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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ENTRY into Jewish adulthood

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Entry into Jewish adulthood--a neighbor's bar mitzvah ceremony.
At the synagogue in the moshav/village where I used to live, in the Jerusalem Hills.

City Daily Photo bloggers' Theme Day today is about "entry."
See what entries others posted at the group's website.

Wikipedia explains:

According to Jewish law, when Jewish boys become 13 years old, they become accountable for their actions and become a bar mitzvah. A girl becomes a bat mitzvah at the age of 12. Most non-Orthodox Jews celebrate a girl's bat mitzvah in the same way as a boy's bar mitzvah.
 Prior to reaching bar or bat mitzvah, the child's parents hold the responsibility for the child's actions. After this age, the boys and girls bear their own responsibility for Jewish ritual law, tradition, and ethics, and are able to participate in all areas of Jewish community life. Traditionally, the father of the bar mitzvah gives thanks to God that he is no longer punished for the child's sins (Genesis Rabba, Toldot 23:11).
In addition to being considered accountable for their actions from a religious perspective, b'nai mitzvah may be counted towards a minyan (prayer quorum) and may lead prayer and other religious services in the family and the community.

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Bees: life on the edge

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It's hot and dry the whole summer long in Israel and even bees have to search for a drink.
It might take some enlarging of the photo, but here's at least four bees quenching their thirst at my neighbors' birdbath.
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Be careful little critters, don't fall in and drown!
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The two on the right are making tiny shadows and one is even making ripple-shadows.

Hmm, this might be a triple-meme photo opp, for Camera Critters, Shadow Shot Sunday, and Summer Stock Sunday.
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P.S. Shadow Shot visitors, check out an earlier fun post with people shadows and our new tram.
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UPDATE: I should have quoted the 23rd Psalm to title this post:
"He leadeth me beside the still waters."
Like maybe deer, bees prefer to drink from quiet water. My neighbors have to turn off the fountain element of the birdbath just for the bees.
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Down to earth again

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OK, the holidays are over.
It's back to everyday life.
So for That's My World and ABC Wednesday O-day, let's observe my ecology-minded neighbor's new OUTHOUSE.
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Actually, it is a really nice composting toilet.
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All you have to do is sprinkle some sawdust.
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When the container is ready to be emptied, it can be pulled out through this little back door.
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I should add that the neighbor also has a normal house with conventional plumbing, but this little outhouse is good for visitors.
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It is clean and OK-smelling, nothing like the pit latrines I've seen in my travels. This one is not a pit at all.
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But speaking of pits, I just have to say this well-known expression from the Talmud:
in Aramaic it is מאגרא רמא לבירא עמיקתא Me-igara rama lebeyra amiqta.
Literally:
From a high rooftop to a deep pit.
Meaning:
A person lost his former greatness and got into deep, uh . . . , trouble.
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Party time reflections

All is ready for a birthday party

at my neighbor's newly redone mud brick structure.

Lots of shiny surfaces for James' Weekend Reflections.

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Shabbat shalom to all.

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Clouds, winds of change

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Cumulous clouds for ABC Wednesday.
There is a big heavy cloud over the Middle East.

Here it has rained since Saturday; it is wet and windy and at night it goes down to almost freezing in the Jerusalem Hills.
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The sun is down now and I wonder how cold it is for the over one million people right now in Tahrir Square. Cairo is only 264 miles from here.
Let's all hope for the best, for Egypt and for Israel.
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What's behind the truth window?

