MY PESACH VISIT TO THE GAZA STRIP!!!

the entrance to the jewish settlement bloc in gaza - see how someone has put grafitti over the words in arabic!

my pesach visit to the Gaza Strip

Yesterday I did what i had wanted to do since ive been in israel - i visited the Gaza Strip - home to some 1.2 million arabs. One reason i am excited to be in israel at the moment is because this seems to be a very interesting time politically because of sharon's planned disengagement from gaza.

only about 7,800 jews live in the gaza strip, nearly all in the gush katif settlement bloc, but the disegagement plan has been hugely controversial and the main talking point amongst alot of people over the last few months due to its significance. this would be the first time israel would give away/back (depending on your politics) a large bloc of land conquered in 1967. and the controversy has been heightened because 1. it is unilateral, ie the palestinians have not been involved in the process and have not made any commitments to halt terrorism if we leave gaza; and 2. because there was no referendum on the issue and sharon seems to have done a complete political uturn as he was elected on a platform of not leaving.

so after 3 and a half months of having this as a debate and discussion i finally was able to see what all the fuss was about. i had found out on the internet about a day trip to the region organised by the insanely right-wing pro-settlement organisation Arutz Sheva (who used to run an illegal radio station but it was shut down so now only have a website). i knew there would be lots of anti-disengagement propoganda but i didnt mind. i just wanted to go to the place and see for myself what it is, especially as there doesnt seem much time left to go there with the disengagement slated forjuly 20th although likely to be put off till august 20.

i must make the point that i am still undecided about whether the disengagement is a good or bad thing. on one hand i want peace and there is an argument that if you get the ball rolling it might help. but it just seems so unlikely that leaving the strip could bring peace as it is, as i said above,unilateral, and the area, which houses an estimated 1.2m arabs, is not exactly pro-israel! theres another argument that it is all just a waste of army resources for just 7,800 settlers; but the security argument, that the strip provides a buffer zone from the arabs, seems to make more sense.

who knows if we will really evacuate these people, but one thing is for sure. a large percentage of the people there not only do not want to leave, think it is never going to happen. more on that in a sec.

our trip basically consisted of going into the strip via the kissufim junction, having lunch on a grassy patch in a small settlement called gadid, visiting the settlement of atzmona, having a little flag waving in neve dekalim and then a barbequw in nitzarim - the most isolated and dangerous jewish yishuv in all israel!

it was, i must admit, fascinating to see the place. it really is just built on sand dunes and i am impressed with these people that they managed to grow stuff and build a life for themselves in this area. nothing i saw managed to convince me either way. some people have this idea that if u see the places it makes a difference. it was just like i expected it to be, and does feel a little dangerous with the arabsurrounding you just a few kilometeres away.

what was funny was that despite that, i didnt really feel overly uncomfortable, maybe something to do with having have lived in efrat for two years when i was in yeshiva i am used to the isolation. the thing was we were supposed to go to this massive rally that was being held prodisengagement that i was interested in seeing but due to time restrictions we didnt go. only while i was munching on my burgers and sausages at the barbeque we had in nitzarim (the most dangerous place in israel) did i find out that two katushas had been fired at the rally narrowly missing anyone.

we all arrived back safely at about 11.15pm, annoying cos i had missed the liverpool v chelsea game, but it was ok. it turned out it was only 0-0.

ive still not made my mind up on the disengagement. alot of the people really are some of the craziest ive met yet. but at least i did it and survived! lets see if i can survive the football on saturday evening now! YALLA BETAR!

po

j

me and mike in gush katif! 

the march was full of lots of crazy orange people. we just saw it from the bus! 

we ate matza in gadid! 

the kiddies playground in atzmona 

this was the exhibition in atzmona - it was about the settlent - past, present and future (they seem to think there will be one!) 

houses in neve dekalim, with khan unis in the background 

i decided to stake a claim! 

mike and chava are also zionists! 

theyre still building - 10 weeks before the expected disengagement! 

chol hamoed in herzaliya with CHARLIE

thank you to mr and mrs daniels for buying me lunch! great place the dan accadia herzaliya, although u do feel like ur in bournemouth or london!

charlie wanted a mention, i think he thinks this is some world leading website when in fact i have a feeling its just the same 10 people who have looked at it.

