Israel’s News Blog Magazine: Daily Stories Video and Photos

Today we mark the Holocaust Memorial Day. Last year, the entire country was shaken after watching the documentary film “The Morals of Restitution“ (Musar Hashilumin) . The film, created by the socially-conscious journalists Orly Vilnai Federbush and Guy Meroz, revealed the shameful economic conditions of so many of the holocaust survivors who live in Israel. More than 80,000 Shoah survivors live in atrocious poverty without some of the most basic means such as food and medicine. One survivor told the cameras shockingly that she had to go back to Germany, a place of her persecution, due to Israel’s lack of financial support. The film raised a pointing finger at the Jewish institutions including the Israeli banks, JNF (Jewish National Fund) and the Claims Conference, an organization established for the primary purpose of transferring restitution funds from Germany, for withholding payments of survivors who are literally dying in the meantime.

How could this happen in Israel, a state built by and for Jews? This is the question the audience of this documentary is left with. There was a point where things seemed as they were about to change. People protested and the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made a speech emphasizing the importance of the Holocaust survivors for this country while promising to distribute special funds. It all turned out to be a mere media spectacle – survivors were given a one-time allowance of a few dozen NIS and were left forgotten again.

A year has passed since. In a sequel broadcast last night the journalists returned to further investigate how and whether things have changed. They didn’t. Many of the survivors passed away while others continue in their daily suffering. The sequel shows how the Claims Conference organization has turned into a corrupt money making machine accumulating fortunes for its own benefits and agenda.

In light of this, one must wonder how these people live with themselves. More importantly, how does our society allows this to happen? It is about time that we not only remember but wake up from our apathy and take action to protect these people from death in disgrace. The only positive thing emerging from this issue is the courage of the creators to speak out which highlights the true purpose of journalism.

IDF gets a special gift for Passover: Maya Bouskilla, a famous Israeli pop singer, has enlisted to the IDF at the age of thirty. The Israeli army service is mandatory for every young person at the age of 18, which means that Maya has joined about a decade past enlistment usual age, making her one of the oldest candidates to ever join the army.

Bouskilla evaded serving in the Israeli army, claiming to be religious. However, a few years later, Maya appeared in an advertising campaign for swimsuits that was not exactly modest, putting her religious orientation under serious doubt. The Israeli media passed a harsh critique on this move, which was rightly viewed as the adoption of a double standard. This was definitely not Kosher on her part!

Maya tells she has regretted dodging the army. Did Major General Elazar Sern make the Israeli singer change her mind? Stern has protested last month against the popularity of false claims of religion amongst young women, urging them to join the Israeli forces.

Is it simply a coincidence that Maya joins the army just as she releases her new album? Enlist to the army for public relations? It sounds too radical to me …

I say –if you’re gonna shoot, shoot, don’t sing!
Image: IDF Photo

Exciting news for the Israeli cinema: the first Israeli film festival kicks off in London, Britain, showing recent films that have won international recognition as long with some classic Israeli movies. The film that opens the film festival is an award winning film Noodle, starring Mili Avital, which tells the story of a flight attendant who tries to reunite a Chinese boy with his missing mother.

“This Israeli cinema showcase is an opportunity for cinema-goers to experience some of the best of the great films that Israel has produced over the years and also to find out more about the diverse society that exists behind the daily news headlines”

Israeli cinema has gained world-wide recognition, both from audiences and critics. In the last few years, Israel has produced high quality movies: Walking on Water, Free Zone, Beaufort, to name a few. Remarkably, this year, Israel was nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign film category, and won second place. Indeed, we have reasons to be proud. Even more significantly, Israeli cinema opens a window wide for the world to see what it means to be an Israeli, which is much more than the limiting frame of the Jewish-Arab conflict.

In the midst of cleaning for Pesach—or, as they say, making the house kosher for the holiday—I have been pondering the use of the term kosher as it is being applied to Israel’s “kosher buses”.

