Saturday, November 27, 2010

Potlucks & Politics

My friend Katie (who is actually a Canadian) organized a Thanksgiving potluck and luckily my stomach decided to cooperate, so I actually got to enjoy some American foods! We had chicken instead of turkey, and the desserts were Israeli (no pumpkin pie!), but otherwise, we had most of the typical Thanksgiving items: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cornbread, veggies, cranberries, and so on. And we had 25-30 people crammed into a tiny 2-person apartment!

The day before Thanksgiving, I ran across an AP article online about the settlement issue in East Jerusalem. I knew that East Jerusalem had been annexed by Israel after the 1967 war, but I didn't realize that no other nation recognized this annexation. Thus, I understand why the Palestinians view the East Jerusalem Jewish neighborhoods as illegal settlements. This is a much more heated issue than the settlements in the West Bank. I have spoken to many Jews here (although they have mostly been the international students at Rothberg) who oppose the occupation and who are in favor of a two-state solution in which Israel would withdraw from settlements in the West Bank. However, not all of the people who support that also support the division of Jerusalem, with East Jerusalem for the capital of the new Palestinian state. I would speculate that most Jews believe that Jerusalem should remain united and under Israeli control, with equal access to the Old City/holy sites. This is also a much more tangible issue for me, and the other international students, because I basically live in one of the so-called "Jewish neighborhoods" of East Jerusalem. The Hebrew University Mount Scopus campus has always been under Israeli control (although it was closed from 1948-1967 due to its location in East Jerusalem), and I assume that the kfar was built on land that originally belonged to Hebrew U. But when I exit through the north gate to go to the store or to catch a bus, I am in French Hill, which is a post-1967 neighborhood. At least, unlike like some of the other "neighborhoods" in East Jerusalem, the French Hill area (from what I have read) was not occupied by Arabs prior to the construction of the neighborhood. (Of course, I have also been told that there was nothing in Israel between the expulsion of the Jews after the Bar Kochba revolt and the Zionist movement that led to Jewish immigration...)

Now I have never been shy about the fact that I am pro-Palestine (although I still maintain that one can be pro-Palestine without being anti-Israel, and presumably, vice versa), and the issue of East Jerusalem is no different. I previously (naively) assumed that East Jerusalem would be granted to Palestine in any two-state solution. Any claim to Jerusalem as the rightful Jewish capital is null when it comes to East Jerusalem. Jerusalem, under Hebrew/Israelite/Jewish control, never included East Jerusalem. At most, the biblical Jerusalem included the modern-day City of David, Temple Mount and Western Hill (essentially, the land directly south of the Temple Mount and the Old City). There is no historical reason why the Palestinians should not be granted East Jerusalem as their capital. Of course, for political reasons, having the Israeli and Palestinian capitals literally on top of each other could be volatile, but the original UN partition of 1948 divided Jerusalem so that both states could have it as their capital.

Of course, it is easy for me to sit here and loudly proclaim into cyberspace that the settlements must go. It doesn't really affect me in the least. Peace (a two-state solution) will not be reached while I am living here, and while I plan to visit Israel in the future, perhaps even for extended stays (say, as I am working on my dissertation), the personal impact on me will be minimal. I am not a resident of a settlement or of an East Jerusalem Jewish neighborhood. There is no threat of me being permanently displaced. So it's easy for me to say that East Jerusalem should go to the Palestinians and that the settlements need to be disbanded ASAP. I don't have to deal with the logistical nightmare that accompanies such a plan - What do you do with all of those now-homeless residents? Is a "simple" house-swap (Palestinian to Israeli and vice versa) feasible? (Are there enough homes on both sides of the equation? Are they of comparable size and worth?) What kind of impact would it have on the economy and on the job situation? (although, from my understanding, many settlers work in Israel, not the West Bank, so that wouldn't be so much an issue for them) How will it affect the children who are ripped from their homes, their schools and their friends? How do the refugees factor into all of this? and so on and so forth.

