Hebron, White Night, and Jlem

So Thursday July 1st, we went to the West Bank to go to Hebron. When we got to the West Bank it didn't really seem like much had changed from Israel- except for the wall. In some places the wall is a wall and in most places the wall is just a fence. I'm not sure if I had ever seen that much barbed wired as I did Thursday. We toured H2- we weren't allowed in H1 which is ruled by the PA. While most of us technically could, no one that is an Israeli citizen can. H2, looked basically like a ghost town. So many people have left there. Our first tour in Hebron was called Breaking the Silence. They are soldiers that are radical lefties and did not like what they were seeing while they were in the army. Here is a link for their website http://www.shovrimshtika.org/index_e.asp. It was very interesting to see it from their point of view. We ended the Breaking the Silence tour at the boarder between H1 and H2 and we were allowed to go near the gate and take pictures. The difference was beyond ridiculous. I saw cabs, shops open, people walking around, trees- it seemed like a completely different country. After the Breaking the Silence tour we had lunch and then met with a Jewish representative from the Hebron community. We went to the tomb/temple whatever it's called of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs. The building was pretty but thats all I really thought about it. We then went to this building owned by Hadassah, which used to be a hospital prior to the Hebron massacre Arabs and Jews both used it before then. After we met with the spokesmen for the Hebron Jewish community. He basically just answered questions we had- dancing around most of the true answers. Both the Jews were radical righties. Then we took the bus back to Jlem/Bat Yam.

That night was an "event" called White Night or Lila Lavan in Hebrew. White night is basically one big Tel Aviv wide party. There were things going on everywhere- all over the city. We took the bus in, got off around Shook haCarmel and then got dinner. After we started to walk to the Namal (Tel Aviv port). It was a really long walk, so some of us ended up taking a cab. We got to the Namal and waited around for the two that had walked. We ran into some more Amirim people while waiting. We were trying to get over the bridge to get to the power station for a concert/rave thing but it was full so they weren't letting people over. We walked around for a little trying to figure out what to do and then eventually was able to get over the bridge. We pushed our way through the crowd to get to the very front, one more song played and then that show was over. Some techno DJ played after though. We stayed for a bit and then started to head home. A usual 45ish min bus ride/20ish min taxi ride took 2 and a half hours. First we sat on a bus for 45 min before it left, then we thought we were on the wrong one, tried to get a cab unsuccessfully, and then got on another bus and sat in traffic. While White night was fun, I wish we had had some list of all events going on, because we walked around for most of the night aimlessly for the most part.

Friday we slept in and then decided to go to the beach for a bit, though we never ended up making it to the beach because we ate lunch instead. Then Rachel and I headed to Jlem with some people from the Jlem group. A kid threw up on the bus, which was extremely gross but we all made it to Jerusalem in one piece. Once we got there we relaxed for a bit and got ready for Shabbat. Rachel and I went with this girl Lani from Milwaukee to her family friends for Shabbat. We first went to services and then went to their house for dinner. It was really relaxing. I got so much sleep that night. Saturday we went to the Kotel and the Arab Shook. I bought so much at the shook. We then went back to the Jlem amirim place to relax. I went to Waffle bar with Yelana, Robbie, and Ian for dinner. It was so good. Then went to Ben Yehuda street for the night. The weekend overall was a lot of fun.

Sorry for the delay, but I will catch up with this hopefully tomorrow.

לילא תוב