There's No Place Like Home

I have a home!!!!!!! I have a home!!! I have a home! We never thought this would happen. Tuesday afternoon last week, we found out we had an apartment in Kiryat Malachi and would be leaving Arad at 8 AM the following morning. We thought the house was small and cramped but we did not know how true that was until all six of us were running around our two bedrooms and our group closet/living room trying to pack and clean. Somehow we managed to finish and came to Kiryat Malachi the next morning.

But of course nothing ever works out for the Kiryat Malachi crew. Let me preface by saying we knew the apartment could have been great. It was two floors with four bedrooms, a real living room, and no lime green to be seen in our kitchen. Unfortunately it was hard to focus on that when it was all covered with a layer of filth like we had never seen before. The floors were disgusting. Our bathroom had used Q-tips on the floor and toilet paper streaming out of the toilet. At first we decided to clean it ourselves. As I was wiping down the counter, there was a dead spider on it. When i knocked it a little, other bugs came out of the dead spider. When we found out we didn't have any water (or gas), we were able to convince OTZMA it needed professional cleaners.

Why did the water not work? Well it turns out that the people who had the apartment before us didn't pay the water bill. So the city took out the clock that directs the water to the apartment. So for us to have water, they needed to come and reinstall it- and Kiryat Malachi is not exactly known for efficiency or speediness.

The apartment also did not have any furniture. Not even a refrigerator. All of the food we brought had to be thrown out and we decided to spend our first night in Kiryat Malachi with other Otzmanikim who lived ten minutes away in Kiryat Gat.

We left for five days on a seminar. We had no idea what we were going to face when we returned. There have been things preventing us from having a home for two months. In all that time, I never slept in the same place for more than four nights. We were all exhausted and felt like it would never end. You can imagine our surprise when we came back and found that not only did our apartment have furniture, but it was also cleaned! And we had gas! And water! We are living in luxury. For five hours, we moved furniture and unpacked boxes. Not only do we now have a livable apartment, it really feels like home. I cannot begin to explain how happy we are to be here.

Like I mentioned, we were away for a five-day weekend seminar, called the Conflict and Hope Seminar. I can honestly say that after this seminar, none of us have any hope. It was five long days about the Israel-Palestine issue. The first night, we had a presentation showing how the conflict came out in Israeli and Palestinian culture. We saw poems written by Palestinians showing how trapped and powerless they felt when they left Israel for the settlements. There were pictures of graffiti from both East and West Jerusalem asking for peace. We saw art from both sides, the paintings by Israelis showing broken-hearted soldiers and their families and the confusion with how people can be both a martyr for one side and a murderer for the other. The Palestinian artwork looked scarily like Holocaust artwork, showing pain, suffering and a feeling of a complete lack of power.

The most amazing part of the presentation were videos that were submitted in a contest from a news station asking to show your view of life in Israel. On video, submitted by an Israeli Arab, showed people picking through rubble for anything they can salvage. You see shots of buildings with the fronts blown off and one building that's front was completely covered in bullet holes. Behind all the rubble, is the Israeli flag, waving proudly. But the video that was by far the most powerful was called Ringtones. Israelis are absolutely obsessed with their cellphones. They are a thing of pride and most people use them as phone, Ipod and camera. Ringtones are a true statement about yourself. It started showing shots of all these different phones ringing; Sarah calling, Dad calling, Home calling. They have all the typical ringtones. Then one phone is covered by broken glass, the next by even more. Then phones with dirt and glass and then you can see them on really torn seats. One phone shows Dad calling and 23 missed calls. Eventually you see a blown up bus and hear a news report about a bus full of Israeli school children that was blown up by a suicide bomber as they were on their way to school. All that was left of them were their cellphones, ringing as people called to see if they were still alive. The last shot is a phone in the rubble, playing the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".

Our weekend was spent staying with different families in a Jewish settlement called Tekoa in the West Bank. Different speakers from the left made it seem that the settlements were the main reason that there is not peace, even though the Palestinian Liberation Organization was created against Israel in 1964, three years before Israel won the West Bank and at a time when Israelis were not allowed into the area. The town of Tekoa is very interesting. It is half religious, half secular and the majority of the religious people are Modern Orthodox hippies. In Israel, there is a constant battle between religious and secular but in Tekoa, they got along well. The school in Tekoa is even mixed and there are also mixed marriages, both shocking for Israel. The family I stayed with was a Modern Orthodox family. They were both Israeli and decided to move to Tekoa because it is the cheapest place near Jerusalem where you can own a big house. After all the fuss that is made about the settlements and the West Bank, we didn't expect such an ordinary reason. When we asked the family if they felt safe there, they said they thought it was as safe as any other part of Israel (although the dad did have a gun stuck in his pants all weekend- even at synagogue). It was very interesting to spend time in a settlement and see that even though there is such a big deal made about them worldwide, for some people they're just home.

So why are we all depressed? Because no one seems to agree on anything. The left thinks the right is evil and conniving and the right thinks the left is naive and conniving. As time goes on, Arabs and Israelis are becoming more and more separated. Everyone in Tekoa had stories for us about how they used to be friends with an Arab. People kept saying how they used to drive to Jericho or Bethlehem but are now afraid to go. The people we met in Natzrat Ilit would often tell us about how they used to go into Nazareth but were now afraid. Most people now do not believe in a 2 state solution. When Israel left Gaza, Kassam rockets started to come into Israel regularly and with fervor, which is what sparked the recent war. The same thing happened when Israel left the bases in the north a few years ago, which led to the Lebanon war. Everytime Israel leaves an area, it leads to attacks on Israel. Its obviously that land for peace hasn't been working. After this weekend, not many of us see much hope for peace in the near future. Especially since rocket attacks have increased on Israel again- eighteen were fired into Sderot and the surrounding area yesterday. All of us who just moved in are worried that we may have to leave again soon.

As depressing as the seminar was, it was very informative. I have heard many talks on Israel and been to many conferences. This by far was the best and most even-handed one I've seen.