#oldest map of palestine

[beljar]

Oldest Map of Palestine

Centuries in stone, Palestine's Ancient Past at St. George's Church, Madaba, Jordan.

Oldest Map of Palestine, Mosaic, Dated Ad 560, St. George's Church, Madaba, Jordan, Middle East - Photographic Print: 16" x 24" by Richard Maschmeyer

[nina-vonnegut]

The maps is also a perfect literal example of "haven't heard about that place and couldn't point to it on a map 2 weeks ago".

[gazanarchive]

The oldest Ptolemy map of Palestine is dated 150 AD. The large red letters in the center say in Greek: Παλαιστινης or Palaistinis.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Seth Mandel

No one ever shouts “Free Palestine” while holding up a copy of the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements Including Its Annexes and Its Agreed Minutes.

The Oslo accords, as they are better known, are not of much interest to the Palestine movement in the West. When activists in this movement hold maps, they do not look like the one Ehud Olmert offered Mahmoud Abbas, a detailed illustration of every demand Abbas made that shows Israel and Palestine living side by side.

“Free, free Palestine” were the words shouted last night by the anti-Zionist who was arrested for the murder outside the Capital Jewish Museum of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, a young couple who were about to travel to Jerusalem and get engaged to be married. It is the chosen phrase for a great many people, none of whom—not one—envisions a peaceful outcome to this conflict. Yaron and Sarah were the opposite—budding diplomats with a bone-deep desire for peace and coexistence. There is no room for such people in “free, free Palestine.” They worked for the Israeli embassy, where there is always room for such people.

What we owe ourselves, as a community, after this monstrous act is to stop playing along with the gaslighting of those forever trying to wipe us off the face of the earth. May we stop saying or hearing the endlessly insulting formulation that “many Jews interpret” various Hamasnik slogans as threats or incitement or justification for violence against innocents. They are not ambiguous. We don’t interpret these slogans at all. We simply hear them.

“Globalize the intifada” cannot be “interpreted by some Jews as a call for violence.” It simply is. We do not say that when Elias Rodriguez allegedly pointed a loaded gun at Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, his actions were “interpreted by some Jews as a threat.” When he allegedly squeezed the trigger, it was not “interpreted by some Jews” as murder. What he was doing at that moment was globalizing the intifada, just as he’d been told to do for the better part of two years by everyone with a Ph.D.

We Jews can have granular Talmudic discussions on just about anything. The reason we don’t have such debates over “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is because there’s nothing to discuss. Contrary to what you might read in mainstream newspapers, there is no disagreement over what it means. Everyone knows what it means—it is a slogan explicitly (the original phrasing, changed to rhyme in English, is “Palestine is Arab”) calling for genocide. It’s true that some people lie about what it means, or might mean. But that’s not the same thing as there being a genuine debate.

All of these slogans, meanwhile, became more popular with every article citing the negative way “some Jews interpret” them. In other words, this is the message those who use the phrases mean to send. Telling a “pro-Palestinian” activist that Jews hear a call for their own mass murder in those words is the surest way to get that activist to repeat them.

So among other lessons from last night’s globalizing of the intifada is this: Extinguish this insipid gaslight forever. Anti-Semitism is the only kind of hatred that Western society encourages to be smuggled in through euphemism. We are the people of the book; let’s stop letting the world fool us into self-delusions. Let’s stop swallowing the postmodern bunk that holds there are no universal truths, only personal truths.

And perhaps the first universal truth of the oldest hatred is this: Our enemies mean what they say.

[poppyseed-hamantaschen]

Musk supports israel lmao u zio freaks are just now realizing ur allies are nazis? Cant wait until ur fake colony is wiped off the map

hey anon! if you had properly read the post you are referencing for more than two seconds, you would have seen that i was saying that GOYIM, aka NONJEWS aka (probably) YOU are the ones who are "just now realizing" that musk is a nazi. us Jews have been saying it for YEARS AND YEARS now, and none of you are listening! which is why it's so hypocritical of goyim to be now saying "omg, musk is a bad person!!", which was EXACTLY what my meme said. i don't care if he supports Israel, by the way - he is still a bad person. it's also very very VERY interesting that you called me a "zio"....which is a term coined by neonazis. so who's the nazi now, anon? (spoiler alert: it's both of you xx)

also, while we're on the topic of Israel - you claimed that Israel is a "fake colony". well, sorry to burst your misinformed bubble, but Israel has been around for a VERY long time. the Torah (aka the Hebrew Bible) says that Hashem (G-d) created the nation of Israel during our exodus from Egypt, which was approximately between 1476 BCE and 1310 BCE. that's a lot of years ago! and from a secular standpoint, the oldest evidence of human life in Israel (found in a place called Ubediya), dates back to 1.5 MILLION years ago! so, Israel has existed for a very long time :P

i would like to take a second and reaffirm my stance, which is that Israel has the right to exist and defend itself, the hostages need to be brought home NOW, Hamas/Houthis/etc are horrible, innocent Palestinians deserve self-determination and rights, and a two-state solution is the best solution possible

it is VERY interesting that you, a (presumed) leftist hypocrite chose to come into my asks (as an anon, like a coward. if you're gonna be antisemitic, say it to my face) with antisemitic words as a reaction to a post i made about....leftist hypocrisy. don't you have better things to do? go outside. touch some grass. read a book. spend time with friends. bake a cake. seriously, anon, attacking a random Jewish kid on tumblr is not gonna Free Palestine.

anyways. have a lovely day. and remember:

Hindert hayzer zol er hobn, in yeder hoyz a hindert tsimern, in yeder tsimer tsvonsik betn un kadukhes zol im varfn fin eyn bet in der tsveyter.

and

לֹא יִשָּׂא גוֹי אֶל גוֹי חֶרֶב לֹא יִלְמְדוּ עוֹד מִלְחָמָה

[epitome-of-words]

All I Think About is Palestine

All I think about is Palestine.

I sit at my desk at work,

designing buildings 

All I can think is

"70% of homes in Gaza don't exist anymore, they have been reduced to piles of rubble, flattened into the earth by the bombs and tanks of the Israeli Occupation Force"

All I think about is Palestine

I have a discussion

about schooling

with a childhood friend

I mention that 

I minored in Anthropology

All I can think is

"More than 200 heritage and archeological sites in Palestine have been wiped from the map - places of culture and historical significance that the next generation will never see."

All I think about is Palestine

I make myself dinner

in a skillet on my stove

It is not the onion

that is making me cry

I reach for the olive oil

and my hand shakes

All I can think is

"The world's oldest olive trees are burning, and their tenders scream because the olive trees cannot, and then their tenders burn too."