The segregation of women on some public transportation in and between religious neighborhoods—literally, sending them to the back of the bus—has caused a outpouring of anger in many circles here and overseas. As always, it falls to the victims themselves to campaign against the infringement of their civil and human rights. Women who do not want to be relegated to the back seats, and who have been humiliated and even attacked for this refusal, are now appealing to Israel’s courts to challenge this arrangement on public buses. They are being supported by overseas groups, including a campaign by the U.S. affiliate of the International Council of Jewish Women, the National Council of Jewish Women, and initial reactions from the judges in these cases agree that there is a clear violation of women’s rights as protected by the law.

For those of us who remember the first acts of the civil rights’ movement in the United States, we are very aware of the significance of segregated buses. We can also attest to the fact that these violations of civil and human rights inevitably lead to violence—in this case, violence specifically targeted against women.

And here is the true point of the “bus situation.” This is not really about seating on buses, or any real attempt to preserve modesty between the sexes. If those behind the segregation of men and women were really acting in the interest of modesty, they should have perhaps followed the example of countries like Mexico who provide women with separate “grope-free” public transportation.

Every woman who has ever used public transportation has experienced sexual harassment of one type or another. The idea of “grope-free” transportation offers separate transportation for women so that they can travel comfortably, without having to fight off the wandering hands and lewd looks of male passengers. Had the “kosher” bus initiators made similar arrangements for the women in their community, I doubt whether there would have been any uproar. In fact, the argument could have been made that there was some forward thinking in this policy, just as there is a strong argument to be made for separate education for boys and girls. (In many research studies, the latter has actually been shown to serve the scholastic and intellectual development of the girls.)

But the point of segregated buses is not to protect the women. Insisting that the women travel at the back of the bus is a symbolic act of patriarchal oppression in a community that feels it has to remind its women of their “proper place.” It has nothing to do with religion, and it is not remotely “kosher.” It is another tactic to enforce the status quo in a community that fears the cracks of gender equality are growing wider.

As we get ready for the Pesach holiday, let us remember that the message of the holiday is freedom. Any perversion of that message is simply not kosher.

Written by Leah A.

The Tel Aviv Cinematheque is showing a new 30-minute comedy called Bombshell about a young Arab female suicide bomber who fails in her terrorist attack.

This is a story of a young female terrorist who plans to blow herself up on an Israeli bus. Her plan takes an unsuspected turn when she is running late and misses the bus. Meanwhile another woman, an Israeli, is on her way to a Leftists’ protest. Her name is Gali Fahima- a parody of Tali Fahima, a radical left-wing activist who has been accused of aiding a well-known terrorist leader Zakaria Zubeidi.

Terrorism and comedy - sounds like a paradox? Not to the creator of the film, Atar Offek: “A good satire, as I intended to make it, does not make fun at the expense of the weak ones but at the expense of the powerful forces in society.” “So here, too, the movie does not ridicule terror victims, it ridicules the terrorists and the (Israeli) army,” says Offek.

The movie satirizes the two sides of the conflict- Jews and Arabs who are both depicted as comical and absurd. The movie trailer introduces the audience to the “IDF absurd theater,” showing a Hamas woman with a gun who tells the viewers: “whoever doesn’t come to watch me is a smoked egg.”

This black comedy offers a different perspective on widely debated Jewish-Arab conflict. The relatively quiet period of the last four years has allowed this movie to pass under the sensitivity radar without raising too much public objection. Yet it managed to invoke considerable attention with its provocative outlook. But will people actually buy tickets to watch it?

Many Israelis look for escapism while others might not be so open to humoring this sensitive subject. An important quality of humor in our lives is that it acts as a great equalizer between people of different groups by bringing them to the same level of entertainment for the masses. Perhaps this is the recipe for making the enemy more of a human being and for normalizing life in the shadows of a violent conflict. After all, the basis of comedy is people and their human faults.

