NOTE TO FAMILIES:
In the past couple of days there have been a few disciplinary incidents on MBI. The entire group was spoken to about the general atmosphere that had developed and told to not let the last week pass them by. There were some clear issues of disrespect that that needed to be brought out and dealt with and Gil urged all of MBI to realize that even though there is only 1 week left, all MBI rules still apply and to realize that they could still choose to make this the best summer of their lives. Today all of the small kvutzot also had a chance to talk in smaller discussions with their madrichim about certain disciplinary decisions that were made and about the culture they wanted to make sure existed on MBI.
Sunday, after a challenging and fun weekend the MBIers finished up Machenh Tnua Achot, cleaned up their campsite and bade farewell to their new Israeli friends. The group headed back down to the Jerusalem area to the KKL campsite Nes Harim. After dinner they had a preparation peulah for Yad Vashem, the National Holocaust Memorial Museum. All of MBI watched the movie Gattaca. The film is about a society in which people are categorized as inferior and superior based on their genetic makeup and according to your genetic make-up you are predestined for a certain kind of lifestyle including your job. The main character is dissatisfied with his place in the world and has bigger aspirations for himself so he assumes the identity of someone else in order to achieve his dream of space travel. The basis of the peulah was to explore what a world looks like without shivyon erech ha'dam (equality of human value). Following the film each kvutzah had a short discussion about the concept of shivyon erech ha'adam.
Today, Monday, MBI went to Yad Vashem had a guided tour through the museum. The museum has a unique design. The building is a long triangle that at the end there are windows piping light and a promenade with a beautiful view of Jerusalem. In order to reach the promenade you have to criss-cross through each section of the museum, which spans from before the Holocaust looking at communities, through the end of the war exploring the many difficult topics and some of the more inspirational tales of righteous gentiles and the youth movements role in the war. The tour tries to focus on some of the aspects of the Holocaust and then ends by discussing the importance of Israel in our history as the Jewish people. A major focus today was on the anti-semitism that existed in the world during that time-period, and how it still exists in places around the world today.This was a emotionally moving and important experience for all.
Afterwards the group left the museum late and so their tour through Har Herzl was shortened. Har Herzl (Mount Herzl), is a national cemetery in Jerusalem, named for Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism. The cemetery was created as a burial place for national figures and fallen soldiers. The group did stop and have lunch there, and it was here that each kvutza had a conversation processing both Yad Vashem and Har Herzl with their madrichim.
Our itinerary for the afternoon was changed in order to fit in a visit to the Tent City of Jerusalem. This was a unique chance for MBI to get to see first hand some of the current events going on in Israel today.
skip to below for more about MBI's visit-
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Some Quick Background, (this is excerpted 2 different emails sent out from the World Habonim Office over the past two weeks updating each country's office).
Over the past few months, there have been a number of short-lived public outcries in Israel - fights against petrol prices, bread prices, cottage cheese prices, and strikes by social workers and doctors. Each of these struggles took place separately from one another. This newest public outcry regarding housing, has a completely different feel to it. Starting with students protesting the 40% increase in rent costs per year for the past 3 years Israel, more and more people have been joining this grassroots protest. For the first time, people have begun to to recognize the connection between difficulties affording food, housing, education and health, and are connecting it to the strong privatization forces being pushed by Bibi Netanyahu's government.
Citizens have taken to the streets of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Sderot, Beer Sheva, Kiryat Shemona, and other cities, and have been living in tents in the center of these cities. The people now protesting have also recently grown beyond just the initial group of middle-class university students, and have been joined by Arabs, Haredim (Ultra-Orthodox Jews), Olim (Jews who made Aliyah), blue-shirt movement members, and spans across all ages.
This is now a very widespread public struggle fighting against Bibi's privatization policies, and the mainstream of Israeli society is demanding a return to socio-economic policies that allow every citizen to acquire basic human needs. Part of our ability to ensure that all citizens of Israel have fair and affordable access to housing is by keeping the state's land in the hands of the government, and not in private hands. Doing so means that the government is obligated to regulate building and create policies that include subsidized housing without creating slums (by deciding where subsidized units should be located, and by regulating the standards that these units must uphold). Otherwise, in the situation Netanyahu's government supports, real estate tycoons would own the land of Israel, and would never agree to build affordable housing, as it is much more profitable to wait for the land to accrue value and then build large houses for wealthy people (which is what is happening today, but at least the problem is that the government is not regulating the contractors, and not that the tycoons have the ultimate decision-making over what is built).
Many see Bibi's attempts to privatize lands of Israel as directly against the principles of Zionism, since he is attempting to sell away the country's resources and deny its citizens basic rights, choosing instead to pursue wealth, and power over the ideal of a moral Jewish state.
This situation has been harming the weaker sections of society (Arabs, Haredim, olim) for quite some time, but now that it is harming the middle class as well, people are understanding that this is a situation that cannot go on.
