Europe. The public housing company that took control over the building has refused for many years to properly care for it. The people actually living there, pay the rent, but the company doesn't repair a thing.
Then, over time, the house will start to leak, the walls to crumble, to roof to fall down, bit by bit. The house is declared "dangerous". The company offers the family living there, a small flat in one of the slums. The family has no choice.
It's either that or living on the street, so they move out "of their own free will".

The expensive land is then sold for a big profit to a wealthy owner who constructs yet another villa or closed compound for the very wealthy who are attracted to Jaffa's "oriental" character and by the orientalist promotion material.

Most of the people living in the abominable slums of "Shem HaGdolim" and Mihlol Yoffi" lost their beautiful old houses that way. They got stuck in the slums, and the rich now live in the beautiful old places, sometimes fabulously reconstructed, often newly built.

And all of us no longer have a market...


Public Housing
poverty in Israel

Ariel Sharon, Sabra and Shatila Massacres Remembered

Sharon's stroke keeps the media busy, radio, newspapers, TV, all they talk about is Sharon's health.
Obviously, Israel's-elderly-priminister-just-a-few-months-before-the-elections-hospitalised-after-a-life-threatening -stroke IS news.
Will this stroke leave him capable of functioning as priminister? What about Ehud Olmert, his temporary (?) replacement?
All the media talk/write about, are the results of Sharon's latest head CT-scan, which areas of his brain have been damaged by the massive stroke suffered about 30 hours ago, Sharon's health prior to his hospitalization etc. etc.
Sharon's working too hard, his age, his family's history of health, high blood pressure and serious weight problems etc.

And ofcourse, the coming elections, the leaderless "Kadima" partry, the chances of the Likud regaining some of its former "glory".
Ha'aretz runs a story of Sharon's glorious life, images of the "bandaged hero" during the yom kippur war.
The Gaza strip pull-out orchestrated by Sharon last August: "Only Sharon could have pulled off that one". Which by the way, may well be true. He's even portrayed as a "champion of peace". Forgotten is his visit to the Temple Mount, one of the triggers of the second Intifade and its two-sided blood-trail.
Forgotten is Sharon's role in the instigation of the Lebanon war and its resulting quagmire of violence, which led to the loss of so many lives on both sides. So much blood, so many tears.

Somehow the words "Sabra and Shatila" don't come up.
Are our memories that short? September the 16th 1982 is ofcourse a while ago, but the massacre has left , so i thought, a lasting memory.
Palestinian refugees, children, women and men in the Lebanese refugee camps Sabra & Shatila were murdered by the Christian "falangists", a mission authorized by and known to Ariel Sharon. A massacre which couild have been prevented.

Ariel Sharon was forced to resign from his post as minister of defence by the Kahan commission, which investigated Israel's involvement in the massacres:

• ... draw the appropriate personal conclusions arising out of the defects revealed with regard to the manner in which he discharged the duties of his office" - in other words, that he resign; or, if necessary, that the prime minister exercise his authority to remove a minister from office.

The key paragraphs relating to Sharon's responsibility are these:

• In our view, the minister of defense made a grave mistake when he ignored the danger of acts of revenge and bloodshed by the Phalangists against the population in the refugee camps ... It is our view that responsibility is to be imputed to the minister of defense for having disregarded the danger of acts of vengeance and bloodshed by the Phalangists against the population of the refugee camps, and having failed to take this danger into account when he decided to move the Phalangists into the camps.
  
  
• In addition, responsibility is to be imputed to the minister of defense for not ordering appropriate measures for preventing or reducing the danger of massacre as a condition for the Phalangists' entry into the camps. These blunders constitute the non-fulfillment of a duty with which the defense minister was charged.

People with short memories tend to repeat their mistakes. When those people are powerful politicians, that scares me, a lot.

ariel sharon
sabra shatila

Finally something good about the Tel Aviv municipality or was it too early?

