A girl plays with a kitten at Kerem Al Tufaah neighbourhood. Youval Hai for The National
A girl plays with a kitten at Kerem Al Tufaah neighbourhood. Youval Hai for The National
A girl plays with a kitten at Kerem Al Tufaah neighbourhood. Youval Hai for The National
A girl plays with a kitten at Kerem Al Tufaah neighbourhood. Youval Hai for The National

In Israel's mixed city of Lod, two districts so close yet so distant


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  • Arabic

LOD, ISRAEL // The two neighbourhoods in the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Lod could not have been more different.

Kerem Al Tufaah, home to about 1,000 Arab Israelis, is rundown and neglected. The streets have no names, the houses have no numbers and the roads are unpaved, have no lampposts and are littered with used nappies, soft drink bottles, empty cigarette packs and other rubbish.

Across from a road and an Arab cemetery is Ramat Elyashiv, a new community that will accommodate hundreds of religious and ultranationalist Jewish families. Multi-storied buildings with balconies, penthouses and sprawling parking lots line the newly paved, well-lit and clean streets, surrounded by a park and gardens.

While such a contrast exists between Arab and Jewish neighbourhoods in other mixed Israeli cities, it is especially evident in Lod, a town about 20 kilometres away from Tel Aviv that is tucked away behind Israel's international Ben-Gurion Airport. There, the Arab community has grown increasingly embittered and alienated from local authorities, who they accuse of ignoring Arab neighbourhoods' existence, depriving them of public services and rarely granting permits to build new homes. Last month, however, a group of Arab activists and residents from Kerem Al Tufaah decided to tap Israel's legal system in a bid to reverse the inequality.

At stake is an empty but rubbish-littered lot. Residents say it is the only area available for them to build desperately-needed housing but the local authorities have reserved the site for a new seven-storey police station. The court petition filed by two Israeli rights groups on behalf of the residents is the latest demonstration of tension between Israel and its Arab minority, which make up about 20 per cent of the population and face discrimination in areas such as housing, education and health. The housing inequality is especially acute for Israeli Arabs, who mostly live in Arab villages and towns while about 10 per cent of them reside in mixed cities such as Lod.

Indeed, Israeli planning authorities have for decades neglected updating building plans for many Arab communities across Israel that would allow growing families to legally construct homes.

The roots of Kerem Al Tufaah predate Israel's 1948 creation yet it is officially nonexistent. Its territory is included in a 1979 general plan of Lod, but a detailed plan for the neighbourhood as well as for the adjacent disputed lot - a requirement for granting building permits - has never been drafted. That is why residents have so far not been allowed to construct homes on the lot, activists say.

"They want to squeeze us out of Lod," said Ibrahim Abu Salok, a 52-year-old Arabic to Hebrew translator who represents Kerem Al Tufaah residents. "I pay the same taxes as Jewish residents and keep the law so there is no reason to treat us and Elyashiv differently."

Lod activists say the housing discrimination Arabs face has helped turn their communities into overcrowded, impoverished, crime- and drug-ridden slums.

Partly, that has also been spurred by the lack of Arab officials in Lod's local government, compared with other mixed Jewish-Arab cities that do have Arab representatives, according to activists.

A study by the Israeli rights group Shatil last year showed that 70 per cent of Arabs' homes in Lod were built illegally and activists say hundreds of them face demolition orders. Moreover, according to activists, authorities have issued plans for new industrial zones or roads that are built on areas occupied by long-established but illegally-built Arab homes, forcing the demolition of those houses. Rights groups have charged that the city is trying to "Judaise" its Arab communities. Indeed, Ramat Elyashiv was established on what used to be an Arab neighbourhood after the latter's residents received financial compensation for leaving.

The municipality then enticed Jews - many of them from Jewish settlements in the West Bank - to move into Ramat Elyashiv homes by offering them below-market prices, such as US$100,000 (Dh367,250) for a four-bedroom flat, according to Israeli media reports.

A spokesman for the Lod municipality declined to comment on the building permit rejections and said the illegal construction is a "severe phenomenon that hurts law enforcement". He added that the municipality implements a "stringent" policy towards such building, including by levelling homes.

In Kerem Al Tufaah, the plan to build the police station has renewed fury among residents, who live in tenement-style houses, about their living conditions.

"We don't have playgrounds, youth centres, lots to legally build on, roads or even trash bins on the street," said Ahmad Nimer, a 33-year-old unemployed gardener, as he sat in the shade outside his extended family's house. Mr Nimer said that renting an apartment out of the neighbourhood was too expensive and that six years ago he illegally built a two-room unit outside his parents' home for him, his wife and their two children. His brother, 32-year-old Ibrahim, crams together with his wife and three children into a single room that extends from his parents' home.

For them, the only nearby open space for a new home is the nearby barren field that activists say is large enough for about 300 houses.

"This lot could cancel the historic discrimination against these people," said Auni Bana, a lawyer with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, one of the groups that filed the petition.

"We have only this lot to improve the lives of people in this neighbourhood, but hundreds of other places to build a police station."

