Pictures And Words

So far in Israel I’ve been in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem to visit the Holocaust museum, and to the north a couple of times, which is where Lee’s parents live.

The north is very peaceful and hilly, they call them mountains here, but they’re not, they’re hills. Lee’s parents village, Rakefet, its really beautiful, each house is designed differently, they’re all detatched, with lots of land in between. Lots of nice plants around, a fence around the whole village, with a guard and gate at the entrance. Most of the villages i’ve seen in the north are like this. The first time I went to the north I went to visit Lee’s grandad in his kibutz, for those that don’t know what a kibutz is, its a kinda of self sustaining village, they are becoming less and less self sustaining, but thats the original idea. Everyone eats in a common dining room, all the children of the kibutz live together in a cresh, seeing their parents at weekends. This type of living really worked well, but I recently read that the Israeli government poached the leaders from the best run Kibutz for themselves, hmmm. I ate in the kibutz, and saw a few of the houses there, really beautiful place! Very peaceful community living.

The first time I went to the north I went to visit a village that followed the Erin way of life, basically they believe in some universal energy, and that you are in complete control of your destiny, something like this, very peaceful community living anyway. There was one road around the village, and to get to the houses you had to walk along beautiful pathways in between the houses. There was a communal lake, and lots of benches, and a stream going through the village with fish in ponds along the stream, they really got themeselves a beautiful place to live! Again this village had a fence around it and a guard at a gate on the way in.

These are from a village that are all members of the Erin religion/following. Quiet peaceful and loving type people.

A couple more pictures from the Erin village.

Whilst driving around in the north if we saw a village in the distance I was told if it was arab or not, I don’t exactly know what it means to be an Israeli arab, but they have their own villages and everyone knows it. I got told that there are 2 big arab villages near each other, and the government built a big Jewish retail park in between them, to what gain, I don’t know, but there was some stratergy in it.

The first is of an arab village from afar, the second is from within an arab village (a different one) where we went to eat amazing humous.

This is the retail park that was put inbetween the arab villages, looks just like Crown Point north in Denton, but with more sunshine. Same stuff here thats in England, does that make you feel comfortable or sad?

Everyone talks differently about the arabs, mostly its with a negative tone though. I met one girl who said she doesnt do any business with the arabs at all, as whatever she would buy would have “bad energy”, strange to hear this hippy talk in such a racist statement, “bad energy” indeed! pfft! I bet she still eats humous, the arab dish that all Israelis love!

Next to Lee’s village when I was last there was a joint 60th year anniversary and 25th misgav anniversary (misgav is the county i was in). There was lots of singing and dancing and jokes, all in Hebrew so I didn’t get a lot of it, although lots was explained to me, it was good though, very well done, lots of co-operation and togetherness, something that England is lacking more and more, there were fireworks at the end of the show, the only thing I got pictures of from that night!

Sky flowers at night.

More sky flowers at night.

Behind Lee’s parents house, there are all these things! And I heard a noise! A kitten noise, so I went searching and found a cat with kittens!

I took the mother cat some milk and chicken, and then the next day she had moved! But close to the back door, on a chair for all to see. But the next day she had moved again, to where, I don’t know.

We went for a trip out to see a ful orthodox village, this was like going back to bible times! Apart from when I bought a wall’s ice cream. There were guys in large brimmed hats all over, people walking down the street reading the bible (although i guess in bible times people didnt do that), lots of kids running around with peyots and skull caps, women dressed in grey hiding their hair, and American jewish tourists taking pictures of it all, oh and me taking pictures of it all and of the American tourists. It was a beautiful village, it seemed so far away from everything, like nothing could threaten it (apart from the bus after bus of American tourists).

We went to a full orthodox village, these guys are full orthodox!

Some strange doorway in the orthodox village, not for fat people. And a common graphiti in israel, its some Rabbi’s name.

We also went to the Kineret, the lake where all Israel gets its water from, a lake which unsurprisingly gets smaller and smaller every year. Israel has a big problem with this, among the solutions to their water problem are, de-salinate water from the ocean and buy water from Turkey. They have to do something, anyway, Jesus walked on that lake (or so it appeared, David Copperfield appeared to walk through the great wall of China, doesn’t mean he did it). It was a normal looking lake, few people swimming in it, people fishing as well. Nearby we went to stream coming into the lake where Jesus was supposedly Baptised, there was this big building there with a gift shop selling all sorts of Jesus related crap, including official Jesus crown of thorns! Official because they were made from the same thorny bush that Jesus’s was made from, they were really whoring the whole Jesus thing out. I also saw there a fridge magnet that said Israel with USA squeezed in the middle!! IsrUSAel! Crazy eh!

This is the Kineret from a distance, the lake where Jesus walked on water. And thats one of many famous graves that were along the road we were on. They say the graves are from famous Rabi’s from thousands of years ago, but as Lee’s dad explained (the guy in the picture ) they just say that its from such a such a rabi, and there is no remains at all in the grave. People take day trips to the graves and have barbeques there, there is even a barbeque grill and pit provided! And tables just outside the grave to sit and eat your meat.

And thats the Kineret, where our J.C. walked on water, I had a go, and you know what! I could do it! Turns out it aint so special after all J.C. You got any more tricks up your sleeve? And there’s Lee

And thats my bit from the north, Soon I will go to Jerusalem, I got told its only 50 minutes away! So I don’t know why i’ve not been yet. Tommorow I go to Jaffa, the arab part of Tel Aviv, its very old and is mentioned in the bible, I look forward to seeing this, its just south of the centre of Tel Aviv.