Write on the Land Grab Wall for 30 Euros -- and Help Palestinians

All right, I know this is a liberal-guilt gimmick. But a Dutch organization called Palo Dutch Concept Factory came up with the idea of paying Palestinians to spray paint text on the Apartheid Wall/Security Fence/Land Grab Wall. You come up with the text you want, and provided that it is not violent, racist, sexist, pornographic, etc., Palestinians will put it up on the wall.

The clever website is here.

The Palestinians doing this can't believe that anybody would be dumb enough to pay them that much money for writing a text of a 100 words or less. And there is more than an element of radical chic here. But we are not talking of sponsoring cocktail parties for Black Panthers. This is a clever way of publicizing the plight of those whose lives are being destroyed by the Wall.

Amazingly, gentlemen are proposing to their lady friends this way. Now I ask you: would you like to be given a picture of the following graffiti on the Wall: "Ilse, will you marry me? Peter." I mean, come on, gang, it's not Facebook.

I gave in my text and paid via Paypal, When I get the picture, I will post it here. I would urge all Jewish readers to put a Jewish message of support on the Wall.

Now that would be a kiddush ha-shem be-farhesia, a public sanctification of God's name.

When I paid via PayPal, I was told that the payment didn't go through and to wait and try again later. BUT THE PAYMENT DID GO THROUGH -- at least I got an email shortly thereafter. So don't pay twice and don't give up either.

Three Short Intentions to Have in Mind When Observing Tisha B'Av

Tonight starts the fast of the Ninth of Av, when Jews mourn the destruction of the First Temple by the Bablylonians. All sorts of bad things happened to the Jews on this day, according to rabbinic Jewish tradition. It is a day of national mourning and soul-searching.

Three short intentions (kavvanot) to have in mind when you are observing this day.

1. When you pray for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, make that a spiritual rather than a physical rebuilding. Jerusalem today is overbuilt and overdeveloped by a combination of market factors, nationalist ideology, and greed. Patch after patch of green space has been rezoned for multi-dweller buildings. Unless you want to curse the city, don't pray for erecting buildings.

2. When you think of "Jerusalem in her ruins" have in mind Arab Jerusalem, as brilliantly described in the latest book by Hillel Cohen: "The Marketplace is Empty": The Rise and Fall of Arab Jerusalem 1967-2007 (Jerusalem: The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, 2007 (Hebrew). Cohen describes the decline of a once bustling and vibrant polis, thanks to mostly (but not exclusively) Israel's policies since the "reunification" in 1967. And also have in mind the apartheid wall/security fence that is choking the Arab neighborhoods.

3. Finally, some hope: when you think of rebuilding the Temple, think not of some building on the Temple Mount or Haram ash-Sharif, but of all those houses rebuilt by the Israel Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), most recently, the renovation of Issa Amro's house in the Tel Romeida section of Hebrew. A great yashar koah (congratulations) to all the people involved in that melekhet mitzvah (commanded labor), especially ICAHD and Bene Avraham