Bored police horses

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In Jerusalem I would from time to time see mounted police riding around, usually just outside the Old City (e.g. as in my posts here, here, and here).
Today was my first time to see a police horse in Beer Sheva.
He was just standing in the shade near the Central Bus Terminal.

On the vehicle towing the horse trailer is written Mounted Police Unit, Southern District.
Wait! -- Is that horse in the drawing wearing a gas mask??
THAT I've never seen, but I guess it would be needed in riot control.
Actually, maybe it's just my imagination working overtime, maybe he just has a black nose.

I walked in back and discovered a second horse.
Really wanted to ask the officer in charge if I could talk to, I mean pet, one of the nice horses.
Alas, he was in the middle of an animated conversation on his phone and didn't even notice me.
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(Linking to Camera-Critters.)
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"Holy ceremony" underway

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Six Israeli Border Guard policemen were there at the entrance to the tiny room which contains the tomb of Jesus.  To keep order. 
Hundreds of eager pilgrims and tourists were in line, waiting for their one minute inside. 
Hundreds more were there on that Easter in 2012 when I took this picture, filling every space in the huge Church of the Holy Sepulchre. 

Just recently I was surprised and happy to find something new in the ancient church--this police barricade or small fence which now says 

"Holy ceremony"! 

On the sides are the insignia of the Jerusalem District Police. 

I must admit, it is a big improvement over the older ones in the first photo, which say in Hebrew "Mishtarah," which means Police. 
I think it shows more sensitivity.  Slowly slowly we are learning.  It has only been 50 years since Israel got responsibility for the security and safety inside this holiest of Christian holy places.  Be patient. 
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(Linking to inSPIRED Sunday,  Our World Tuesday, and signs, signs.)
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A bizarre accident, 2 smashed cars

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This big Border Police vehicle managed to do a lot of damage to two parked cars on a main street of my town early last Friday morning, thankfully without injuring any people.

Police were already there investigating, and this one was measuring distances with his meter measuring wheel.

A parked towing wagon had also been hit and was on its side. 

I really wonder how and why this happened.
Click one or two times on the photos to get the full "impact."
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Protesting blood feuds and illegal guns

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I snapped this yesterday from my bus going home from Beer Sheva.
Bedouin men were lined up along the highway in a small demonstration near their town.
The Hebrew part of their banners says
Ken, ken lasovlanut
Lo, lo la-alimut.
Yes, yes to tolerance
No, no to violence.

And also this:
The police are asleep,
Crime is rampant.

I assume it is in response to two of their townspeople being murdered just in the past week.
A blood feud is going on between two big clans in the town.
The Bedouin want the Israeli police to go into Arab towns and search for and confiscate all the many illegal firearms.

But today this appeared in The Times of Israel:

Arab Israeli MKs [Members of Knesset] from the opposition seek to establish a parliamentary investigative committee to examine the presence of illegal weapons in towns and villages across the country.

The coalition strikes down the proposal.

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UPDATE: This article was published about the subject today.
The best take-aways from it:

1. “From my point of view,” says [Arab MK] Tibi, “take the legal weapons too. We don’t want them in our communities. I held a hearing in the Knesset in 2012 in the presence of the prime minister, the interior security minister, bereaved families and 40 Knesset members. It was a historic event. We demanded that they collect the weapons.”

2. Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan: “What happens is that the police, when they go into an Arab village or town, need a much bigger force than when they go into a Jewish town. It’s very easy to blame the police and say that the illegal weapons in the Arab sector are because of them. But the problem has existed since the establishment of the state. A lot of Israeli Arabs want to have weapons for self-defense. Others want them for celebrations and weddings. Others want them for status, or for criminal activity. Each person has their own reason. But because the level of crime and violence is so high, as a result, even more people arm themselves.”

3. Muhammad Haj Daod, a theater actor from Umm al-Fahm:  “In the past, people would get into disputes and it would end with a sulha. People met and made peace. It never got to the point of weapons except for one incident of shooting that everyone remembers from the 1980s. Since we got the police station in Umm al-Fahm, we see the weapons and drugs spreading throughout the city.

