Le Azza

So on the first Saturday of the trip, we went to Gaza. Well, sort of. We got really really close. With my uncle Amir driving, my grandfather, parents, sister, cousin and her bf (and me, of course), loaded up into big van for a "spin" around the Negev Desert. We started off driving through a town called Rahat, which is the largest established Bedouin city. Now, I know, that sounds like an oxymoron. Bedouins are naturally nomadic people so how are they living in a town? Basically, they were doing too much wandering and there were too many land disputes that the government built up a town for them to keep them contained. There are still small villages but about 60,000 people live now in Rahat. There were parts of it that were very run down but the mosques and minarets they were building were definitely strong and new.

Next we drove through Beit Kama, a kibbutz that houses a pharmaceutical plant where my uncle works. Although technically, it's a kibbutz, it's a lot smaller than it used to be. The younger generation grew up and eventually left the kibbutz so in order to keep the kibbutz running and relevant, the members sold the land next to the kibbutz to build up a new town that would be privately run but these residents would have access to the services of the kibbutz. Many former kibbutz members returned and became to work back at the kibbutz. So that's one way to keep in business. The area surrounding the kibbutz was full of pea plants and a few poppies and bright yellow and red flowers. My cousin and his fiancee took their wedding invitation pictures here a few weeks ago and it was just a sea of red. Wish I could have seen it!

Next we headed past the town of Sderot (famous for being the target of many falling rockets) until we reached the viewpoint next to the border with the Gaza Strip. Yep, no biggie. We were able to see the towns of Gaza but also the bare area where the Israeli settlements had once been. Their houses were all destroyed but nothing had been rebuilt since. It was pretty sombre but at the same time, fascinating to be so close to an area that's known for such violence. We saw none of that on our cloudy Saturday afternoon.

Our second to last stop of the day was Kibbutz Be'eri. We did some driving around first because Aharon had a specific place he wanted to take us but couldn't quite remember. Finally we got it figured out and drove to an old water tower next to an old almost castle-like structure. Here we received a history lesson from the historian's mouth. After Yom Kippur, 1946, the Israeli Youth Movements settled 11 kibbutzes in one night. One was Be'eri, where we were, and another was Hatzerim (represent...) At the time, the British mandate prohibited the establishment of new Jewish villages but Turkish law, the law that had governed Palestine before the Brits, stated that as long as there is a roof on a house, it can't be demolished. The IYM decided to set up the settlements on one of the High Holy Days, taking the British by surprise. Aharon was in the group that established Be'eri and built the watchtower we were standing by as he was telling this to us. These kibbutzes would later be areas of defense during the War of Independence. The big question though was why Aharon ended up in Hatzerim instead of Be'eri. According to him, Be'eri was a bit too Marxist for him. According to my uncle, he moved because there was a pretty girl from Haifa who had only been allowed to move down to Hatzerim. I guess it's a good thing that he moved because otherwise none of us would be here!

Last stop of the day was a restaurant in Be'er Sheva that had the BEST fried cauliflower, the BEST sweet potato ravioli and apparently really good liver.... It was sooooo windy though, so much so that halfway through his pizza, my grandfather got up, picked up his last slice and went to go sit inside while the rest of us stayed outside. Not surprising.

And now.... pictures!