I had noticed them before: big, brown and VERY quick, the Jaffa rats. Usually about at night, suddenly jumping and running from a garbage can or an open sewer.
Recalling horror stories about the plague, i wondered what one was to do.

Then, last week, i met one of them on my staircase when returning during the evening hours, and another one in the early morning when picking up my newspaper in our small yard downstairs. Then another and another and a few more.
Obviously a problem. Rats, fleas on rats, disease, remembering pictures in my history books on the Middle Ages in Europe. Rats, cat-sized and very present.

So i sent a mail to the municipal services, not expecting much of it, as my other mails to them have never led to anything beyond the "we received your appeal and are considering it carefully" and the like.
Once i even received an answer about 4 months after having sent a mail concerning the broken paving and stairs at the end of my street. They answered me they are aware of the situation but as it would cost more then XXXX NIS, it will take time to raise the money. Repairs have not yet been carried out, 2 years after. And the children still play on the broken playground constructions endangering themselves.

Yet, to my great surprise, the very next day someone came over from the municipality and spread some rat poison in our yard, and even put up a notice to keep pets and small children indoors and be careful not to touch the nasty stuff. I just hope the Jaffa rats are not of the reading type.


But then, some days after, the truth came out.
My previous impression of the munipal services record was indeed too good to be true:
True, the municipal pied piper made it all the way to my home. But reacting on a request sent to them last year....
Their quick visit wasn't that quick after all: simply was an answer to a very old request.....

So much for municipality services in Jaffa.

The Jaffa Conference, 2005

This wednesday the Jaffa conference on the social and community situation in Jaffa was held at the local music center.
Organised by the Mishlama (our local branch of the Tel Aviv municipality), it was supposed to function as a place for discussing the many social problems in an open forum of both municipality and mishlama representatives and us, the people of Jaffa and Jaffa's many NGO's.

Ron Huldai, the Tel Aviv (and Jaffa) major, came to say "hi", then left.
I guess that's representative of the municipality's stand towards Jaffa, saying "Hi" and leaving.
Many of the city's reps were not present. Those that were... were not too open to a real discussion.

I suppose the real talks took place during the breaks. The rest of it was not much more of a show and not a very good one at that.

If it wasn't so sad, it would have been funny: to see the Tel Aviv officials deal with the embarassing statistics and other data. Educational professionals trying to convince a 53% school drop-out rate has nothing to do with the "successful" Jaffa public schools.
The presence of the "shahaf" police on Yefet street on saturdays was denied (or rather, put in a strange perspective) by the commander of those chivalrous forces.
Sad, sad sad.

Update: police harassment also during the day hours

Tony the policeman is at it, once more.
Remember Abed's unpleasant experiences with the police in Jaffa? (see post from October 17, September 23 and an earlier post from September the 9th). Tony Boukra, the policeman who harassed Abed before apparently has a good memory for faces. So does Abed.

Yesterday Abed was on his way in South Jaffa, close to the "funny bridge" (Jaffaites know which one i'm talking about and for the rest of you, i promise a photograph, soon) in broad daylight. A police jeep passed by, drove a little slower , then went on. One of the policemen was Tony Boukra, whose details Abed took last time he was harassed.
Abed is used to the practice, nothing special.

Yet then , when he went on, the jeep stopped, policemen came out of the jeep and stopped Abed for his ID.
Ofcourse Abed gave his ID to them. doing otherwise might land him in jail. The police checked it, then told Abed to wait.
Abed waited and waited, about 15 minutes. Finally the police returned Abed his ID.
The police were rude and shouted at Abed throughout the check. No doubt that, had Abed answered them in the same words and tone, he would have been arrested and accused of "bothering a public official in his activites or some such". Abed is aware of that danger, besides, he's never disrespectful of other people, he's naturally polite.

Abed requested the details of the policeman, who asked him why. Once more, the policemen were not wearing name-tags as they are suposed to do.

