"White Night," West Bank pt. II, Jerusalem (cont'd)

Last Thursday was White Night (official motto: "not as racist as it sounds"). The cultural branch of the U.N. has dubbed TA the "white city," and in Hebrew, a "white night" is an all-nighter. Hence, White Night, an annual event in Tel Aviv where bands perform on the beach until 8 AM, ppl drink and dance in the streets (correlated), and restaurants stay open 24. Taking advantage of the White Night specials, Simon, me, and our friend Aitai hit up an Israeli chocolate restaurant called "Max Brenners." There's one in NYC. If you ever frequent it, be prepared: it has the most decadent, indulgent, and fantastical "food" I've ever seen. Our meal included a chocolate milkshake, chocolate fondu, and chocolate pizza. Obscene. Aitai actually got what I can only describe as "chocolate drunk." He could barely walk home. The next day Simone had a "chocolate hangover." I felt like I was in Candyland.

This past weekend was a little more real. I went to Jerusalem for a tour with Ir-Amim, an organizations focusing on civil rights in East (Arab) Jerusalem. Among the interesting lessons learned is the fact that some "Settlers" are of the non-ideological variety to the extent that they don't even know they're living in a Settlement (!). They just know it's cheap to live there, and that prices in Jerusalem are NYC-status. It's as if Brooklyn was a contested political territory at the center of an ongoing inter-ethnic struggle. Ok, bad example.

I also attended a protest in Sheikh Jarrah. Standing on one foot, the issue is essentially this: certain houses in Sheikh Jarrah have changed hands due to various wars, but since 1967 they've mostly been inhabited by Arabs. Now, in the past couple of years or so, Jews have been showing up with deeds from pre-1948 and demanding their houses back. The houses, crucially, are in East Jerusalem, which many people believe will be part of a future Palestinian state, and in any event are on the other side of the Green Line (the armistice line defining Israel's borders post-the 1948 War of Independence).
The Israeli government has honored many of these deeds, resulting in Arabs being evicted and replaced with Jews (overwhelming, religious). Not so cool. Every Friday a group consisting mostly of Jewish Israelis and foreigners show up to protest. I apparently picked the "right" one to go to: 25 people were arrested and there was plenty of "action," by which I mean police violence. But that's what a demonstration is about. A Spanish Professor I was with called it choreography, which I think is apt. The police let them yell for awhile, then they push em back. Repeat as desired.

Saturday I went to the West Bank, which I wasn't planning to do. Consequently, I didn't have my passport with me when I got to the checkpoint. One Maryland driver's license and a Harvard ID later, I was in. We met with Palestinian villagers who don't have access to water and can't build-up any infrastructure because the Israeli gov applies Ottoman property laws to their villages (really, at least that's what they told us).

And while it's true that Arab residents of East Jerusalem are denied many municipal services, it's also true that they don't vote in the Jerusalem elections. The conventional wisdom is that voting would be recognizing the authority of the Israeli government. I heard it put this way: Jerusalem Arabs are looked upon as traitors by Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza, while on the other hand are seen by Israelis as being no different from the Arabs in those places. I think there was even a Palestinian journalist who was going to run for mayor of Jerusalem until the Palestinian Authority told him not to run and some Palestinian terrorists bombed his car. But that needs a fact-check. Bottom line: democratic ideals 0, socio-cultural pressure 1.

Besides all that stuff, I stayed with my friend Shelby from JDS, who has a beautiful house (I took an "Arab Bus" to get there since Jewish buses don't run on Shabbat, a first for me) with a magical view of Jerusalem. In spite of/because of the city's frustrations, anger, and turmoil, it remains one of the most beautiful cities in the world, to me.