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The Polyester State
The unoriginality of Israel
I visited Israel in the mid 1980’s. I think it was 1985, before the first Intifada. One of my memories was the number of Israeli soldiers carrying unloaded rifles. Another was falafel which I enjoyed but thought it was an Israeli dish. I went at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles and was pleased to see the temporary shelters in Jewish yards. I found the Christian sites of pilgrimage and the Christian tourists irritating. I attended a celebration at the Christian Embassy in Jerusalem and it washed over me. My friend and I tagged along for a visit to the Jordan Valley, near the Dead Sea, and came way with Christian tat. Another memory was of seeing beggars in Jerusalem. What struck me was how they didn’t need to harass passers by; they were treated as a fixture rather than an irritant, unlike how beggars were seen in England.
I wasn’t a pilgrim or a ‘tourist’ but I was visiting the holy land rather than Israel. I walked through the Hinnom Valley (Gehenna) so I could say that I’d been to hell and back. I swam in the Dead Sea, climbed up Masada and visited the Golan Heights and saw Mount Hermon in the distance. I was an observer rather than a scholar, to be there rather than be taught. I came, I saw, I flew back. My education was to come later and mostly as the result of Israel’s inhumanity.