Abed said that he was tired of being harassed and wants to file a complaint.
The policeman gave Abed his details, a name and a number.
One more event in a long strain. Each single event isn't so problematic, it's the ongoing harassment that makes it so problematic. there is also something in the tone and the aggression in the way the police behave, that make it difficult. Rude is to small a word to describe it.
Israel is not a police state, yet. But we accept it, the police behave in a rude way, giving orders, making people waste their time by stopping them, in the street for unnecessary investigations.
I can in fact imagine a similar affair, stopping someone and checking his ID, in a different manner. Were the police to go about it, in a polite manner, "sorry to bother you, would you mind, have a nice day" etc, perhaps the experience would be somewhat different. In reality the police presence is threatening by itself, deeply unpleasant. It doesn't give me a sense of security at all.

There is nothing particularly suspicious about Abed, just a young man, walking around in a public area.
Or is that, by itself, suspicious?






More blogs about police harassment.

Cutting expenses the quick way: so simple to hurt the poor

One out of every 3 children in this country is poor.
A simple sentence, but what does it mean?
And how does it come about?

As usual, the story is true, the names have been changed.

Maram is 18, a high-school student. Her father died when she was a baby. Her father didn't have Israeli citizenship, so the Social Security did not recognize Maram's mother as a widow.

Maram's mother and father lived in the Occupied Territories. Maram's older sisters were born there. Because Maram's mother has Israeli citizenship, her daughters were and are supposed to receive Israeli citizenship as well.
Only Maram, who was born in Israel, has Israeli citizenship. Maram has lived in Israel all her life. In Jaffa.

Maram has 3 older sisters. One of them, the mother of a 7 year old girl, lives at Maram's house.
The husband of the sister was murdered, during the sister's pregnancy. It happened in front of the sister's eyes and left her severely traumatized, until this very day. Long hours are spent sitting and crying in front of her husband's grave.

Maram's grandmother lives at the same house, a shack really, with an asbestos roof.

The house is very clean. there is little furniture beyond some plastic chairs, mattresses covered with colorful cloths and an old table. The women have done there best with tablecloths and family photographs, to turn the place into a welcoming home.
It's pleasant to sit there at this time of the year, when it is no longer hot but not yet cold. The coffee is strong and sweet. The ice cold glass of water is a pleasure.
There is water in the fridge, but little else.

Maram's mother, who suffers from diabetes and very high blood pressure, works as an office cleaner, 2 hours every morning, 6 days a week. Her wage is 1.200 NIS a month, about 270 US $. She is, for health reasons, not allowed to work more than that and has all the necessary medical documents to prove it.

She used to receive child allowance for Maram. But since Maram turned 18, that has stopped. Yet Maram is a full time school girl, who cannot yet earn her own money. Maram's mother also used to receive an income supplement, which for some strange reason has not been paid for the last 4 months.

Maram's mother went to the Social Security office, where she was told she is no longer eligible, no reason given.
A letter written in Hebrew "officialese" states that, as she is earning 1.900 NIS a month, her income is "too high" to award her a supplement. Yet her wage is only 1.200 (before taxes).
Perhaps a burocratic mistake, but recitifying it may take months, as she will have to go to the labor court. Even if rectified, there will be no retroactive payment for the lost months.

In the mean time, the family (Maram's grandmother, mother, sister with a young child and Maram herself) have to make do with 1.200 NIS a month.
The grandmother's old age allowance is spent on medicine, rental, electricity, water and municipal taxes. The 1.200 NIS salary of Maram's mother is spent buying food, clothing, public transport etc. for 5 women.
For Maram it means never going to the movies, never having new clothes, never buying a coke or an ice cream at the school kiosk, not having all the schoolbooks you need, but worse, not always having something to eat.
A food NGO helps, but the food they donate, doesn't last very long. There is still that much month, when the food has run out.

