Day 90 - Antiracist

Day 90 - Thursday 12 August 2010

Found ourselves at Gan Sacher this evening for a nice dinner with friends.

Lash and Jon tried to steal my bike to take it to this skate park/ half pipe they have there - needless to say I was freaking out and went to check the bike was OK..

When I got there, I saw this graffiti which stood out and spoke to me. All the other graffti and tags had been drawn over or written over numerous times, except for this one. Obviously the message stood out to the others as well.

A Skate park is a place where people with one common ideal go to - they love to skate, have some fun, in a risky kid of way - and don't go to fight, argue or bicker.

It's a shame a lot more people don't see this..

Day 64 - Cookies

I do like some good cookies..and I have't baked cookies in a while so maybe I should..

This next piece of Graffiti Art is a humorous one but also quite meaningful. I'm still not sure how to put in words what I think about it, so I'll let you all think for yourselves and please feel free to write a comment.. (I went back today to take it again in better light)

Day 64 - Shabbat 17 July 2010

The Hebrew reads;

'Chayalim ze lo Ugiyot'
'Soldiers are not cookies'

With a picture of the Cookie monster on-top - who we all know and love. Please give me some help thinking on this one.. =)

Day 62 - Masked

So I covered for someone who was sick at work today which meant that I did a double shift - nothing that exciting to grab a photo of..

Luckily I have spares!

Thursday 15 July 2010

Some pretty neat stencil work. Again, comes in under the graffiti art series..I'm still trying to work out the connotations of this one, if you have any idea let me know.. I just appreciate the effort that would have gone into preparing it..

Day 57 - Aimez..

Day 57 - Shabbat 10 July 2010

Pretty sure I was working this Saturday night as well..but this is another addition to the Graffiti art collection I saw on the way home (I went back past during the day to get a better shot in more light)..

In French it reads 'Aimez L'Apartheid' which according to Google Translate means: 'Do Apartheid' or in more proper English, we support the apartheid. Yet again, another controversial piece of artwork - firstly for saying it aligns that Israel IS an apartheid state and then on the flip side that it supports it - something both camps for and against would have a big response to..

Just makes you think hey..

Day 50 - Protection

Another Graffiti Art addition..

Day 50 - Shabbat 3 July 2010

The Hebrew reads:

'Yeled Lo Rotzeh Lishmor Al HaOlam'
'A child doesn't want to protect the world'

This is definitely a political statement against the Israeli Army and conscription - that teenagers and young adults from 18 and up don't want to be protecting the country and the world.

Again this is one persons opinion - and I'm sure is shared by a certain proportion of Israeli's - but I do like to view it as well on the opposite side of the spectrum; in the view of those that see the defense of the State of Israel as our responsibility. There are definitely certain proportions who see this as a natural right and serve with pride..

Just to keep thinking.. and smiling =)

Day 49 - Pondering

Day 49 - Friday 2 July 2010

This image is another addition to the Graffiti Art collection.

I call it pondering for two reasons; the first being that the person in the artwork is obviously in a thinking/pondering pose.
The second being that I myself cannot seem to work out who the artwork is representing. At first I thought it must definitely be Rabin or Peres, but after looking at it again and again (I pass it everyday on the way to work) I feel like it could be Olmert or another political figure.

Any suggestions would be gratefully accepted!

Keep smiling =)

Day 30 - Modern Zionism?

After yet again another crazy shift at work in the morning (crazy from the respect of I'd been working every day night/morning since Thursday) I received a call from the Lishkat Giyus (army drafting office) to come in for a meeting.

Being Israel, they asked for it to be 8am on Monday morning, which I couldn't do, his next response then was, 'OK, can you make it by 5pm today?' I look at my watch, 3.10PM, 'Sure thing' I tell him, 'See you soon.'

Luckily I was finishing work then anyway, so ran home to get changed and scoffed down an awesome Baba felafel on the way home (highly recommended!)

The meeting took all of 15 minutes, but it meant that I now am not having to wait a year for the process to start. And B"H I have my first test and all the medical checks in a month!

I wanted to take a photo of the Lishkat Giyus entrance sign, but wasn't allowed for security reasons. Funnily enough, this image was directly over the road and made me start thinking.

Day 30 - Sunday 13 June 2010

Apart from the fact that I was to be attending my first Zionist Congress starting on Monday, this next part of the graffiti art series evoked some thoughts. Roughly translated it reads:

"Zionism is a plague of death"

Now, this could have been done by an activist from the far left, or quite possibly an Arab Israeli citizen or a Palestinian - the main thing was that it was specifically tagged on a mail box directly opposite the headquarters for the army in Jerusalem.

IT makes one think, is the Zionism of today, what we have turned Zionism into, merely being seen once again as the days of the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' when Jews were hated for trying to 'take over the world'? Or is it that in today's modern world, people cannot differentiate between Zionism, Israel, Jew and all become intermingled into one big ball of 'something to be hated by the world.'

I don't for one second believe any of this, from the graffiti art to the thoughts above; but to be a Zionist in this modern world, to be a citizen in the modern world, one needs to think. We are in an age, far after the original enlightenment. An age where we are charged with the somewhat daunting task of having to think. Being open minded and able to question, answer and reason what we believe in and why we believe in it are very important values that we should cherish..

I'm going to call it quits here, because, as I'm doing this a week late, this is starting to verge on another discussion I will be having, come Day 34's photo.

Also, we went tonight to the Australia VS Germany match - from the highlight of wandering the streets in Aussie gear to the feeling of torn hearts at the hands of the Germans some 90 minutes later..It was a sad night..

Hope this wasn't too boring and just keep smiling =)