I remember as a kid in Chicago how I used to walk around the house (and neighborhood) and try to find the best spot for reception on my shortwave radio. In those days, tuning in to Israel Radio was like catching an ephemeral glimpse of far away land. At 4pm in the afternoon, I would tune in Reshet Bet and listen to the 6am Boker Tov announcement which included the incredible recital of the Shema and then the top of the morning news.
Nowadays, perhaps the mystery and anticipation are gone, but the fun is still there. Now you can listen to many thousands of radio stations around the world with a simple click of a link on your internet browser. In fact, now that I live in Israel, I listen to Chicago radio stations with the same nostalgia as I did as a kid tuning in from the other side of the world to hear the sounds of Israel.
Here are the most popular Israel Radio selections available for you to tune in live now. Simply click on a link, and your Windows Media Player will open and begin to play the selected channel.
Israel has worked hard to shed its old image of producing cheesy ethnic insider, one or no-joke movies.
Today’s Israeli movie scene has produced some very creative, critically acclaimed on an international level. There are many dozens of quality films that have been produced in Israel in the past decade.
Highlighted here are five of the top modern movies filmed here in Israel in recent years. All of these films are must-sees.
1. The Band’s Visit - 2007 ביקור התזמורת IMDB Listing
This movie won Best Picture in 2007 in Israel’s equivalent of the Academy Awards. Starring popular and acclaimed Israeli actor Sasson Gabai, (The Impossible Spy, Rambo III, Made in Israel).
Synopsis: An Egyptian Police Force band come to Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center, yet end up lost in the wrong town with a similar sounding name.
Film critic Roger Ebert gave this film four stars and sums it up well:
They are in the middle of the Israeli desert, having taken the wrong bus to the wrong destination. Another bus will not come until tomorrow. “The Band’s Visit” begins with this premise, which could supply the makings of a comedy, and turns into a quiet, sympathetic film about the loneliness that surrounds us. Oh, and there is some comedy, after all.
2. Beaufort (2007) - This Oscar nominated film for Best Foreign Picture is the story of a group of Israeli soldiers stationed at an outpost prior to the withdrawal of forces from Lebanon in 2000. This movie cuts into the pathos of Israelis and their understanding about war, life in the Middle East, and obligation to country. New York Times review aptly remarks that this is not so much a war movie as a study on human nature and inner feelings.
The men spend most of their time inside its heavily fortified walls, trundling down coffin-shaped corridors in spacesuitlike combat gear and bracing for the next round of attacks from an invisible enemy. Their lives are governed by tedium, claustrophobia and anxiety, and yet they clearly feel something like affection for the bleak, isolated place that has become their home.
Beaufort Part 1:
Beaufort Part 2:
Beaufort Part 3:
3. Ushpizin (2004) - IMDB Listing Starring Shuli Rand and Michal Bat Sheva Rand (who are married in real life).
“Ushpizin” is groundbreaking on more than one count. It is a rare collaboration between secular and ultra-Orthodox Israelis and one of the first movies filmed in the insular Jerusalem neighborhood Mea Shearim with ultra-Orthodox actors.
Shuli Rand won the Israeli Academy Award for Best Actor in this film. This film also has an excellent musical score, including the popular “Atah Kadosh” from Israeli Religious Rocker Adi Ran.
4. The Syrian Bride (2004) - Clara Khoury stars in this semi-political, semi-humanitarian, semi-comedic film of a young Druze woman (Arab, but not muslim) who lives in a Druze village in the outermost portion of the Golan Heights, on the Syrian border, who travels to Syria to marry a Soap Opera star there. This tragic comedy touches on the heart strings as she says goodbye for good to her family, since she will be leaving Israel for Syria, to live with her new husband, in a country that Israel is at war with. Syrian Bride was nominated for 7 Israeli Academy Awards.
5. Medurat Hashevet (Campfire) (2004) - Set in 1981 in the early days of Israeli settling (occupation) of Judea and Samaria (The West Bank). Directed by Joseph Cedar (Beaufort), drew fire from the right-wing settler movement as the film portrays them as opportunists looking for good real estate deals rather than being motivated by political and religious beliefs. The Israeli secular crowd loved this film.
Its broader political implications within Israel notwithstanding, “Campfire” offers an outsider an intimate portrait of family members living in uncomfortably close proximity and straining against one another during a difficult period of transition. Rachel, a tough, attractive woman whose husband died of cancer a year earlier, is tugged this way and that by conflicting desires. She longs for the security and companionship of the community. But because her first marriage was unhappy, she is unwilling to settle for another husband who won’t deliver the romantic fireworks the first one didn’t provide.
Winner of 7 Israeli Academy Awards, and nominated for another 8.
Honorable Mention: Etz Limon (Lemon Tree) (2008) - Directed by Eran Riklis (Syrian Bride). This year’s most popular film. Based on a true story, a Palestinian widow cultivates a lemon tree grove next to her house. Her new next door neighbor, Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Navon, threatens to have the tree grove uprooted because of security concerns. This is another tragic-comedy-tear jerker-veilied left-of-center-political film. The acting is very emotional, but the message is a bit over-the-top left wing borderline propaganda siding with the Palestinians.