The fridge is often empty.
So a neighbor sometimes donates a bag of rice, some bread left from yesterday. Maram gets a sandwhich at school. More than once it is the only thing she eats.
That's what it means to be "one out of three" (children are poor).

Perhaps a burocratic mistake, perhaps something which can be rectified, but Maram is often hungry.

poverty israel

Police presence in Jaffa, nothing but a show

The police are still making their daily (and nightly ) shows. Jeeps on the streets, police cars cruising around, special units members on their motor cycles. Roadblocks stopping & searching cars and people as if they really mean it.

Yet is their anything behind this show?

Are they really doing something more than being present?

True, police presence on a certain street in in a certain neighborhood, brings down the street-crime rate in that particular street or neighborhood, for as long as the presence takes. (And usually during that time, the crime goes elsewhere, indoors or to another neighborhood). Crime is a business like any other, after all.

Yet it appears that even in Jaffa, it (police presence) is nothing but a show. The house of acquaintances of mine was burgled during the day, on Yom Kipur.
The owners (and their dog) were out for the day.
Nothing much was taken, because there was little to take in the first place. Only money. the thieves did not take the computer, DVD nor TV.
On Yom Kipur there are very few cars on the streets and walking around on in Jaffa with a DVD or TV is suspicious, especially when the stores and repair workshops are closed.
So only a small amount of money was taken (in addition to the horrible sense of having your privacy invaded).

The house ofcourse was a terrible mess, as the thieves or thief had gone through all cupboards and storage places and thrown everything on the floor. Someone had also taken the time to go through the computer and read the football results on the internet...

My acquaintance called the police. They told him to come to the station, file a complaint ant that would be it.
"So i'll leave the rooms as it is, undisturbed, so you can come and take finger prints or whatever needs to be done". "That's not necessary, said the police man or women on the other side, " you can organize and clean, as there is no need to take fingerprints or anything, we won't come for that".

So unless the thief is caught by chance and he or she actually confesses, there will never be a way to prove the theft, as there is no link between the suspect and the particular break in. Also, perhaps the thief is known, has a record and the fingerprints are there.....
We will never know, as the police make no effort to come and gather the evidence. The crime scene is of no interest to them. What we've all learned from TV series (don't touch the crime scene) is useless. The police won't come in any case.

What it means is the following, if you live in Jaffa, forget about police protection or police services (they are supposed to serve us, the general population, right?). Also, forget about intensive policing, fighting crime, "zero tolerance" and whatever terminology the police spokes person and the people from the "mishlama" (the local municipality branch of the Tel Aviv- Yafo municipality) like to use.

It is all a show, to make the impression something is done. To perhaps provide some part of the public with a (false) sense of safety and security.

The thieves must also be pleased, they know that as long as they are not caught red-handed in the act and do not confess, there will never be proof against them.
So why do they have all those police cars and jeeps on the street? Why are people stopped and searched on the streets?
It's all a show and it has the effect of a show, short-lived for the public, a bitter & longer lasting memory for those stopped and searched.

But then, perhaps the person who broke in was a junkie, in need of some quick money to buy the next fix. The drug problem is not solved by policing, however intensive.
The "drug problem" is a symptom of a deeper social conflict and "crime fighting" is not a very efficient way of dealing with that.

Ramadan, Yom Kipur, some thoughts on poverty

Around 5.30 afternoon, most of Adjami's streets are quiet. Few cars, little noise.
When it gets THAT quiet during the day hours, (or rather, early evening hours, i haven't yet gotten used to winter time, it gets dark so early now) you can even hear the noise of cutlery, of dishes being set down on the table, coming from the many dining rooms, gardens and balconies, where families are sitting down to break the Ramadan fast.

Today it is especially quiet, it's also Yom Kipur, the Day of Atonement. Hardly any cars, lots of children on bikes, people walking in the middle of the streets. Time to say "i'm sorry, please forgive me" on this holiest of holy days.
And there is a lot to be forgiven.

