Jerusalem Day celebrations will not cover up the city's rot and discrimination
Jerusalem Day is an 'artificial celebration'; Jerusalem is the most ultra-Orthodox city, the most Arab, plagued by negative migration.
By Yossi SaridJerusalem Day is an artificial celebration, which only the religious Zionist movement, settlers, workers on an organized outing, the president, the mayor and Channel 1 bother celebrating in a big way. Most people in Israel don't even know, and don't care, why it even exists.
The poet and Jerusalemite Gilad Meiri, who apparently also loves a different Jerusalem, has called in a poem "to liberate Jerusalem from Jerusalem Day."
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Ultra-Orthodox men. |
| Photo by: Reuters |
Ever since Jerusalem became a city that was compacted together 44 years ago, there have been few reasons to celebrate, and this year, fewer than ever.
Jerusalem 2011 is a sad city pretending to be glad.
Earlier this week, the Central Bureau of Statistics published real data that puts us into a less than party-like mood: Jerusalem is the most ultra-Orthodox city, the most Arab, and plagued by negative migration. Some 8,000 Jerusalemites got fed up with the city over the past year and abandoned it.
The rate of high school students who pass their matriculation exams is low and the city is is not heedful of the children of the poor.
Meanwhile, in the eastern part of the city, more than 1,000 classrooms are lacking; about half the children have no place in a classroom, they are mamzerim.
Even before this, Jerusalem was no bed of roses. But in recent years is has become a bed of thorns.
In the neighborhood of Al-Bustan, at the foot of the City of David, the municipality insists on destroying dozens of inhabited homes to turn a delusional vision into reality - the "Garden of the King."
In the neighborhood of Silwan, has anyone noticed that a "quiet intifada" is under way? Settlers in Beit Yonatan and Wadi Hilweh have been clashing daily with local residents and lives have been lost. Beit Yonatan should have been evacuated long ago according to the High Court of Justice decisions at which Mayor Nir Barkat thumbs his nose and the attorney general neglects.
The police are arresting local leaders, including Jawad Siyam, who established a community center for children and has fallen victim to false complaints by settlers, his neighbors. The police are also arresting minors; just the other day, Haaretz reported on the illegal arrest of a 7-year-old boy.
In the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, Palestinian families continue to be ejected from their homes. The settlement of Simon the Just is expanding with the open and covert support of the state authorities.
On the ruins of the Shepherd Hotel, which the Custodian of Abandoned Property sold to Irving Moskowitz, a new settlement will soon arise. Quite a few celebrations await Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers, Rivlin and his MKs, ahead of next Jerusalem Day, even before September and mainly thereafter. We can start getting ready for the dedication of the Third Temple.
This year has not been good for Jerusalem's good name; it is the year the Holy City became synonymous with a building project called Holyland. Something is rotten in this city, many of whose past and present leaders are on trial for their shenanigans. Annual festivals (and not only in churches ), marathons, new restaurants in the market and other pleasantries on its day of joy will not cover up the rot, the discrimination or the deprivation.
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Israel has many laws which openly discriminate against non-Jews. You can’t call Israel a democracy if it has one law for one person and a different law for his/her neighbor. Check out some of your laws which discriminate in favor of Jewish people and remember that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck - it’s a DUCK!
there are amazing similarities between the israeli and the Palestinian politics. the inevitable question is: Why a Fatah-led government cannot have Hamas in it, like the israeli government has in it the religious parties, Shas, etc.? of course, it can. bib & co. wasted two years and now they have to face a worse situation. The idea that Fatah doesn't want peace because ... it made peace w. Hamas is ridiculous. Hamas would have to abandon violence, of course. And Israel has to understand that they are caught up in a losing game. The only policy that makes sense is REALLY go for peace w. the Palestinians. In September the UN will recognize a Palestinian state, and Israel cannot afford growing isolation and becoming a pariah state.
Capital for 7 years before he went to Jerusalem, To build YERUSHALAIM
it celebrates Kind david's jerusalem.
I have never read Gilad Meiri, and will gladly do so. What I wanted to say is that for us Jews in the diaspora, Jerusalem is the axis mundi, the old tree we revolve around. Sometimes we confuse the Yerushalaim shel ma'ala (the celestial Jerusalem) with the Yerushalaim shel mata (the incarnated, real one). But regardless od all the sad, worrying truths Yossi Sarid lays out well, we need a day to specially focus on our link with Jerusalem. I have done so on Yom Yerushalaim, because of the simple name: Jerusalem Day. I never checked beyond the fact that it was the day when the siege and the prohibition for Jews to pray at the Wall of the Temple, ended in rapture as the IDF soldiers said they reached it. I connect with that moment, and I need my day. I love Jerusalem, I need Jerusalem, maybe Jerusalem need me too. Cancelling this day... Wouldn't it be like forgetting our right arm? And failing to denounce what's wrong... wouldn't it be like having our tongues stuck in our palate?