All I think about is Palestine

It is raining outside

I sit by the window

as it tips and taps

agains the glass

warm mug of something

in my hands

All I can think is

"It is illegal, for the people of Palestine to collect rainwater, it is illegal for the people of Palestine to own wells, it seems that to Israel it is illegal for the people of Palestine to be anything but thirsty"

All I think about is Palestine

I go to the craft store 

to buy paint

"It is a punishable offense for Palestinians to create with the colors of their flag - not even to paint a watermelon"

I pull on my favorite sweater

my alma mater's name

emblazoned across the chest

"Every Palestinian University has been bombed by Israel"

I go to the library

for books and to research

"60% of Bookshops and Libraries in Gaza have been decimated, desecrated, and destroyed."

A school bus drives by

full of children

"Many schools in Gaza are no longer places of education, and instead play host to occupying forces who tear up finger paintings and rip up essays, and decide this will be their next military base."

I hear the ambulance no actually

I hear a six year old crying

"I'm so scared, please come"

I watch a mother

put her child in a car seat

"A woman dragged her two children fourteen kilometers, nearly nine miles, in their car seats - do you remember that photo? I remember that photo"

I get my pay stub

fourteen dollars 

goes to my health insurance 

"In Gaza, children are being amputated, women are giving birth, men are undergoing surgery - and there is no anesthesia for any of them"

My birthday was in December

I turned 26

My brother's birthday is in April

He's turning 23

"Motaz just turned 25, Plestia just turned 22, Bisan was born the same year as me."

I pay my taxes

and scream into a pillow

"My money is being used to kill Palestinians"

My mom asks me,

why I don't post 

my makeup looks to Instagram anymore

"It will not help Palestine"

I write to my congressmen

- another shipment of arms goes to Israel

I call my senators

- they put me on hold

I make a donation

- the funds are frozen

All.

I.

Think.

About.

Is.

Palestine.

[archtroop]

No, Israeli kids are innocent of any crimes. The same as Palestinian kids. The problem is the crazy people like you. It's funny to think that your people suffered from a Genocide once and you're now the Nazis committing Genocide. You can say to yourself whatever you want to sleep at night but the truth is what it is: it's not a war, it's not suicide (what a fucking ridiculous notion). It's genocide. Shame you're so brainwashed you can't see what's in front of you.

And yet again, no.

The only Nazis in this equation are HAMAS and their infrastructure.

Anon, you have no leg to stand on this.

Attacking a well armed state, massacring 1200+ people in one day and, what? What do you call this? What you expect to happen next?

Here is the thing. You want the big picture, I'll give you the big picture.

The Islamic Republic of Iran wants to control the Middle East. They fund proxies to ankle-bite those who threaten their supremacy in the region. Like SaudiArabia, Israel and so on by employing: HAMAS, Hezbollah, Houthies etc. They settle roots in places of discord and disarray (Lebanon, Syria...Yemen. West Bank and Gaza. Places with no functional government).

They use Israel as a scapegoat to unite under (Fascism 1.01). They call upon "The Zionist Regime" rhetoric whenever shit hits the fan and they need to blame someone with something. Oldest trick in the book.

The Abraham Accorda are designed so that USA could finally leave the Middle East. UAE and others, had already signed the accords with Isrsel to manifest a solid treaty that would hold the Jihad at bay and will eventually stabilize the region (against threats like IRI and ISIS) by means of finance, strategy and military. Two weeks or so prior to Saudi Arabia signing the accords, Iran gives a nod of approval to HAMAS. The attack on the 7th was premeditated. It was planned for years. The idea is simple: make Israel look bad so that Saudi Arabia won't be happy to sign an agreement with a "weak" country (Israel is the security part in the agreement. SA enjoyed up till recently the security US provided. With deglobalization, this deal is off), and then drag Isrsel into a bloody war in urban terrain in Gaza to make Israel look very bad so Saudi Arabia won't sign with Israel in defense of the Palestinian Cause.

Yes, it was a premeditated suicide. And all of this is a geopolitical known knowledge. Nothing in what I wrote above is new or groundbreaking.

It was never about Palestinians. Or Palestine. It was all just an excuse. All of this, we all are just pawns.

On the world scale, Gaza doesn't matter. That's the sad truth. They were used and thrown away by their leaders. Israel is holding talks with both Egypt and Saudis over how to extract the civilians from this death trap, believe it or not. Both HATE HAMAS and watch all of this unfold and waiting for Israel to declare HAMAS IS NO MORE. Egypt hates HAMAS, a tie in to the Muslim Brotherhood, that has the power to topple the Egyptian secular government (funny how the most affected by Houthies attacks are Egypt, but no one gives a crap).

Gaza is a funnel for aid money. It produces nothing, it exports nothing. They are meaningless on the world map. That's the sad truth. By making Gaza absolutely dependent on UN aid (that never actually used for aid, but to cushion up HAMAS leaders), you have a society that cannot support itself in any way. They don't even have political allies. They are pawns.

Hate HAMAS. Hate IRI.

Or you can hate Israel, the only place where Palestinians from West Bank and Gaza could actually work and get paid. Now they don't have even that.

You know what's the cruelest joke? The accords are on talks and are progressing. There is a route of merchandise that goes right through Saudi Arabia and to Israel and Egypt, by trucks.

All of this. Was for nothing.

It's called Terrorism for a reason.

So, I guess whatever makes you sleep better. Jews did not survive the Holocaust to lie down and take it when another one is knocking on the door.

After the 7th, my emphaty dulled by a huge margin. That you cannot take back. Even symphaty has an expiration date.

There is no Genocide in Gaza. There is a Suicide on a national scale, and that's the harsh truth. And it didn't even make a lick of difference.

The only hope people in Gaza have, is to wake up without HAMAS. And it WILL happen.

Whether you like it or not.

[the-abandoned-director]

Welcome to

[ The Abandoned Trinkets ]

You can call us : Director

We are bodily minor. We are a system.

Pronouns: They/It/El/Elle/He

Sexuality + Gender : Ambi, Quoiromantic Demisexual Diamoric + Genderfluid leaning towards masc genders

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#📺 - is this thing on? (reblogs)

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[blindedcanary]

Posts I've Reblogged - Politics Edition (newest to oldest):

Warning, if you click on keep reading, it is possible you will be bombarded with lots and lots of links. The list may be very long. This sounds sarcastic but I promise you, it's not. This is one collection of my reblogs. I made this for my own sanity and because I like having things organized. Thank you, and this is your final warning.

