Birthday memories

Out at a pub in Beer Sheva, Manga, for my bday. Cailin, me and Oded.


Oded enlarged a photo he took on Maui for me. Hanging on my wall.


My roomates filled my room with balloons!


Oded and I on the way to Sinai to celebrate my bday--in a taxi from the Israeli-Egyptian border.


The view from our bungalow: Two Bedouins on camels.


Another view from our bungalow: Sunrise.

What's new in the Negev.

What's been going on lately?

I am sick. Second time in 1 month--everyone around me is sick too! Hanukkah started last night; I lit candles with the family that I work with, where I teach English, and had an excellent sufganya (jelly donut). My birthday is approaching--one week away! I can't believe I'll be 26. I turned in my first paper as a graduate student today! It was on defining a few different concepts (nationalism, ethnicity, homeland, and diaspora) for my Israel-Palestine class.

Aaron's girlfriend made latkes for Hankkah. She is Japanese, and not Jewish, but likes to know about Jewish stuff. Aaron, on the other hand, avoids getting involved with Jewish stuff. You can't blame him though, all he's been exposed to is Hillel at USC and crazy Jews on Maui. Hopefully he'll come to Israel soon and see what it's really like--and not get scared off!

Check out this great pic!

Sunset from my window

Very busy in school, reading about different theories on the decline of the Ottoman empire, preparing a book review about the 1956 Suez Crisis, studying for a quiz in Arabic (we've finally learned all the letters!), and preparing for a class on Mizrachim in Israel (which is distinct from Sepharadim--if you're interested, write me an email after Wednesday's class and we can discuss).

Here's a picture of the sunset on Friday evening from my room, on the 13th floor in Beer Sheva.


Shavua tov.

Colonialism? Miluim! Hummers.

We still don't have internet at our apartment, so it makes it difficult to blog as often as I want. But I try!

Classes are going great. Really interesting so far. Besides Arabic which I really like, I find the class on "Israel/Palestine: Politics of Land and Identity" to be the most interesting. Recently, we have read and discussed about the development of nationalism and colonialism. We will then go on to examine its impact in different countries, specifically Israel/Palestine.

From having a better understanding of Colonialism, this has led me to think: Am I an colonialist for having made aliyah? For supporting Zionism which "evicted" (this word is debatable) and exploited Arabs, from the Balfour Declaration of 1917 until today with Jewish settlements past the Green Line, in occupied territory?

Oded is now doing Miluim; his military reserve duty. I went to go visit him this weekend. He and his fellow platoon are located in Alei Zahav, a Jewish settlement, past the Green Line, and thus technically in the Occupied Territories. He and his fellow soldiers guard this settlement from the surrounding Arab villages. They drive around in Hummers and sit in pillboxes and basically do lots of guarding and (unfortunately) cigarette-smoking.



Or can I see things more simply--I am just a person who likes this country and wanted to be a part of it, and it's not quite as complicated, since I did not come in 1948? There are a lot of angles here, and this is very complicated.

I am not sure what the answer is. I am not some super left-winger that says Zionism is apartheid, but one must recognize, as I realized a few months ago: Jews came to Palestine in the late 1880s and Arabs were definitely here. It was not an empty land.

The hard part is: what is the solution now?

School started last week.

School started last Sunday. Tomorrow is the start of the 2nd week of classes. I have found a job teaching/tutoring English in a private English center. The job pays really well--double minimum wage. It's fun, challenging, and frustrating all at the same time.

As for school: all my classes meet once a week, for 4 hours at a time. This is not necessarily the way the program is designed, but these are the courses I've chosen.

Sunday: Beginning Arabic, taught by an amazing professor. She has her doctorate from Harvard in Semitic languages. She is originally American, made aliyah 4 years ago, knows English, Hebrew, Modern Standard Arabic, Biblical Hebrew, Egyptian Arabic, and is working on her Jerusalem Arabic. (More later on the different "dialects" of Arabic). We learned the beginning of the alphabet: alif, bet, teh, th, wow, and yeh. It seemed really hard at first, but now it's starting to come together.

Monday: The Production of Resistance in Arab Societies and Beyond. This class reminds me of the Mass Communications classes I took when I was a Mass Comm major at Berkeley. In our first meeting, we talked about Foucault (who I absolutely despise from my experience reading him in the worst class I ever took at Cal--Indian History) and listened to an Egyptian resistance song. Half of the classes will be taught by a Palestinian professor, who recently published a book entitled "Palestinian Political Prisoners: Identity and Community." First reading this weekend was about hegemony.

Tuesday: Ottoman State and Society: Themes in History and Historiography. This class is a little dry, but it seems to be important for understanding the Middle East. Reading so far has included Hourani and some methodological texts. Like I said, not the most thrilling, but important.

Wednesday: Israel/Palestine: Politics of Land and Identity. This is what I've been looking forward to. Last week, our class met on the 12th anniversary of Yitzak Rabin's assassination. This topic was the lead in to our discussion. From Rabin's assassination, one sees so many of the problems going on here: religious vs secular, arabs vs israelis, ashkenazim vs sepharadim, and so on. We then went on to talk about the history of how Israel got to be in its current state, since the Second Diaspora.

I listed 3 classes and Arabic. I will be taking a fourth class, a mini course on the Muslim Mediterranean City (3 weeks of 12 hrs per week) at the end of the semester. It's taught by a Harvard professor.

Am leaving soon to take the bus back to Beer Sheva after the weekend in Tel Aviv.