This housing issue boils down to the fact that the Netanyahu government has been consistently enacting policies that help those who are wealthier and hurt those who are poorer, destroying the welfare state and the middle class, and the mainstream of society has had enough.
Our involvement in this struggle alongside the Israeli blue-shirt movements is because we believe in this struggle, and because we want to raise awareness of WHY the situation has gotten to where it is today, so that Netanyahu cannot spin the protests in his favor, which he has been trying to do.
This past Saturday night was a nationally organized rally in cities throughout the county. In Tel Aviv alone, 120,000 people marched singing chants of democracy and social change. There was a feeling that things can change in Israel, and that there's something tangible that is truly worth looking forward to and believing in.
The dialogue of those organizing has gained momentum, and become even broader than before - the dialogue everywhere in Israel is about citizens demanding social justice and a welfare state -- as Daphne Leef, one of the originators of the protests, said last night at the rally: "Social services are rights, not commodities."
The level of involvement by regular citizens is felt very strongly in Israel, and the blue-shirt movements (like Habonim) are very involved conversations with the public (at movement tents) about the reasons/ideology behind Bibi Netanyahu's economic policies and what normal citizens can do to change things.
In addition, there are lobbying activities taking place at the Knesset this week, in advance of this Wednesday's vote on Bibi's proposed National Housing Commissions Law, which he claims will increase house-building through privatization; it is a truly rotten law that continues to serve the interests of the wealthy and the real estate tycoons. Our hope is that pressure on the MKs will encourage them to vote down this law, thereby slowing the changes Bibi making in order to break down what's left of the welfare state; if this law fails to pass it will also send a clear message to the current government of Israel that Israeli citizens are unwilling to accept their agenda and worldview.
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Back to the blog-
Regardless of ones political views, it is clear that we would be amiss to not mention or do our best to bring MBI to visit one of these rallies and learn about what is going on around them in the country they are touring this summer. A change was made in the MBI itinerary in order to allow us to visit the tent city in Jerusalem and it started with a quick walk around the tent-city before stopping at a nearby amphitheater.
Soon after, one of the protesters came and asked our staff if he could speak to the group. He spoke to MBI about what was going on and why he was there. Though his english made it a little difficult for some of what he was saying to come across, he emphasized to all of them that they should know something special and exciting was happening in Israel right now. He spoke about how he felt that it was something that should be important to the MBI-ers on a personal level as well, because Israel is their home too and should feel connected.
After hearing the protesters thoughts, the MBI-ers then listened to a much more thorough explanation about what was going on by a member of our sister-movement Ha'Noar Ha'Oved (and previous MBI madricha) Noga Nevo. Noga was able to point out signs that said things like "we are the 2nd generation of pioneers of the state". She connected this to the MBI-ers own understandings of the original Israeli pioneers that they had learned about at Hatzer Kinneret a few weeks ago. This was the connection that the protesters saw in themselves and the values they were trying to push for society.
There was time for a question and answer session during which some really great questions were brought up by MBI. Questions like-
What do the protesters want the solution for housing to be?
What does housing situation look like now?
Some also expressed confusion at how they were being told that the organizers saw the rallies as non-political and yet were making demands of the government. The answer here lies in the current Israeli political reality where words like left, right, conservative, and liberal only speak to someone's views on the security situation between Israel and its Arab neighbors/inhabitants. In Israel today there is very little talk about the economy or anything other than the occupation/security situation. These rally's are everyday Israelis taking to the streets and saying that social issues must be a part of the debate and not easily decided by one political party.
Afterwards a few MBI-ers found some other protesters to talk to in small groups. The reality is that for this part of the day, some of the MBI-ers were very interested in what was going on around them and others had a harder time following, which is okay. Its alright for them to not all have in depth understandings of how each of these issues is manifesting itself in Israeli society today and we in no way expected that they all did. But we still felt that it was an important opportunity for MBI to be in Israel during this time and have some engagement with the tent-city protests that are happening.
In the next part of the day, MBI went to Machaneh Yehuda which is a huge open air market in Jerusalem. Though some were initially surprised that it didn't look like a shopping mall or grocery store, soon MBI-ers were exploring the different parts of the market and buying things like, fruit, snacks, and candy for room parties later this week. Others were buying spices to take home after MBI. A few kids also played a game in the market called 'bigger-better'. In this game they each start of with something small like a few shekels. The goal is to trade the shekels for one item and then haggle and barter to trade that item for something else. The object is to see how much someone can end up with after starting with something so little.
In the evening, they had kvutza discussions about the culture of MBI and how people are feeling (see NOTE at the top of this post). It was important for each kvutza to be able to process on their own what each person on MBI was feeling and going through over the past few days. At the end of the day they had a Beit Cafe (coffe-house), where a room was set up with low-lights tea and cookies to relax and talk with each other. There certainly was a lot going on these last few days.
Til Next Time,
Ari