yesterday was the first day of chol hamoed pesach. which is strange cos it was still yom tov in london. its lovely in israel over pesach. really nice. makes you realise how cool it is to have a jewish state where jewish festivals are national holidays whether ur religious or not.

my friend from london charlie is staying at the dan accadia hotel in herzaliya with his family for pesach so i went up to chill with him at the hotel. its a great place. really nice and spacious and good quality. so many of the hotels in israel are a bit crappy, mostly cos they havent had many guests over the last 4 years since the start of the intifada. but this one is kept quality. it was a funny place, nothing else in the area apart from the new shopping centre and it was full of english people. we had a nice relaxed time and a good chatabout where his lifes going. even got to watch some snooker together on eurosport.

in the evening i had to go back through tel aviv so i met up with my cousin yael and went to the cinema in dizengoff centre. saw a nice and relaxed film - in good company with dennis quaid.

we went to the marina in herzaliya. lovely boats 

charlie, at a crossroads! (its a metaphor, for those who get it!) 

on our way to metulla me and mike found the betar bus in the arlozorov bus station in tel aviv. had to get a photo. classic huh!

ice hockey (- u what??)

since the first week ive been here, every few weeks or so my room mate mike would dissapear off to matula in the north of the country to play ice hockey.

for a rediculous reason there is only one ice rink in israel and it is in the most irrelevent difficult to get to place in the country. mikes team, lod are the best team in the (5 or 6 teaM) LEAGUE.

so last week, the last game of the season i went up to metula to watch a game. ive never seen ice hockey before but what a crazy game. there was this one guy who played for the opposition team, metula, whos american and is on a year off before university. as it was the last game about 40 of his mates came to watch him so he played up to crowd and started loads of fights. which apparently is normal in hockey.

what wasnt normal was at the start of the third period (theres 3 20 minute periods) avishai, mikes american mate who we stayed at after the game, got hit in the hand. he chased after the bloke, tried to beat him up and started a massive bundle. when the ref tried to get involved and stop the fight one of the metula guys hit him over the head with his hockey stick and cut his head open forcing him to stop the game (see pic above).

afterwards we all went to the local pizza place and drank the traditional league clinching celebratory drinks of five bottles of vodka and alitre of wiskey. good fun had by all.

ANYWAY.
i know ive been a bit rubbish with the blog.

wanted to say to u all CHAG SAMEACH< happy pesach.
first time ive ever been out of the uk and away from my family for pesach.
im going to ivor and miriam for seder tonight. ill write all about it tommorrow.
j

he really plays ice hockey! 

mike avishai and patrick - the only americans in the side. all the rest are russians 

the russians like drinking vodka outside the pizza place after a big win. not so rare considering they win every game! 

me and mike, before we drank lots and lots of vodka 

the russians did this crazy thing where they put all the team's medals in a glass, filled it with vodka and passed it round 

DOWN IT 

avishai took his turn 

me and ivan. something was funny. 

amhiras going back to bombay.

lex amhira tali and karen in oconnells

shes indian and shes jewish!

ahmiras leaving drinks.shes going back to bombay on sunday

IM FAMOUS!!!!!!!

finally my dream has come true. i am a true betar jerusalem fan. the team has a fan website and if you look carefully at the pics below you may be able to find me.

go to http://www.fcbj.net/gallery2.php?id=300&rowNum=16&pageNum=3 for more pics of the fans and the game.

the pic was taken last night at the betar vs hapoel tel aviv game i went to in blumfield stadium tel aviv. we drew 1-1. doesnt look like were going to finish third which is annoying cos me and mike wouldve gone to europe for a uefa cup game!

i had a really nice weekend. i went to see my room mate mike play ice hockey on friday night and then went to ramon and susan for shabbat lunch on saturday which was lovely. i hadnt seen them for ages, and then betar sat night.

more pics from the hockey and sinai to come soon.
love u all.
j
ps happy pesach. hows all the prepartion going? were cleaning the kitchen and house tommorrow cos mikes having his gibush (army training selection test thingy) on wed and thursday. his girlfriends family are coming on thursday and were making a surprise slap up dinner for them at our place.

wheres jeremy?