On Wednesday, MAPMES had a night hike in Nahal Haverim, about 40 minutes outside of Be'er Sheva, near Sde Boker. It was a lot of fun, although the sky was covered in clouds so we couldn't see any stars and barely had any moonlight. Yaley and Orit from our Spain trip came too. It was great to see them.
At some point during the hike, I don't remember how, I started talking to Noa (she runs MAPMES programing) about politics. Not the best idea. I knew that she was leftist (not a bad thing) but I didn't realize just how far left she was. She seemed to be of the opinion that it is ok to prevent people you disagree with from speaking. At which point I called her a leftist-fascist. I had been talking to Loren last week about how sometimes people go so far left, they end up on the right, I just didn't think I would meet one in person. I said the true test of free speech is letting people who make your blood boil speak (as long as they aren't shouting fire in a crowded theater or actively inciting to violence). I then brought up Benny Morris being prevented from speaking at UCL a few weeks ago because he is an "islamophobe." Dan then jumped in a called me out for not saying the same thing about the campaign to fire Neve Gordon from BGU after his op-ed in the LA Times calling for a boycott of Israel. He was right. UCL had every right to deny to anyone they want a forum to speak. However, I would expect a school like UCL to have a better barometer for who they allow to speak. If they let an Islamic extremist like Azzam al-Tamimi, a Hamas supporter and anti-Semite, speak, I would expect them to allow somewhat controversial, leftist historian like Benny Morris speak as well. If I went to UCL I would have been protesting al-Tamimi and lobbying the school not to give someone like him the forum to speak, just like I think BGU should reconsider renewing Neve Gordon's contract at school. Allowing a professor at a university who's namesake is the founding prime minister, call for the dismantling of the state, is more than a little ridiculous. He should have every right to make his inflammatory statements, but that doesn't mean he should have this university as a platform to make them.
Every Thursday night, our village opens our moadon as a pub and this was my week to help run it. Recently, more high school kids had been coming by and we got in trouble for having underage (under 18) kids in the pub. So this week I was the bouncer. I know that I am a very intimidating person so I can completely understand this decision. A group of 4 girls came by but they "forgot" their IDs. They promised that they were 18 and stayed right in front of the door for about a half hour trying to get me to let them in. One of their older friends asked to see my ID. So I got to use my favorite Israeli word "חוצפן - chutzpan" which as you might have guessed, is a term for someone with lots of chutzpah. I told him if they go get their IDs I'd show him mine.
After they finally left - vowing never to come back, as though there are other bars in Dimona - things quieted down. So I called up Eliad to see what his plans are while he's in Israel. Some guys overheard me talking and one said, "Whoa, what great English! What are you doing here you should be in movies or something." His friend then said "he can't understand you, he's English" - Israelis often call anyone who speaks English, English. So I told him that I did understand and that I'm American. I don't think I'll get tired of Israelis looking shocked when I tell them, in Hebrew, I've only been here for 6 months, any time soon.
Yesterday Israel switched to daylight savings time, so not only are we 7 hours ahead of the US again but that means that Shabbat starts late and ends even later. It's a trade off because now I have more time on Friday to do stuff, but that also means I have less time on Saturday nights. But I've been pretty lame lately and not doing much then anyway so I guess it's a change for the better.
I thought there wouldn't be so many people here this weekend because Passover is so soon, but there was a good amount of people. We even had Friday night services in the moadon for the first time and I led, which was nice. Later on, when I took Shoko on our long Shabbat walk around the city, we walked through a park and this kid yelled out, "is that shoko?!" and 5, 12-year-old boys ran over to pet him. They were surprised at how big he had gotten. One asked if I remembered him. I said no and then he said, "I was the one who came with the donkey." "Oh, now I remember you." How is this real?
Anyway, here are some new Shoko pics:
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