What is and isn't terrorism by technofeudalism

"Briana Boston faces terrorism charges and CEOs are getting free therapy" by itsbansheebitch

The "your body, my choice" men need to be in prison by voltaspistol

They test it on the minors first by virgoanmaenad

Following Luigi's story by sitcomghost

There's something you need to know about US health insurance by ymcahousewine

If you agree with Luigi you agree with Palestine by ailedandimpaled-deactivated2025

Homeless quilt by softwaring

Tupac Shakur gifs by im-augy

Same as below but w/ additional reblog comments by mothers-and-fuckers-of-the-jury

Luigi Mangione accuses cops of planting evidence by anarchafemme

Who's allowed to kill in this country by meillianna

Deny, Defend, Depose by comikbook

Luigi Mangione "copy cat" by willgrahamscock

Interesting that he had all the necessary evidence by sparklebyte

"In America we do not settle political disagreements with violence" by victusinveritas

Brianna Boston jailed for words by valeriesolanasapologist

NYT discouraging Luigi posts to dissuade sympathy by magnetic-rose

A woman's body is her own fucking business by daily-spooky

Don't purity test him by robot-roadtrip-rants

Jury nullification by magnoliaalchemist

Healthcare CEOs by bruce-waynes-mascara

Insurance stories by victusinveritas

But do we really know he died from the bullet by beggars-opera

Cellblock Tango TikTok edit by r00k-io from miraculousgastropod on TikTok

More CEO shooting memes by space-blue

The CEO assassin is basically an American hero by cornyonmains

CEO shooting memes by hot-wire-this-old-car

When the rich, when the poor by radicalgraff

Let CEO shootings become as common as school shootings by liberalsarecool

Controversial but working full-time should get me an apartment by thememedaddy

Blue Cross Blue Shield no longer paying for anesthesia by mariacallous

Tariffs for dummies by soberscientistlife

MAGA and their families by cosmictreat

Bill that would've given Trump power to target nonprofit fails by iwriteaboutfeminism

Taxing non-profits by purplezeldana

Here's the thing I don't think conservatives understand by yonderlyporcupine-deactivated20

Project 2025 isn't going to happen all at once by themunflower

United we stand, divided we fall by soberscientistlife

Remove the "convicted felon" restriction from jobs by akiizayoi4869

Quick Check: Abortion/LGBTQ rights by allthatispeculiar

Cults by charlesoberonn

Nationwide spam text to Black Americans by everlastingrandom

Patti Lupone by thinking1bee

What Trump will need by bump-inthe-night

"Final Pre-Election 2024 Anti-Trans Risk Assessment Map" by crossdreamers

Everything feels awful rn but it isn't really by unforth

This is a reminder to by sleepystralings

Life doesn't end there by karlachismylife

Whoever is reading this, I love you by cookieinstinct

So many continue to back Trump by fruitydiaz

Wannabe dictator by mariacallous

Hard to swallow pills by lily-orchard-stuff

Tell your daughters what their grandmothers lives were like by usa2024election

NYTimes confirms Elon used Twitter to censor election material by strawlessandbraless

Entry level work shouldn't mean poverty level pay by atokadeco

The human body wasn't made for 3 Trump elections by beauty-funny-trippy

Of course no one wants to work by depsidase

Cher and Bette by animentality

I don't understand this economy by darrylayo

Israel has made it clear it doesn't want a ceasefire by politijohn

Stonewall riots by assignedmale

Book bans by saywhat-politics

Nobody is free till we all are free by defiantart

[foggynightdonut]

The Qibla

The Qibla

According to the Qur'an, the direction of prayer (the Qibla), was canonized (or finalized) towards Mecca for all Muslims in or around 624 AD (see Sura 2:144, 149-150).

Yet, the earliest evidence from outside Muslim tradition regarding the direction in which Muslims prayed, and by implication the location of their sanctuary, points to an area much further north than Mecca, in fact somewhere in north-west Arabia (Crone-Cook 1977:23). Consider the archaeological evidence which has been and is continuing to be uncovered from the first mosques built in the seventh century:

According to archaeological research carried out by Creswell and Fehervari on ancient mosques in the Middle East, two floor-plans from two Umayyad mosques in Iraq, one built at the beginning of the 8th century by the governor Hajjaj in Wasit (noted by Creswell as, "the oldest mosque in Islam of which remains have come down to us" - Creswell 1989:41), and the other attributed to roughly the same period near Baghdad, have Qiblas (the direction which these mosques are facing) which do not face Mecca, but are oriented too far north (Creswell 1969:137ff & 1989:40; Fehervari 1961:89; Crone-Cook 1977:23,173). The Wasit mosque is off by 33 degrees, and the Baghdad mosque is off by 30 degrees (Creswell 1969:137ff; Fehervari 1961:89).

This agrees with Baladhuri's testimony (called the Futuh) that the Qibla of the first mosque in Kufa, Iraq, supposedly constructed in 670 AD (Creswell 1989:41), also lay to the west, when it should have pointed almost directly south (al-Baladhuri's Futuh, ed. by de Goeje 1866:276; Crone 1980:12; Crone-Cook 1977:23,173).

The original ground-plan of the mosque of ‘Amr b. al ‘As, located in Fustat, the garrison town outside Cairo, Egypt shows that the Qibla again pointed too far north and had to be corrected later under the governorship of Qurra b. Sharik (Creswell 1969:37,150). Interestingly this agrees with the later Islamic tradition compiled by Ahmad b. al-Maqrizi that ‘Amr prayed facing slightly south of east, and not towards the south (al-Maqrizi 1326:6; Crone-Cook 1977:24,173).

If you take a map you will find where it is that these mosques were pointing. All four of the above instances position the Qibla not towards Mecca, but much further north, in fact closer possibly to the vicinity of Jerusalem. If, as some Muslims now say, one should not take these findings too seriously as many mosques even today have misdirected Qiblas, then one must wonder why, if the Muslims back then were so incapable of ascertaining directions, they should all happen to be pointing to a singular location; to an area in northern Arabia, and possibly Jerusalem?

We find further corroboration for this direction of prayer by the Christian writer and traveler Jacob of Edessa, who, writing as late as 705 AD was a contemporary eye-witness in Egypt. He maintained that the ‘Mahgraye’ (Greek name for Arabs) in Egypt prayed facing east which was towards their Ka'ba (Crone-Cook 1977:24). His letter (which can be found in the British Museum) is indeed revealing. Therefore, as late as 705 AD the direction of prayer towards Mecca had not yet been canonized.

Note: The mention of a Ka’ba does not necessarily infer Mecca (as so many Muslims have been quick to point out), since there were other Ka’bas in existence during that time, usually in market-towns (Crone-Cook 1977:25,175). It was profitable to build a Ka’ba in these market towns so that the people coming to market could also do their pilgrimage or penitence to the idols contained within. The Ka’ba Jacob of Edessa was referring to was situated at "the patriarchal places of their races," which he also maintains was not in the south. Both the Jews and Arabs (‘Mahgraye’) maintained a common descent from Abraham who was known to have lived and died in Palestine, as has been corroborated by recent archaeological discoveries (see the earlier discussion on the Ebla, Mari and Nuzi tablets, as well as extra-Biblical 10th century references to Abraham in McDowell 1991:98-104). This common descent from Abraham is also corroborated by the Armenian Chronicler, Sebeos, as early as 660 AD (Sebeos 1904:94-96; Crone-Cook 1977:8; Cook 1983:75).