Notable Yas events in 2017/18

October 13-14 KartZone (complimentary trials)

December 14-16 The Gulf 12 Hours Endurance race

March 5 Yas Marina Circuit Karting Enduro event

March 8-9 UAE Rotax Max Challenge

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Moon Music

Artist: Coldplay

Label: Parlophone/Atlantic

Number of tracks: 10

Rating: 3/5

The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

Meydan racecard:

6.30pm: Handicap | US$135,000 (Dirt) | 1,400 metres

7.05pm: Handicap | $135,000 (Turf) | 1,200m

7.40pm: Dubai Millennium Stakes | Group 3 | $200,000 (T) | 2,000m

8.15pm: UAE Oaks | Group 3 | $250,000 (D) | 1,900m

8.50pm: Zabeel Mile | Group 2 | $250,000 (T) | 1,600m

9.20pm: Handicap | $135,000 (T) | 1,600m

MATCH INFO

CAF Champions League semi-finals first-leg fixtures

Tuesday:

Primeiro Agosto (ANG) v Esperance (TUN) (8pm UAE)
Al Ahly (EGY) v Entente Setif (ALG) (11PM)

Second legs:

October 23

About Takalam

Date started: early 2020

Founders: Khawla Hammad and Inas Abu Shashieh

Based: Abu Dhabi

Sector: HealthTech and wellness

Number of staff: 4

Funding to date: Bootstrapped

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW

Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman

Director: Jesse Armstrong

Rating: 3.5/5

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Six pitfalls to avoid when trading company stocks

Following fashion

Investing is cyclical, buying last year's winners often means holding this year's losers.

Losing your balance

You end up with too much exposure to an individual company or sector that has taken your fancy.

Being over active

If you chop and change your portfolio too often, dealing charges will eat up your gains.

Running your losers

Investors hate admitting mistakes and hold onto bad stocks hoping they will come good.

Selling in a panic

If you sell up when the market drops, you have locked yourself out of the recovery.

Timing the market

Even the best investor in the world cannot consistently call market movements.

ADCC AFC Women’s Champions League Group A fixtures

October 3: v Wuhan Jiangda Women’s FC
October 6: v Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women’s FC
October 9: v Sabah FA

Results

Female 49kg: Mayssa Bastos (BRA) bt Thamires Aquino (BRA); points 0-0 (advantage points points 1-0).

Female 55kg: Bianca Basilio (BRA) bt Amal Amjahid (BEL); points 4-2.

Female 62kg: Beatriz Mesquita (BRA) v Ffion Davies (GBR); 10-2.

Female 70kg: Thamara Silva (BRA) bt Alessandra Moss (AUS); submission.

Female 90kg: Gabreili Passanha (BRA) bt Claire-France Thevenon (FRA); submission.

Male 56kg: Hiago George (BRA) bt Carlos Alberto da Silva (BRA); 2-2 (2-0)

Male 62kg: Gabriel de Sousa (BRA) bt Joao Miyao (BRA); 2-2 (2-1)

Male 69kg: Paulo Miyao (BRA) bt Isaac Doederlein (USA); 2-2 (2-2) Ref decision.

Male 77kg: Tommy Langarkar (NOR) by Oliver Lovell (GBR); submission.

Male 85kg: Rudson Mateus Teles (BRA) bt Faisal Al Ketbi (UAE); 2-2 (1-1) Ref decision.

Male 94kg: Kaynan Duarte (BRA) bt Adam Wardzinski (POL); submission.

Male 110kg: Joao Rocha (BRA) bt Yahia Mansoor Al Hammadi (UAE); submission.

Results

3pm: Maiden Dh165,000 (Dirt) 1,400m, Winner: Lancienegaboulevard, Adrie de Vries (jockey), Fawzi Nass (trainer).

3.35pm: Maiden Dh165,000 (Turf) 1,600m, Winner: Al Mukhtar Star, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass.

4.10pm: Handicap Dh165,000 (D) 2,000m, Winner: Gundogdu, Xavier Ziani, Salem bin Ghadayer.

4.45pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (T) 1,200m, Winner: Speedy Move, Sean Kirrane, Satish Seemar.

5.20pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (D) 1,600m, Winner: Moqarrar, Dane O’Neill, Erwan Charpy.

5.55pm: Handicap Dh175,000 (T) 1,800m, Winner: Dolman, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.

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Dust and sand storms compared

Sand storm

  • Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
  • Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
  • Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
  • Travel distance: Limited 
  • Source: Open desert areas with strong winds

Dust storm

  • Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
  • Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
  • Duration: Can linger for days
  • Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
  • Source: Can be carried from distant regions
How to increase your savings
  • Have a plan for your savings.
  • Decide on your emergency fund target and once that's achieved, assign your savings to another financial goal such as saving for a house or investing for retirement.
  • Decide on a financial goal that is important to you and put your savings to work for you.
  • It's important to have a purpose for your savings as it helps to keep you motivated to continue while also reducing the temptation to spend your savings. 

- Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching

 

 

Lexus LX700h specs

Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor

Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm

Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm

Transmission: 10-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km

On sale: Now

Price: From Dh590,000

THE SPECS

Engine: 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder

