How to Embarass Israel

Driving to the Dead Sea, near Kfar Edumim, one sees a collection of miserable tents and some black goats. Sometimes the goats cross the highway followed by a boy dressed in rags. They are Beduin nomads, squatting on public lands. They keep their distance from Arab villages, as the fallahin hate them.

An Italian architect designed and built for them a "green" school, made from used tires and mud. He wrote articles about his invention and became famous among all the green architects of Europe. There is a large environmentalist movement in Europe.

The laws of Israel allow "temporary" buildings on public or private lands, but when walls are erected and a roof, the structure becomes "permanent" and requires a long process to be legalized. Of course, the Italian architect, who publicized the project as a romantic "School in the Desert", did not ask for any building permit, nor did the Beduins. The State of Israel was about to bulldoze the illegal structure, but Jewish volunteers (financed by European governments) started a public and legal battle against the process, with articles and happenings in Europe, all illustrating "Israeli inhumanity". Yesterday, a judge forbid the levelling of the famous green monument till the State builds a new school in its place. With my tax money, of course. It was a brilliant plan, I have to admit it, we were shamed and defeated.