These buildings are the Israeli version of British Council houses or American Projects. Built quickly in the 1950’s to house the large influx of immigrants from the diaspora you find them all across the country. In Tel Aviv they can be found in many prime locations so they are being brought by developers and demolished to make way for luxury high rises. I was in Be’er Sheva yesterday where there are large estates of these houses still in tact and they look fantastic. I would like to take some pictures of them at some point but I say that about a lot of things I see.
Almost everyone has a sore throat and a cold here in Tel Aviv for most of the summer it seems. The joys of air conditioning everywhere, can’t be good for you can it. Much better to live in Jerusalem where the nights are cold all year round and just drive one here for a swim. Not that the Palestinian’s can do that of course as they are not allowed to come to Tel Aviv without a special permit.
This is Teqoa A Settlement at dusk, it has a great view of the Herodyn, King Herod’s tome and is very close to Jerusalem. The Settlement had doubled in size since I arrived here and keeps expanding.
Here’s a couple of pictures of the London I’m not missing right now, grey rainy sky’s and the hospital
Today is my last day in the West Bank working on this book/ project, it’s been 6 old years and it feels good to move on. This settlement is Agan Ha’ Aylot and when I first came here 6 years ago there were no buildings at all here only a fantastic cold water spring to swim in. I was told last night by a peace activist friend in Tel Aviv no one is interested in making a peace settlement any more, Israeli’s don’t care and the Palestinian’s open prison has been made comfortable and prosperous enough for the majority of them to not care either. Everyone is living with the status quo and the building work will just continue.
There’s nothing quite like standing in Abu Tor and looking across the Kidron Valley to the Old City of Jerusalem. If you haven’t been here I highly recommend it. It’s a shame the Al Bustan neighbourhood of Silwan which you can see in this picture has become such a battle ground in recent years. Not only have the Settlers moved in and starting tunnelling but the City of Jerusalem wants to tear down all these houses to make way for the City of David shopping Mall. That’s just want the historic centre of Jerusalem needs a new shopping mall to go with the one they opened last year on the west side of the Old City. Perhaps the Israeli government could just build a shopping complex all the way way the city wall, in fact they could demolish everything to make way for an even bigger mutli-mall.