Yerushalaim for ever For us Jews to remember and never FORGET..(wrote it )But not published. Does it matter,I think not..We know how we feel about OUR ETERNAL HOLY CITY OF KING DAVID
Haredim are the biggest and longest living community in Jerusalem. Makes perfect sense to me.
Israel needs to be the Shining Star of the M.East,and not a part of the dark side. I sincerely wish israelis would free themselves of the medieval practices of orthodox zealots and access an open-minded, beautiful Judaism which is not doomed but full of hope and has a future. Self-destructive imbecilic self-appointed "spiritual" leaders.
Jerusalemities have lived many times in history under occupation and oppression. Only those who have born there and lived there over generations can live through the hardship. If your parents and grandparents have lived in Jerusalem, you finaly come back no matter the circumstances. Right of return is in the heart of the people.
Jerusalem is Israel's soul, Tel Aviv is Israel's personality-physicality, let's not dissociate the two, as Mr. Sarid's soulless report does, let's rather continue to reintegrate, or reunify, the different aspects of Israel's existentiality, to ultimately achieve at-one-ment - and integrity.
Rather than trying to point at the problems, let's solve them pragmatically and optimistically focus on the positive zionism that this incredible day inspires in the heart of hundreds of thousands around the world :)
Israelis just love to complain all day long. It gives them yet another excuse to procrastinate. Get to work people and cut the crap!
Build a fence around Tel-Aviv and give the rest back to the Palestinians ! You have proven that you can't be fair to another people.
And I don't regret it. The article is absolutely right, Jerusalem is a troubled city with the wrong leadership on both the local and national levels. I don't foresee any improvement, so I left - not only Jerusalem, but Israel as well. And in response to Nir in #13: this is not about "hating Jerusalem" - it's about the way Jerusalem is being managed and the way residents are being treated.
the best thing about Jerusalem is the road to tel aviv. leave the fanatism behind and head to the freedom of tel aviv - yehhhhhh
The common theme of the Left, whether in Israel or elsewhere, is always looking at the negative. When last did the Left actually build something instead o working to take down what others have built. Am Yisrael Chai!
Nothing much to celebrate today. There's a still a wall between us and them.
I agree with Yossi Sarid wholeheartedly, and I LIVE in Jerusalem and LOVE Jerusalem. However, I have not and never intend to celebrate Jerusalem Day. For me, it is a holiday for the extreme Israelis, the nationalistic ones. I'd rather celebrate in Jerusalem when everyone is treated equally and there is true peace here.
...jews, christians and muslims. Let´s try that, and see what happens. Well, let me tell you what will happen: war and chaos.
Chaos will be .. The personal correction is: When I chide you on certain subjects (let it be understood that I do not initiate a dialogue with you.i merely show my disapproval by a sort of kick in the shines under the table so to speak okay)? END
You are free to say and do whatever is on your mind (but the Haaretz moderator is the Almighty and Arbitrary God who says Yes and No and what can you do about it?). And what about me? I never think of approval-ratings when I write my comments. I´m not trying to be popular, not here, not there. Shalom.
I think w/o the secular influence, there would've been peace in Israel long ago
The only thing that stops the religious fanatics from creating a bloodbath is the secular and democratic society.
Most Israelis including all my families are all secular..(only one in Tel Aviv is a bit religious NOT OVERLY though
"America has no better friend than israel, and israel has no better friend than America", as the jester said to the king.
I am confused..YES ..by the inability to write a more appropos response that makes sense.Yours is somewhat not only confusing,but more like trying to be controversial in HIDDEN way.. C'mon be honest and say exactly what you really mean..
JERUSALEM IS BEAUTIFUL THAT IS WHY EVERYONE WHO COMES TO ISRAEL VISITS THE CITY JERUSALEM IS THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD AND IT BELONG TO THE JEWS GIVEN TO THEM BY GOD AND NO ONE CAN TAKE IT AWAY IF THE JEWS LOOSE JERUSALEM THE WORLD WILL COME TO AN END. I PROMISE
Titus Flavius had done to Jerusalem what Scipio Africanus had done to Carthage we wouldn't be suffering from any of these problems today. Jerusalem would just be a totally uninhabitable ruin, it lands and waters despoiled by salt.
Are the ambassadors of the foreign countries invited? Maybe not -because some years ago only 5 of them took part (not including US) in. Why -because they did not wanted to celebrate something which was against the UN resolution as to the Unification of Jerusalem which still is against the International law.
