Independence Day in an Israeli Way: Israeli Melting Pot

I stumbled upon songs of this young artist, Idan Rachel, in a very unexpected way and fell in love with his music. And then I spent a few hours the other day to research about his music and his philosophy behind the music he creates. He claims to be a proud Israeli and brings musical inspiration from his neighbours and friends in streets of Tel Aviv - Ethiopians, Sudanese, Yemenites, Lebanese and many more. Check him out! You won't regret. You can google him, youtube him or iTune him. Just to make your work easer: The Idan Raichel Project is the full title.

Singing the songs of streets of Israel, the Israeli melting pot.
That's what he's after. He's not a political activist or social justice worker, but a beautiful musician who pays attention to his surroundings with his deep sense of musical harmony and beauty. He does not hide his political convictions (when it is necessary), but that is not what he is after when he produces these beautiful songs with his friends. "They are our neighbours, before they are our enemies," says in his interview with Riz Khan in Al Jazeera a few years ago (watch the interview clips here).

Today was Israel's Independence Day and there was an article by him in Haaretz. It is very informative in understanding what significance the Independence Day brings to today's modern Israel, to many young educated people like him.

Idan Raichel (Source: Haaretz) 

 Inspired by his article and music, I went out to the famous Hecht Park by the Mediterranean Sea, about 20 minutes driving distance from my place. First thing I noticed was the flag - Israeli flag everywhere.

People may associate Israeli flag with Zionism, the Jewish nationalism, and Jewish identity. However, what I discovered today is a sense of pride and belonging in a different way. What is being celebrated today is the Independence of the modern Israel, a liberal democratic state, a young nation of people with many differences. It started with a day to mourn and commemorate for the dead yesterday (Remembrance Day is the day before Independence Day) and a day to celebrate the freedom and independence today.

The fact is that every Jew in this land is a hyphenated-Jew. They are all from somewhere else, to say the truth, as the singer, Raichel points out. Perhaps Zionism, or Jewish nationalism, was the language that was born out of the 20th century's modern political mind, as the modern state of Israel was understood and misunderstood about their racial, socio-religous and cultural unity of being Jew, and the Jewish nation.

Raichel has beautifully articulated the Israeli melting pot through his music and perhaps the reason I think he won in the (political) game in this 21st century's multi-ethnic, multi-cultural Israel is that he peacefully brought out the biggest common ground of Israel: Diversity and it is about being Israeli "here and now" in the land of their own. 

I'll just quote him here:

I (Raichel) tried to explain how our great joy, a joy that doesn’t know left or right, rich or poor, native-born citizens or new immigrants, is about one thing − celebrating the fact that we are here. .... We have sacred and secular here: We have old and new, Hebrew and Arabic, Russian and Amharic, Moroccan and Yemenite and more. In this country we live and celebrate independence, and democracy. (click here to read the full article in Haaretz)

In the 21st century's post-modern global political environment, politicians and political scientists have much work to do in defining what a nation is constituted of when the currency is diversity, not unity.

A Minority Report: When the Passover is Over...

I was away from Israel for two weeks for some work and I arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on the first day of Passover and that meant I missed the famous sedar supper night just by ten some hours. I knew it was an important evening, not to be missed, but the difference in airfares between the two kinds of people who cared enough to be there for Passover and who didn't was nearly two thousand dollars. I chose a quiet and cheap re-etnry to the country on the first official holiday of Passover. There was no lineup at the immigration, it took just two sentences between me and the immigration officer, something like this:

Officer: Hello. What is the purpose of your trip?
Me: Tourism
Officer: Enjoy!
Me: Happy Passover! 

Quiet Morning at Ben Gurion Airport:
the sky blue banner sign says "Happy Passover!" 

Without entering religious history and theological arguments, one must know at least this one thing that Passover comes with a lot of food rules of DO's and DON'Ts. You can't eat anything that has yeast. Better to play safe with the flat bread called Matza.

My first Matza!

Supermarkets have certain food sections covered during the Passover

This year it so happened that the Easter weekend fell right at the end of Passover. I went to Jerusalem with a friend visiting from Canada to feel what it might have been like being there when it all happened a little less than two thousand years ago. The Old City is divided by four different religious quarters (Jewish, Muslim, Armenian and Christian sections). When we walked around the Old City during Passover, and also the Easter weekend, I found so refreshing to see the quirky sense of humour that is so poignant in this multi-cultural, multi-ethinic and multi-religious city.

Humour is always a great gift to deal with tension between differences and chaos rising from confusion. One of the great gifts I've been discovering from Israelis is this multi-faceted way of life: Go with the flow, ask for why if you dare and laugh at yourself if you can. 

Sayed Kashua's column is my favourite section of Haaretz newspaper. He makes you laugh with his voice of an educated, articulate middle class Israeli Arab man trying to make his minority existence known in the nation with Jews of all spectrum: from secular to ultra orthodox as Jews themselves label. Here's a quote from his recent post about Passover in Haaretz:

“Listen,” I said to my wife as we sat down to eat hummus in Abu Ghosh, like all the Jews. “We have to find Passover rules for ourselves.” ..... 

“Rules like that,” I said to my wife, “small but meaningful rules in the process of consolidating a people and building a nation.”

So here's my attempt to find "rule-breaking rules" on this fascinating season of the year that I found myself in the Old City of the 21st century cosmopolitan Jerusalem. 

Middle-eastern staple: Pita - fresh out of oven (of course, this is baked with yeast!)

Kosher Slurpee available.

Who can beat the Arab coffee?

Dress code for the Holy Rock Cafe is behind the sign (located in the Muslim quarter)

Austrian Beer at Austrian Hospice on Via Dolorosa for a change?

Damascus Gate: entry point to the Muslim quarter of the Old City.
This is the most famous and busiest gate of all gates in the Old City.

Market outside Damascus Gate in Arab area of Jerusalem

How much is this tire worth? Chicken or Beef?

Maybe goat for Sunday night

Muslims everywhere outside Damascus Gate

Jewish boys from an Orthodox Jewish community outside Damascus Gate
walking toward the Gate to go to the Western Wall.

Grief. Shock. Confusion.

All these were jammed in this small, complex and multi-faceted city when it all happened nearly two thousand years ago. The way of Messiah was, and still is, perhaps too grand for human ways of life to cope no matter how many multifaceted ways we have developed so far all around the globe: He bore our sins on the cross and walked the way of suffering and death on this narrow path of Via Dolorosa. Then the body disappeared on the third day. What bigger event is there in history than this?

I could almost hear the buzz and whispers about this shocking event in this city on the first Easter Sunday night as I took my camera out to take pictures of these amazing views of this fascinating city, Yerushalayhim. On this night of great confusion and chaos, I hear no laughter, but only the silence of a great sense of awe and wonder, and fear to some degree, looking for the way of Messiah because the earth was put back to peace, alignment, and order with its maker on that weekend.

Via Dolorosa, viewed from Ecce Homo Guest House rooftop

Mosque, Temple, Church - all in one shot

I saw the workers changing the banners at the Ben Gurion Airport two weeks later when I went to see off my friend going back to Canada. Now the Passover is over and the next celebration is the Independence Day of the modern Israel.