A day in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem)

Givat Ram Campus, HUJ
On Thursday I met at the Hebrew University-Givat Ram campus in Jerusalem with Anna Hazan, former head of the department for local development in the Ministry of Interior (MOI). Ms. Hazan had worked in the MOI for many years before deciding last year to leave her position due to professional disagreements. As one who had worked in the public sector for many years, she knew not only a lot about municipal boundary allocations, property tax, and local council dynamics, as part of her specific position, but also a lot about the Israeli political system in general. Thus, in our hour and a half conversation, I was able to get a very good inside scoop into the political realities of the state of Israel. Ms. Hazan expressed a lot of criticism but also a lot of hope for the Israeli system. She made clear that while Israel does have her problems, we must remember that we live in an area and in a strategic and political reality unlike, perhaps, ANY other country in the world; While striving to maintain a status of a modern democracy, Israel's geographical location and unique traits make life here much harder.

In our discussion of the status of the Arabs in Israel, Ms. Hazan stressed how complex the situation is and how many facets it holds. Her specific opinions on different issues I will not share here, for I will keep those for the actual thesis paper I will write on the topic. All I will say is that Ms. Hazan concluded our conversation on the topic by saying that the complexity of the situation may never lead us to move away from the status quo- whether this is a good or bad thing, again, I will leave for the actual paper.

While in Jerusalem I noticed with more distinction than in other places in the country the presence of two populations in particular; Orthodox Jews (Haredim) and soldiers. This was only a passing observation, but one which Ms. Hazan said was statistically also true, and in any case is interesting to note. The reasons for this many seem obvious, considering that Jerusalem is both the capital city and the "holy city", which would explain the high presence of Orthodox Jews.

On a different note, before leaving Zichron on Wednesday afternoon to Jerusalem, I attended a rally for the abducted soldier of four years, Gilad Shalit. The rally was well attended, indicating wide support for the family who is on a ten day journey by foot to Jerusalem in protest of the unsuccessful attempts in the past four years of bringing Gilad home. The issue of Gilad Shalit has become a big debate in public discourse, because of the divide and conflict between the need to free the abducted soldier at "all costs" and the need to maintain internal security and thus follow regular Israeli policy guidelines; thus not agreeing to "at all costs", a statement that PM Benjamin Netanyahu made clear just two days ago.

Rally for Gilad Shalit