Orientation, Good Vegetables, and Teachers Striking

There were lots of topics that I thought about including here, since my last posting:

-the entrenched, unbearable bureaucracy of every government (and often non-government) office/going to 6 different offices to get one thing done

-my experience signing up for national health insurance in Beer Sheva (more bureaucracy, ladies screaming at each other, people standing too close to me)

-Sunday morning bus ride down to Beer Sheva is a wrestling competition/who can push harder/who has fewer bags and a bigger fun (Sunday is Monday here an all the soldiers return to their bases, mentioned in last post with soldier under luggage rack on train) where I let 2 buses pass me by before a man in a cowboy hat directed all the civilians to a separate bus for priority boarding.

-eating Israeli salad almost every day, always adding bulgarit cheese (a kind of feta I think). So far, my favorite is from Aroma Cafe.

-buying paint to paint my room from Ace in Beer Sheva. I foolishly thought because it's Ace, it will be like an Ace in the US. I was sorely mistaken! 3 hours after entering, I managed to leave with 2 liters of "Sea Calm" and 750 ml of an aubergine color, but not without the cash registers not being able to process international credit cards, lots of screaming between Russian ladies (same as at the clinic where I signed up for health insurance), other customers yelling about whose fault it was that the cash registers had a "communication problem," and so on.

Asides from all these things, most a bit stressful, I am having fun!

We had orientation for the MAPMES (Masters of Arts Program in Middle East Studies) on Wednesday. It was mostly underwhelming. But I think that's a good thing. There are 27 students in the program, although I don't really know anything about any of them since we didn't do any sort of introductions. The professors seemed impressive--PhDs from Harvard, Princeton, etc. We had an hour lesson on how to use electronic journals at the library--most of us were rolling our eyes, as we all learned this as undergrads. There was also a one hour lecture/discussion by an anthro professor on life in Beer Sheva. This was interesting, although nothing new: she mentioned the Israeli concept of personal space (or lack there of), how your neighbors and everyone really care about you and aren't fake like Americans (אכפתיות= consideration/caring), and how fruits and vegetables are amazing here. I laughed a lot. The evening ended with a reception. We mingled, had Ramat Ha'Golan (Golan Heights) wine, some good ravioli, more good vegetables, and that was it. Class starts Sunday, with Arabic at 10 am.

Most University professors are striking and not starting the academic year on Sunday. There is a small chance the strike may not take place. Either way, we were informed that the professors (the same ones who are striking) will be teaching our classes. The logic: because the MA program I am doing is not subsidized by the Ministry of Education (as most students' tuitions are), the tuition we pay goes straight to the University.

Also, most middle and high school teachers are on strike. I found out recently though that religious subjects are continuing to be taught. The explanation: "Rabbi Chaim Druckman, director of the Bnei Akiva state educational network, including dozens of yeshivas and ulpanas, said, 'We are not opposed to the strike, but we have a religious duty to teach Torah.'" Interesting stuff.

Last night I was flipping through Yediot Achronot (the equivalent of USA Today) and I found this article. It's about 5 different women trying to build 5 different tables. It says only one of the was successful. I am not sure if I am more aware of gender relations here (or am I just more aware in general, of all that is new to me?), but this struck me as a bit sexist!

Would this get published in an American paper?

Even better--the writer is a woman.

Lastly, here is the Melissa plant. Oded's mom, Tali, got it for me. I was talking to her about how I had been thinking of changing my name to an Israeli name, and we were discussing the name/word Melissa in Hebrew. And I am lucky that most people are familiar with this herb/spice, and thus my name is not too foreign to most Israelis. I believe it's somewhat similar to mint, although I don't know what it's called exactly in English.

Melissa, pictured below, needs to be in the sun and stay moist at all times.

This last week.

Here are some photos from this last week.

This scene is taking place at the intersection of Shuk Ha'Carmel (an outdoor market where produce, cheap clothing, trinkets, and more are sold), Shenkin St (hip area to live and shop), King George St (similar to Shenkin, more shopping), and Nachalat Binyamin (an outdoor artists fair). People are gathered around watching, as this woman is dancing (a combination of belly dancing and something else that is not clear). Off to the left, not in photo, is a woman singing with some Mizrachi music playing. She was first dancing alone, with a cigarette in hand, and then enticed this gentleman to dance with her. It was quite a scene!

"Sholsha Kushim." Once inside the artists fair, there are all sorts of fun gifts and things to look at. Here is a magnet made of a vintage Israeli chocolate package. The word kush (or kushim in plural) refers to an area in modern-day Sudan. When Israelis use this word, it is in a somewhat derogatory way, although they often say it's not.

"The term Cushite or Cushi (כושי) for black-skinned people was not derogatory or insulting in the Bible, but is so considered in contemporary Israel. In spoken Hebrew it is now usually avoided in favor of "Shahor" (שחור) (Black), in conscious emulation of the American replacement of "Negro" with "Black" after the 1960s. Since most Blacks who are Israeli citizens originate from Ethiopia, often "Ethiopian" (אתיופי) is used." Wikipedia.

From my understanding (and what Wikipedia supports), it's the equivalent of "nigger" in English, but because Israel lacks the history of slavery that the US has, it doesn't stir up quite the same emotion among Israelis as it does among Americans. It seems that referring to Black people as "kushim" is totally acceptable; many adults I've met do it without thinking twice.

A bit hard to decipher: a soldier on a train ride South to Beer Sheva, sleeping on the floor, under a luggage rack. Sunday is the start of the work week in Israel, and thus the morning train rides on Sundays are almost always extremely crowded, with soldiers returning to their bases, students to campus, and others getting back to work after the weekend.

"Why Drink and Drive? When you can smoke and fly?" To end on a light note--another absurd Israeli t-shirt. If you want your own: http://www.tnt@realife.co.il (this link of course makes no sense!)