Saturday is for Cleaning

“Samstag ist Putztag” – it rhymes in German. Gitit, Arluk, Lerman and myself cleaned up a historical landmark sign in Tel Aviv. This sign marks a spot where a part of the struggle for independence took place in 40s.

After the Cleanup

Like many others is being neglected by the municipality. When you live in a vibrant city like Tel Aviv, your home isn’t only the 4 walls of your apartment, but also the city streets.

This cleanup task that we took on ourselves follows an action that we did two weeks ago. Thanks to its high concentration of Bauhaus buildings, Tel Aviv has earned the title of a World Heritage Site by Unesco. Getting the White City recognition from the UN took many years. The landmark monument was inaugurated in 2003 in a well celebrated event. Since then, the stone has been neglected and became black, like all the sidewalks around it.

Soap, water, lemon, bleach and 8 hands made the difference. Check out the before and after picture:

White City Cleanup

Picture credit: Lerman.

We cannot voluntarily clean up the whole city. These small actions make these places look better and they make us feel better. I hope that the municipality of Tel Aviv will wake up and do a better job with maintaining the city, especially in places where the city takes pride in.

Qassam Rockets in Rotschild Avenue, Tel Aviv

Qassam rockets didn’t fall from the sky on Tel Aviv. Don’t worry. They were brought from Sderot by a group of students from Sapir college to the heart of Tel Aviv – Rotschild Avenue.

Qassam

More pictures of Qassam Rockets in Tel Aviv.

The real live rockets are displayed on Rotschild avenue, between Nachmani and Bezalel-Yafe. While I was taking pictures, one of the organizers came up to me and explained about the initiative. Their goal is to gain solidarity between residents of Tel Aviv and the people of Sderot who suffer from these rockets for over 6 years already.

Besides solidarity, what do they really want? The answer to my question was: “We want the government to wake up and act for a solution?”. Pushing him a little more, I asked what solution are they aiming for? “A military solution”.

Since 2001, many incursions have been made into the Gaza strip. None resulted in a solution. Rockets fell before and after the implementation of Sharon’s Disengagement plan. Now, when Hammas is controlling the Gaza strip, things are more complicated.

I don’t think that this exhibition of real Qassam rockets will affect the urban crowd. It’s just another exhibition / phenomenon in the big city. This summer features lots of interesting things. This is just one of them. Tonight (Thursday. July 5th), they are having a happening. I might step out of my house and check it out…

More about the Qassams in Tel Aviv here (Hebrew).

And what about a solution to the Qassams?
Does anybody have one?

Sicko – My Small Israeli Experience

Unfortunately, I had spent many hours this week in the hospital accompanying a friend who is hospitalized. All in all, the “Tel Aviv Medical Center”, (aka Ichilov hospital) is ok.

The trouble is in the most important place – the emergency room. It’s a zoo! It took 16 hours to get out of there. The destination wasn’t home. It was moving to a department in the hospital. I think that spending 16 hours in the ER is way too much. The place was overcrowded and noisy.Without running after the doctors, nurses and secretaries, I think that it would have taken much longer.

I don’t know if the government is to blame because of constantly cutting the budgets. Maybe it’s the reputable hospital that just mismanages the ER, or a very unlucky day. According to other experienced people, this was not an unlucky day. Just a normal day there.

Is it the same in all emergency rooms? I hope not…

Glowing Drinks are good from afar

I’ve attended a birthday party last week, at a bar. The owners made a little gesture to the girl that was celebrating, and brought her a Martini cocktail in a glowing glass, on the house.

Glowing Drink

At first, I was fascinated. Seeing the glass glow in the dark, and the shiny liquid move around caught my eyes. It seemed as if the liquid was glowing.

When I got to put my hands on it, it didn’t look that good anymore. Taking a sip from it felt like drinking some radioactive fluid, or a cleaning substance. My fascination was gone, and I got back to my naturally colored beer…