I attended the last hour of the Israel64 event here in Philadelphia, late on a Sunday afternoon last month, and though I don't believe I can quite fully do it justice (considering I was only there for the very tail end of it, and I was also nursing a bit of a hangover at the time), I can absolutely promise that my coverage (and photos) of next year's Israeli Independence Day event will be much better.
And more timely! Although in my defense on that last point, up until this week I haven't had a blog to post at, since I was kicked out of a certain one late last year for daring to say and support things which folks there don't want said and don't like being supported. I'm sure youze can probably guess what kinds of things those were. Anyway, took a few photos and thought I'd share some here...
Jump below 'the fold' for more words and images and Zionist Spy Birds of Prey and whatnot...
Held at the main pavilion of Penn's Landing, the Center City Delaware River waterfront area in the shadow of the Ben Franklin Bridge, security was heavier than any other similar event I've attended, here or elsewhere. Private inside, Philadelphia police outside. A fence was also up surrounding the usually-wide open park, with bag searches at the entrance...
...and in the air, may or may not have also been Zionist Spy Birds of Prey keeping an eye on us all.
Shhh! Don't let Turkey and Saudi Arabia know.
The crowd was still decent for its being the very end of the event, and for also being an overcast day, as well one of the windiest of the year here (I almost lost my hat like seven times), especially being right along the river.
Someone forgot to tell all the non-white folks enjoying the event that Israel is an 'apartheid' regime which eats bunnies and shoots babies, aardvarks, cartoon characters and kittens just to watch them die, etc etc...
There was plenty of food, but again everything was winding down when I arrived.
The next BeadyEss'er outrage will be "guide-dog washing," perhaps?
Israeli singer Nurit Galron was still gettin' down on stage, however late though it was.
The community mural looked good.
"Closing time, one last call for (fades away humming)"...
And time to hop on the subway back home to Kensington, thanks fer lookin'...
Thanks Jay. Good to know that support for Israeli in Philly, my old home town, is strong and uncontroversial.
ReplyDeleteNo problem, Adam. We'll keep it up!
DeleteYes, but how were the falafels?
ReplyDeleteHeh, I unfortunately didn't get to try them. There were a few stands, but they were all closing up shop as I got there. They all have storefront shops in Center City, though, and I wrote their names down somewhere, so I'll definitely try them eventually!
DeleteY'know, I once got into trouble with "unspeakable" on dkos because in a comment I said something like:
DeleteThey need to finally sit down at the table and hash out final agreements on borders, security, falafel recipes.
It flipped him out entirely. The guy started screeching at me, "Falafel! FALAFEL! What? Are you some kind of racist?! What do you mean, falafel!!!"
I couldn't believe it at the time.
Anyways, Paul can confirm that I had true falafel epiphany a few years ago and have been seeking the perfect nugget ever since.
{I kid you not!}
:O)
Heh, sounds just like him. Fortunately, I don't have to deal with that stuff any more, nor do I have to hold my tongue on what I really think of him and his buddies there. The worst thing about that site was our side always having to fight with one hand tied behind our back, and the other in one of those giant, extra-padded carnival boxing gloves. And with our shoelaces tied together. And even that sometimes wasn't enough to 'save' us from getting kicked out.
DeleteFalafel rocks! :-D
My current favorite falafel around here is, as I've mentioned before, actually run by a Palestinian family, just under the Berks El station, not far from me in what is now a corner of Kensington with a growing Arab population. The falafel itself isn't particularly great, but the sandwich as a whole (housemade hummus, baba, pickled veggies, etc) is excellent. I need to try many more here, as well. Two great ones I've had in NYC are Murray's and Taim, and my favorite back in Portland was Aybla, a Syrian food cart just up the street from my old place in SE.