Arabs, Israeli Jews, From All Over - Together

Batya Medad..
Shilo Musings..
30 October '12..



Last night at Yafiz, Sha'ar Binyamin, an Arab customer asked me if I remember him. I was surprised and asked if he remembered me. The conversation was in English.

"Of course, last visit I shopped here many times. Then I had come from Saudi Arabia."

That seems like an apropos introduction to this picture I snapped a couple of weeks ago:

The license plate is hard to see, but it's Jordanian. The car was ahead of us at Hizme/Jerusalem "city line." I've decide to call it that and not "border."

A sizable percentage of our customers in Yafiz, a moderately priced "clothing for the entire family store" in Sha'ar Binyamin, just north of Jerusalem is Arab, Muslim Arabs. We also have Christian Arabs, lots of Jews and also some of the Christian Zionist volunteers from North America who do volunteer work, primarily Jewish agriculture in the area.

Like all businesses, the business comes in waves. Due to the Muslim holiday, Eid al-Adha, and the beginning of winter for all, it has been more like a tsunami. At least that's how we, the hapless staff, felt at times the past few days. No doubt that morning shift will think the store had been hit by hurricane winds, because by the time we closed to customers, our energies were more depleted than the shelves. We didn't do a total clean-up.

16 Years of Kindness

Paula R. Stern
A Soldier's Mother
16 March '11

The oldest orphan in the Fogel family, you have probably heard, is Tamar, the 12-year-old girl who found her parents, two brothers and sister murdered, and found two remaining brothers safe. The youngest of the orphans is only 2 years old.

Shiva is the period in which Jews sit and mourn for their immediate loved ones. It is a 7 day period, broken only by the Sabbath, a day on which we do not mourn. Throughout the period, friends and family come to comfort, to speak of the loved ones lost, to remember, to ease the immediate pain, if at all possible.

After the Shiva, the mourning continues, in degrees. First there is the Shloshim - the 30 days. The restrictions of the Shiva period are intense. You sit on low chairs, a sign of mourning. You wear a shirt torn in grief, and for the most part, you do not leave your house. The Shloshim represent an easing of many of the earlier restrictions, but still you grieve. You leave your home and return to work, but you do not attend parties and happy events, and there are other rules you follow as well.

After the Shloshim, for the first year, there are still other rules and laws. Less than the Shloshim, but still not normal. Still you do not attend parties, nor do you give or receive certain gifts. The grieving stays with you, forcing you to deal with your loss.

With each easing of the restrictions, in some way, the grief is eased as well and you learn you can live, laugh, survive. It is a most Divine, ordained method for human grieving - brilliant as only God can be. The restrictions become a burden towards the end of the period. You long to leave your home, you yearn to join with others. So, as the period comes to move to the next stage of mourning and recovery, the easing of the restrictions encourages healing.

(Read full "16 Years of Kindness")

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Watermelons Force Palestinians To Institute Checkpoints For Palestinians!

Daled Amos
11 August '10

Oh, the horror!
Oh, the outrage!
Oh...the prices!!!

The Palestinian boycott of Israeli goods is not working:

So how did the [Palestinian] Ministry of Economy handle the failure? An emergency meeting was conducted to adopt a policy to inspect all vehicles entering the Palestinian cities with checkpoints based on the borders of cities, such as the point located by the entrance of Beit Sahour and Ram.”

You heard it right, Palestinian checkpoints to prevent their own people to exercise the freedom to shop. One thing is certain, cursing Israel was not a great idea after all.

The Palestinian Authority is trying to do more than just keep out Israeli goods. Lenny and Shellie Ben-David write that more than just good prices can be found at the Rami Levy Supermarket. In Middle East Coexistence? On Aisle Two, Next to the Cornflakes, they write:

(Read full post)

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