According to Dr. Hawting, who teaches on the sources of Islam at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, a part of the University of London), new archaeological discoveries of mosques in Egypt from the early 700s also show that up till that time the Muslims (or Haggarenes) were indeed praying, not towards Mecca, but towards the north, and possibly Jerusalem. In fact, Dr. Hawting maintains, no mosques have been found from this period (the seventh century) which face towards Mecca (noted from his class lectures in 1995). Hawting cautions, however, that not all of the Qiblas face towards Jerusalem. Some Jordanian mosques have been uncovered which face north, while there are certain North African mosques which face south, implying that there was some confusion as to where the early sanctuary was placed. Yet, the Qur'an tells us (in sura 2) that the direction of the Qibla was fixed towards Mecca by approximately two years after the Hijra, or around 624 AD, and has remained in that direction until the present!

Thus, according to Crone and Cook and Hawting, the combination of the archaeological evidence from Iraq along with the literary evidence from Egypt points unambiguously to a sanctuary [and thus direction of prayer] not in the south, but somewhere in north-west Arabia (or even further north) at least till the end of the seventh century (Crone-Cook 1977:24).

What is happening here? Why are the Qiblas of these early mosques not facing towards Mecca? Why the discrepancy between the Qur'an and that which archaeology as well as documents reveal as late as 705 AD?

Some Muslims argue that perhaps the early Muslims did not know the direction of Mecca. Yet these were desert traders, caravaneers! Their livelihood was dependant on traveling the desert, which has few landmarks, and, because of the sandstorms, no roads. They, above all, knew how to follow the stars. Their lives depended on it. Certainly they knew the difference between the north and the south.

Furthermore, the mosques in Iraq and Egypt were built in civilized urban areas, amongst a sophisticated people who were well adept at finding directions. It is highly unlikely that they would miscalculate their qiblas by so many degrees. How else did they perform the obligatory Hajj, which we are told was also canonized at this time? And why are so many of the mosques facing in the direction of northern Arabia, or possibly Jerusalem? A possible answer may be found by looking at archaeology once again; this time in Jerusalem itself.

In the centre of Jerusalem sits an imposing structure (even today) called the Dome of the Rock, built by ‘Abd al-Malik in 691 AD One will note, however, that the Dome of the Rock is not a mosque, as it has no Qibla (no direction for prayer). It is built as an octagon with eight pillars (Nevo 1994:113), suggesting it was used for circumambulation (to walk around). Thus, it seems to have been built as a sanctuary (Glasse 1991:102). Today it is considered to be the third most holy site in Islam, after Mecca and Medina. Muslims contend that it was built to commemorate the night when Muhammad went up to heaven to speak with Moses and Allah concerning the number of prayers required of the believers (known as the Mi'raj in Arabic) (Glasse 1991:102).

Yet, according to the research carried out on the inscriptions on the walls of the building by Van Berchem and Nevo, they say nothing of the Mi'raj, but state mere polemical quotations which are Qur'anic, though they are aimed primarily at Christians. The inscriptions attest the messianic status of Jesus, the acceptance of the prophets, Muhammad's receipt of revelation, and the use of the terms "Islam" and "Muslim" (Van Berchem 1927:nos.215,217; Nevo 1994:113). Why, if the Dome of the Rock were built to commemorate that momentous event, does it saying nothing about it? Perhaps this building was built for other purposes than that of commemorating the Mi'raj. The fact that such an imposing structure was built so early suggests that this and not Mecca became the sanctuary and the centre of a nascent Islam up until at least the late seventh century, (Van Bercham 1927:217)!

From what we read earlier of Muhammad's intention to fulfill his and the Hagarene’s birthright, by taking back the land of Abraham, or Palestine, it makes sense that the caliph ‘Abd al-Malik would build this structure as the centre-piece of that fulfillment. Is it no wonder then, that when ‘Abd al-Malik built the dome in which he proclaimed the prophetic mission of Muhammad, he placed it over the temple rock itself (Van Berchem 1927:217).

According to Islamic tradition, the caliph Suleyman, who reigned as late as 715-717 AD, went to Mecca to ask about the Hajj. He was not satisfied with the response he received there, and so chose to follow ‘abd al-Malik (i.e. traveling to the Dome of the Rock) (note: not to be confused with the Imam, Malik b. Anas who, because he was born in 712 AD would have been only three years old at the time). This fact alone, according to Dr. Hawting at SOAS, points out that there was still some confusion as to where the sanctuary was to be located as late as the early eighth century. It seems that Mecca was only now (sixty years after the Muhammad’s death) taking on the role as the religious centre of Islam. One can therefore understand why, according to tradition, Walid I, who reigned as Caliph between 705 and 715 AD, wrote to all the regions ordering the demolition and enlargement of the mosques (refer to `Kitab al-`uyun wa'l-hada'iq,' edited by M. de Goeje and P. de Jong 1869:4). Could it be that at this time the Qiblas were then aligned towards Mecca? If so it points to a glaring contradiction to the Qur'an which established Mecca as the sanctuary and thus direction for prayer during the lifetime of Muhammad some eighty to ninety years earlier (see Sura 2:144-150).

And that is not all, for we have other archaeological and inscripted evidence which point up differences with that which we read in the Qur'an.

[fleursetrebellion]

Theres this weird thing I think about sometimes while I'm reading about ancient history.

So, in the middle of the modern city of Jericho, just eyeshot from a dentist, a hotel, a restaurant, etc, is the ruins of the Ancient City of Jericho and its famous wall. For background, Jericho is a city which has continuously had people living in it for 11,000 years. It wasn't always a city, it was a little town for a couple thousand years. But I think for the last 9,000 years it has been city-like or a real city. Today the oldest surviving parts of the city have been turned into an archaeological site, while many other parts have been gradually updated with time to modern buildings, or been leveled by war. Archaeologists wonder what other neolithic finds could be buried beneath businesses and homes.

Two side-by-side photos from Old Jericho, both downloaded from Google Maps. The left photo shows the excavated floor of a neolithic building. The right photo shows the view of the modern city from the same place, which is noticeably modern and sprawling.

I sometimes imagine what it would be like to work at your normal wage-labor job every day, living paycheck to paycheck like everyone does these days. And on your walk to work you pass a cluster of buildings older than the concept of money, older than written language, older than the concept of nations and kings, older than the concept of cities... and then you keep walking to work.