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You can easily see the lamps reflected for James' "Weekend Reflections."
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But you might have to enlarge the picture to see what is behind the truth window.
It is straw!
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We saw in this older post how the neighbors mixed straw, clay, sand, and water to make mud bricks.
The sustainability-minded family reinforced and repurposed an old shed with these new handmade mud bricks.
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Wild weather in the Middle East

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"Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
. . . "
The events in Israel over the past twelve days sometimes made me think of Robert Frost's poem. A few days after our forest fire inferno, winter suddenly struck the country with snow, rain, gale force winds, and a sandstorm.
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The photo, albeit from December 2008, shows how weird and dark the sun gets over Jerusalem during a duststorm.
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From Friday until today I shut myself into the house, but still the fine particles entered.
They entered my eyes and nose and throat. Oi .
Jerusalem suffered with ten times the "legal" amount of air pollution until this morning when some rain washed our air.
Ahh, so nice to breathe again.
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The 9-meter waves battered the Mediterranean coast and did great damage.
A Turkish ship sank 8 miles from Ashdod Port, with all crew members rescued.
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Everything that could blow over did so. Huge damage to agriculture. And the hothouse flowers meant for Europe's Christmas markets.
Thousands of trees down. On people inside their cars, and on electric wires. Thousands of residents are still without electricity.
Trees on the railroad tracks stopped the trains. No visibility closed airports for a while. The waves were too dangerous for ships to dock. Winds gusting to 110 km/h were too much for cars on the highways.
Flooding of streets and houses.
Schools were closed in the northern Golan Heights due to snow.
Mt. Hermon already has 120 cm of snow.
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Land mines from previous wars in the Golan Heights have washed down or shifted positions.
Future hikers are warned to stay on marked trails.
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The homeless (2000 known to the welfare authorities and ~ 1000 not known) are being offered shelter and hot meals and showers to save them from the freezing cold.
Jerusalem, the coldest city, is down to 7-8 degrees C (about 45 F).
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But our neighbors are also suffering. We are all in this together!
The low pressure zone and SW winds blew sand from Egypt and wild weather into Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. In Egypt 18 are dead from the storm.
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May we all make it through this latest trial, and soon.
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Such is our world in the Middle East, these last few days, for That's My World Tuesday.
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Hand in hand

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There's a new dog in the neighborhood.
He is just a puppy but look at the size of his paw!
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I think he's supposed to be a guard dog but he often comes out and follows me into the woods and then follows me back to my home again, even when I tell him firmly "Lech habayita! Go home!"
He just wants to play and loves to shake hands.
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This puppy is for today's Camera-Critters Sunday.
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Bench for catnaps

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The neighborhood stray cats have taken over the young neighbors' little sitting corner.

It is too hot for the kitties to do much else than snooze in the shade.
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A peaceful picture for Camera-Critter Sunday.
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Sabras--the taste of summer

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It's sabra season!

I tried to get a picture of a big sabra cactus through the bus window and ended up with a bonus--a reflection for James' Weekend Reflections.
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My neighbor was outside on his steps peeling the prickly pears, so I went over to watch and to sample some sabras.
He himself is a Sabra (a native-born Israeli), so since childhood he has known how to pick and peel this fruit of the cactus.

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I asked to learn his secrets of painless preparation of the fruit:

1. Pick them at 5:oo in the morning when the thorns are still soft from the dew.

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2. Put them on the ground, turn on the garden hose, and brush them with a stiff broom.

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3. You can then also soak them in water for a further softening of the remaining stickers.

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4. Hold the sabra in one protected hand, as illustrated.

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5. Cut off the top and bottom of the fruit.

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6. Make a cut from top to bottom.

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7. Reach in and pull out the slippery bare fruit with your bare hand.

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8. Bless and eat (and pray that no barb gets stuck in your finger, or worse yet, your tongue).

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Seeing double

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There are three workers here. If, after enlarging the photo, you see ~~ double ~~, it is not because my camera was shaking. Honest.
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I think it is the special new window the neighbor put in.
Double glass or something, for good insulation?

It's good for James' "Weekend Reflections."

The view from inside the windows of the shed that is being worked on.

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The reflected workmen you saw were on the roof of a new addition to the house of my neighbors' neighbors.

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So many moshav members here in the village are improving or enlarging their property.

All except my landlord, that is.

