Rona Writes

Carmel Market

The Carmel Market is close to the Yemenite Quarter and one of Tel Aviv’s busiest pedestrian streets. It is a crowded and noisy place where vendors sell everything from beachwear to designer accessories, and where locals come to buy olives, pickles, nuts, fruit, vegetables, cheese and freshly baked bread.

Yitzhak Rabin Center (Israeli Museum)

This Center is home to the Israeli Museum which tells the story of Israel’s struggle for peace with its neighbors. It also tells the story of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin who was assassinated by a right-wing Orthodox Jew due to his work planning and implementing the Oslo Accord. This agreement created the Palestinian National Authority and granted it partial control over parts of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Other Information

– Haganah (1920’s), Irgun (1930’s), Stern Gang (1940-41), Palmach (1941)

– Rabin Ambassador to United States (1974-1977)

– Rabin had to resign because they found money in a United States Bank in his wife’s name.

Sarona Centre

In 1871 a group of Christians from southwestern Germany known as the Templers established a small agricultural colony near Jaffa. They brought technologies with them that had a strong impact on the early Zionists. At the end of World War I, the British exiled them to Egypt. In 1921, they returned and expanded their agricultural holdings. Since some became supporters of the Nazi Party, they were known as enemies and eventually deported to Australia.

After 1948, the Israeli government turned the Templer buildings into government offices. Over 30 of the colony’s historic buildings were restored and redeveloped into a commercial Centre.

Palmach Museum

The Palmach were the elite fighting force of the Haganah during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. They were established on May 15, 1941.

The museum commemorates the contribution of the Palmach to the creation of the State of Israel. It is an underground series of multi-media experience chambers, starting with a memorial to the 1,168 lives lost.

In 1906, 60 Jewish families led by Meir Dizengoff met in Jaffa to lay out plans to establish a new Jewish city. They purchased empty sand dunes and divided much of it into 60 lots and in 1909 held a lottery-using seashells-to divide the land. The name given the new city was Tel Aviv (Hill of Spring). In 1949 Tel Aviv and Jaffa were joined to create a single municipality.

Next, we stopped at Independence Hall where David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948.

After that, we walked around Jaffa which is the oldest part of Tel Aviv. Its three major draws are a flea market, the hilltop Old City enclave and shopping and entertainment center. The old city overlooks the Mediterranean Sea and is near the Franciscan St Peter’s Church. The Jaffa Port is one of the oldest harbors and is mentioned in the Bible.

Other Tidbits

– Kurkar (building stone in old city)

– Neve Tzedek ( first Jewish neighborhood)

Our first day of touring began with our guide, Tamar. We visited the Ayalon Institute which was an underground bullet factory located on Kibbutz Hill in Rehovot, Israel, disguised as a kibbutz that ran a laundry service. The factory was established in 1946 and manufactured ammunition until 1948. Today it is a museum and national historic site. The factory was secretly created in about 3 weeks, 8 meters (25 feet) underground and run by the Haganah.

Some interesting facts are as follow:

– produced 9 mm bullets

– had an inside shooting range to test bullets

– tanning booth used everyday

– 50% men, 50% women

– bullets got out by being hidden in milk jugs, then gasoline tanks

– over 5 million bullets produced

After another fantastic Israeli breakfast, we visited the grave of Maïmōnídēs. Moses Ben Maimon (Hebrew), commonly known as Maïmōnídēs, and also referred to by the acronym Rambam, was a medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages.

Then we headed to the farthest northwest corner of Israel. The border between Israel and Lebanon comes to a rugged head at Rosh HaNikra, a bluff where jagged white cliffs of limestone plunge into the sea. The road ends at the Rosh HaNikra Grottoes. Inside the grottoes, waves crash against the white walls. Behind the cable-car station, you can see the Haifa-Beirut railway, whose tunnels were excavated by British army engineering units in 1941-1942.

Marco Polo passed through Akko (Acre, Akka in Arabic) around 750 years ago. Akko sits on a peninsula and has towering ramparts, deep moats, green domes, minarets, church towers, secret passageways and subterranean vaults. The city was conquered by many groups throughout its history. Today Akko has about 70% of the residents are Jews and 30% Arabs. However, the population of the old city is about 95% Arab.

Our final stop for the day was Caesarea National Park. In 22 BCE Herod the Great (73 to 4 BCE) built the port city dedicating it to the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar. Following Herod’s death the city became the capital of the Roman province of Judea. The city changed hands between the Crusaders and the Muslims four times until King Louis IX of France captured it in 1251. It was the establishment of Kibbutz Sdot Yam in 1940 that ancient Caesarea began to re-emerge.

The four holy cities are Hebron, Jerusalem, Tsfat and Tiberias. The “Bridge of Continent” is the path of riches that every conqueror in history wanted. Dates are sweeter in a dry area because they need less water. The Dead Sea is about 100 kilometers in length and 19 kilometers in width. From the 10th century it became customary to be buried inside Jerusalem. The Mameluks came from the steppes of Asia and were not permitted to pass titles/ property to their offspring. For this reason, they dedicated the public buildings instead.