Tacking such a sensitive issue with black humor may seem out of line. But what is the purpose of art if not to provoke, shock and give a unique and unexpected perspective on life? The view taken in this film offers an attitude we may consider adopting though perhaps not to such a radical extent – despite the harsh reality we live in we should not loose sight of our humanity and our brilliant ability to make silly mistakes.

Meet Evan Fallenberg, an American ex-pat living in Israel, who is now becoming discovered on the world Jewish literary scene. Fallenberg, formerly of Cleveland Ohio, has been living in Israel for some years now, and resides in a small suburban community outside the coastal city of Netanya.
A translator by profession, Evan began to make a name for himself by writing superb English translations for Israeli authors who produced literary works only in Hebrew. One such work, entitled A Pigeon and a Boy, by writer Meir Shalev, won the 2007 Jewish National Book Council Award in the U.S.A. for outstanding Jewish fiction. Evan competed his first novel, entitled Light Fell, which was published by Soho Press in January, 2008. Even though the book has just been released, it has already received excellent reviews by such periodicals as Haaretz, The Miami Herald, The Forward, San Francisco Chronicle, and his home town’s Jewish newspaper: The Cleveland Jewish News. He has also been interviewed by La Bloga, one of Latin America’s most popular web blogs.
I had the opportunity to attend a literary group meeting in Tel Aviv recently, and Evan Fallenberg was the guest speaker. He read some excerpts from his novel which is based on a very intimate relationship between two deeply religious men who left their wives and a total of nine children in order to be together. Although this kind of topic is not fully acceptable by many, especially those in the Orthodox Jewish Community in Israel and elsewhere, the sensitivity and poetic manner in which Evan describes the love these two men have for each other, is even more poignant and touching that the recent Academy Award winning film Brokeback Mountain. So well received is this novel, despite its relatively short “exposure” time on the book market, that the word is out that it may be even in the process of being considered for either a film or television miniseries.
Since many of us attending the meeting are aspiring authors, Evan’s advice concerning having works published was taken in enthusiastically by all in attendance. One bit of advice that I picked up on was that in order to have a literary or commercial work published, the writer must first be sure that the book is “ready for publishing”. This includes having others read the finished manuscript and give their opinions on it. Also, it is important that the author feels that the book is really superb, as how can one expect to have a work published if not liked by the one who wrote it?
Light Fell is definitely only the beginning for this very personable guy who appears to have a bright future in the literary world. In addition to his translating and work and novel writing (he is well into writing his next novel already) Evan conducts literary workshops and writing retreats for aspiring authors.

Finally, the voting of the Hollywood Film Arts Academy is in and the Israeli movie Beaufort didn’t win the Oscar. Losing out to another foreign language film entitled The Counter Fitters, many members of the Israeli film arts industry are perhaps a bit disappointed that this movie, based on the experiences of an IDF combat unit in a bunker atop the ancient Lebanese Crusader fortress of Beaufort, didn’t result in Producer David Silver and Director Joseph Cedar mounting the stage for the first time to give their acceptance speech for the coveted award.

Or, was perhaps losing the Oscar really a blessing in disguise?

The film was produced in 2007 following the book written by Ron Leshem, as is based on true experiences of members of some of Israeli’s top Golani Brigade solders who were literally holed up in a number of bunkers along the ten kilometer “security zone” that Israel held onto for nearly 20 years following the 1982 Peace for Galilee operation, otherwise known as the 1st Lebanese War. Their experiences, followed by the decision by then Prime Minister Ehud Barak to pull all Israeli troops out of Lebanon is a move still being criticized by many in Israel to this day, and rejoiced by many others; especially the families of the soldiers who lost many of their comrades during the final months until the pull back in May, 1999.