If this was the end, that would already be enough to make me want to scream. But the thing is that Jericho is in Palestine. So as you walk, literally across the street from this ancient city, you also see a thing I only learned about today: the Ein as-Sultan refugee camp. It's populated by refugees of Israeli attacks, or Palestinians who were denied access to affordable housing by Israeli housing authorities. It's a large neighborhood, but still dwarfed by the ruins of that city built before the first king was ever crowned. The famed wall of Jericho is nothing but clumps of dirt now.

[thethief1996]

Israel has built a wall around Gaza. The wall encompasses the entirety of Gaza, built under and above ground, blocking access to sea, with movement sensors that detect whenever anybody tries to leave. The walls to Gaza are heavily patrolled and the entire territory suffers under a 40 year old blockade that doesn't allow food, inputs and construction materials inside. Gaza has become a gigantic concentration camp, built with the intention to trap Palestinians in a land where they will starve without water or food or be killed by constant bombings, without being able to even escape by sea.

Israel is not only a settler apartheid state, it's a genocidal state. They coat themselves in legal terms but not even the international community recognizes their constant invasions and annexations (this link is very useful and maps the annexation of Palestine since before 1948).

In their attempt to turn Jerusalem into an entirely Israeli city, settlers have vandalized the El Kurd home again, painting over resistance graffiti, and complaints resulted in Muna El Kurd being arrested again (she and her twin, Mohammed, were arrested in June with no charges and Muna was taken to the doors of Moscobiyeh, a prison well known for using torture, before being released). Settlers stoned a car with a resident inside and marched through the neighborhood carrying Israeli flags.

Besides that, Silwan residents are being kicked out of their homes with no previous warning by settlers, under a series of excuses, including owed debts and the building of an archeological site of the City of David. It's worth remembering Israel only grants 30% of Palestinian building permits. These people are homeless, children are sleeping in their cars as Israelis come with bulldozers and illegally destroy their homes.

In Masafer Yatta, they're building farms to expel Palestinians and annexate their land, with no justification whatsoever. Settlers have uprooted olive trees, during harvest time, and set free sheep.

They're digging up graves on Al Yusufiyah, one of the oldest muslim cemeteries in the world, to build a biblical park. The IOF soldiers have killed a teenager and withheld his body, a common practic that amounts to collective punishment to the grieving families, only to give back another deceased teenager.

These are all news from last month. I'm not saying this so you'll lose hope, but just so you're aware that there's a genocide being carried out. It's hard to imagine the suffering of these people because the media frames the natural state of Palestinians' lives as war, but picture yourself and your neighbors in the place of Palestinians in these news. Be loud about it, let as many people know about this because the status quo is to stand by Israel, unquestioning.

While all this happens, Miss Universe is being held, the contestants wearing thobes and singing palestinian folk songs, saying they're living a day in the life of a Bedouin, under the claim of experiencing "Israeli" culture. It's so insidious that Israel is promoting an event on besieged land and acting like Palestinians never existed, like their culture was invented by them.

Here are some resources on how to organize and keep yourself updated on Palestine:

Eye on Palestine on twitter and Instagram

Mohammed El Kurd on twitter and Instagram

Muna El Kurd on Instagram

Grassroots Al Quds on twitter and instagram

IMEU on twitter and instagram

In Brasil: Juventude Palestina Sanaúd on instagram

In Ireland: Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign

Follow BDS all over the world

A constantly updating link to protests around the world - if you know one that's not on the list, you can email them and they'll add it

A link to resources by Samidoun Network on instagram

Once again, don't look away from Palestine. Decolonization has happened before, with Argelia and Ghana and so many other countries, and within our lifetime, Palestine will be free.

[sbahour]

Today, I visited the village of al-Walaja, on the other side of Bethlehem, on the Green Line, to meet the village mayor and a group of activists working to save the village. On our way to the meeting we passed several homes that were recently demolished by Israel.

This village is under attack by Israel. After the original village was depopulated in 1948 the new village of al-Walaja, east of the Green Line, is now walled in and dozens of homes are under demolition orders. The majority of the village is classified as "Area C" and it is surrounded by the illegal Israeli settlements of Gilo and Har Gilo. The village is in a legal struggle to get the Israeli occupation authorities to allow the village to have a Master Plan so they can legally build, which to date they have refused to allow. The case is live...more on this shortly.

Landscape photo: From the rooftop of a home under construction in new al-Walaja, which is under a demolition order, looking toward the original village of al-Walaja that was depopulated in 1948. In the valley is the railroad that was part of the Hejaz railway that went from Damascus to Medina. To the right is the Separation Wall and associated security road.

Photo of activists: The village mayor and a group of village activists, along with an Israeli friend and his wife who are working in solidarity with the village.

Olive grove photo: In the middle of the olive grove sits the oldest olive tree in Palestine. Under the tree, not seen in the photo, is a security guard who keeps watch on the tree so settlers do not uproot it. (More here https://thisweekinpalestine.com/the-ancient-olive-tree/)

Satellite map: Shows the location of alWalaja.

Learn more here:

https://www.btselem.org/jerusalem/dispossession_and_home_demolitions_in_al_walajah

#Palestine #Israel #alWalaja

[rvexillology]

Jerusalem under the United Nations

from /r/vexillology Top comment: According to 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, Jerusalem would be placed under an international regime to defend its religious importance to three of the world's major religions. The General Assembly proposed a *corpus separatum*, as described in Resolution 181, for the city to be *"under a special international regime and shall be administered by the United Nations"*. The flag of Jerusalem combines three religious symbols to represent the Abrahamic faiths which consider Jerusalem to be their Holy City: 1. Al-Quds Star – the outer octagram, an adaptation of the Islamic symbol of Rub el Hizb, which represents the City of Jerusalem. The eight-pointed design is inspired by the octagonal shape of Dome of the Rock shrine. 2. Cross – stylized Greek cross representing the various Christian denominations, including Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Ancient Eastern Churches. 3. Six-Pointed Star – stylized representation of the Star of David, its location in the center representing Judaism's importance as the oldest of the three faiths and the native faith of Jerusalem. The three symbols radiate from one another, representing the historical relationship between the three faiths and their evolutions. Created for the [International City of Jerusalem](https://www.reddit.com/r/imaginarymaps/comments/icbr00/international_city_of_jerusalem_holy_city_of_the/) map on r/imaginarymaps.