Over 415 NGO's hand out food to over 450.000 hungry Israelis, both Jews and Arabs (source: a recently published research by Benny Gidron of Ben Gurion University). About a 100 NGO's operate soup kitchens, where the very poor receive a daily dinner often for free or for a tiny payment (2 NIS). About 40% of the clients of the soup kitchens are elderly people, whose tiny pensions do not cover more than the rental for their small flats and municipality taxes and electricity. Food is a luxury, medicine they only buy when there is no choice, often instead of buying food or paying the rent. Quite a few are people suffering from mental problems and diseases. Often they have been hosiptalized for many years. Yet some time ago, it was decided they should live in the community, which was to be more humane. Yet communities do not have the tools to care for them. And for many, after having been cared for for so many years, the expecatation to be independent is rather large. Their families often live far away. Friends find it diificult to cope with their "strangeness" and the neighbors are a little scared. For many of this group, the soup kitchens are also a social frame work, the only place they meet other people.
Other clients are recent immigrants, who often work at more than 1 job. But when you work through a temp job agency, you often do not receive the minimal wage and you are not in a position you can do much about it. Wages are no paid on time, are partialy paid. Often new immigrants are not aware of their labor rights, and this lack of knowledge is abused by quite a few employers. When trying to deal with these rogue employers, the temp agencies disappear and are opened under a new name at the same address, with the same people. Yet it is difficult to take them to court.
Other soup kitchen clients are 1-parent families with children, no longer able to get by.

Many people are too ashamed to go to the soup kitchens, as there are many more poor then the number mentioned by the NGO's. Or they have not been found eligible, just like all the other families mentioned by the social worker i spoke to. She can refer 5 families to the food NGO. She has to make an impossible choice and not refer another 95 families who are just as needy, as hungry. At the end of the market day, you see those people gathering fruit and vegetables at the market, from the floor. The half rotten potatoes and cabages, lemons too spotty to be sold for even a low "end of the day" market price: the poor, getting some food.

And i am not talking about the third world. Or well, perhaps i am, in a sense. The income differences between the wealthy and the poor in Israel, are the largest in the western world. Maybe this is not the western world.

Poverty has become "common", an accepted phenomenom. And the poor are blamed for being poor.

Welfare payments have been cut again and again, while PR campaigns by the government have created an atmosphere in which recipients are seen as thieves and parasites "unwilling to work".

Yet many of those so-called "parasites" work. Only, their wages are below the legal minimum. Employers can get away not paying enough to their temporary employees. If they complain, they 're sacked, so who cares? The Labour office is supposed to supervise this and paying below the minimum wage is an offence, but in fact, many of the govetrnment agencies employ cleaning, security and secretarial services through outsourcing agencies. These agencies are selected by public tender and the offer they give is so cheap, there is no way they can meet minimum wage demands. Yet the government offices do not even check on this. They cover their asses by demanding (in the public tender agreements) the contracter will employ his employees by law. In reality, no one guards this, which led to the amazing state in which even the labor courts did not check on their clerks and cleaners' labor rights. Indeed, the cat guards the cream....

Other welfare recipients are elderly or unemployed between the ages 50 - 65, who nobody wants to employ. The payments they receive cannot cover rent, taxes, electricity, medicine etc. So they slowly sink into a quagmire of debts, depression, bad health. No one really cares.

The situation of unemployed Arab women is also very difficult, as few employers in Jaffa, are willing to employ them. As a test a friend and me called employers about a job offered in the newspaper. When identifying ourselves with Jewish names we were asked to submit our CV and make an appointment. When we identified using an Arab name, we were told by the same potential employer, that the job offer was no longer available.
This is ofcourse illegal, but potential employers can always get past the problem, by demanding army service in their job requiremtns. Arab women are not drafted into the army, so they never have "army experience". However, when you call the employer and state you are a young new immigrant from the ex-Soviet Union, therefore did not serve in the army, the army service requirement "doen't really matter".

