A year ago I was invited to Givat Harel where there was a large plot of land with drip irrigation system, that was not dripping nor irrigating. I built a model of it and run it through the computer and of course, it could not work - there was 8% slope and contour differences of up to 32 meters. Water pressures were crazy. I made a new design and it is working. I hope I will get a few bottles of the new wine.
The farmer sued the first design engineer and today at 12.30 the Judge Riva held the audience and I was invited as a professional expert witness. I was requested to leave the hall but I heard that they had settled at 50% of the demand. Most of my time was spent sitting in the corridor waiting to be called in, but the Judge was not interested in me as I had submitted my opinion in writing and no one was opposing it. She talked non-stop except for ordering me out.
While waiting, there was a big noise going on in the neighboring court room, with about 40 photographers outside, much police and border police, and young men looking like Secret Police (Shin Beth). Also a crowd of people from Samaria and another crowd of Arabs. I asked a Sh.B. person what was going on, and he said it was the "parasha bithonit". Then an ugly small (maybe 1.30 m tall) black Yemenite woman with a miniature baby hanging from her chest came out and the journalists crowded her. I tried to catch a few words but I couldnt make sense.
The security affair in question was Perlman (pic) who was arrested yesterday suspected of murdering Palestinians in 1998. The Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court on Thursday (today - ah! that was what I saw!) extended his remand by six days.
After Pearlman was arrested, the head of the team of Shin Bet security service investigators, identified only as Adam, banned him from meeting with his lawyer for three days. Such a step is taken only in extraordinary circumstances, when the Shin Bet fears that a suspect's meeting with a lawyer might obstruct the investigation.
"The Israeli public is about to witness one of the most embarrassing affairs, which exposes the methods used by security services who employed improper means to get the suspect to link himself to acts to which he has no connection," said Pearlman's lawyer, Adi Keidar of Honenu. Security sources said Pearlman had been in contact with the Shin Bet for several months in 2002, apparently indicating that Pearlman had been working for the Shin Bet at one point.
My comment here will be the most superficial but I left (for a pasta factory project) with a very clear impression that I had never seen so many deformed and ugly people in one place. Perlman's wife is a thin small swarthy woman, to the point of charicature. She was dressed like a Gypsy, with long skirt and the miniature baby hanging from her chest. The Arabs looked most unhealthy and walked like paralysed from legs down. The Court speaker, who came out to meet the journalist, was a good looking young man, later he was revealed as an Arab speaking to the Arab crowd. I am rather tall but nothing exceptional, yet there was no one of my stature nor anyone looking normal. The Court policemen (who asked people for their phones to make sure they did not take pictures - idiotic, as there were three dozen photographers with equipment around. BTW, the pic above was not taken by me.) were fat, ugly, violent and impolite. The Shin Beth people looked around like they owned the place, self importantly cruising about the crowd. They did not answer me when I talked to them (I am an old curious Jew always bothering unknown people in the street with questions). All in all, the astonishment that the "parasha bithonit" was about these ugly, stupid looking, small people. One imagines "terrorists" and "right wing extremist" and "Shin Beth" as giants, well, maybe not giants, but people of an average look. These were lumpen.
5 comments:
You are too used to watching TV. People look better on TV, especially professional actors, newscaster, etc. who are handsome already and made more so by makeup, lighting, etc. The Jews in general are often deformed, short in stature, etc. - when you breed for brains, a price has to be paid somewhere.
My mother's family was exceptionally tall for shtetl Jews. My father's family on the other had was quite short. I am in between.
K
I live in this country and I see people all the day. If I had the impression that a particularly ugly group of people collected today in the Petach Tikva Court House (which is a new, very nice building, looking like courthouses shuld look), maybe it is because they were so. But you are right, people on TV and cinema look taller and more beautiful.
The older I get, the more I go with my first impression of people based on their external appearance. Closer examination rarely yields a different result. Weird-why would the two be correlated?
B,
I received a free copy of Israel Today in the shuk and on page 02 there is a picture of Keren Perlman. On the pic she looks all right, but I remember her differently. I am starting to be confused.
It goes without saying that no offense is intended to any living girl. This is just boy talk over a a cold beer. Anyone reading this should realize that it is too hot in Israel. I should have a summer house in Itamar (960 m over sea level) and move there from May to September.
PS: Some people will even take offense at calling her a girl. What I meant is that no offense is intended to any mother in Israel. She is an impressive little woman, fighting for his husband with a two months old baby cringing from her teat. She has no income and must be harassed by all kind of state organs such as social security. She is a true revolutionary, she is more powerful then the Shin Bet jewsektzia.
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