Alastair Mitchell

East Jerusalem.

Today I went to the conservatory early and called some of the students to arrange some lesson times for tomorrow and Saturday. It’s a little more difficult at the moment as a result of Ramadan, but still relatively easy to sort out. I had to make sure however that on Saturday I don’t schedule any students who have to travel through a checkpoint as they will all be closed on Friday evening for about 24 hours due to the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur. Even this is easily worked around though so it wasn’t too time consuming.
I then walked over to West Jerusalem to go to a second-hand bookshop I’ve seen a couple of times. Most books were in Hebrew but there was a shelf or two of English books and I found one that interested me so bought it before going for some lunch nearby to make a start on it. It’s a book of short essays by various people on subjects as diverse as ‘On the dignity or meanness of human nature’ by David Hume to potato crisp making! It’s a great book to dip into for a half hour, here or there.
I did more exploring around West Jerusalem today than I have before, and it really is a nice part of town. If you want a chilled out atmosphere, with people hanging out in coffee shops, bars or eating food sitting outside little restaurants or fast (but good) food outlets, then it has it all. There’s a style to it as well, perhaps something even a little chic. The prize for the most surprising sight of the day however goes to the Iran Bazaar, on the trendy Ben Yehuda Street just past a very good falafel and shawarma place called Moshiko - it unassumingly supplies all manner of Iranian merchandise from rugs to teapots. What an example of the entrepreneurial spirit!

East Jerusalem.

The old saying Look after the pennies, and the pounds will look after themselves is true in many ways. What brings that to mind is the state of Palestine’s streets – they are without exception, covered in rubbish. Whether it’s just a few small things like plastic bags and cigarette ends, or what looks like entire rubbish tips left to rot in the sun, it’s a strange sight for someone used to the tidiness of Europe. I’ve also seen three unattended skips on fire on the pavement in the last two days.
But what is the reason for this? Is it that the state lacks the resources to tidy the streets? Or is it that nobody cares? Perhaps a bit of both, but I can’t help thinking that some street cleaning wouldn’t break the bank – also it would help if people didn’t throw down their rubbish with such constant abandon. In a similar way to when you have a tidy desk, surely everyone would think a little more clearly if their paths were not constantly blighted by obstruction.
When I was in Ramallah a few days ago with Ata from the conservatory, he seemed to agree; ‘the people here are very generous, very warm-hearted. But why do they litter? They don’t care about it – it makes me ashamed of being Palestinian that our country is such a mess. I never drop litter, and I never use my horn.’ The use of the car horn here is a story for another time, but he clearly feels strongly about the state of the streets. Maybe the saying could be reissued for Palestine; Take care of your country, and your country will take care of itself.

East Jerusalem.

Today was occupied by some practise in the morning – I opted for the day of productivity in end – then a trip down to West Jerusalem to spend some time in a Wi-fi cafe. It struck me on my walk between East and West Jerusalem how instant the change is. As you cross a road, unimaginatively called ‘Road No.1’ everything seems to change. The people all speak Hebrew, the shop signs are in Hebrew and there are almost no Arabs to be seen, whereas 50 metres away the opposite is the case - there are virtually no Jews and everything is in Arabic. It is quite a contrast that in the centre of a city, an un-policed ‘border’ is so distinct yet on the outskirts of the same city, as I mentioned yesterday, the ‘border’ is undeterminable, yet militarily enforced.
As always, it was good to speak with a few people back home and on my way back I stopped off in a Thai place for a stir-fry and a beer. Both the cuisine and the beer were very welcome indeed, as a change from my recent food and drink intake. Although I sometimes wish I lived within the West Bank, as opposed to making regular forays into it, it is nice to be able to walk at a relaxed pace from the Middle East to Europe in under a minute, and in that I suspect Jerusalem may well be unique.