44 years ago Jerusalem was reunited. The troops, who captured the part that Jordan had wrenched from Israel 19 years previously, wept. The dilapadated fields west of the Jaffa Gate were tobe rebuilt. The old walled city in its entirety had been to the east of the armistice line, Jordan was able to take control of all the holy places therein, and contrary to the terms of the armistice agreement, Jews were denied access to Jewish holy sites, many of which were desecrated. 34 of the 35 synagogues in the Old City, including the Hurva and the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue, were destroyed over the course of the next 19 years, either razed or used as stables and hen-houses. But the Kotel and the Jewish Quarter (to berebuilt) were back in Jewish hands. Unfortunately, Moshe Dayan, in a momoent of shortsightedness, allowed the Moslem Waqf to control the Temple Mount, whiuch they have desecrated with bulldozers and trenchers, contrary to Israel's rchiaoogical laws.But, over all, Jerusalem today is far,far superior than it was 44 yearsa. It must take willful blindness for HaAretz not to see this.
When you said:Moshe Dayan, in a moment of shortsightedness, allowed the Moslem Waqf to control the Temple Mount. No,more like some foolish Jews Dayan having won the war,decided GRANDIOUSLY to give the KEYS of the Waqf to the Arabs. That is a typical Jewish faux thought process I blame Moshe Dayan for the problem HE created.. Forget Haaretz’s blindness …theirs is the usual purpose blindness perpetrated in the leftist views.
Yossi Sarid a leftist?! Baloney! With his racist comment in black and white, that the trouble with Jerusalem today is that it is "the most ultra-Orthodox city, the most Arab...", and leaving it at that...as if that says it all...Sarid joins Lieberman and Kach together. There is nothing innately bad about being either Orthodox or Arab. Both of them are large percentages of the Israeli democracy. What a racist, Jingo comment...turn of the Crosby, Stills, Yossi. It does not suit you any more.
you completely misread his words. He was not saying that haredim and Arabs make Jerusalem a sad city--rather, he is saying that ignoring, exploiting and abandoning haredim and Arabs is what puts Jerusalem in its sad state. Time to buff up your reading comprehension skills, folks.
...by someone who can only look at the negative. Amazing how distorted this view is of Jerusalem. There is so much beauty here an the author will never realise it. People from all over the workd come here to marvel at Jerusalem.
The "rot" of the "ultra-orthodox" is what makes the city beautiul and holy. Without the Torah it is just another plot of land, but because of the Torah it is the center of the universes and thing of supernal beauty. Ignore the haters, they will go the way of dust like those before them and Judiasm will live on.
Don't knock it! It's the people that make the place. There are very many wonderful, kind, giving people living here, ultraorthodox, religious and not - alike, who care about their fellow Jew. Living here is like living nowhere else in the world. It is priceless. Don't complain - make it better. And more affordable housing, rather than luxury blocks may also help! I love Jerusalem...
"...who care about their fellow Jew..." No doubt, they and you, would like to see the city Palestinian free...you know...the way others tried to do to us. Some of us actually think that there are others on the planet besides the ultra-orthodox Jewish Taliban.
Yossi is a liberal humanist, he loves all people, except, of course Arabs and Haredim who make Jerusalem disgusting for him. Would he say the same about Jaffa...tha it has too many Arabs? Note that he is appealing to some Israelis basest racist instincts in trying to get support to divide the city. Yossi is, at the root of it, a hypocrite.
It seems you would prefer a Jerusalem for muslims, forbidden for jews.
It seems you haven't taken the time to really read and understand the article...Why not give it another go?
"Jerusalem 2011 is a sad city pretending to be glad." Oh no, that's just you. We're very happy here. Every day's a thrill. You want a miserable mourning Jerusalem? Go back 160 years- then you can see the rot you kvetch about. Is your memory that weak? Then go back to 1966, when Jordanian snipers were taking shots at Jews over the border and desecrated holy sites and cemeteries. Sure, we got out problems- but that keeps us busy for the other 364 day of the year. "it is the year the Holy City became synonymous with a building project called Holyland." Who says? You will find not one person who associates the Holyland with Jerusalem. Not one. "Annual festivals...etc.. will not cover up the rot," And not one person claims that they do. Not one. So spend one day and celebrate, and the rest of the year we can fix these problems.
Isaiah 1:27... Jerusalem day is not about nostalgia or pride..but about the call to create a city of Justice, a beacon that gives Glory to the Divine, the G-d of mercy and justice for all.
I was in Jerusalem as a tourist, and I can assure you, there is no connection between beauty and religion (at least not for me)....the City is gorgeous, but ...I felt much better in Nablus
not anymore!
Jerusalem the Golden shines with the gold paint covering man's inhumanity of man to man.