Feast and fun

Making qattayef pancakes

It's the first time in many years that I missed the Independence  (HaAtzmaut in hebrew) celebrations. And I'm quite sore about that. Usually I'd take a day off and go to our Jaffa house by the sea where I can see the airforce flypass at noon. They fly directly over our house as its a landmark which directs aircraft to turn east into Jerusalem. There would be thousands of Israelis by the beach watching and swimming ... and doing the mandatory Independence thing = barbecue. There would be barbecues on every balcony, roof terrace, park, garden, street corner ... any available space. Israel has hired extra municipality cleaners to sweep up all public places. It's all very festive but don't be fooled. Security forces are everywhere ... in uniform and in civies. In the Old City there are border police every few meters. Stop-and-check continue with youths entering or leaving the City but it is less obnoxious and humiliating ... after all it's Ramadan for the muslim arabs.

Cooling the pancakes

Well yes the muslim arabs are celebrating as well ... not for the same reason as the Israelis. It's going to be the 1st Friday of Ramadan and usually it's a big deal. There's a tension in the air but no one wants a riot that'll spoil the festivities. Keep the status quo ... and let the celebrations go on without incident. That's everyone's hope.

The other day I saw shops making qattayef pancakes and I bought 1 kg of it as I usually do during Ramadan. Instead of traditional qattayef which is wrapped with cheese or walnuts, the pancakes are sold alone and you can put nutella, jam, honey ... anything ... and that's what we enjoy. I and the kitchen staff ate some and left the rest of the kilo on the refectory table ... and within one hour everything was wiped clean. They loved it. I think I'll buy some more next week as a treat.

And so ... it's Independence Day and I missed all the fun and concerts in the streets ... I had a meeting then class then another meeting ... that means from 1pm to 10pm. I missed HaAztmaut this year ... like what happened????