“How do I explain it?” he asks. “In the past, families were organized in hamulas. Each hamula [clan] has its leader and he is the one who decides. It was easier to resolve disputes because there weren’t a lot of different people involved in the decision. The decision was up to the head of the entire family. Today, these leaders don’t exist anymore. Today, everyone does whatever they feel like.”

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Jerusalem Marathon tomorrow

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A week ago when we marched with Women Wage Peace to the Knesset under a rainy sky, the finish line for the Jerusalem Marathon was already set up.

Back then on March 4 the road was quite empty and a police officer was just sitting.
But tomorrow the weather will be good and from 6:45 in the morning thousands of marathon runners will be crowding this and many other streets of Jerusalem.
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See marathon prep photos by a Jerusalem blogger at The Real Jerusalem Streets blog.
UPDATE: Video of the run.
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Linking to SkyWatch Friday.
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Towers soar skyward

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Which is taller, which more important for security, which will defend the city better?
The old stronghold of the Citadel with its towering Tower of David?
Or the modern tall antenna on the Kishle police station?

The view is from outside the Old City wall.
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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Greenpeace in action!

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(All photos can be much enlarged. Click once, and then again.)

Greenpeace strikes again!

 I first saw the climbers on Jerusalem's Bridge of Strings at 7:45 this morning.
I hear they started their surprise action already at dawn.

This is not the first time Greenpeace has used Calatrava's bridge to protest.

By 1:30 the hot sun was beating down on the five.
Greenpeace Israel on Facebook is now saying the activists were hanging up there for about TEN hours!

The view from across the street, near Binyanei HaUma, where President Obama would come at 5:00 to give his keynote speech to Israeli students.
The trams kept going over the bridge.
Some of the car drivers on the busy road tooted their encouragement to the protesters.

The police waited below, snapping photos.
Our media was not mentioning the event all day.
Only now, at 7:00 pm,  I hear on the radio that when the climbers finally came down four were arrested.
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Whether you agree with the tactics and ideas of Greenpeace or not, you had to admire the strength, determination, idealism, and courage of these young people up in the air today.
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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Horsefeathers!

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Two police horses were a bit spooked for a second here, near the Citadel.
The horses do well in disturbances on the ground, but I think here they were distracted by the unusual movement above them.
City workers on moving cranes and tall ladders were putting up big decorations for the upcoming Light Festival.

Hey, Camera-Critter folks, what's with the long hair on these horses' fetlocks and lower legs?
I thought only draft horses have such "feather." No?
Please click on the photo to get a closer view.

The horses peacefully passed the old gate of the Tower of David and just beyond, walked through the gate of the old Kishle police station.
Just about everything is old in the wonderful Old City.
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UPDATE Jan. 4, 2014:  Willow solves the mystery and tells us these are Friesian horses!  See her comment below.  Thanks Willow.
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Police horses on a calm walk

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First time for me to see horses inside the Old City walls.
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At least these mounted police were not in riot gear as they are when they ride security for the Palm Sunday procession from the Mount of Olives.
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Maybe they were just headed to the nearby Kishle, around the corner from the Jaffa Gate.
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Now an Israeli police station, it was built in the late 19th century by the Turkish governor as a military garrison (Kishle in Turkish). During Turkish rule and later, during the British and Jordanian periods, the building served as a jail.
The street looks a mess because of infrastructure improvements going on.
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The horses are for Camera-Critters Sunday.
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A dog operator and his dog

