JoelNothman.com

This trip to Israel was in many ways an altogether different experience of Israel to my last, when I was here for 11 months in 2002. Firstly, whereas that was for the most part an organised programme, here I was travelling in my own freedom. But mostly, whereas that was 2002, this is 2007, and the matzav (”situation”, a reference to Israel’s relationship with its neighbours) is on a practical level very different. Then I didn’t take buses, visit centres of town, markets or shopping centres, and barely entertained crossing the Green Line. These restrictions did reduce the risk of being blown up significantly (although I was near to many attacks in one way or another), and yet isolated us from some Israeli experiences. Maybe as a result of the increased freedom this time, I also tried to see places I did not explore much last time. For instance, some more eastern parts of Jerusalem’s Old City, Ramallah, Efrat, Hebron a little, and Tel Aviv.

Tel Aviv might seem like the odd one out there, the others all being hotly disputed and potentially dangerous territory. Nonetheless, the Jewish tourists to Israel tend to be divided into those who love Tel Aviv and those who avoid it. Some might say it’s a matter of Tel Aviv vs Jerusalem, and it seems I’ve been pushed into the latter camp. Thanks to Shimrit, my sister-in-law-to-be, I finally had somewhere to stay, if but for a few nights, to sample a little more of the city than I had known.

Despite only 40 minutes’ drive between them, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are worlds apart in some ways. Both are considered by some to be Israel’s capital, but Jerusalem has an immense sense of history, spirituality, religion and nature, while Tel Aviv holds its pride in its modernness, in a sense its lack of ancient history, and largely in its secularity. Jerusalem is trying to live up to its ancient name, and Tel Aviv is trying to build a new city. And it’s for these reasons, I guess, that a lot of my friends have said they don’t like Tel Aviv.

But we shouldn’t give up on it so quickly: Jerusalem and Tel Aviv speak for different types of Zionisms. The Zionism of Tel Aviv is more Herzlian, aiming to have for the Jews a city like the cities of the world; maybe some Ahad Haam too, in making itself an artistic and cultural centre, but it is not alone there. Jerusalem is about return to ancient lands, often a religious or national messianism, it tries to be set apart from those around it—the idea of qodesh (”holy”). TA becomes the pluralist and Jerusalem the particularist, and these ideas come out in each city’s stereotypical inhabitant.

I would say that Tel Aviv has succeeded in building a city of the world. It aims to be unique only in being an impressive city, and maybe then a touch of Jewish character. It has its skyscrapers and central shopping malls for occupation by day, its beaches and parks for the afternoon, and by night its clubs, and its waterside cafes and bars.

As a result, most of the things I did in Tel Aviv on this stay were generic city things. It being a European city, I could take a bicycle to its flat streets and ride with Shimrit to Gan Hayarkon and along its river (banked by eucalypts); could walk along the sand of the beaches, watching people sunbaking, playing ping-pong or soccer, wading in the water, or sipping drinks in classy bars laid out on the sand; could visit an art museum whose wealthy benefactors had donated some impressive works by impressive names (some of them I recognised as having been borrowed for exhibitions I had seen elsewhere in the last year). It being a Middle-Eastern city, I could also visit its busy open-air market filled with sweaty people selecting between various fruit-sellers and cheap imported products.

And the city is still Israeli despite all that: some of the restaurants around are kosher; the market has armed guards outside; opposite a major mall and commercial towers is the centre of the Israeli army; everyone is speaking Hebrew (or English, or Russian, or French); and many of the art museum’s exhibits reflect on Jewish and Israeli viewpoints.

Maybe the reason why many of my friends do not like Tel Aviv is simply because it is nothing special. At least, in comparison to Jerusalem’s sense of memory and distinctiveness. Even so, Tel Aviv’s marvel is not its uniqueness, but that it is there, a creation and an achievement, and succeeding fantastically.