But the bottom line, I believe, is that regardless of the headaches it might cause in the mean time, a two-state solution is much preferable to the alternative - increasing violence and war. And while I do not have anything to gain or lose in how the land is shuffled around, I have a lot at stake when it comes the need for peace in the Middle East. We all do. This land is holy, and not just because blood is continuously split on it. It is at the heart of the three major religions of the world, and we all deserve safe and equal access to our spiritual homeland. It is not fair for the Jewish people to claim it as their own - nor would it be fair for the Muslims or Christians to do likewise. We all go back to Abraham, and therefore, this land belongs to all of us. While our religions are different, our God is the same. For that reason alone, we must learn how to get along, how to love our neighbor, whether they be Jewish, Muslim or Christian, both here in Israel and in the greater world - but especially here in Israel.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Being Sick Abroad

It goes without saying that it is being sick is no fun, but let me assure you, being sick halfway around the world is about a million times worse.

For over a week now, I have been dealing with an upset stomach. At first, I chalked it up to my normal stomach peculiarities, but as time went on, more and more foods were being added to the "can't eat" list, until only pudding, graham crackers and apples were left. Then on Friday I started getting really lightheaded. Not my normal, "I'm dizzy, I need to sit down" lightheadedness but seeing white, ears ringing about to pass out lightheadedness. Between Friday and Saturday, I think I was awake a total of 8-9 hours each day.

Today, for some bizarre reason, I was absolutely determined to go to class (which was pointless, since I couldn't concentrate and just walking to campus completely wore me out). But my friend Kristin, the wonderful woman that she is, agreed to accompany me to the doctor's, which meant I needed to figure out our international health insurance. So I called the number on the insurance card, and I got this lady who was less than helpful. She wanted to know where I lived, so I told her Hebrew University Mt Scopus campus, or French Hill. She kept asking what neighborhood and I kept telling her French Hill, and she was like, "I can't help you if you don't know the neighborhood." French Hill IS the neighborhood! Luckily, the call dropped and when I called back, I reached a much more polite, much more helpful woman, who gave me the numbers and addresses of the two walk-in 24 hour clinics in Jerusalem. So Kristin and I caught the bus to the closer of the two.

I didn't have to wait very long, but my doctor didn't really know English, which was fun. But I was able to make him understand my symptoms. The official diagnosis was acute gastroenteritis, and he decided that I needed an IV (with a drug of nausea and something else), which was lots of fun because I have horrible veins. The nurse tried a vein in my left hand first, and my vein collapsed so that was painful. Then I remembered that I have a decent (for me) vein on the side of my right hand, so that's what he ended up using. In the middle of the treatment, I managed to accidentally knock the IV loose, so the meds were squirting everywhere and blood was squirting everywhere, and the nurse was like, "I told you to be careful!" And I barely moved! But in the end, it all worked out and I left the clinic with bandages on both of my wrists - to which my Italian roommate said, "it looks like you don't like life!"

I am feeling a little better already and will hopefully continue to improve. Perhaps there will be hummus and falafel again in my future!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Bomb Shelters, Long Walks and Crazy Things

When I was in junior high, we used to joke about the fact that the school had a bomb shelter. For some reason, we thought that was so ridiculous, as if the Cold War was ancient history and our school was so outdated. But here I am, so many years later, literally living in a bomb shelter. That's right. My bedroom doubles as the apartment's bomb shelter, which means that in additional to the regular door, there is a solid steel "blast" door and that in addition to the steel shutters, my window has a solid steel cover. And while we occasionally laugh about the bomb shelters, the fact of the matter is, they are a part of everyday life in Israel. Every public building I have been in has at least one bomb shelter, normally well marked. Even if nothing else in the building is in English, you can be sure the sign(s) for the bomb shelter(s) is.

And the bomb shelters are just one aspect of my everyday reality that is so foreign to how life is "in the States" (you can tell I'm living abroad, when I no longer refer to it as the US or America). The campus and the various dorms (both the kfar, where the international students live, and the dorms for the Israeli students) are all enclosed by gates; one cannot enter without showing a student ID. Once on campus, I have to go through a metal detector and hand my bag over to be inspected. Even a lot of stores in the area require you to show them the contents of your bag before you enter, and every place has some sort of "guard" at the door with a metal detector wand. Random soldiers carrying machine guns are a normal part of my day. And every trip I go on - whether it was the weekend retreat or my bi-weekly archaeology tours - includes an armed guard.

