#israeli books

[matan4il]

Hi friend! I was wondering if you had any favorite Israeli/Hebrew children's books! Also any fave Israeli musicians??

Hello, my lovely! :D How are you?

Ooooh, do I! Man, you're gonna regret asking me this. XD Sorry, not sorry... So shall we start with Israeli/Hebrew kids' books?

Anything by Yehuda Atlas (יהודה אטלס), but especially And That Kid is Me (והילד הזה הוא אני). Short humorous stories, written in rhymes, perfectly capturing how baffling the world can be for a kid, and how silly adults can seem, or just what things can sometimes feel like for a child. It's one of those books that work, funny and essential, 'coz it's so true. He just gets kids.

Another one that I love, and am probably one of the few Israeli kids who even know this book, is Siamina and the Cats of Yemin Moshe (סיאמינה והחתולים של ימין משה) by Holocaust survivor Uri Orlev (אורי אורלב. He's more well known for his books about that period of time, which are also highly recommended, but I only dared read them when I was older). Jerusalem is known for its many stray cats, and the book is a love fest for cats and Jerusalem, with some historical sites becoming in the book the "homes" of the cats.

David Gershtein, who crafted the engravings for the book, is a pretty popular Israeli artist, and you can find some of his creations all over the country, and even entire shops dedicated to his works.

Last one ('coz I don't wanna burden you too much, but lemme know if you want more recs!) that I really loved as a kid, was Yael's House (הבית של יעל) by Miriam Rot (מרים רות). It was about a girl who has a home, but she wants a house that would be all her own. She tries all sorts of solutions, including taking over the space under the kitchen table... Not gonna lie, as a kid I was inspired to follow in her footsteps, but my parents were not impressed.

Now, as for Israeli musicians! You have stumbled onto dangerous ground, my friend, since I'm a music addict, and in love with the Hebrew language, so songs in Hebrew are something I can go on about for freaking years...

I'll share with you the link to two unlisted playlists that I made on YouTube. One is of some of my fave Israeli songs (though I started it years ago, so sadly, I see some vids have been deleted or made private, and there are literally hundreds of songs on the list, meaning I'm not sure which ones are missing), but also with a few thrown in 'coz I think they're good for people who wanna know Israeli culture and popular Israeli songs, and the other is one that I started making with songs connected in different ways to the current war we're in. They're not all faves, but I thought they capture a moment in time, so I wanted to have them grouped together. I'm actually not done with either list, the latter I really just started not that long ago, so you can expect them to grow.

If we're talking specific Israeli musicians, I find it hard to answer, I think almost every singer or songwriter has at least one good song to offer, and likewise whenever I wanna name one, I feel like adding, "Except for this song... and that one..." No musician is great all the time. But I guess some of my faves (where I like more songs than I don't) include Ivri Lider, Berry Sakharof, Yehuda Poliker, Ran Danker, Harel Ska'at, Chanan ben Ari, Narkis, Eliad, Amir Dadon, Avraham Tal, Marina Maximilian, Achinoam Nini (Noa), Sheila Ferber, Gilad Segev, Ofra Chaza, Meni Berger, Yardena Arazi, Natan Goshen, Keren Peles, Izhar Ashdot, Nurit Galron, and the bands Beit Ha'bubot, Ha'Yehudim, Metropolin, Ethnix, Mashina and Synergia.

I was thinking I should add at least one of these vids to my reply, and for whatever reason, the one that started playing itself in my head (where there is always music) was a song first released in 1993, אדמה חמה (Hot Earth) by Shlomo Gronich and the Shva Choir (Sheba is the English pronunciation of Shva). I love this song, I think the vid was very cool for its time, and I'm still never gonna forgive the MTV viewers who gave it last place in a video music awards. The song incorporates Hebrew and Amharic, both Semitic languages, the latter being the language spoken by Ethiopian Jews. You can actually listen to the whole special album (inspired by the story of the Ethiopian Jewish community's journey to Israel) here.

But just for the fun of throwing in a gay themed song as well, here's התשמע קולי (Will You Hear My Voice), a love poem for a man, originally written by an Israeli poet called Rachel (full name: Rachel Bluwstein Sela), but it's performed here by only men, and no one changed the pronouns, which makes it a mlm song to me. It's so pretty and sad (Rachel is believed to have written the poem to a former lover, a man she even thought at one point she would marry, but WWI tears them apart and they never meet again. She wrote this poem, after getting the news that she's terminally ill), it fills my soul at the same time as it tugs on my heart.

I hope this helps! Sending so much love! xoxox

[heritageposts]

In November, Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan, uploaded on its official X page a video of Israeli children singing a song celebrating their country’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The broadcaster deleted the video clip after a huge online backlash. Even after the video was silently erased from social media, however, the song remained a subject of discussion and controversy. Many across the world were shocked to see children sing happily about “eliminating” an entire people “within one year”. Yet a closer look at Israeli literature and curricula shows this open celebration of genocide was the only natural outcome of Israel’s persistent indoctrination – or brainwashing to be more blunt – of its children to ensure that they do not view Palestinians as human and fully embrace apartheid and occupation. There is myriad evidence of Israel’s brainwashing of its citizens to erase the humanity of Palestinians spanning many decades. Israeli scholar Adir Cohen, for example, analysed for his book titled “An Ugly Face in the Mirror – National Stereotypes in Hebrew Children’s Literature” some 1700 Hebrew-language children’s books published in Israel between 1967 and 1985, and found that a whopping 520 of them contained humiliating, negative descriptions of the Palestinians. He revealed that 66 percent of these 520 books refer to Arabs as violent; 52 percent as evil; 37 percent as liars; 31 percent as greedy; 28 percent as two-faced and 27 percent as traitors.

