אדריכלות ישראלית

where

have all the

humble

gone

I don’t know anyone who hasn’t come across the

stupid saying – “after the holidays”, as if there is ever

a time without a holiday in Israel. A national patent

intended on one hand to put pressure on the self-

employed who struggle for every working day, while

pleasing the employees who attempt to bridge any gap

possible between holidays. However, this year we were

presented with an extra novelty - “after the elections” -

actually

parallel to “after the war”.

“After every war,” wrote Wisława Szymborska, in her

poem The End and the Beginning, "someone has to

clean up…Things won’t fix themselves… Someone has

to drag in a beam to support a wall… Someone has to

replace glass in a window… Rebuild bridges and mend

shirts ripped from rolling up sleeves".

Everything is "royally" done of course, appropriate

for the "kingdom" according to Ben-Gurion, who,

adopted the notion of behaving like "kings" upon the

establishment of the state, along the lines of his other

stupid statements: “we need people who are born

laborers… Yemenites and Sephardis whose demands

and standard of living are lower than Europeans and

who can naturally replace Arab laborers”

Anyway, despite the fact we now have a king of our own,

it’s time to rip the patronizing notion out of our lexicon,

to prevent "rogue princes" from settling accounts with

the Supreme Court, practicing “conversion” therapies,

or promoting insane slogans like “whoever travels alone

arrives slowly.” As if “aloners” suddenly decide to live by

themselves one day, something that usually happens

due to ageing and, without a proper alternative, are

unable to get to work or home on time.

So, in the name of all those who waste hours in the

“carpool lane”, as long as the state fails to provide

appropriate public transportation, at least on a standard

already provided by other “kingdoms” for over a 150

years, back off! In fact, get off all our backs and if

possible, do it with royal finesse.

I remember that when I went to “Mamlachti Aleph”, the

motto above the school symbol was Behave Humbly.

At the time, the United Kingdom was still regarded with

abhorrence and I had trouble understanding the correlation between the term and the quiet, the "Kingdom" and

placid Zahala. Although this neighborhood produced most of the state leaders, there wasn’t a single king among

them. All of them were unashamedly humble: Moshe Dayan was the ultimate Cowboy, Arik Sharon looked like Fat

Ehud from Hasamba and Rabin - he was and remains just a soul.

Architect, Dr. Ami Ran

editorial