[miochimochi]

That's a bit of an issue. Palestine as a singular unified nation wasn't ever a thing until relatively recently. It was a province and geographical region long before it was a nation. The Greeks referred to the costal Levant down into Egypt as all being Palestine. The Romans named the province that included the Levant and beyond Provincia Syria Palastina. But we don't have maps of these areas made at the time. The oldest map depicting the area I can find is in the 6th century AD, which still held no nation called Palestine, but there were 3 provinces under the Byzantine empire called Palaestina Prima/Secunda/Tertia. The first time a Palestinian nation came into being was as a mandate of the UK in 1920. The Palestinian states that we know of now were originally as the Gaza Protectorate (1948-59) of the UK which was also occupied by the United Arab Republic during that time (1948-67) and Jordanian Annexed West Bank (1950-88). Middle Eastern geopolitics is a clusterfuck thanks mostly to the British... but anyways, if you want to get at the root of Palestine, then you'll be starting with the Canaanites, from which the Israelites branched off from, and then the Muslim conquests made the area more Arabic. Canaanites and Arabs are both Semitic groups, but from two different Central Semitic branches. Our maps of the area from that long ago were pieced together from later maps and historical accounts written during the time period, but you're not going to find a Palestinian nation until the 1900s.

Anyone know where one could find more maps of Palestine before 1948?

Lately I have been curious about how Palestine looked before the British decided to give a hunk of their land to the Jewish immigrants so they could found Israel and I had problems finding information on the internet. Don’t know if I just didn’t try hard enough, but with their deal with google, I thought Israel might try to bury any maps of the area before they were founded so to erase any mentions of Palestine so I went to the local library(hope that they never disappear) and I found what I was looking for. When I compared those maps to one of modern Israel, I was surprised, and at the same time not, how much of the land they had taken from Palestine. Though anyone could probably guess that from how Gaza and the West Bank are separated by Israel like an inland ocean despite belonging to the same country. That makes me angry because of how much the West took from Palestine and didn’t even consider if they could take that many immigrants? That area is not that big and most of these people have never been to Palestine before! Also, I have read from many sources that the area has been Palestine since the Roman Empire occupied it, maybe even before then! And to top it off, despite having been conquered by different countries and empires, the area has never really changed name! Meaning that despite what the zionists say, Jerusalem is a Palestinian city and you can tell that from their history and culture. Palestine has a mix of Muslims, Christians and Jews and probably more and that’s what Jerusalem is supposed to be about! To be a city where people of these religions can come together and pray. To live together and be able to practice their faith without discrimination! Does that sound like the occupied Jerusalem that you know today?

Israel has poisoned this great city for their own pride by treating it like a trophy instead of a place of worship and they are not the only ones. Maybe the Palestinians have been the only ones who have never seen the city like something to be owned and cared about being able to visit it and pray there. If you ask me the Israeli shouldn’t have Jerusalem, not just because I think it should be given back to Palestine, but because they don’t understand its importance to every practicing Muslim, Jew and Christian and why it exists.

Sorry about the soap box speech when I asked you about maps, it just had been on my mind this week. If you think I’m just pulling this out of a hat, one of maps I used is from the book “atlas of world history” so you can check it out for yourself.

[drtanstravels]

We recently stayed in Tel Aviv, Israel for four days so Anna could attend a teaching seminar for the International Retinal Panel. During our stay we would take a tour of Jerusalem, travel along the West Bank while venturing into Palestine, visit the ancient village of Masada, and then float and get all muddy in the Dead Sea. All of the main events happened in the final two days of the trip so this will just be a relatively short post in comparison, covering the initial two days of our journey, both spent in Tel Aviv.

Friday, November 1, 2019 We had left Singapore at 11:30pm the previous night, took an 11.5-hour flight to Turkey, had a 90-minute layover in Istanbul Airport, and then took another two-hour flight to Tel Aviv. When we were in Seoul, South Korea recently we got chatting to some friends of mine who had traveled to Israel in the past and the nightmares they had faced going through immigration once they had reached Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. One of them even told us about how he got cavity-searched, so we were both prepared for the worst. Once we were off the plane and inside the airport I cringed a bit when the first security guard snapped on a pair of disposable gloves, but it turned out to be just for him to search through our hand luggage. After that the line at the passport counter was taking forever, but it turned out that the reason the queue was taking so long to move was because we just had a really talkative guy checking our passports and when he first saw my Australian document, he looked up, gave me a curious look, and asked, “Do you watch Home and Away?” I smiled and mentioned that my sister used to have it on every night back in the day and that was it. We had to ask for entry border crossing cards, a separate slip of paper to be put into our passports instead of a stamp, because having an Israeli passport stamp can cause quite a bit of trouble when traveling overseas. There are currently eight countries that won’t accept passports containing Israeli visas, the most notable one being Saudi Arabia, a country to which we may need to travel one day. There are also quite a few countries whose passport holders are forbidden entrance to Israel without official confirmation from the Israeli government, Malaysia being on that list, so one of Anna’s colleagues was unable to attend. In fact, if Anna hadn’t taken Singaporean citizenship after we got married, this journey would never have happened.

As has been a pattern over recent trips, we arrived in Tel Aviv early in the morning, well before our hotel room was available so we dumped our bags with the concierge and decided to have a look around town. We were staying at the Crowne Plaza, which had an attached shopping mall so that was our first stop, mainly for a much-needed coffee and a couple of pastries, and then we discovered that there was a park and shopping district nearby called Sarona, a place with an interesting history:

Sarona was a German Templer colony established in Ottoman Palestine in 1871. Sarona is now a neighbourhood of Tel Aviv, Israel. It was one of the earliest modern villages established by Europeans in Ottoman Palestine. In July 1941, the British Mandate authorities deported 188 residents of Sarona, who were considered hard-core Nazi sympathisers. By the 2000s, the area had fallen into disrepair and was a haven for drug addicts. However, since 2003, the area has undergone massive renovation, which involved moving and relocating historical buildings before their restoration. The area is now a popular shopping district, as well as housing museums, cultural artefacts centring on its history, and IDF complexes.

Walking around Sarona was really cool with its mix of shops, bars, and cafes, as well as the Sarona Market. When Anna was purchasing a ring in one of the stores she asked for some recommendations in the area and the first one immediately given was Anita, a boutique ice-cream store. We initially thought this was a one-off, but we ended up finding incredible ice-cream shops all over the city. Anyway, we ordered a cup with two flavours, Pavlova & Mix Berries and Salted Pretzel, before we continued walking around, visiting among other shops a handmade dreidel store called Draydel House, a place with some unique takes on the spinning tops, and then it was on to Sarona Market. The market had some great looking food and there were plenty of free samples, but as you will find out over the course of this post and the next, it wasn’t an accurate representation of kosher food. We walked around sampling different cheeses, pickles, and halva, possibly the driest substance on earth. Seriously, dust is more mouth-watering than halva. Another thing that Israel is known for is pomegranate juice, generally used for detoxing, so we ordered a large one each, a decision we would later deeply regret and one that would also put the pair of us off pomegranates for the foreseeable future, despite how nice it tasted. Once we were done with the market and walking around the gardens in Sarona, we were able to check into our room at the Crowne Plaza at around 2:00pm and take a nap for a bit. Our day up until that point (besides the awesome pickle store in the market that wouldn’t let me take photos):