. . . continues at Al Jazeera (13 Des 2023)

[mysharona1987]

But this doesn’t feel like protecting Israel.

It feels like control of another group of people for the sake of it.

[that-rad-jewish-girl]

The irony of saying #landback and “we live on stolen land” while condemning Israel’s existence is so strange.

You want land to go back to the natives - no matter how long ago the land was taken - unless it belongs to Jews. Then they can go F off.

And because you don’t have a reasonable defense for this weird combo of beliefs, you just deny the indigeneity of Jews altogether. This is something that can be proven with simple google searches and logic. Our ancient artifacts and structures are in the land, and our “origin stories” are largely about the land and us residing in it. Yet, you refuse to believe we are indigenous.

Even more funny is that you then argue Arabs are the real indigenous people to this land. Arabs are colonizers in the Middle East and North Africa. Arabic is a colonial language. They originated in the Arabian peninsula, and took over MENA countries. They had nationalist policies that largely eradicated the people and/or cultures already present in those lands. A lot of the people present were Jews, who were killed or driven out by pogroms.

Educate yourself for crying out loud.

[recreationaldivorce]

The settler's work is to make even dreams of liberty impossible for the native. The native's work is to imagine all possible methods for destroying the settler.

- Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (trans. Constance Farrington)

[hilacopter]

hey remember that time social justice activists boycotted a film company into erasing jewish representation from their movie

[sarroora]

Just a reminder that Israel particularly likes to bomb Palestinians at night as a terror tactic, as its pitch black and no electricity and next-to-no internet, so that coverage and video evidence remains very little.

Like I said before, if you feel like your news feed is getting thinner, it’s intentional. Israel is still carpet bombing Palestinians like nothing is wrong.

[youliveveryday]

And the World just watching

[thelovelygods]

Book of Esther by Moshe Dadon (Israeli, 1943-2021)

Moshe Dadon, originally from Morocco, learned microcalligraphy as a boy when local rabbinical leaders, following an anti-Jewish riot, began searching for ways to create tiny Hebrew ritual items, such as a Torah scroll, which could be transported through the city without attracting the attention of people who sought to destroy them. At age eight, Moshe was taught the profession of “sofor-stam”, that is, of someone who writes Jewish religious texts on parchment for ritual use.

[gryficowa]

Boycott!

Now that I have your attention:

[workersolidarity]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚨

ISRAELI OCCUPATION DRONES OVER THE SKIES OF RAFAH CAUSE ALARM IN GAZA

��� Increased Israeli drone activity in the skies over the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, over the weekend has raised alarms following remarks by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who mentioned in a recent statement that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) will be increasing pressure on Hamas "in the coming days."

According to a report published by Al-Jazeera News, roughly 1.5 million Palestinians have gathered in encampments in Rafah following the start of the "Israel's" ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Additionally, Al-Jazeera says there has been an increase in Israeli military activity in the Rafah area, including military quadcopter drones, which have been particularly active in the skies over the city in recent days.

Al-Jazeera suggests this could portend "a potential military incursion" into Rafah, similar to that seen in Khan Yunis during a previous Israeli ground operation.

#source1

#source2

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[lying-on-floors]

Hello dear friends! ❤🤍🖤💚

🍉I am Mahmoud Ayyad, a Palestinian from the besieged and destroyed Gaza 😭😭, coming from an extended family of young children, women and elderly people ❤❤ who have been suffering😭😭 for 300 difficult days from an aggressive war.

Our lives are harsh because we lack all the basic necessities of life. Everything has become scarce and unattainable. There is no food, no water, no medicine.

So, I ask you to help me keep my family safe and alive, especially after we had lost all our sources of livelihood.Please do not leave my family to struggle and suffer these difficult days alone. You can support my campaign by donating whatever you can or by sharing my posts to reach others who can help us survive the war to safety and peace. You are helping the lives of many people with your small contribution. Every donation makes a difference in our very difficult lives. But this is a legitimate campaign and has been checked by 90-ghost.

https://gofund.me/31c5cbe3

[mysharona1987]

Honestly how can anyone be *this* delusional?

Even the most hardcore Zionist wouldn’t make this argument.

I mean, they might come up with dubious explanations as to why the air strikes happened, but they wouldn’t deny they actually happened.

This is straight up Orwellian.

[david-goldrock]

Gave my cousin Percy Jackson 1 for his birthday today

It's the copy I got for my birthday when I was his age

Happy birthday Gil'ad <3

[tilbageidanmark]

Palestinian resistance fighter reading “Quotations from Chairman Mao”, 1969.

[zatdummesmadchen]

Hello 👋 This is Moamen and his family from Gaza. Please help us evacuate to safety, complete university studies, and find a source of income after the destruction of what we own. We live in difficult circumstances and a difficult life 🙏🏼 ❤️ Please share and spread the campaign because I urgently need help and the matter is urgent. Because the campaign is going very slowly, there is no water and little food. Please donate and share please Moamen Majed, his four brothers, and their parents ($40/$30,000) - @moamenmajed-gaza

🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉

HELLO EVERYONE PLEASE DO PAY ATTENTION !

PLEASE TRY TO DONATE AND HELP THIS FAMILY GET SAFETY !

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🕊🕊🕊

AT THE VERY LEAST CONSIDER A REBLOG TO SPREAD THE WORD!

REMEMBER EVERY LITTLE BIT COUNTS AND ADDS UP MORE!

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