Here should have been a description of Rahat nights.
Wait, that's not what you think.
These are not tough JSM cops, leaping from jeeps in the middle of the night raiding illegal weapons depots. Here was supposed to be a description of the other and brighter side of Rahat, and yes - there is such a thing.
A month ago, the tourism department of the Rahat municipality - yes, there is such a thing - issued an invitation to all residents of the country to come and take part in the "al-Qutab" events.
A weekend of "winter school" that combines the study of spoken Arabic with full accommodation in the homes of families in Rahat.
The purpose of the initiative was one - to encourage the direct encounter and strengthen the closeness between Israeli culture and the Bedouin culture and tradition, in the great Bedouin city.
Arabic lessons for beginners in the morning, guided tours around the city in the afternoon, meetings with local residents and officials who will tell about the history of Rahat and the unique challenges it faces.
In the evening, exposure to local culture with theater workshops, cooking groups and kataif preparation, and a meeting with local artists.
And if you're tired after all that, you can jump into the heated pool in Rahat's new country - yes, there is such a thing - sweating in the sauna, sipping in the cafe and then going to sleep in the house of the Bedouin family that hosts you.
Unfortunately, I will not be able to share with you the description of the colorful experiences of the days of "al-Qutab" and Rahat nights in the winter for one simple reason - you did not come, so they did not exist.
We are so good at criticizing, pointing the finger and saying "they", putting labels, generalizing to hundreds of thousands of people, and defining them as a "problem" on the one hand, and boiling on the other if others dare to generalize and label us. As a resident of the south, I have written here more than once or twice about the criminals of Bedouin society, but if that is all I would do, then I would be guilty of my role as an observer and reporter of the reality in which we live.
From Spider-Man to Dune, anyone who has seen superhero and space movies in recent decades can notice a welcome trend of presenting more complex stories. The good heroines also have bad angles and the bad villains also have good sides. When you sober up from the concept of black and white, you discover that reality consists of 50,000 shades of gray.
Bedouin society is in the process of a profound and significant change. New generations are growing up with high exposure to modernity, Western and Arab culture from the Gulf states and the Palestinian Authority, all in parallel with Israeliness. This mixture creates a generation that has grown to a not-so-simple and often contradictory identity complexity. Any social change is a big challenge. Probably in a traditional and conservative society where the elders of the tribe still rule. Add to that great poverty and living in the fog of irregularity and you get the recipe for explosions. But the noise of the explosions screens and hides the agents of change of Bedouin society today, and there are quite a few of them. Day-to-day people, step by step, looking for the connection and the right way to integrate into Israeliness.
This is not about creating any more such symbolic "hug-hugging" events.
These are brave people who are looking for a relationship beyond knapsacking and talking to stone.
These are real change agents, seeking to create a bridge through a direct glimpse into the diversity and inner complexity of such a media-present society on the one hand, but almost completely unknown to the public eye.
When the palm reached out from the inside is ignored, it is a pan-Israel tragedy.
The way to the meeting should be done by both parties.
And there is no better way to know our reality in this time and place, than to get out of the small screen clichés and meet reality without mediation and intermediaries.
"The program also took place in the summer and people came,
and especially in the winter - no," says Mahmoud Al-Amor, CEO of the Rahat Economic Company.
There are full of Jews who work here, buy here, trade, live and breathe Rahat.
"I assure you it is completely safe to come and visit. Hospitality is part of our culture, and people here love to host. At the 'South Red' events last year, we did a tasting tour of the Bedouin market. The problem was that all tour participants were completely satisfied at the first stop. "Exaggerate, but they said - we like to entertain, can not give 'just a little' for tasting. It's Rahat."
Despite the non-response, Al-Amor is optimistic: 'Eventually people will come.
There will soon be 'South Red' events, followed by 'Ramadan Nights', and the Afternoon Dinner, and in the summer al-Qutab hosting will also return.
It is important for us that people from all over the country and the world see us, it is important for strengthening local pride and creating a common life.
Whatever takes you a year to learn in video or app, you will learn in a few days in Rahat. '
I was repeatedly asked this week what I think of this week's Torah portion.
Unfortunately, no one meant the "Vara" affair, but the one about which there is nothing to tell at the time of writing.
And yet most of us, at least in the South, know what happened, where it happened and how it happened, and I will reward, even if not really, let's share the "serious affair" further, since it's been talked about on TV (if you belong to those who do not know what I'm talking about - Blessed are you and your life, you are the last innocents).
Why was it so important for TV people to talk about an affair that should not be talked about and yet they themselves talk, and encourage more than anything the discourse about it?
There is the constant excuse of the rating people for any moral deviation and value-deprivation - "because that's what the audience wants."
The big fear of the news people - to stay behind and be irrelevant for a moment - made them think this week, and thus the news programs became another oppressive WhatsApp group to which all Israeli citizens were reluctantly added.
Why? Because what brings more rating than burning fire in front of the camera, waiting for the forest to burn, then sending our reporter in the woods to stand there with a "first name rating" and chirping with serious morality about the "Israelis (the ugly ones who are of course not us) sharing and spreading rumors about the burning forest" '' To you finch.
Hello ?!
Are you confused ??
If spreading rumors is the measure of ugliness, there are no ugly Israelis from the news studios who do not see the mirror inside the camera.
Due to the excuse that "everyone is talking about it on WhatsApp" you turned the news into a WhatsApp group, and as the worst of the troubles in each group, you hurried to pass on the message that everyone saw, to feel important.
It is likely that your reckless move has hurt the person who really matters in this "affair."
And no, it's not you who know but you must not tell.
Those who are important are those who, in order to protect them, are forbidden to talk about the affair in the first place - the victims.
Those who wink and hint hang on display in the town square are naked for the sake of protecting their privacy, exaggerated by their anonymity and promiscuous in light of the exposure.
Enjoy the ratings.
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