The Real Israel

Hi all,
Tali, Sapeer and I have been very busy over the last few weeks, with barely a moment to breath in between Pesach chofesh, Yom Hashoah, Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut, a tiyul day to Hebron, northern tiyul, the soon approaching end of Machon and a few Habo seminars too! I hope you enjoy the selected photos that follow, which show some of the highlights of the last couple of weeks for us.
    Sarah

A few girls and I started our Pesach chofesh on Kibbutz Sde Boker. We were wondering around the nature reserve there when we came across a whole group of ibexes. It was amazing to see them so close up!

We also did a hike in the Sde Boker region, which was a tough day of about 25km, with stunning scenery the whole way along. After a very early start - out the door by 6.30am - we first walked to this beautiful spring. Later on in the day we arrived at its source higher up in the mountains too.

Some of the cliff faces erode to form the strangest shapes, and as we headed home after many hours of walking, we came across this very weird mushroom-esque cliff. The drop below was lots of different colours too, which was breathtakingly beautiful.

I then headed up to Haifa to see Barak, whose family was visiting Israel. This sunset photo was taken from the bus as I drove up to meet him.

I then went camping on Nitzanim Beach for a few days with the gorgeous Sapeer and Tali. It was so much fun spending time together and just chilling out. I also did several long walks, including one day where I ended up walking all the way to Ashkelon along the shore edge! This place was also great, but in a completely different way to Haifa or Sde Boker. The pure white sand and brightly coloured sea shells were in sharp contrast to the lush North and hot, dry South. However, it was a welcome one and I will definitely be there again!

After Nitzanim Beach, I took a midnight bus ride to Eilat, which was...fun. Not. I ended up spending about four and a half hours in bus stops, but the end result was arriving just in time for dawn in the most Southern part of Israel. In the foreground of this photo is the Red Sea, while the nightlife is still in full tilt at 5am in the middle, and the Eilat mountains are in the background. The Egyptian border can be found in this mountain range, and is nothing more than a fence of number 8 wire and a few pickets. I guess the peace treaty was much more solid then...

The famous Eilat - snorkelling, swimming, sunburn, shopping. It can all be done here for the right price! I loved camping with about half of our Habo Machon group (about 10 people) but found the way that everything was catered towards tourists very unappealing and a bit fake.

During a recent Yom Yisrael, we travelled to Hebron and Bethlehem on a bulletproof and stoneproof bus. It was a very eye opening experience, not just in terms of seeing the situation in these places, but also in meeting the people and trying to understand why they voluntarily gave up many freedoms to live there.

Tomb of the Patriachs; supposedly the second most precious site to Jews, this was the crown jewel of Hebron. Inside the cave that Abraham bought were these big bolted doors, behind which the floor is supposed to cover the buried tombs of our foremothers and forefathers. No excavations have ever been done here out of respect, but there is no reason to doubt these claims either - Jews have almost always lived here, and a huge synagogue is built around it. This door lead to my namesake's tomb.

Because of the Muslim rule in the area, the tomb was not controlled by Jews for a while. The beautiful renovations still exist - gold gilted Arabic writing all over the walls stands right next to Hebrew dedications.

The images of Jewish power that graffitied the abandoned streets of  Hebron (it is normally too dangerous to walk along the roads) were very confronting to me. Signs of the conflict in the region were everywhere, and it was very saddening to see that there seemed to be such extreme opinions in such large - or maybe just visible - numbers. The recent Nakba Day events have of course enlightened the other side of the extreme opinions in a very visible way for me too, but that doesn't make this image, that is so reminiscent of Black Power, any more acceptable.

Another crazy moment in Hebron, was going to the Yeshiva there. Once they decide to learn there, these chaps can't leave the complex for the many years of their studying without a gun or a bulletproof car, as it is too dangerous. Nonetheless, religious men from around the country come to this prestigious academy, where I guess they have no excuses, and so the 12 hours of minimum daily study is renowned for how intellectual it is. The little kids - complete with payot and army helmets - are some of the children of the men who live there. The bicycle meant that I couldn't help but compare these kids to myself at their age, and realise what a different reality they live in.

Yom Haatmaut in Tel Aviv was on an incomprehensibly large scale - I think every person in the country turned up there to party! The entire of Rabin Square was turned into a massive open-air concert, while Florentine became a mosh pit of DJ's and street partyers.

This road sign made my day - potentially a famous relative of mine! And he must have been pretty significant - a whole kikar has been named after him!

Northern Tiyul was this last week, and I think  we spent the entire time simply dumbstruck at the beauty of the North. This photo is of the Israel Valley, which was entirely swampland before the original pioneers drained it. Now you can clearly see how fertile it is.

One of the hikes we did involved travelling into this valley. Another involved abseiling through a waterfall, which was so much fun, but definitely not camera-friendly!

A crazy Sephardi shul in Tzfat. As you can see, nothing matched and everything is earthquake proof. Take a look at the billions of Eternal Lights in the corners of the photos, they look just like some ones in a photo further down...

The poignant site where a tragic army helicopter accident took place, and 73 people died instantly. I thought it raised a lot of questions about who is a hero, and war in general

We also saw Lebanon and Syria from the Bental Overview. Apart from being a tourist site, the place is also a mostly unused army base, which is there in case of wars. The scary army men are just metal cutouts!

I also sneakily visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (being the great Jew I am :P). The decor - in an attempt to please all the Christian denominations from around the world - has a little bit of everything, as you can see in this photo. The massive wall has a murial on it that is very Egyptian in its story telling fashion, while the lights are extremely reminiscent of a Sephardi Ner Tamid (like the photo before). Meanwhile, the mezzanine floor on top was still half  Crusader and half Byzantine.

While the beautiful artwork that covered the massive complex didn't help me feel any more comfortable, it was certainly very beautiful. It was certainly some of the most stunning art I have seen this year.

I think this slab of rock was where they laid the dead Jesus. People were prostrating themselves around it and kissing it. While this was a completely foreign concept to me, the level of devotion is - I suppose - similar to that seen by the Kotel when observant Jews pray.

He's watching you...there were hundreds of statues everywhere. This was the domed roof of one of the mini-churches in the big church, where a painting of Jesus stared down very judgementally.

This photo is just for my dad, who wants to put an eye in our stream that peers at people crossing the stream to come to our house. In another of the mini-churches, there was this massive Hindu-like sun, with a giant eye in the centre. Sorry Dad, someone else did it first...

Finally, summer is coming in the picturesque city of Jerusalem. The weather is boiling during the day, and all the gardens have bloomed. It is so pretty at the moment!