1998_01_21 - to the Committee for Building and Planning of the Municipality
of Eilat
about getting the license to use the space between
my bus and the sea
for building first a model of the "doveret Shalom be-yam ha-adom",
and then the peace raft itself.
The letter was signed by me and by David Troim,
but supported also by the other five members of the fledgling RedSeaPartnerSHIP
NGO.
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The municipality
of Eilat was, of course, not free to grant us the use of that tiny
piece of land.
As can be seen in the letter to the left from December
9, even for the erection of the FourNationTent, which we called
a "Performance" , associating it with a temporary art
event, far from the association of "erecting a settlement", the
mayor had to write a letter to Mr. Brody, the director of the
Israel Land Authority, in Jerusalem.
Gabi Kadosh asked only
for
a
period
of two months, and even this was not granted.
After 3 weeks came
that authority's representative, Amiram, the ranger, who
was my most intriguing friend/enemy in
Eilat, and demanded to dismantle the FourNationTent within 24
hours.
Grudgingly he agreed, that one single tent could be left standing.
With one hand Amiram threatened to evict me,
as when I parked
near Taba,
or evicted me, as from the beach closest to the Jordanian
border, after the rangers had returned from their leave on
the Festival of Succot.
ON the other hand he helped me wherever
he could.
It was him for instance, who drove around with me, after
the eviction from the land of Kibbutz Elot, to find a place
for me,
and finally suggested, that I park at the "Sun Beach",
or the "Hippies' Beach", next to the New Lagoon,
the Shalom Lagoon.
The plan was to drive everyone away, soon, but not yet.
So one day Amiram let me know,
that the big shot from his authority - Berthie
Brody - would come to Eilat.
I "petitioned" again, as shown in the letter below,
where I mention my long history with this authority, not only concerning the
parking of my mobile home ever since 1986, but even concerning the Bir'am
Model of my Partnership work in the seventies, and the glorious ending of a meeting
with all the top officials of the ISrael Land Authority, when the director,
famous Me'ir Zorea, said: "We cannot be in favor of you, Rachel, but we also
can no longer be against you. We shall tell the Primeminister Golda Meir, that
we have nothing to say in the case of Bir'am."
Still the main job was done by our partner Ya'acov,
who simply drove his wheelchair into that "Herod's" office in Jerusalem.
We often laughed about the wheelchair as being our "competitive
advantage" (a term in
business).
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One "Herod" at least did come and did care
-
the Mayor of Eilat, Gabi Qadosh did come to the 4NationTent,
or more exact to the one permitted tent , with the Jordanian flag,
on the first of January, 1998,
in the presence of Albert, the photographer, and now partner,
whom I had just
met
at
midnight.
1998_01_01, 3 PM
(a few hours
after the Mayor's visit in the tent)
To the Mayor of Eilat: Summary of our talk and
continuity of taking care
"We asked you to be our partner
and we also asked you
to accept us as your partners
in the realization
of all your visions."
He was in favor of us
and the FourNationTent,
but Amiram and his
Israel Land Authority
prevailed.
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Another category of " Herods": Those who have power
over Funds
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During September 1997,
when I lived in the office of "Green Action" in
Tel-Aviv
and met every day with my partners David and Ya'acov
the three of us once drove to Shoham,
a new town, unknown to us
(I came to know it well, when my son moved there after his
divorce, to be near his children in the other new town, Modi'in,
and I came to live with him for some time after I was evicted
from Ein Gedi Field School on Oct.31, 1999)
I think, Aharon
Zohar was the liaison person between Israel and the World
Bank
or the European Union, I don't remember.
In that highly promising talk over breakfast he arranged a
meeting in Eilat
with an "influential woman" from the World Bank,
Nicole.
He also warmly recommended
Dr. Amos Tendler in
the Institute for maritime agriculture in Eilat,
which was located closely to
where
we put our FourNationTent later.
It was Amos, who gave me permission
to use the computer every late evening.
And it was the phone there,
to which David and Ya'acov called me,
if I was there - writing.
Amos was stressed and I limited myself to listening only.
But in the material I found in the institute,
I discovered the name
of a scientist,
Dr.
Ilana Fried,
who was among those
who signed the application
for making "Succah
in the Desert" a NGO , in 1989
(it was not accepted as a NGO...),
I found Ilana on the phone,
and following our good talk,
I started to write this letter to both Aaron Zohar and to
her.
She was tied to the
"European Network for Research
in Global Change",
which sounded promising,
but in the middle of my work on the letter I understood,
that I was on the wrong track
in trying to fit into their program of "actions
in ... human dimensions of environmental change".
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I didn't finish this letter and never
sent it.
I now remember the meeting with Nicole of the World Bank at the
end of September in a beautiful hotel garden in Eilat, when she
expressed her frustration
with the European Union: Don't work with us. We can only advise,
and then each government does what it wants. Reviewing our experiences
on January 23, 1998 (my son's birthday) I wrote into our Guestbook: "We
have no "business" with the big shots, be it in money, political
power or science. The need for money, power and science forces
us every day anew, with regard to every new subject or problem
- to convert those who oppose or ignore, into partners." |
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My comment to this in June 2003:
So what else is new?
Didn't I simply exchange the pattern of the petitioner
with the pattern of the partneror?
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One last category of "Herods" I
want to mention,
were the media people.
As if I hadn't had enough experience before,
I fell into the trap again.
The article below in an Eilat newspaper was published on April 28,
2 months after the interview had taken place.
This in itself showed lack of professionality, if nothing else,
since things were changing so fast around the David Succah at the beach.
On the other hand
there was also an article in another Eilat newspaper,
by Ruben Salz, who had met me already 10 years
earlier,
which was more appropriate
but it appeared in the context about "Hotels"
and thus gave it a connotation contrary to our intention.
Moreover I hated it,
that never ever an article could be written
without first telling "interesting details" about my life,
as if what I was creating with my partners
was not "interesting" enough. |
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When
I got the clip, my eyes fell on the passage to the left:
"with these words Christa summarized
her bitterness about the dream idea
which died in front of her very eyes, she is already exhausted
of the power struggles with bureaucracy".
And under the left photo, which shows me doing the Sama'a
Spinning on the peer:
"Christa-Rachel vanquishes Nature".
After this I had no desire to read
the rest of the article.
"Another message,
that we have to move from the stage of the caterpillar to
the stage of the cocoon."
(Comment in the Guestbook of 1998~~~)
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Herod's photographed from Jonathan Abutbul's Katamaran, which we wanted
to borrow
The David Succah and the Jordanian Tent on the shore are completely
swallowed up .
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tragic 