But i was talking about poverty:

Social workers ,in Jaffa, are helpless, with caseloads they cannot deal with and a lack of sources. I contacted one of them for a fimaliy i know. I hoped she would be able to refer them to one of the Food NGO's who hand out food parcels to the needy. This was her answer: "look, Yudit", she said to me, " I can refer 5 families every half year. I know the family you talk about and they received half a year of weekly food parcels last year, if i give them food again, i have to take another family out of the program, so "your" family will have to wait". And then she went on: " i can give them a one time referral to a food NGO in Rishon, but i'm not sure they can give her much more than a bottle of cooking oil, and the public transport bus to go to Rishon leZion and return to Jaffa, may cost more then the bottle of oil". The same social worker said she had more than one hundred failies on her waiting list for food parcel hand outs. The same goes for all the other social workers in the same agency.

Let me tell you about a family who receive food parcels from the Association for Humanitarian Assistance (Yefet 152, Jaffa), a Muslim welfare NGO:

The names are ficticious, the story isn't.

Mariyam married when she was 16 to an older man according to the wishes of her family. She had 4 children, when her husband died of an illness. She remarried and had another 4 children by her second husband, who started to use drugs. While on drugs he sold the family flat and most of the electrical appliances, as well as Mariyams marriage gold jewellery. He also started abusing her and the children. Finally he left her for another woman and drugs. He does not pay child alimony and Mariyam does not know of his whereabouts.

Mariyam works cleaning other people's houses, hard physical work. Three of her young children suffer from asthma and often she spends her nights caring for them in the hospital emergency room and her youngest child, aged 3, is on a waiting list for kinder garden. So, often she misses a day of work.
She and her 8 children live on 1600 NIS a month due to all kinds of burocratic problems, part of her children (whose father is a Palestinian from the occupied territories) are not recognised by the state of Israel and do not have health insurance. Their mother is an Israeli citizen, the 4 children were born here, they live here all their lives, but they are not recognized.

Often there is no food. The electricity and water are provided by the neighbors, after Mariyam and her children were cut off, due to unpaid bills. The energy cut off was carried out illegally, but the municipality know Mariyam will not fight back. Electricity and water "by means of the neighbors" is quite commmon here in Jaffa.

Mariyams children go all to school (except the smallest one). She tries to buy books and notebooks for all, but not one child has all the educational materials (s)he needs. Mariyam does her best to buy books for all, but each year the lists are changed and so she cannot pass on books from one child to the next.

Mariyam lost her previous job in August, missing too many days and being too late too often (it's tough taking care of 8 children who have to be at school at different hours and return at different hours, spending nights in the hospital, having to find and pay a baby sitter for the smallest kid, a three year old who is on a waiting list for kinder garten) and registered at the employment service. They sent her to a manpower agency somewhere north of Tel Aviv (3 buses, from where Mariyam lives it will take her at least 30 NIS a day and 3 hours to go there and come back) who wanted her to start every morning at 7 and finish at 16.00.
Mariyam explained her children start school at 8.30, so she cannot leave home before 8.15. Also they finish between 13.00 and 15.00, so she shuold be back around 14.00. (her wage does not allow her to pay a child carer on a daily base) It is important to know that by law you may not leave a child below the age of 12 unattended by someone below the age of 16, so Mariyam's older children cannot legally care for the younger ones)
The employment agency wrote down that she had refused to work and her small; social security payment was taken away from her.
There is a procedure of getting it back, but this procedure takes months.

Mariyam and her 8 children are left with barely an income and hungry. Food parcels take care of the hunger and a friendly family bought new clothes and school uniforms for some of the children.

So Mariyam and her 8 children are among the people who receive food parcels. It's Ramadan, a time for doing good deeds. It's Yom Kipur, a day for saying "i'm sorry" and rectifying evils.