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I go fruit-and vegetable-shopping at Jerusalem's open air market once a week, but this was my first time to see a police dog patrolling the shuk.
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The Border Guard policeman saw a pile of bagged refuse on the ground inside a little side alley and took his dog there to sniff around.
The team was so intent on doing their job professionally and quickly that the man did not hear my request for photo permission the first time. I had to run after them and ask again in a louder voice.
He was nice to stop a second and agree to a photo, and even had the dog sit down so I could get the "Police dog" sign.
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I was shocked last week when the Al Qaida of Yemen mailed a concealed bomb to the Chicago synagogue in which I grew up.
Actually the package was addressed to the small congregation of gay Jews which now shares our building by the lake.
Just imagine if the box had arrived and exploded and killed and destroyed. Oi!
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Seeing the police dog sniffing for bombs in the Mahane Yehuda market makes me feel even safer these days.
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I share this dog with Camera-Critters Sunday.
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Chefets chashood

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We in Jerusalem are often delayed and prevented from going where we want to go by the discovery of a suspicious object.
See those bags strapped to the trash bin?

Very soon traffic was at a standstill, backed up for blocks.

Before doubling back and walking a different route, I stood there for a while, soaking up the atmosphere.

The Christian Ethiopian lady in white continued sitting and waiting for her bus. (Ethiopia Street and their church and monastery are right around the corner from HaNeviim Street.)

Soon came two ultra-Orthodox haredi men in black.

Then an Arab family.

We, representing the different populaton "sectors," all stood there, equally curious if something would explode, wondering when the police sappers and/or robot would arrive, and annoyed by the delay and detour.

But no one was afraid.

It is just a common fact of life in Israel, these suspicious objects.
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Mounted police

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During Passover vacation week I was happy to catch sight of two beautiful horses going down Agron, a busy street in Jerusalem.

The trailer was being towed by this police truck.

On the door is written "Mounted Police Unit, Jerusalem District."
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You don't see them out and about very often when the situation is calm.

The photo above and the one below are from Palm Sunday 2007.

The mounted police were part of the security for the throngs of pilgrims walking from the Mount of Olives down to the Old City.
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Mighty nice horses those mounted police have!

And that is my M for ABC Wednesday.

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Special report on today's targil

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FEAR NOT, this is only a PRACTICE DRILL.

At 1:00 today police cordoned off the main street of Jerusalem's Machaneh Yehuda open-air market.
Rescuers, first responders, and police all played their part in responding to a mock mega terrorist attack.

Border Police took stock of the situation where plumes of artificial smoke were rising.

Soon small groups of Border Policemen were patrolling up and down busy Jaffa Road in single file, no doubt searching for more bombs or suicide bombers.

Yasam, the special riot police, zipped in and out.

If you enlarge this photo, you can see the new (what I think are called) ambucycles of Magen David Adom.

They have two wheels in front, one in back.

Then the simulated wounded were evacuated to waiting ambulances.

Fortunately sirens were not blaring continually. This I think contributed to the rather calm, albeit serious, atmosphere.

Notice the medic's ritual fringe. Many of Jerusalem's rescue volunteers are religious.

All the wounded had a big tag hung on them.

These Palestinian men looked on, probably while the fruit and vegetable stalls where they work were closed for the two hours of the drill.

Here comes the fire engine.

Everyone has a vest identifying his or her function--medic, paramedic, etc..

Enter the forensic police.

The Magen David Adom van is called Taran, short for Tachanat eru'a rav nifga'im, meaning "station for an event with multiple casualties."
The man in white is a Zaka volunteer. Zaka is the Hebrew acronym for Disaster Victims Identification. These are the haredi (very Orthodox) men who collect the remains of the dead, no matter how small, for proper burial. They deserve a whole separate post.

The social workers and psychologists were sent in from the Jerusalem Municipality.

Thank God, this time the "dead" were but dummies, with black tape keeping their eyes closed.

Plastic arms and legs were scattered on the pavement.

Folding the Zaka body bags.

At the end of two hours of intense activity, the barricades were slid back. The firemen took down their ladder, and the public was free to resume shopping.

Only at the very end were the photojournalists allowed in, after the exercise was over.

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The police order was for us, we the public, lachzor lashigra, to return to our normal routine.

This is said very often in Israel and is held to be very important in order to keep one's sanity.

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