I initially joined Facebook in order to promote my Swedish blog, Idiotsäkert. Having lived in Israel for thirty+ years, I very acutely experience the huge gap between my reality and the Israel that “media” chooses to broadcast. Not all media is the same, not all journalists write the same story in the same way. Nevertheless, there is an Israel that exists in international reporting, which has little to do with the real thing, as I experience it. So, it’s been my ambition, in a small way, to say something else about this country, which I love very much.

Now that I’m on FB, I see that there is more to it than pushing my own blog. I admitt, I get sucked in sometimes, and spend more time sharing and caring about other peoples’ lives, than about my own. Through FB, I’ve become aware of a lot of people who share my train of thought. Now that, although it makes me happy, also makes me very concerned. I’ve been membered numerous times by people who open groups they think I’d like to belong to. All these groups are the same. Regardless of their individual merit, they are groups that include people who think the same and exclude people of other opinions. And in that, I see a danger.

I like groups that have practical uses. Using FB to find a babysitter or invite people to an event is great. I dislike groups where people get together to pat themselves on the back. There is quite a leap between that and Breivik, but they are still on the same time-line. If you hang out with people who reiterate the same stance, it lulls you into a feeling that everybody agrees with me, and therefore, I must be justified. Most FB groups I’ve encountered are facile in that they are not ment as an exchange between view-points, but as a justification for monolithic thinking. And this is certainly equally true for left and right, so don’t go thinking you’re exempt. More than that, I find that I sometimes avoid sharing a text or a picture, because it originates with the “wrong” creators. I don’t want to be guilty by association of publicly liking the wrong outfit, and so I don’t click, for fear of the clique.

 

I live close to the Haas promenade. Jerusalem is built on hills. The promenade runs for several kilometers along the ridge of East Talpiyot and has a most magnificent view of both the old and the new city of Jerusalem. Like everything else in our complicated city, what you see from the promenade is what you are willing to accept. You can see a united, borderless city, or you can see a divided city, segregated into different areas for different populations. You can see a modern, wester Jewish Jerusalem and say it was created through hard work, ideology and enthusiasm. Or you can look at the same city and say that the less developed east Jerusalem, with its Arab population, is deprived and discriminated. You can notice how the spread out Arab neighbourhoods get a better deal, m2 per capita, than the densly populated west. Or you can say that there is no modern building in east Jerusalem, because the Arab parts do not get building-permits, for political reason. To which some will counter that the Arabs of east Jerusalem will not cooperate with the municipal authorities and allow them to measure, parcelate and plan, for different political reasons. You can see the traces of your own history in this archeologcal wet-dream, or you can see the cradle of all of western civilization growing out of an ancient hub of humanity. And all of this holds some, or a lot, of truth.

What you don’t see is the Dead Sea. Theoretically, you can actually see the Sea from the Promenade but:

A. The Dead Sea is dying, i.e. shrinking, and so there is less and less to see of this extraordinary natural phenomenon. There are plans to revive some of the water-flow in to the mineral-rich lowest point on earth, but until now, the Dead Sea has been the victim of our thirst, and less and less fresh water has been allowed to replenish our salty puddle.

B. When Israelis say that you can see a particular sight from another particular sight, they usually qualify that with a lot of conditions. “The Hermon can be spotted on a clear winter day, between 3PM and 3.03PM, if Saturn is aligned with March”. I spent a year on Kibbutz Lavi, near Tiberias. On a clear day you can see Mount Hermon from here, the kibbutznikim used to say. I must have missed the clear day.

The other week I was walking on the Promenade with a friend on a shabbath afternoon. From afar we could hear drumming and as we came closer we saw three young men, Arabs, hanging out and drumming out an oriental beat for dear life. They were great. My friend had to stop me from belly-dancing. Going back in the opposite direction we passed directly next to the musicians. I turned to one of them in Hebrew and told them they were brilliant. In response I got a very frosty stare. My interpretation of this is that the boy I addressed does not understand Hebrew, and he thought that I was telling him off for making noise. He’s in a FB group called “Jews are always nasty to Arabs”. He’ll write about this incident on his FB page and get lots of “likes”. And I can open a new group for well-meaning but unjustly rejected Jews. Pure conjecture or the absolute truth?

So here is my suggestion for the Facebook Empire. Next to the Like and the Share, add another button named R:

Respect.

Noomi Stahl