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"Once I sat on the steps by a gate at David's Tower. I placed my two heavy baskets at my side.
A group of tourists was standing around their guide and I became their target marker.
'You see that man with the baskets? Just right of his head there's an arch from the Roman period. Just right of his head.'
'But he's moving, he's moving!' I said to myself: redemption will come only if their guide tells them, 'You see that arch from the Roman period? It's not important: but next to it, left and down a bit, there sits a man who's bought fruit and vegetables for his family.'"---
(These and other photographs of Israel and other scenes are available for purchase at www.cafepress.com/davebender, and on my website photo page: www.davebrianbender.com )
"For the past two years, the IFL - the Israel Football League - has been playing full-pad American style football. In this game, the Jerusalem Lions and the Haifa Underdogs fight a tight battle..."
Hamas has lauded the attack, according to Haaretz, quoting Reuters:
"Gaza's Hamas rulers praised Thursday's bulldozer attack in Jerusalem as a "natural response" to Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in Arab East Jerusalem and to Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip.From the JPost:
"'The operation in Jerusalem was a natural response to aggression against our people. The Zionist enemy should realize that they alone bear the responsibility for displacing our people in Jerusalem and for the killings in Gaza and the West Bank,' said Mushir al-Masri, a senior Hamas official."
"A Palestinian man driving a bulldozer was shot dead after intentionally attacking a police car on Thursday afternoon. Before he was shot, the man tried to tip over additional vehicles including a public bus at the Golomb intersection, near Jerusalem's Malha Mall.
Police next to the bulldozer used in Thursday's terror attack near Malha, Jerusalem. Photo: Channel 2"Two police officers were reportedly lightly injured in the attack.
"Less than an hour after the attack, Nissim Shahar, deputy commander of the Jerusalem Police, told Channel 2 that the terrorist had died of his wounds."
Malcha mall, just past the intersection where the attack took place, is one of the largest malls in Israel, and would normally be packed with shoppers at this hour of the afternoon.
From Haaretz:
"This is the fourth time that a vehicle has been used to carry out an attack in the capital. In July 2008, a Palestinian deliberately went on the rampage in a bulldozer on Jaffa Street, killing three people and wounding dozens more. Two weeks later, a resident of East Jerusalem carried out a similar attack, wounding at least 24 people.
"In September, an Arab resident of East Jerusalem plowed his car into a crowd of Israel Defense Forces soldiers on their way to the Western Wall. All three were shot dead at the scene."
More on those attacks here, and here.
At a time when conflict over Gaza is pouring yet more poison into the gulf separating Israelis from Palestinians, a repeatedly stalled and still unfinished Jerusalem tram project is galvanizing the city's feuding camps against a common foe.I took photos of the first groundbreaking at the entrance to the city several years ago, for The Jerusalem Post's, "In Jerusalem," weekly metro magazine. I'll add photos and maps soon, so stop back.
The whole project, says Mayor Nir Barkat, voicing a view widely shared across religious and ethnic lines, has been "a very negative experience."
Friday morning at Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open air market: Local street-theater artist, "The Purple Man," freezes, until passersby drop a coin or two into his guitar case. They he plays for another 15-seconds, until he again goes rigid.
Last I heard the cops ran him off for drawing too big a crowd and causing a public disturbance [sigh].
Friday morning at Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open air market: a beggar with a headset microphone and tambourine wishes passersby a good, peaceful Sabbath. (Dave Bender)
Ha. Haha. Like Friday shopping at Mahane Yehuda isn't a public disturbance, anyway...
Friday at Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open air market, a veteran hawker sells trinkets from a rolling cart. (Dave Bender)
A hero of the Revolution now shops for Shabbat. (Dave Bender)
Just imagine the things this elderly Russian immigrant has seen in his lifetime, including what he experienced in the service of the Soviet Red Army in order to merit those battle pins and medallions.
Shabbat Shalom, and have a great weekend.
"A new TV show that debuted earlier this month on the Israeli satellite company YES is the talk of the town across certain sectors of southern Jerusalem. "Srugim" (in English: "knitted kippas") is an extraordinarily accurate depiction of the religious singles scene in Jerusalem.It must be a bit deja vu'ish living in the small neighborhood where it's filmed: Observant immigrants and many, many other Israeli singles that I know from the 'hood could very easily wander into a shot and be mistaken for the actors.
"Set in our own neighborhood (Katamon and the German Colony in particular), the show chronicles the trials and tribulations of trying to find one's place in the grueling "swamp" that represents the modern Orthodox world in Jerusalem.
"Though the show is about Israel singles, Anglos in the city will easily recognize their own lives, between coffee dates at local cafes, shul hopping and the ubiquitous plastic bags containing quiches, humus and drinks that singles carry around on Shabbat as they head to a group meal with other like minded young people.
"Srugim is peppered with location shots of local hangouts. And the dumpy apartments with their tiny kitchens will be uncomfortably familiar to anyone who's ever been single in Jerusalem."
