Yesterday we visited the Supreme Court of Israel and the Knesset, or Israeli Parliament.

The Supreme Court and the overall court system is quite a bit different than the US system.  The most similar feature is that the Supreme Court is the highest court of appeal for criminal and civil cases.  The most unique feature is that any suit brought against the government goes directly to the Supreme Court acting as the High Court of Justice.  A suit can be brought to challenge a specific action by the government—say, demolishing some Israeli Arab houses—or to challenge a law passed by the Knesset.  Anyone can bring a suit against the government, even a party which has not been harmed—so, many Israeli NGOs bring suits on behalf of underprivileged residents or to challenge specific laws as incompatible with Israel’s “Basic Laws.”  You can bring the case, but the court has to agree to hear it.  Israel never completed a constitution so the 11 basic laws are the nearest thing to the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. In addition to the criminal and civil court system, there are separate religious courts for Jews, Arabs, Christians, and Druse.

Residents can enter any court room and observe the proceedings, except cases involving very sensitive state secrets (which are rare and often challenged).  We entered the High Court of Justice and heard part of any interesting case.  An Israeli NGO supported by New Israel Fund gives tours of the ultra-ultra Orthodox section of Hebron.  This is a post 1967 Jewish settlement in the occupied territories of the West Bank.  The situation of the ultra-Orthodox in Israel is worth an entire posting.  For now, the ultra orthodox or Haredim are Hasidic Jews who live like the Jews of Russia or the Ukraine of the 18th century.  They wish to minimize contacts with and influence of the outside world and fiercely resist interference.  They have extensive support from the Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs.  In Hebron, the Haredim have often attacked outside tour groups.   So, the tours are accompanied by 30-50 police officers.  The police tried to suspend the tours as being too dangerous.  The NGO sued the government asserting that eliminating the tours violated basic rights and that the police should only be allowed to block tours when there were very specific risks based on specific events.

There have also been significant cases trying to alter the route of the separation barrier which Israel is building around Jerusalem, extending to many Jewish settlements in the West Bank (more about this later).

Yes, you can go mountain biking in the Holy Land. They’ve got it all: hair-raising descents, arresting scenery, arduous climbs—and you can become closer to your deity at the same time. See Christian, Jewish, and Muslim holy sites while burning away calories and improving your aerobic fitness.

I went mountain biking in the Jerusalem Forest with my guide, Joe Zias, who generously lent me his Salsa 29er. The views of steep terraced hill sides and the wooded hills of Jerusalem were stunning. We saw the Monastery of St. John the Baptist, a Palestinian shepherd tending his flock, Arab villages, and Jewish settlements.

I am not much good at descents on rock strewn paths that required constant concentration, but I got better as the day wore on. I was pretty respectable at the 20 minute climb out of the valley. It was hot and dry and sunny—28 degrees Celsius, which was a big improvement over last week in Jerusalem when it was about 6 Celsius. We weren’t alone—we saw at least 15 other riders. Not everyone can go mountain biking on Shabbat in Jerusalem, but it is a form of rest if you ignore how strenuous it is.

This was a great thing to do and it was a much needed break from talking politics, existential questions, and religious pluralism. I heartily thank Joe for the ride and Navona (apologies for the spelling) for the fabulous post-ride lunch.

We’ve seen so much and gotten so immersed in the situation here my head is spinning.  I don’t know how to reduce everything to sound bites.

In the past two days we’ve met the leading feminist in Israel to talk about religious pluralism and women’s issues in Judaism, an atypical Palestinian journalist, and an impressive Israeli journalist who tried, admirably, to “sum it all up.”  We had a group discussion of our impressions.

I vowed I would kill the next person on the trip who said, “it’s so complicated,” and then I said it and I won’t kill myself.  So, everyone else is safe now.