Poverty is not solved by handing out food. Poverty is not necessary. Poverty can be solved by paying minimum wages that allow people a decent living, by defining "a liveable income".
How much money does one need to live in a safe house, to buy food, medicine, an education for ones children (with all necessary books and srudy materials), electricity, water and perhaps a festive dinner at eid el fiter or yom kipur? Some new clothes and a pair of shoes now and then, a family visit to the local public pool during the summer holidays, a football to play with etc, (or are these luxuries?).

Poverty is a social evil, solvable, unnecessary, i suppose we all need to say "we are sorry", as we're not doing enough to deal with it.

Handing out food parcels does NOT solve poverrty. A liveable minimum wage, proper work conditions, child care for working parents, liveable payments for those unabe to work (age, illness, migration etc) can all be obtained. Decent public housing is another must.

It's all a matter of priorities and policy making.
Ramadan, yom kippur, atonement, rectifying wrongs.....

poverty israel

When there is some smoke, there sometimes is a big fire

Smoke in Jaffa is not a rare event. Nor is fire.

I used to live in the center of Jaffa, at the Dante / Victor Hugo cross roads, next to a huge garbage dumpster, known as "Zfardea" (frog in Hebrew). The "'hood boyz" used to set it a fire. At least once a week.
Chairs would be dragged to the corner opposite, water pipes lit, tea (or something alcoholic) prepared and then they would call the fire brigade and watch them do their job.
An i would watch them watching.
This was an almost weekly event, for that particular dumpster.
The smell would be horrible, and afterwards the street would be filled with black stinking sooty water.

So while making my walk on the rubbish mount this afternoon (seeing it the way it is now, after all, next year we'll have a park there, no more no less), i was not surpised at seeing a little smoke. There usually is some smoke from somewhere.
Yet a little smoke soon became a lot of smoke, then a hell of a lot of smoke. This was no frog going up in the air.
Coming closer to the source of the smoke, it was obvious from the amount of fire trucks arriving and roadblocks closing of the streets something bigger was going on in the area of the Fleamarket, to Rabbi Nahman Street.

Jaffa's fleamarket is famous throughout the the country. A place to find antiques of varying qualities, old books, kitchenware, 2nd hand furniture, paintings, statues and what not, made-in-India and China clothes, anciet russian cameras, coins, sets of ill matched glasses, fake lalique lamp shades, you name it, they'll sell it.
Some stores are beautiful (and not at all that cheap), others just show a big mountain of things, for the clients to dig in and come up with finds. A collectors' heaven. Some stores are really just tables out in the street.
The market is open 6 days a week, during the daylight hours more or less. The salesmen (there are very few women) are Jewish as well as Arabs.

Once upon a time it used to be Jaffa's meat market. The butchers would have their stalls one next to the other. Early mornings, when the meat would be fresh, prices were high. Later during the dya the prices went down, there was no way to keep the meat fresh in that prior to refrigerator age. At the very end of the day, it was party time for the local cats and dogs.
But those days are history. the meat market became the flea market and its buyers are mostly Tel Aviv's Jewish inhabitants. For them comiong to Jaffa implies a visit to the fleamarket, eating some humous at one of the many houmous restaurants or bourekas (stuffed ) pastry or mamoul (date and nut filled cookies) at "Leon's".
Perhaps a tamarhindo somewhere. going fuerther south into the realm Jaffa, where we live, is out of the question for most of them. In any case they are barely aware our neighborhoods exist.

The fire broke out in a small aluminum workshop in the fleamarket. A two story building, constructed, judged by its building style, during the British mandate years. At the bottom floor a workshop, appartments at the top floor. By the remainder of the laundry hanging from one of the balconies, people lived there. The workshop burned for hours. Gaz bottles exploding, the fire brigade mostly dousing the buildings next door, to keep the fire from spreading.
The place was filled to the ceiling with old and very volatile materials.

