The Charlotte Jewish Nejws - December 2001 - Page 5
Mei-Ami
By Lydia Aisenberg
Situated on a hilltop command
ing a position of authority,
Moshav Mei-Ami overlooks the
Israeli Moslem city of Umm-el-
Fahm and the Wadi Ara basin on
one side, and peeks over and into
a small portion of the West Bank
on the other.
Within a five minute drive from
the Mei-Ami community of some
thirty families living just about
inside the Israel side of the Green
Line, are a number of large and
small Palestinian villages plus a
cluster of four Jewish settlements.
In October, Palestinians pene
trated the perimeter fence of the
moshav and lay an explosive
device, attached to a mobile phone
to enable detonation from a dis
tance, behind the closest building
which just happened to be the
office of the moshav’s security
officer.
The back of the building was
badly damaged in the ensuing
explosion, but no one was injured.
This was the first act of terrorism
against the moshav since the out
break of the intifada thirteen
months ago.
Tracks leading from the cut in
the non-electronic Mei-Ami fence
led to the Palestinian village of
Anin, hugging the slopes of a hilly
range underneath the 36,000
Israeli Moslem residents of Umm-
el-Fahm. A fenceless dirt track
used as a patrol road by the IDF
and the former 1967 border with
Jordan, just about divides the two.
Gideon Eldar is one of four
members of Mei-Ami who work
in the moshav’s enormous turkey
farm, the largest in Israel, which
produces 3000 tons of
kosher meat annually
from 32,000 birds.
Gideon and the
other members toil
daily alongside two
Arab employees. One
of them has working
there since 1976, the
other for five years and
both hail from Umm-
el-Fahm down below.
“We share our
work, share our break
fasts and share our
views,” said Gideon,
who has been a mem
ber of the moshav
since the same year that particular
Moslem Arab employee began
working there.
Known for speaking his mind,
Gideon laughed when I asked him
if he thought that the Arab
employees felt as free to speak
theirs.
“Of course they do and they
certainly express their views with
out fear,” he said, quickly adding,
“I would never fire an employee
because of their political views.”
Sue Littauer took this photograph of
Gideon Eldar during her visit this past
summer to Mei Ami, a community in
the Madera Eiron region in Israel. The
region, which is located between Tel
Aviv and Haifa, is the partnership
community for the Southeast Regional
Consortium, of which Charlotte is a
member. At the time of the photo,
Gideon was standing about 20 feet
from the green line, which was the pre-
1967 border, recognized as the legiti
mate border. It is also sometimes
called the seam line, because it is
problematic and can pull apart where
the cloth is sewn. As Gideon spoke to
the visiting group from the Southeast,
he talked about living with a fence
around them, and how their children
are afraid. In July, Gideon asked, “Is
this right that I have to live with a
fence around me?"
Gideon’s brother, Mike Eldar,
is a well-known Israeli journalist,
author and former commander of
the Israel Navy Seals unit. He has
been at loggerheads with Israeli
authorities over the publishing of
a number of his books dealing
with the Navy, one of which was
temporarily banned in Israel.
Turkey man Gideon Eldar is
also no stranger to controversy.
For many years he has hosted at
Mei-Ami many overseas missions
to Israel under the auspices of the
Jewish Agency. He has also trav
eled to meet such missions in
other parts of the country, and four
months ago toured the US on a
J.A. sponsored speaking tour. The
views he expressed were seen as
rather controversial by some of
the American audiences.
Mei-Ami was originally set up
as a Nachal outpost on the former
border with Jordan, eventually
becoming a civilian agricultural
community in the late 1960s.
The Hebrew name translates to
‘the waters of my people’ but is
basically a play on the US city of
Miami. The Miami Jewish com
munity provided funds for the
founding of what was initially a
kibbutz, but relatively quickly
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Mei Ami is in the Madera Region (left) which is highlighted on the
map of Israel. Its eastern border, where Mei Ami is located, is the
“Green Line” or “Seam Line. ”
The fifty-something turkey
farmer, who also said that he does
not allow any Arab to walk behind
but only in front of him, was born
in Haifa and speaks excellent
English. His late father, Sol Adler,
made aliyah from Manchester in
1934, settling in the coastal city
with Gideon’s South African bom
mother, Fay. After Sol’s death Fay
married former Liverpudlian,
Gerald Fink, and they live in
Haifa.
U.S. Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, and Israeli Foreign Minister
Shimon Peres spoke to delegates at the UJC General Assembly in Washington, DC
during November. Sue Littauer, Campaign Director, and Mamie Moskowitz,
Program Director, from the Jewish Federation of Grehter Charlotte attended the
event along with Sara Schreibman, Federation President. Our delegation met up
with new Executive Director Randy Czarlinsky while at the GA.
belong on their land and that we
shouldn’t feel so safe.
“I told him that we will be here
forever and if he wants to contin
ue to live here, then he has to
abide by the laws of the country,”
recalled Gideon.
“When we first came to live
here in Mei-Ami, many of the
families here were left-wing in
their political thinking, but not
these days.
“The people have not physical
ly moved but certainly have
politically over the years,” he
added. ^
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reverted to a moshav.
“There is only one Jewish state
in the world and we are going to
keep it whatever the cost, we are
not leaving,” says Gideon, who
since the present intifada broke
out has not stepped inside the
neighboring city of Umm-el-
Fahm.
When demon-
strations-turned-
riots broke out
internally in the
Israeli Axab sector
at the beginning of
October 2000, the
Mei-Ami commu
nity found them
selves cut off when
the road down to
the main Wadi Ara
highway from their
hilltop was closed
because of the vio
lence.
“Even though I
have friends among the people
there, I don’t visit the city any
more not because of fear but
because I simply am not prepared
to give them one agoura of my
money,” he says.
“A few months ago we went to
a bakery in Wadi Ara, and while
we were shopping my wife got
into conversation with a local
Israeli Moslem.
“He told us that we are only
temporarily here, that we do not
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