December 22, 2000 — Mudeif Productions

Here we are in Tel Aviv, three days before Christmas, and the only sign of it is the growling visage of Jim Carrey.

In other Christmas news, the pilgrims are on their way - Elizabeth's mother arrives tomorrow, and so we left early this morning (5:00 am) to get a day in Tel Aviv. We went with the one Zababdeh taxi driver who has yellow plates (as an Israeli citizen) and thus has some freedom of movement. Even so, we headed out using small roads to avoid the checkpoints, from where he would surely be turned back. We entered Israel through an oddity of an Arab village that is half in Israel and half in the West Bank (half have citizenship, half don't).

Once in Tel Aviv, we checked into our youth hostel (our days of hosteling are something we remember with joy but don't care to repeat) and went to nap on the beach - beautiful and warm! A chance to spoil ourselves with Thai food among other things.

*Picking over what’s left at the Yemenite market.*

We took a walk through the Yemenite market after shabbat had begun - thus, the shops were closed and the excess fresh produce was up for grabs by those who were foraging through the rubbish.

The youth culture was out on the beach, in a very tribal scene - fire jugglers, drums, dogs, didgeridoos, etc. - all under the urban lights of Tel Aviv. It struck us as a strange searching for identity in a land where identity is such a raw question.The youth culture was out on the beach, in a very tribal scene - fire jugglers, drums, dogs, didgeridoos, etc. - all under the urban lights of Tel Aviv. It struck us as a strange searching for identity in a land where identity is such a raw question.