Israel Matzav

Thursday, August 29, 2013

A seasonal photo...

The image is from Tashlich (the prayer where we symbolically throw our sins into a body of water - except in Jerusalem where we mostly use drain pipes) in 1926 in Tel Aviv (Hat Tip: Yisrael Medad).

Labels: Rosh HaShanna, Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv beach

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Breaking: Rocket hits the beach in Tel Aviv

The sirens went off in Tel Aviv this evening for the first time since the Gulf War in 1991. Two explosions were heard.

Two explosions were head in Tel Aviv following an air raid siren Thursday evening.

There were no reports of injuries or damage at the time of this report.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad has taken responsibility. At least one of the rockets hit an empty beach.

It's going to be a long night in Gaza. Tel Aviv IS 'my back yeard.' Heh.

Labels: Fajr-5 rockets, Gaza, NotInMyBackYard, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Tel Aviv beach

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

How the 'Palestinians' promote peace

This is how the 'Palestinian Authority' promotes peace (Hat Tip: Ofir Gendelman via Twitter).

The 33-year-old Mohammad Abu Samra, principal of Al Salam Secondary School in the city of Qalqiliya, north of West Bank, was transferred after he organised a picnic for 45 pupils of grade 11 and 12 to the Jafa beach in Israel.

...

He said each student who went on the picnic had to provide a parental approval, saying that they knew that their sons were heading to the beach that would have women. “It is illogical and unfair for me to be punished,” he said.

...

According to Abu Samra, the ministry, in the past, had sent a memo, encouraging schools to organise picnics to the 1948 areas. The Israeli authorities also granted the pupils and their supervisors visit permits, which usually expire at 7pm.

Speaking to Gulf News, Abu Samra said the pupils were all in the age group 17-20 years and it was extremely difficult to control them on the beach. “It is true that in keeping with the regulations of the Ministry of Education, the pupils were not allowed to swim, but how could I have controlled them once they were there?” he said.

...

Abu Samra said at sunset, as the Israeli permits were about to expire, he instructed his pupils to get ready to go back home. However, at the same time, a group of Israeli men and women were preparing a dance floor with a DJ around.

“On our way to the bus, my pupils were attracted to the music and I could not say no to them,” he said. “My pupils started dancing and I also joined them at the beginning to let them have fun,” he said, stressing that their dance had attracted some Israeli men and women to the beach.

“Those Israelis and a child joined us on the dance floor and I could not object or ask them to leave,” he said, adding that the dance lasted for about 10-20 minutes. “It was purely unintentional and that has affected my future,” he said.

Maybe he should have taken them to Gaza's Olympic-sized swimming pool instead. Heh.

Labels: myth of moderate Palestinian, Tel Aviv beach

Sunday, May 20, 2012

60 Minutes' Bob Simon to check out babes on the beach in Tel Aviv

I guess Bob Simon needed a vacation.

Of course, if you go to the link, you will see that the picture they have shows military helicopters flying over the beach.

I can't wait.

UPDATE 4:04 PM BOSTON TIME

Hmmm.

Labels: CBS, Tel Aviv beach

Friday, July 29, 2011

Tel Avivians overcome

It's only been a week since I noted that with the granting of 60,000 tourist visas for 'Palestinians' this summer, Tel Avivians would have to scrounge for 'Palestinians' to 'import' illegally into their city for their own pleasure and for that of the international media. But give Tel Aviv credit. With at least half its denizens living in tent cities to protest the fact that the government isn't handing out free apartments on Bograchov and Dizengoff, the remainder managed to sneak into Judea and Samaria, find 'Palestinians,' smuggle them back into Israel and get them photographed on the beach by an eager New York Times photographer.

Most had never seen the sea before.

The women were Palestinians from the southern part of the West Bank, which is landlocked, and Israel does not allow them in. They risked criminal prosecution, along with the dozen Israeli women who took them to the beach. And that, in fact, was part of the point: to protest what they and their hosts consider unjust laws.

In the grinding rut of Israeli-Palestinian relations — no negotiations, mutual recriminations, growing distance and dehumanization — the illicit trip was a rare event that joined the simplest of pleasures with the most complex of politics. It showed why coexistence here is hard, but also why there are, on both sides, people who refuse to give up on it.

“What we are doing here will not change the situation,” said Hanna Rubinstein, who traveled to Tel Aviv from Haifa to take part. “But it is one more activity to oppose the occupation. One day in the future, people will ask, like they did of the Germans: ‘Did you know?’ And I will be able to say, ‘I knew. And I acted.’ ”

Isn't that great? They even got the Times to publish a quote comparing Israel to Nazi Germany. I'm sure it wasn't too hard.

And you can bet that none of these women would be interested in taking landlocked kids from Jerusalem to the beach in the summer either. What a sickness!

The Palestinian visitors came with complicated histories. In most of their families the men have been locked up at some point. For example, Manal, who had never been to the sea before, is 36, the mother of three and pregnant; five of her brothers are in Israeli prisons, and another was killed when he entered a settler religious academy armed with a knife.

She brought with her an unsurprising stridency. “This is all ours,” she said in Tel Aviv. She did not go home a Zionist, but in the course of the day her views seemed to grow more textured — or less certain — as she found comfort in the company of Israeli women who said that they, too, had a home on this land.

Another visitor lives in a refugee camp with her husband and children. Her husband’s family does not approve of her visits (“ ‘How can you be with the Jews?’ they ask me. ‘Are you a collaborator?’ ”) but she did not hide the relief she felt at leaving her overcrowded camp for a day of friends and fun.

The beach trips — seven so far — have produced some tense moments. An effort to generate interest in a university library fell flat. An invitation to spend the night met with rejection by Palestinian husbands and fathers. Home-cooked Israeli food did not make a big impression. And at a predominantly Jewish beach, a policeman made everyone nervous.

So, on this latest visit, the selected beach was one in Jaffa that is frequented by Israeli Arabs. Nobody noticed the visitors.

I wonder how long it will take before these women manage to bring in a splodeydope. In July 2005, two 'Israeli Arabs' and an Israeli Jew drove a 'Palestinian' suicide bomber to the HaSharon mall in Netanya. The bomber blew himself up, and two years later the people who drove him to the spot were convicted of manslaughter. They claimed they didn't know what they were doing; these women have no such claim. But perhaps they just don't care about that.

One more thing. Speaking of the tent cities....

Dinner was a surprise. Hagit Aharoni, a psychotherapist and the wife of the celebrity chef Yisrael Aharoni, is a member of the organizing group, so the beachgoers dined on the roof of the Aharonis’ home, five floors above stylish Rothschild Boulevard, where hundreds of tents are currently pitched by Israelis angry with the high cost of housing. The guests loved Mr. Aharoni’s cooking. They lighted cigarettes — something they cannot do in public at home — and put on joyous Palestinian music. As the pink sun set over the Mediterranean, they danced with their Israeli friends.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Palestinian suicide bombers, Palestinian tourism, Tel Aviv beach

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Oy vey: Where will the Tel Avivians find 'Palestinians' to bring illegally to the beach?

The government plans to allow some 60,000 'Palestinians' to visit Israel as tourists this summer.

The permits are not usually issued to individuals or families, but mainly to schools and summer camps wishing to take children to visit beaches and mixed Jewish-Arab cities in Israel.

In 2010 28,000 Palestinians were given permits to visit Israel. The permits are granted specifically for touring, as opposed to other permits given for employment, medical treatment or prisoner visitation.

During the first six months of 2011 the IDF's Civil Administration issued 31,000 permits, more than in the whole of last year, and expects to issue at least 20,000 more for the summer holiday.

"We want Palestinians, especially young ones, to see another kind of Israeli, not only soldiers and settlers. Anything that can help them blow off steam and relax. Perhaps instead of demonstrating in September they'll go to the beach," the source said.

Most of the Palestinians visit Arab and mixed towns such as Haifa, Jaffa and Acre, among other things, because of their beaches.

"For many of these youngsters, this is the first visit to the beach," says an Israeli guide of West Bank groups.

Another popular destination is the Ramat Gan Safari, which has prepared Arab-language tours to accommodate the numerous Palestinian visitors.

"They see things differently from Israeli children. They've never seen wild animals like those in the safari," says Adam Yakobi, one of the safari guides who works with Palestinian groups.

"In addition to ecologic explanations, we try to convey a message of coexistence, between animals and human beings, and among people as well. Politics does not come into it. It's a completely different atmosphere and they're engrossed in looking at the animals," he said.

This attitude has caused panic in Tel Aviv, where many of the local denizens get their jollies by smuggling in 'Palestinians' illegally for a day at the beach (go here and watch the video between 5:43 and 8:12). Where will they find their 'Palestinians'? What could go wrong?

Labels: Palestinian tourism, Tel Aviv beach