So this blog post is way over due but I haven't been in the head space to write about the political situation in Israel so I felt like waiting a bit. As I think everyone knows right now, this summer has been a pretty challenging time to be in Israel due to the conflict in Gaza. Also, if you have Facebook, then you have probably realized that everyone has a opinion, or three. In Israel, one way to express political opinions is through graffiti. What's interesting about the graffiti is although it is mostly crated by leftest progressives occasionally you can find or read something from another point of few. It's everywhere and it challenges itself. It's way more artistic and fascinating than Facebook but kind of shares the same dilemma of the situation.
There is an organization called T'urah: the rabbic call for human rights. They put on events for Rabbi's and Rabbinical students (and ED students!) so that we can be exposed to a wide variety of topics concerning human rights in Israel. The first event was a graffiti around the city center. It was so neat to look at the pictrures on the bildings that we see everyday and think about them in a whole new light. Talking about grafeeitt quickly became a conversation that resembled a text study. Evryone had differnt interpretations and diffferent ideas about what the arisit could be refrencing. Some of the graffiti we saw did have biblical refrences which was neat to see and read.
One piece that stuck with me was the one featured in the picture on the top right, "Hakol Beseder" Hakol Besder is a phrase I probably say every day. It means "all is ok" and we talked about this one for awhile in whether or no the artist crested this with a sarcastic tone or not. One of my peers said that she had seen this on bus stops and felt that it was a call to remind people that all is, HaKol Beseder and that no one should be worried about riding the bus. Others felt as if it was talking about the Jerusalem bubble. How can we act as if all is ok, when things in Israel are truly not ok? We live our day to days lives with very little interaction with the terror that is happening 3 hours away. What does it mean for all to be "ok?" Right now Jerusalem continues to be safe, I continue to live my personal day to day life in peace. However, when I see the graffiti i know how lucky am I to be able to say that right now things for me are, HaKol Beseder..
top left: Little boy with gun
top right: HaKol Beseder
Bottom Left: Quote about wanting to get with a girl but then not having the courage to say anything except for, "do you have a light" - felt very Israeli/ universal to me
Bottom Right: War is not hummus (interpret this for yourself!)
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