Since the film’s script does not portray Israel combat soldiers as the strong, courageous soldiers that used to be appropriate metaphors for the Israeli Defense Forces, winning an Academy Award for a portrayal of a top military combat unit cast in an entirely different light, might have only put “salt on the wound” of a still festering sore. This insight is also very plausible in the aftermath of the 2006 Lebanese II war in which Israeli combat units, particularly reserve units were sent into southern Lebanon in the final 48 hours of the war without adequate training and equipment, including basic combat rations and even fresh water.

In a way, in many Israeli peoples’ minds, the fact that this film didn’t win may be better in the long run as present top IDF officers, including the new Chief of Staff, are trying to upgrade and improve the IDF’s image; not only to Israel’s enemies, but to Israeli citizens themselves. Any acclaim over winning an Oscar, despite what it could have done to bolster the local film industry, might wind up doing more harm than good to the country’s national image; an image that Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, repeatedly castigates as being severely weakened in the aftermath of both the 1999 re-engagement and Lebanon II.

This year’s Academy Awards presentation ended with a number of lesser known actors winning the top awards, including best actor and actress. There was some respite for Jews living in Israel and elsewhere when the Cohen brothers won the awards for Best Director and Best Picture. That’s nothing new, as Jews has been very dominant in the Hollywood film industry almost since it’s beginning in the 1920’s.

As for disappointed Israeli actors and film moguls, there’s always next year; and perhaps they can come up with some film subject matter that is a bit less controversial.

Gambling has always been a popular pastime among Israelis. But one game, available “on-line” has turned out to be a “winner” for some and a nightmare for others. Unfortunately, I wound up being one of the “others”. It seemed very simple at first: just register and give all your personal information, including card info, bank account (for depositing all those winnings they hype about) and start playing. Americans who play the game find out quickly that the sporting events offered for playing are not those like the NFL or College football, or that Great American Pastime, baseball. Though some NFL games are occasionally offered, most of the sporting events are games that are popular with Israelis like basketball; and Israeli and European football leagues, otherwise known as soccer. Soccer also includes the new American National League Soccer matches played during the “off season” period for the NFL and NBA.

Ok, I grant you that there are plenty of NBA games to wager on, as well as Euro League baskeball matches, which are in the same league the Israel’s star hoopsters, Maccabee Tel Aviv, play in. For all the “punters” from the UK, there are all their football league matches too, including the Barclays Premier League, and other English, Scottish, and Irish Leagues as well. There are also European and South American football league matches, so nearly everyone can find something to throw their money away on.

Although the web site is noted as a safe site (regarding giving financial information) the ease of being able to “go online” to place a bet, instead of doing it at a local kiosk or sports betting store, and that bets on games played in North America can be placed until nearly midnight, made it very tempting to do this instead to humping it over to the nearby “Pitsuchim” nut and cigarette shop to wager on NBA teams like the Lakers, Nicks, or Celtics.

After more than six months of this business, I finally reached the point that I was ‘upside down’ in regards to my losses over winnings; and although I’m sure that some people do win at this game, they probably are sports mavens who follow all the games intensely both locally and abroad.

Online betting has become a phenomenon that has spread all over the world, and not only involves wagering of sporting matches, but literally all kinds of gambling, including horse racing and Los Vegas types of casino gambling on computerized versions of poker, blackjack, roulette, craps, and of course, the “slots”.

Getting back to my own predicament, I have finally decided to go “off line”; and hopefully, I will think twice next time before walking through the rain and wind to the nut shop, at 10 p.m. at night, to place my 10 or 20 Shekel bet.

More than 42 years after their initial Israel concert was canceled by government authorities, the two remaining members of the original Beatles have been invited to perform here during Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations. Present government officials extended the invitations to Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with an official apology for canceling the original concert which would have taken place when the British pop group was at the height of their international fame.