According to the police, the fire started as a result from a fire outside, a pile of rubbish close to the building had been set afire.


gentrification
poverty in israel

Rubble Rubbish Everywhere, especially in the air

Once upon a time. many many years ago (but not very far away), there was a lovely princess, named Andromeda*....

Jaffa was once known as the Bride of the Sea, a lovely meditarrenean city. Sea on one side, surrounded by orange groves on the other. A city of flowering gardens, a wealthy city due to its port, which served all of the country.

After 1948, after most of its original inhabitants had been made to leave, much of Jaffa stood empty. In many of the lovely villas and ancient houses, the plates cups and saucers were still on the table, sometimes the food still on the stove. People had left in a hurry, without taking much with them. They hoped they would be back again, soon.

Instead they found themselves in the refugee camps of Gaza and Lebanon or spread throughout the world, still longing for the lovely beach, the smell of orange flowers in the season, cold water melon on a hot summer night.

Yet, were they to visit Adjami today, they would have a hard time recognizing it. Many, thousands, of the beautiful old houses were torn down, leaving big scars in what used to be busy streets. The rubble of those houses was dumped on Jaffa's beach, creating a huge mountain of rubble, a few hundred dunams in size and 15 meters above the sea level, hiding the sea. Kedem street, which was once right on the beach, is far away form the sea today. Looking at aireal photographs made a mere 30 years ago, the beach looks completely different.
Later on, people from all over Tel Aviv started to dump their building rubble on the mountain as well, thus creating the "Har HaZevel" aka the Rubbish Mountain. Doing so was legal, it was, in fact, encouraged by the Tel Aviv municipality.

The huge monster mount disconnected much of Adjami from the sea, no longer a bride and definitely not of the sea.

Over the last 15-20 years Jaffa's people fought against the mountain (which according to the original planners was to become a villa neighborhood for Tel Aviv's wealthy, attracted by its orientalistic character). The fight was relatively successful, in the sense that further rubbish dumping was declared illegal, and the mountain is supposed to be turned into a park, as park for Jaffa's people first of all.

Plans were made and a small effort was made by the mishlama (a unit of the Tel Aviv municipality responsible for much of the running of the municipal services (and the lack thereoff, but that's another item) to ask us, Jaffa's people, what we want.
This was done by means of meetings of "focus groups" ("Devide and rule" has been an effective method for many years). The park plan will serve us, and ofcourse it is a million times better than the current situation.
This week the plan was presented by Dror Amir, of the Mishlama: part of the mount will be reshaped by removing part of the rubble and grinding it up. The mountain will be reshaped, and planted with local plants and tress, paths, cycle paths and beaches will be part of the concept. It looks not bad at all on paper.
Paths will run naturally from the streets leading to the park (Dudaim, Mendes France etc.) to the sea and the beach.

About 50 million will be spent on the project, which i hope wil give us a wonderful place, a new bridal dress perhaps for a somewhat weary "bride of the sea".

What very much worries me, is the method they have selected for getting rid of the rubble: grinding it.
The mountain contains, in addition to stone, concrete, marble, tiles, iron etc also lots of strange materials, some unknown and some of very ill repute, such as e.g. asbestos.. The wind on the beach is usually landwards, right into Adjami. The grinding process (expected to take about 2 years of daily work) will create lots of dust. And that dust will go to.... you got it. into our houses, noses, heads, lungs.

They (the contractor, the municipality) are supposed to run air quality checks, and when things are "too bad", halt the grinding process.
They told us "not to worry", "all will be well" and "trust us". Whenever i hear these sentences i get nervous, very nervous.

* Andromeda was a princess in Greek mythology, who was tied to a rock as an offer to pacify a sea monster that kept eating the poor fishermen. The story had a happy ending when the oor girl was saved by her hero and they lived forever etc. All of this happened in Jaffa, the rockformation, called "Andromeda's Rocks, can still be seen.