Israel Advocacy Network Blog - State Zionist Council of Victoria

Arrival:

Something very important is going on at the moment. I became highly aware and conscious of it today, while driving from Ben Gurion Airport to my sister-in-law’s hometown of Afula. To get there, you must drive down a road that is surrounded by Arab villages. Even on this quiet Tuesday I could tell that something was profoundly different. Something has happened. Driving through past these villages I noticed that their inhabitants had begun to display flags above their rooftops. These flags show to who they pledge their allegiance. I was not mistaken - these were a people who were deeply divided. Next door neighbours displayed different flags; there is little chance that they will change sides anytime soon, and thus the deep rift that has occurred, as if only in the last few days, continues to widen as the days pass by.

But this is not what you think. This is not civil war. This is not something to be afraid of. This is simply………….. World Cup time!

Each roof displayed a different flag. Some had Argentina, others - Italy. The main trend was Brazil. I didn’t see any Australian flags, but perhaps deeper into the villages you could find some *wishful thinking*.


I have driven past these villages time and time again. Without making any unfair assumptions, I had always been wary of this drive. Years ago, it was a very unsafe road to take, plagued by various attacks. The houses, built storey above storey on hilltops, always appear as though they have only been half finished. As the story goes, incomplete houses do not incur the same taxes as those that have been completed. But I do not know the real reason – perhaps it is something I should investigate. Anyway – back to the point. Today I realised that if there is one thing that joins the world together it is sport. Did I expect it to be any different? Finally, after all these years taking this journey, it took the World Cup to give these residents a true human face; and in a language we all understand.

So, my first day in this wonderful country is almost over. As I walked through the sleepy streets of Afula I was once again reminded why I love Israel so much. I passed an empty lot, apparently a new building will eventually go up, but for the time being, the grass is overgrown and the rubbish is piling up. And yet, in the midst of all this chaos, beautiful sunflowers have begun to grow.


This relates to my own view of Israel in many ways. Everywhere there is disorder, whether it is the traffic on the streets, lines in the supermarket, trash on the side of the road, but in the midst of all the chaos, beautiful sunflowers keep emerging everywhere – young children speaking Hebrew, fulfilling Eliezer Ben-Yehuda’s dream of generations growing up with their mother tongue being Hebrew. Old men congregating in the centre of any town, trading stories of a time long ago. A young woman feeling as though she has returned home, again, as she watches the sunrise as her plane flies in to Ben Gurion Airport. In the centre of all of the bigger issues, it is these small things that mean the world to me.