This film was nominated for 7 awards at Israel’s Academy Awards, and won at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival.
The Arabs in Jerusalem can be seen wearing many different head dress styles. The keffiyeh means “kerchief” or scarf in English.
Many Palestinian men and women wear keffiyeh of cotton and wool mix, which lets them dry quickly and help keep the head warm in winter. The keffiyeh is usually folded in half, into a triangle, and the fold is worn across the forehead.
Palestinian Keffiyeh
The black-and-white keffiyeh is a symbol of Palestinian heritage.
Simple White Scarf - unfolded
The red-and-white keffiyeh is worn throughout the Arab regions, but is most strongly associated with Jordan, where it is known as shmagh mhadab.
Red keffiyeh with black agal - rope circlet
A kefiyeh can also signal a person’s status in society. It has been used by Bedouins throughout the centuries and was used as a symbol of honor and tribal identification.
Here are some different examples of keffiyeh worn by Arabs in Jerusalem.
At the suk
Schoolchildren with keffiyeh
Black modest dress
White simple scarf
Many Christian Arab women also cover their heads. Their head coverings usually signify their religious order and are not worn as symbols of nationality. In recent years, some Palestinian Christian Arab men and youths, have begun to wear Palestinian national keffiyehs as scarves if not as head coverings.
Christian Arab headress
Keffiyeh is often spelled kefiyah, kaffiyah, keffiya, kaffiya, and kufiya depending on dialect and region.
Husan חוסן is a sprawling West Bank town on the southern edge of Jerusalem, straddled by Gilo, the tunnels road, and Beitar Ilit. Most of the residents work in neighboring Beit Lechem, or tend to their fields or herds. Commerce is practically non-existent in Husan.
In good times, Husan has also been a prime source of day labor for Israeli contractors in Jerusalem and as far as Bet Shemesh. In bad times, such as in the recent second Intifada, Husan acted as a springboard for hostilities. The road that connects Beitar Illit with the tunnels road that heads north to Jerusalem and south to Gush Etzion also shares a two kilometer southern border with Husan. Beitar residents would often be stoned, or worse, by projectiles thrown from the Husan residents from their higher vantage point.
The Israeli army clamped down on Husan with several measures to alleviate the stress and risk of injury or death of Beitar residents. A huge link fence was erected on most of the southern border of Husan that would effectively eliminate terrorist attacks from the high points. Next, the army declared the tunnels road and the Beitar access road to be inaccessible to Husan residents. Husan residents were now trapped in their village except for taking a long walk across the tunnels road to Beit Jara or Beit Lechem, and a loophole that allowed transit vans from employers in other cities to pick up Husan residents for work. However, Husan is several kilometers long in its own right. As a result, an odd daily ritual could be seen, as Husan residents either walked or were transported from their homes to the edge of the city, where they would walk across the army baracades, and then step into other vans that would take them to their work or shopping in nearby cities.
Here’s some images of this daily spectacle and of the environs:
Let’s say you are in the market to buy a new kefiyah. Where do you go? H&O and HaMashbir do not carry Kefiyahs. (Well maybe they do in their Ramallah branch).
This Arab village, Husan, has been mostly quiet in the history of Israel since it was captured in the 1967 Six Day War. It is situated just a few kilometers south of Gilo, the southernmost neighborhood of Jerusalem. It also sits strategically on the main road between the Gush Etzion area (which includes the 20,000+ city of Efrat), the burgeoning settlement of Beitar Illit, and Jerusalem.
In 2001, during the second intifada, the calm was disturbed. Residents of Husan would stand on the plateau above the main road and throw rocks at passerby vehicles. On a few occasions, terrorists came to Husan and fatally shot travelers on the main ‘tunnel’ road, and near Beitar Illit.
The army responded with curfews and built a huge fence to cage in the residents, and effectively halt the rock-throwing. To help prevent further terrorist incursions, Husan residents were restricted from traveling by car to and from the village.
The result was a strange spectacle of hundreds of workers from Husan every day being driven by van services to the edge of the village, then to walk across the main highway, only to be picked up by further van services to shuttle them to nearby Bethlehem and further.
This shot was actually taken from the promenade next to the Western Wall - facing North of the Wall and adjacent to the Temple Mount (Al Aqsa Mosque). These TV antennas testify to the importance of news and entertainment to the residents of the old city.
Technical Data: Ilford Pan-F, Nikon FE, 28mm cropped. Developed in Agfa-Rodinal and scanned with Minolta Dual Scan.
Wadi Joz is northeast of the Old City and is generally considered part of East Jerusalem.
Notice the streets are sometimes paved, sometimes not. There are beautiful villas on the top of the image across of huts and ramshackles, and piles of dirt in the middle.
