Stromata

Yesterday's expectation of a riot after noon prayers fizzled. Everything was fine. No scuffles, no problems. Everything was calm and everyone continued with life as usual. But the newspaper Haaretz carries an article by an American Jew Tod Gitlin commenting on jewish prof. Eva Illouz's powerful (self) critique on the Israeli Occupation of Palestine likened to slavery. Very acute, intelligent and brave. If you cannot access the article, here's a brief passage: "So she adopts a rhetorical strategy, but it is not only rhetorical. Read her again. Of course she omits elements of the situation. But consider what her radical shift of perspectives permits one to see. The “conditions of slavery” that she itemizes are almost identical to the conditions that struck me on my own visits to Israel in 2008 and 2010: the experience of literal imprisonment for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians as a routine way of life; “the feeling of spatial imprisonment” accompanied by “economic strangulation”; land expropriation; home demolitions; the throttling of property extension; and so on.

From what I have seen and read, Illouz’s estimate is plausible when she writes that “70 percent of the Palestinian population live with a permanent sense of dishonor, conduct their lives without predictability and continuity, live in fear of Jewish terror and of the violence of the Israeli military power, and are afraid to have no work, shelter or family.” But perhaps it is a smaller percentage of Palestinians whose “freedom, honor, physical integrity, capacity to work, acquire property, marry and, more generally, plan for the future are alienated to the will and power of their Israeli masters.” Or a larger one. Who knows? Does it matter? Not much. For the principle of her argument stands: The occupation is built on systematic violations of dignity, of honor, of personhood."

http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/.premium-1.575493

Fiery sunset

Frankly I'm growing very weary of work. It is sapping my energy and I'm losing enthusiasm. Time for a break ... hmmmm like overdue for 8 years now. Am really feeling utterly exhausted ... and today I have an appointment with the doc. Things are not as efficient as back home ... so a visit to the hospital means being directed from one department to another, staff ignoring you as they drink their coffee, smoke their cigarette and chat to each other. Minimum 3 hours wait. It's a nightmare.

Yesterday's sunset was stupendous. Fiery changing to gold. The weather has been very warm today. The country is expecting a drought year as not sufficient rain has fallen this winter. That means besides the water tax there'll also be a drought tax on water. A very expensive year ahead.