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Seder Tu BiShvat

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Shabbat shalom and happy Tu BiShvat.

It is the 15th day of Shvat. Today is the New Year for Trees.
I just came back from dinner at the neighbors' house. My first time ever to attend a seder Tu BiShvat.

It is modeled on the Passover seder, complete with the four cups of wine.

But the subject matter is nature and the fruits of the Land of Israel.
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I am too groggy now to explain any more. Hopefully tomorrow morning . . .

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Meanwhile, say happy birthday to your favorite tree!

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Waiting to become

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For That's My World, let's go just across the street in my moshav (village) and see what the neighbors are up to.

Stones waiting to become something useful and beautiful.

Slowly they came together . . .

and became a sturdy beautiful stone wall.

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Laying a new foundation

Abba Moses asked Abba Silvanus,

"Can a man lay a new foundation every day?"

The old man said,

"If he works hard, he can lay a new foundation at every moment."

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From the wisdom of the Desert Fathers

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A future peace symbol

Meet my new next door neighbor!

It is one of those special white pigeons with feathers all down their legs.
Click and enlarge the photo to see the funny stockings.

I can't find the name in English. In Hebrew, they are something like Timberim, if I heard correctly.

My human neighbor (who is shy and shall remain headless here) is very inventive at building things and he loves animals. He built a dovecot, put it on his roof, bought a few pairs of the fancy white doves, added some nesting boxes, and now the babies hatched!

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The adult birds are let out to fly every afternoon. A beautiful sight as they circle around in a group.

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Come visit some of the animals of a hundred bloggers over at Camera-Critter Sunday.

Boys busting bulk bags

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Remember the family across the street? The ones who brought in bales of straw, who later began making bricks of mud?

(Can you tell B is the letter of the day for ABC Wednesday?)

Now they brought a truckload of bales!

Is that the right English word? In Hebrew we call them balot.

The driver worked the hydraulics while young neighbor boy hooked the chains to the bale handles.

Big brother started bustin' those bulk bags with a knife!

Slit and run!

Oi, be careful, boys!

Those bags can hold 1500 kg.

Beginning to rake the piles flat was the last stage for that evening.

Who knows what will be next??

Sun baked

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Remember those mysterious stacks of straw bales across the street that we all surmised about in last month's post?
And remember the garden spiral my neighbors' nice young volunteer created a year ago?
Well, he came back again for a few days--to use some of the straw!

A new mystery! Why are they making mud bricks??

On the huge bale of clay is written Mamshit. That's a place down in the Negev desert. I know it as an ancient Nabatean city, but apparently there is some clay mining going on too.

The neighbor's sons were having fun packing mud into the wooden frames.

Do enlarge this photo to imagine the squishy feeling of the mixture.

Apparently the only thing lacking was donkey manure, the best for giving the bricks added strength.

The mud bricks will have to dry in the sun for several weeks now.

. . . then what ?

The moon rises for all

Come, have a look at the evening sky.
Long before we get to see the moon, our neighbors over on top of the next mountain see it rising. The neighbors are a moshav (village) and an IDF base. They see the moon come up over several Arab villages which are just over the Green Line (the 1967 border), in the West Bank already.

I make just a quarter turn to the east and there is Jerusalem twinkling on the horizon across the valley!

Happy full moon viewing to all of you tonight!

Sky, moon, and mysterious straw bales

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Something new was added to my local sky and usual moon for today's SkyWatch Friday.
Where did all these straw bales come from?! This mountain moshav/village has no big livestock, only laying hens.

The bales suddenly appeared in back of my neighbors' house, across the street.

This is the new neighbor who is into permaculture, organic farming, raw food, etc. Click here to see the beautiful garden spiral they made last year.

You think they might build a straw bale house?!

Maybe we (well, I mean they) will have a herd of donkeys?! I wish!!

Or maybe the bales will just become long benches to sit on . . .

I'll keep you informed.

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