Anna near the entrance of Sarona

The way Sarona is set up is really cool

Looking down a row of stores

A map of Sarona in Hebrew

Anna’s dreidel

The dreidel Anna would probably get for me

Some of the ice-cream flavours available at Anita

A few more

They also had a custom soft-serve yoghurt bar

Anna about to buy ours

Our sweet and salty combination was definitely a good mix

Halva inside the market

One of the food stall rows

There is a huge variety available in this market

Unfortunately, not all Israeli food is as good as this looks

Anna in the garden

Now in our room

After sleeping for a bit we caught a cab to the waterfront, which is split into two parts; Alma Beach, a modern seaside area, and the Old City area of Jaffa. Most modern beach areas are similar, whereas ancient cities are always fascinating so Jaffa was the obvious choice to spend some time exploring first. It would be nigh on impossible to summarise the history of a 3,800-year-old port city in the Middle East, but here’s the general background:

Jaffa, in Hebrew Yafo and also called Japho or Joppa, the southern and oldest part of Tel Aviv–Yafo, is an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical stories of Jonah, Solomon and Saint Peter as well as the mythological story of Andromeda and Perseus, and later for its oranges. The city as such was established at the latest around 1800 BCE.

Modern Jaffa has a heterogeneous population of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Jaffa currently has 46,000 residents, of whom 30,000 are Jews and 16,000 are Arabs. The 2010 film Port of Memory explores these themes. Tabeetha School in Jaffa was founded in 1863. It is owned by the Church of Scotland. The school provides education in English to children from Christian, Jewish and Muslim backgrounds.

Our taxi driver was an elderly man who kept explaining to us along the way that Tel Aviv was a party city, that around 69% of people there were aged between 30-40, and that we’d be among the older people out that night. I wasn’t expecting that, but another thing we weren’t expecting was the fact that the sun sets in Tel Aviv before 5:00pm, it’s almost as if the city is in the entirely wrong timezone and is something that would throw our body clocks off for the duration of this trip. When it had been dark there for a few hours, you’d be led to think it was getting kind of late when in reality it was only about eight o’clock in the evening. So, despite the fact that we arrived at Jaffa at 4:30pm, the sun was already setting, but this just made the place that much more beautiful. We spent the evening wandering through the narrow streets and laneways of Jaffa, taking in all of the ancient buildings, towers, and structures, plus the major landmarks in the area such as Jaffa Lighthouse, Clock Square, and the coastal canons, all while the sun set over the ocean.

After all of that walking we were beginning to get hungry and the waterside restaurants at Alma Beach were supposed to be pretty decent so we chose one called Manta Ray for dinner where we sat outdoors with some drinks and feasted on some selections from their great meze platter, as well as a grilled fish. We were to meet the organisers and other attendees of Anna’s course at 9:30pm after everyone had arrived in town, but it was barely 7:30pm by the time we finished dinner so we found a nearby shisha bar for a few more drinks and a pipe. After a while we both began to bloat up, neither of us could stop farting, and I was burping constantly, feeling the need to vomit. It was too soon after dinner to be from the fish or the meze dishes we chose, I had already checked that the water was safe to drink so that wasn’t it, coffee, pastries, and ice-cream don’t have this effect on me, and nothing else we had tried had been a large enough sample to make us sick. Except for the pomegranate juice, that is. We had drunk about a litre (33.8 fl. oz.) each several hours ago and it now seemed like we were paying for it, however, we couldn’t be 100% certain. Whatever it was, we both wanted to go back to the hotel and let it all out, resulting in me violently throwing up for a few minutes once inside, but then we felt reasonably fine as soon as we were both empty.

We met up with Anna’s course-mates in the lobby of our hotel and we walked down to a pub in another nearby part of town where everyone chatted over some beers, while those who hadn’t eaten had dinner. It was a really fun night and Anna decided to ask one of the local organisers, Tamir, if it could’ve been the pomegranate juice that bloated us. He said it’s good for you, most people just take a small glass and share it. When she told him that we’d had a litre each he was gobsmacked. “That’s not detox, that’s just tox!” was the response. Here are a whole bunch of photos from around Jaffa that evening, plus a couple of our dinner and the shisha bar before we bloated up like a couple of non-embalmed corpses:

Hashan Square

Anna and and I on the peninsula

Part of Jaffa from a distance

Looking over the ocean

People washing their hands

One of the coastal canons, imported by the Ottoman government in the 18th century to protect Jaffa from Bedouin raids

Overlooking a mosque

You can even find cool bars in towns dating back to the bronze age

Walking down a wide thoroughfare

The sun setting over the ocean

A museum surrounded by shops

Walking down an avenue

Anna posing in an alley

One of many interesting sculptures in Jaffa

The view of Clock Square from a very narrow stairway

We were both wondering if this was the Jewish equivalent of leaving your tie on the door handle so your roommate knows you have a girl inside

Etzel House

Dinner is served

We chose a few dishes from this platter

Baked blue bream with Jerusalem artichokes

Smoking a shisha while we both rapidly expand

Saturday, November 2, 2019 Anna was going to her course so I was free to do my own thing for the bulk of the day, but there was one small problem — Saturday is the sabbath, also known as Shabbat in Judaism, and this would severely limit what I was able to do due to many actions being classed as melakhah and thus being prohibited on this day of rest or historically punishable by death! Here’s a better description of melakhah:

Jewish law (halakha) prohibits doing any form of melakhah (מְלָאכָה, plural melakhoth) on Shabbat, unless an urgent human or medical need is life-threatening. Though melakhah is commonly translated as “work” in English, a better definition is “deliberate activity” or “skill and craftmanship”. There are 39 categories of prohibited activities (melakhoth) listed in Mishnah Tractate Shabbat 7:2.

Some acts forbidden on Shabbat include:

Threshing/Extraction Definition: Removal of an undesirable outer from a desirable inner.

Dissection Definition: Reducing an earth-borne thing’s size for a productive purpose.

Kneading/Amalgamation Definition: Combining particles into a semi-solid or solid mass via liquid.

Cooking/Baking Definition for solids: Changing the properties of something via heat. Definition for liquids: Bringing a liquid’s temperature to the heat threshold. This threshold is known as yad soledet (lit. “A hand reflexively recoils [due to such heat]”). According to Igrot Moshe this temperature is 43 °C (110 °F).

Extinguishing a Fire Definition: Extinguishing a fire/flame, or diminishing its intensity.

Ignition: Definition: Igniting, fuelling or spreading a fire/flame.

Transferring Between Domains Definition: Transferring something from one domain type to another domain type, or transferring within a public thoroughfare.