Honestly, all these extra security measures don't make me feel unsafe - nor do they make me feel more safe. I think I just accept them as how life is. Last Shabbat, my friend Kristin and I walked from the German Colony back to the kfar (about 4-5 miles) after synagogue, around 6:30pm, after it was already dark. I never really felt unsafe on the entire walk; in fact, I faced more problems doing the "country club walk" back at Witt with Allie and Keeley. Yet when I tell people here that we walked across Jerusalem, after dark, like that, their reaction is always the same: "You did what?!" followed by "Were you safe?" Back home, I have friends who will go running at 8 or 9pm and no one questions their sanity or their safety. But here, there is the assumption that a nighttime stroll may land you in the hospital - or worse. Why? Because I am living more or less on the Israeli-Palestinian "fault line"? It's not like violence is a normal everyday part of life over here. Yes, I am concerned about what will happen if the peace talks don't resume - and even at the potentiality that a solution will be agreed upon (although the likelihood of that happening while I am here is slim) - but that does not mean that I am constantly looking over my shoulder, afraid someone is going to pull a gun on me.

Is there a possibility that I may become the victim of a terrorist attack? Absolutely. But if I stayed back home, there probably would be just as much chance (if not more) that I would be involved in some horrendous car accident or the like. I can't live my life afraid of what might happen. My passion is the Hebrew Bible, and that means I have to spend time in Israel. Of course, I can name Hebrew Bible scholars who have never been to Israel, and I could probably have a fairly successful career without every having set foot in Israel, but I would not be true to myself nor my understanding of scholarship. I have no desire to live in Israel on a permanent basis, but I do believe that an important part of biblical scholarship involves spending time in the land, and so here I am. People's passions make them do crazy, sometimes even dangerous things, and they do them without thinking twice because to them it is worth it, no matter what the cost. And that is what Israel is for me.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Food Matters

I have been living in Israel for over a month now, and one of the interesting things about living in any foreign country is the food situation. I can easily spend an hour at the store just picking up a handful of items because the labels are in Hebrew, not English (and when they are in English, they are imported and therefore cost twice as much). And to make matters more difficult, our kitchen consists of a sink, a stove top, two counter tops and a refrigerator. No oven, no microwave. My diet consists mainly of pita, hummus, yogurt, apples, crackers, Israeli-brand nutella, sandwiches from the Rothberg cafe, falafel and the occasional pastry. I recently discovered the wonders of adding carrots to my pita and hummus, and this past week I picked up a real luxury: peanut butter. Another thing I really enjoy but probably shouldn't admit ischallah, which is a special type of bread that is used during Shabbat for kiddush (from which Christian Eucharist is derived). Bakeries only sell challah on Fridays, so I'm guessing it is not intended for regular consumption throughout the week, but the past couple of weeks I have bought a challah on Friday, for myself and not for Shabbat dinner. (I also have not been to aShabbat dinner the past couple of weeks, so I didn't have the opportunity to enjoy challahthere.)

Another interesting thing about Israeli cuisine, when one is not preparing one's own food: most food establishments are kosher and therefore are either "meat" or "milk." This is derived from a rather obscure verse about not boiling a kid in its mother's milk (Exodus 23:19). As a result, places either serve dairy products or meat products; both can serve fruit, vegetables, fish, etc (foods that are considered parve, neither "meat" not "milk"). Most cafes and cafeterias on campus are "milk," which is why the sandwiches I eat are tuna or egg and cheese. Meat, in general, is more expensive here because it is kosher. (Actually, I have found that food in general is more expensive here than in Ohio, although the falafel stand is quite cheap [$3-$4] and the sandwiches on campus are generally as cheap or cheaper than making my own.)

Since I am apparently dedicating this entry to the subject of food, I will add that I have acquired a taste for "Camomile & Honey" tea this past week. (I put it in quotes because that is how it is spelled on the package, instead of chamomile) Due to the rather abrupt drop in temperature (almost 20 degrees practically over night), my body revolted and I spent several days dealing with lightheadedness (the joys of living with vasal vagal). I have never liked chamomile tea, but I know it is good if you aren't feeling well (and it was one of the few teas that the school cafe sells that I recognized) so I ended up buying a few cups of it (and then going to the store to buy a few boxes of it, to save money) and after a dozen or so cups of it, I think I might actually like it. Or at least I no longer have to add two packets of sugar and two packets of sweetener to it in order to drink it.

And with that, I shall return to my studying. Shabbat shalom!