Almost weekend

The tea man

Yesterday was a very busy day. I had no time to update the blog but I'm still alive. You see, the purpose of the blog isn't simply to inform you of life here in the Holy Land ... actually it's a track on whether I'm alive or not. If it's not updated for some time ... that means you can come to my funeral.

The weather has been very pleasant as Spring weather should be. In the midst of my rushing from one place to another, I noticed the arab tea seller at Damascus Gate, with his umbrella up and him dressed in his turkish costume carrying his huge container of tea and selling cups of it to passersby. That is a sure sign Summer is on it's way ... if not already here. The usual tea he sells is common tea but you can add fresh mint or sage leaves for the aroma. But in mid-summer when it gets really hot, he sells cold traditional drinks like almond juice, date juice and lemon juice. Well by now he's an annual icon for summer and tourists never fail to stop and take photos of him ... or with him.

Security tower is
almost complete

Newspapers are reporting of the spreading control of the ultra-orthodox jews in certain cities and towns. In the beautiful city of Bet Shemesh, the ultra-orthodox have published and distributed a code of conduct in public places. That includes segregation of males and females in buses and even at work, if things were to be passed between one sex to another, the thing has to be left on a table to be picked up, males and females cannot sit together or joke,  etc... Sounds almost like the muslim Taliban. The City council is afraid of these ultra-orthodox but fear also a backlash from the rest of Israel so it tries to ride on the fence. All I can say is that this will all implode. As it is, the 2 security towers built at Damascus Gate is causing great unhappiness among the arabs as they are symbols of israeli surveillance over them. The towers are almost completed and the soldiers are ready to be stationed there.     https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-west-bank-settlement-issues-modesty-code-for-municipal-workers-1.5793397

Meantime the israeli army has said it will not be taking control over the arab East Jerusalem areas though the media has said otherwise. That should at least allay some tensions and violence.  http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Israel-Police-IDF-wont-take-over-east-Jerusalem-enforcement-540909

It's almost the weekend, the weather is great ... let's hope nothing will happen to spoil this moment.