Now, some of you reading this are probably thinking, “Why would you care, you’re not Jewish.” This is true, however, despite me seeing fewer Orthodox Jews in Israel than I did on any given day in New York City, prohibition of melakhah on Shabbat is enforced by law, although not to an extreme. Although no shops would be open, these restrictions would severely limit my food purchasing options. Because it had been powered down for Shabbat, I pushed my way through the revolving door to exit the hotel and hit the street. I was quite hungry due to the fact that I had vomited everything I had eaten the previous evening so I figured I might get lucky finding somewhere open to eat at Sarona. I saw a cafe with people all around it so that’s where I went and I ordered the egg white omelette on the menu, which came with some bread and a side salad. I guess the hotplate must’ve been kept burning from the previous day and eggs aren’t really a solid or liquid so changing their properties via heat would be fine. Salad was also okay because the form of the lettuce doesn’t change, only the size, and it was cut quite large so it wasn’t done to make it into a more usable, productive state. The bread had obviously been made the previous day and when it came to dissection of the food in order to eat, that was all on me, not the cafe. Juice wasn’t an option due to threshing/extraction, but it was when I ordered a latte that things got weird. The waiter told me that he could only offer me a “very weak coffee” which was the result of the water and milk only being heated to about 40°C in keeping with the law, a temperature that also isn’t really hot enough for the coffee to properly infuse the water, thus making it not very strong. It actually turned out to be infinitely easier to get a beer anywhere in town that morning than coffee. My order at the cafe was able to be brought from the kitchen to my table, and also to diners who were seated outside, without transferring between domains due to the installation of an eruv, described as:

An urban area enclosed by a wire boundary which symbolically extends the private domain of Jewish households into public areas, permitting activities within it that are normally forbidden in public on the Sabbath.

Although the Jewish community must strictly adhere to laws of prohibition on Shabbat, going to the effort of building eruvs and heating liquids to a slightly cooler temperature than normal seem like ways of pranking an almighty deity who is easily fooled by the loopholes in the rules he wrote. Then I remembered this scene from the documentary Religulous:

After eating I decided to have a look around the beach area, making my way there via the main shopping district en route, but obviously everything was closed except for bars, restaurants, and cafes and wouldn’t be opening again until late in the evening or within the next few days. I was also having trouble getting cash out of an ATM again and this time I wasn’t sure whether the machines weren’t accepting my card or were just unable to function in general. I arrived at the beach and it was quite nice with a bunch more seaside bars and restaurants, as well as plenty of entertainment, some of which was unintentionally funny. There was Israeli folk dancing that happens at Gordon Beach every Saturday, as well as a big outdoor gym area where meatheads could work out like in Venice Beach, California, all just grunting, flexing, and slapping butts. Instead, I walked out along the pier to a lighthouse, just taking in the sights. It was a nice walk, but I could feel myself getting sunburnt so I went back to a shaded area along the shore to sit down with a bunch of senior citizens for a bit and that’s where I got the biggest laugh of the day. There were three guys working out there, one was absolutely ripped and doing chin-ups and some other impressive feats on horizontal bars directly in front of us, another was doing push ups, all the while giving the third guy tips on capoeira moves. If you are unaware of what capoeira is, it’s a Brazilian martial art that combines acrobatics, dancing, and complex moves involving hand plants, kicks, and flips (that link is a video that will give you a decent idea). The only problem was that the guy trying to do it wasn’t particularly good at capoeira so I found myself sitting there with a bunch of confused older people who were innocently trying to figure out why a muscly dude was doing cartwheels in the sand in front of several other muscly guys. It was a hot day, a dry heat compared to the insane humidity of Singapore, but I had no cash for a drink so I had a sip out of the drinking fountain where people also washed the sand off their feet, and walked for forty minutes back to the hotel, passing a cheese shop that you could smell before you could see, despite it being closed, along the way. Once back I killed two birds with one stone, grabbing a bottle of sparkling water from the minibar and making an instant coffee in the room, which turned into mud when I added water, but it still gave me the caffeine fix I had been lacking. I also managed to get cash out of an ATM next our hotel and Anna was still going to be a while so I planted myself in a bar back in Sarona for a few hours until she was done.

My kosher Shabbat breakfast with very weak coffee

Walking into town

At the beach

Looking down the boardwalk and across the road

Some huts near the ocean

Now walking down the promenade

Was Banksy in town?

More art, this time honouring the older community

Israeli folk-dancing

Beanbags on the beach

One of many cafes along the promenade

Coming over a little cloudy

That’s better

Waves crashing along the pier

A lighthouse at the end

I’m still trying to figure out if this building had caught fire or was just art-deco

The cheese shop on the way home. I wish it was open

The bottom of my instant mud coffee

Anna was soon back from her teaching and we had a dinner that night with everyone else involved in the course. This meant taking a minibus with the International Retinal Panel crew back to a restaurant at the beach, Anna’s first venture into that area of Tel Aviv, so we had a look around the boardwalk and took a few photos first. It was nice to hang out with everyone while we were feeling 100%, they were really cool people and an interesting mix of nationalities, some local, others coming from Columbia, Italy, India, France, Argentina, China, and a multitude of other other countries. The restaurant we went to looked good, but the entire group, myself included, consisted of about 30 people, taking up two massive tables, and the platters we received, two per table, were to be shared. The problem with this system was that Anna, myself, and a few others were tucked away in a corner on the back table and our food and drinks kept failing to appear. Everyone else received a meze platter except us, we waited about 20 minutes and then had to ask for it, as well as remind the staff that we had also ordered drinks. When it finally arrived, the other areas of both tables were receiving a grilled fish that looked delicious, but when we finished our platter the fish never arrived, nor did the second drink I ordered. We asked about the fish and when it finally came ours was just what seemed like fish offcuts including several heads, all of which was deep-fried to the point that it was so crunchy it was pretty much inedible. We didn’t bother eating much of it, that second beer never came, and everyone that was there for the course had homework to do so we got back in the bus, the interior blue light making my Rick and Morty “Pickle Rick” shirt appear as if it were covered in turds, and we went back to the hotel, them to do group work and me to have a couple of drinks at the hotel bar until it closed.

Anna’s first stroll along this area of the beach

The boardwalk at night

All of the people involved in Anna’s course

A merry-go-round

Some of the food has arrived, but it also looks like others are asking for stuff that hasn’t

If our fish were pork, it would’ve been the parts that go into a sausage roll

Definitely looks like faeces

Tel Aviv is such a cool city and nothing like we expected, yet a completely hidden gem when it comes to traveling, but this was just the beginning! Stay tuned for the next instalment when we do all the cool stuff you would expect one to do while in Israel that in no way would fit into this post, like visiting Jerusalem and floating in the Dead Sea.

The first two days of our four-night trip to Israel We recently stayed in Tel Aviv, Israel for four days so Anna could attend a teaching seminar for the International Retinal Panel.