Update 7- What's Good

(Last Week)

Sitting in a mud dome, it's easy to remember the good things about Israel.

Down on Kibbutz Lotan, I'm spending time, and not money; and my time is going to things that fill my soul to brimming with happiness. Making walls, human habitation, construction, out of waste products (busted tires, glass bottles, plastic jugs/containers) and the earth (mud/straw); taking short stints of working in the hot hot sun, and then taking important breaks to hang out in shaded habitations, to read, to write. We sing Beatles songs, and change a key word here or there to fit our surroundings: "All you need is mud," "We all live in a geodesic dome," "straw-bale: it yields forever."

We all eat together, such wonderful and healthy food; and it's just there, provided for us in such a way that our existence is cherished, affirmed, accepted. My shpilkes act up from time to time, and think: okay, I better hit the road, head on back to Jerusalem for my last week in the area. I still have a few things I'm wanting to do, including a couple of trips to Palestine. Friends to see.
But really, the reason that my shpilkes loves Jerusalem more than Kibbutz Lotan is the opportunity for consumerism. I remind myself that is something that I don't need!
I wrinkle my nose furiously at my shpilkes and decide to extend my time in Lotan, day by day. What started as, "I'll come down for a day," has now turned into three.

(A couple days ago)

An overture to my good friends who make me feel so welcome, who are my family in all places in the world.
Who are quick to hug, and quick to think and joke and laugh,
And who tell me when it's too much
and also when it's just right.

I'm waking up early these days, and now I'm back in Jerusalem after a nice stint of "recovery." And I find good things here too.

The sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel / The Naqba is just around the corner, and I don't know where I'm going to be that day. I'd love to be somewhere to commemorate both events, which sounds really great to me.

Yesterday, I spent practically the entire day at "Daila," hanging out with the "veggie bar" crowd there. We made *so much* good good food! Part of the inspiration for us to hole ourselves up in the performance space in downtown Jerusalem has to do with Yom HaZikaron/Hatzmaut; while the entire country is flipping out, we were flipping veggie burgers. I made a carrot-tofu cake and a veggie stir fry. Radiohead and HaDag Nachash are playing in the background.

They bought new plates for the veggie bar, and decorated them with fun slogans in English and Hebrew.

The next day, for the day-of Yom Hatzmaut, I am at Bat Shalom, a women's peace group, for a couple of movies (one about Palestinian refugees who come on a tour of Israel, and Bee Movie, the animated flick with Jerry Seinfeld) and more good vegan food. Afterwards, I go bowling with some Israeli activist friends.

I expected to do something Nakba-related, but then I realized that Nakba Day is a week after Yom Hatzmaut because Naqba day is based on the Gregorian Calendar while Israeli Independence Day is based on the Hebrew Calendar.

I made a final trip into Bethlehem on Friday, and brought with me four people: two Americans and two Israelis.
Israelis have a strange situation that they face in Bethlehem, because they need to choose an alternate identity. As a tourist in Bethlehem, one of the first questions that anyone is asked is where they are from, and given the situation (even moreso since it isn't even legal for them to be in Bethlehem). They can't speak Hebrew while inside, so one of the Israelis, who used the name Amar while inside, decided that he was going to be a New Zealander; no one knows what a New Zealand accent sounds like, he reasoned.

This time, we went to Bethlehem budget-tourist-style (no organized tour, therefore less Palestinian perspective for the group, unfortunately). But we had fun, and it's a pretty big deal for the Israelis to have gone. We went on a hike near the Greek Orthodox monastery called Mar Saba, dropped into the AIC and IMEMC offices for a quick look-around, got lunch, and went to the Church in Bethlehem, and my friend Adnan's souvenir shop. We walked along the streets back to where we catch a bus, and stopped into a sweets shop for a bit. After waiting for a half hour, we piled onto an overcrowded service heading back towards Jerusalem from Beit Jalla. The soldiers asked everyone to file out of the bus and hand over ID.

"Where did you go?" (Eyfo hayitem?)

As we had discussed, the Israelis said that they had gone into Beit Jalla (Area C) to buy some vegetables, no mention of Bethlehem. Bags of vegetables were in our hands.
And that was it. Everyone piled back on, and after waiting ten minutes for everyone's ID to be double-checked, we were on our way back to Jerusalem just in time for shabbat. Both of the Israelis who were with me have had plenty of experience with Palestinians, having gone to demonstrations in the West Bank in support of Palestinians who live there, but this was their first time inside of a Palestinian city.
They are excited to try to go to Ramallah sometime soon. Amar is a student, and talked about re-starting a solidarity committee between his university and Bir Zeit.

Today, for shabbat, I read Torah in Israel for the first time; at Kehillat Kedem. I studied for about two hours by the morning sun, and struggled through the reading, but made it!
A friend from Olympia came into town, and I got to spend a lot of shabbat with her, and have been telling her everything I know about Jerusalem, Israel, and anything else I can think of. That was fun.

I hope that you appreciate the sharp relief and contrast of one update that I write against the next; it's a small window into a world where seemingly exclusive ideas intermingle with wild abandon. Even as I write about standing guard at an orphanage in Hebron, life in Israel fills, compels and captivates me; equally as challenging as this place is, there is much that I love about it.

B'shalom wa salaam,
Jacob in Jerusalem