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Petra was the great city of the Nabateans from approximately 200 BCE.  It is one of the places where you feel like you are living 20 centuries ago because of the raw power of the place.  You can imagine the hidden city with its mysterious temples carved into the living rock.  You can imagine defending the narrow ravine against an attack.  We don’t know much about the Nabateans, but we can feel some of the same awe they felt when they entered their canyon city.

This is a bit out of chronological order in the blog because we visited Petra on February 28.

Our guide Mohammed explains Petra before we enter.	The narrow entrance to the canyon city.  In some places it is only as wide as two people—a marvelous defensive fortification provided by nature.
The last gap and Roman paving stones added after Romans occupied the city.	The “Treasury”—the first structure you see when you pass the gap.  It is like the facade of a Greek temple carved directly into the living rock.

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We were in Sderot, just 3 miles from the Gaza Strip and one of the villages that has received the most rockets launched from Gaza.  We went to a hill overlooking Gaza where you can see the buildings of Jabaliya:

People in Israel constantly remind you of how close things are.  In Seattle, we are about 200 miles from Canada—our nearest international border and a rather peaceful one.  Nearly all of Israel would fit in that distance.  And the distance from Tel Aviv, Israel’s largest city, to Gaza is about the same as the distance between Tacoma and Seattle.  Last I heard, Tacoma was not launching missiles towards Seattle and Seattle was not bombing Tacoma.  Sderot is closer to Gaza than Tel Aviv.  In the satellite image below, the pushpin on the right is Sderot; the middle one is the border with the Gaza strip; the one on the left is Jabaliya—one of the large cities in the Gaza Strip.  Note the distance scale near the bottom of the satellite photo:

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This is a frivolous post.  Every country has little things that are different than what you are accustomed to—these things aren’t better or worse than what’s familiar—just different.

No Pens in Hotels:  Every US hotel, even the cheapest Day’s Inn has free pens.  They must go through millions of them and each pen might cost 3 cents.  In Israel, you get a black pencil:  the lead is black, the outside is black, and the wood is black.  No pens.

Wetnap after meal:  In many restaurants you get one of those refreshing packets containing a moistened “towlette”.  In the US, you get one if the food is particularly messy.  In Israel, messiness isn’t part of it.

Salad for breakfast:  Since many restaurants in Israel are kosher, they have to choose whether they serve “meat” or “dairy.”  Breakfast pretty much has to be “dairy” (can you imagine coffee without cream or cereal without milk or fruit without yogurt?).  So, in addition to wonderful bread and pastries, lots of fruit, and a variety of previously Eastern European fish, you can have salad with breakfast.  “Israeli salad” consists of finely chopped cucumber and tomato. You’ll also find cabbage, finely sliced carrots (tsimmes), and other salads.  It’s quite nice, actually, and very good for you.

Hebrew Transliterations of English words:  If you grew up in the US you’ve undoubtedly seen English phonetic transliterations of Hebrew for people whose Hebrew is rusty (“baruch atoh adonai,” etc.).  In Israel, as in so many other places, English words are added to the language with phonetics.  But, the nearest equivalent Hebrew sounds for the English words are not always a very close match.  So, “Crown Plaza” turns into something like “krone platsa”;  the Italian restaurant “Bocaccio” turns into “bokatsyo”.  Of course, the English transliterations of Hebrew aren’t much better. It’s just sort of humorous sounding out some really long word and realizing it’s meant to be the English sounds.

Virgin Toilet Paper:  Take this with a grain of salt….   Apparently, in Israel as in other places recycled paper pulp is being used to make toilet paper.  The ultra-orthodox (or a few of a few) insist on buying virgin toilet paper made from paper pulp from trees to make sure that no prayer books have been used to make the toilet paper.  Now, this seems very unlikely as any book or other liturgical object would never be thrown away by a devout or not-so-devout Jew.  Synagogues collect this material and when there is enough, they give the material a proper religious burial—so it’s just not going to find its way into the recycling.  Besides, Israelis hardly recycle anything….