The Water Festival - Israel: The early years - 2

In this country, probably the most popular festival is the rejoicing over the finding of water in the depths of the earth. Now the day had come when the threat of drought had been removed fromt he Negev. Water had been found. Yet on the selfsame day a terrible sand storm blew up in the South.

Two men were standing at the big wheel, which sets the water flowing. The one was the oldest of the settlers, a man who had been a leader of the settlement movement for years. The other, much younger, was the pioneer, representative of the men who always heed the call and leave their families and farms whenever they are needed by the homeland. When the men moved the wheel and a pillar of water spurted up into the air, you could see the Negev sandstorm retreating. The tremendous sand-clouds fell back when they met the stream of living water. Man had celebrated his victory.

A woman sitting next tom me started weeping. She told me she was a Gentile from the city of Zagreb in Yugoslavia. The next day, when I visisted her at home, she showed me a picture of the neighborhood where she had been born: "This part of the city has been destroyed completely by the Germans." I could understand how a person who had lost his own home could feel to the depth of hi soul the building up of a country.

After the ceremony a man stopped by our car and asked for a lift back to town. "I am a newcomer to the country" he said and mentioned his name. His family is quite well known in the country, therefore his exellent Hebrew was no surprise to us. But we couldn't understand why he had only arrived recently. After a short silence he brought out a picture of a tombstone over the grave of a falledn Israeli soldier. "This is what brought me to Israel" he said.
 
His son had fallen at Negba.  He was their only child and had been brought up in South America. When the War of Liberation began, he volunteered for the Israel Army. He gave us all the details. How the son had left home. How he fell. How the news had reached him.

He was silent for a moment, then added: "We received the news on a Thursday. The following Sunday I buried my wife. There was nothing left for me. Now I'm here, all alone." Then he, the serious adult, started crying in front of us strangers.

When we reached town, we asked him. "Where is your home?"

"Home? Well, if you can call it that," he said. "I am all alone, I have no home." He walked away from the car in the twilight, moving hastily.

But before he left us he had said one more thing: The next day would be his wedding anniversary, so he had come to celebrate the water festival in the Negev.

(Oops: In the bitter war of Israel's independence 60,000 soldiers dies, equivalent to 1% of the population. The next time arabs and their sympathisers talk about Israel's supposed ethnic cleansing of 'peaceful' arabs, rememeber this statistic.)

Greek Orthodox Church believes that Israel should pay its bills even whilst undermining Israel's security

The Greek Orthodox Church is up in arms over having its bank account frozen by the Mekorot water company. It seems that the church believed that it was exempt from normal arrangements like paying for what you consume. 
I wonder why an unnamed Jerusalem mayor, most likely Teddy Kollek allowed the church to get away with this theft for so long. Most probably as usual Israel was blackmailed into it over the bad publicity that would ensue. And of course anti-Israel hatred is exactly what the Greek  Orthodox Church is trying to do at the moment. In the past its Bishop Hilarion Cappucci smuggled weapons for PLO terrorists abusing diplomatic rights afforded the Church by Israel. And only the other day another Bishop Hanna showed just how much hatred its priests have for the Jewish State when fulminating against christians serving in Israels army.

The Israeli government is usually soft on those that hate it and work against its interests, but a water company is a business and less likely to take religious blackmail into account. Most likely what will happen is that the Israeli government will pay up. Anything for 'peace' and quiet. The trouble is the enemies of Israel are very well aware of this.

Clergyman from church built on site where Jesus Christ is said to have been crucified says its bank account has been frozen due to long-standing dispute with Israeli water company

A clergyman from the church built on the site where Jesus Christ is said to have been crucified said Friday that its bank account has been frozen as the result of a long-standing dispute with an Israeli water company.

Greek Orthodox priest Isidoros Fakitsas said that the move has impaired the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to pay bills and salaries.

As a result, the church is considering closing for a day in protest, shutting the doors to one of Christianity's most popular pilgrimage sites.

The account was blocked two weeks ago and lawyers were hired to address the matter in court, Fakitsas said. He insisted the church will be able to function despite the blocked bank account and that if matters become too difficult, it will try and find an alternative, such as opening a new bank account.

The church for decades was exempt by the different leaderships which ruled over Jerusalem's Old City from paying water bills until the Israeli water company began pressing it to pay up a few years ago.

Fakitsas, the superior of the Greek Orthodox Church, said an agreement was reached after months of negotiations. Under the deal, various denominations in the church would pay their monthly bill. A debt of some NIS 9 million ($2.32 million) was to be forgotten, he said.

But to the surprise of the church elders, its account was blocked two weeks ago, making it impossible to pay stipends of some 500 priests and monks, 2,000 teachers and the running costs of over 30 Christian schools that the church runs in the Palestinian territories and Jordan, church spokesman Issa Musleh said.

The water company, which could not immediately be reached for comment, demands the church pay for its water – charges from which it has been exempt for decades.

The Israeli Tourism Ministry said the issue is between the Church and the Jerusalem municipality. But because of the great importance of the site, the ministry is now trying to mediate between the two sides and hopes the issue will be resolved quickly.