There appear to be many versions as to why the 1965 concert was canceled at the last moment; but for the most part, the main reasons were that officials were afraid that the screaming fans would cause severe damage to the newly completed Hechal Hatarbut cultural center in Tel Aviv (located by the Habima Theater), and that the Finance Ministry was afraid there wouldn’t be enough foreign currency to pay the mop-haired group after Israeli Lirot was converted into either Pounds Sterling or U.S. Dollars. Both reasons seem a bit weak when looking back on the subject. The main reason might have been that the Ministry of Culture didn’t seem to think that the pop music quartet wasn’t of a high enough cultural standard to perform along with the likes of classical music greats like American violinist Isaac Stern.

Perhaps it was due to the fact that there wasn’t any “tele” (as the Brits call it) in Israel at the time in order to broadcast the event; and that the Labor led socialist folk in the government didn’t want to corrupt the innocent young minds that were being groomed to some day lead the country to great academic and cultural heights, despite being completely surrounded by Arabs who wanted to push an even smaller and more fragile Israel into the depths of the Mediterranean Sea. After all, the Six Day War had not been fought yet, and the West Bank and the Golan heights were still in Jordanian and Syrian hands. Gaza was being administered by Egypt who really didn’t give a hoot about the nearly million refugees from the 1948 Way of Independence, living on U.N. administered hand-outs.

Although both McCartney and Starr have visited here since that time, they haven’t been here together as the surviving members of what may go down in history as the most successful singing group of all times. In reference to the then government’s fear that the Beatles would corrupt the innocent youth of Israel, that fact that they played in the best concert halls in America and were featured on television programs like the Ed Sullivan show (where Elvis also made his big debut) means that John, Paul, George and Ringo were not considered to be morally corrupting in most places they appeared (expect possibly to a few fundamentalist Christian groups, that is). The other two former Beatles, John Lennon and George Harrison, are now playing their tunes “up above”.

Maybe now the remaining Beatles will finally get the welcome they deserve here, albeit blatantly, like they should have had more than 42 years ago.

The Israeli film Beaufort, directed by Joseph Cedar and based on the best selling novel by Ron Leshem, has just been nominated by the U.S. Academy Awards for an Oscar as the best foreign film for 2007.

The film is based on the trials and tribulations of an IDF combat unit in the weeks prior to Israel’s abandonment of Lebanon in May, 1999. Though criticized by some as being too negative in regards to the morale in an Israeli combat unit, others who have either read the book or seen the film say that it may be one of the best combat soldier war epics since the classic novel All’s Quiet on the Western Front by German novelist Eric Maria Remarque.

Cedar, who is a veteran IDF soldier and himself served in Lebanon, was so lost for words during a press conference Tuesday afternoon at Israel’s Cinema City that he found it hard to speak about the film that portrays the emotions and fears of young soldiers under constant attack and barrage by Hezbollah militia fighters. Pinned down in their bunker atop the former Crusader fortress of Beaufort, the soldiers experience very similar fears and personal trials as the young soldiers in Remarque’s novel, based on a war which occurred more than 80 years before.

An Israel film has not been nominated by the Hollywood Film Academy since Behind the Walls, a movie based on Israeli prison life, received a nomination in 1984. In a recent review by the New York Times, the film is considered a lesson in the futility of war, and that it portrays the truly human side of the young combatants who wear military gear that almost resembles something out of a science fiction story, which only adds to the depression and anxiety they feel as they confront an enemy skilled in a type of fighting that has become known as “asymmetric warfare”. Though they are under constant bombardment and rarely even see their enemy, they begin to create their own intimate society within the twisting concrete corridors of their bunker, which they consider as their home. Only a series of disastrous command decisions by their commanding officer, Liraz, often a victim of his own emotions, make the soldiers aware of their predicament at the hands of a much more skillful enemy.

The film previously won the Silver Bear film award at the Berlin Film Festival last year, which makes the film even more similar to Remarque’s story which also won several awards after it was later made into a movie. Beaufort is in contention with other foreign films from Poland, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Austria. Barring its possible cancellation if the Hollywood writer’s strike is not settled, the final decision on the Oscar award will be announced at the Academy Awards Ceremony in Hollywood on February 27.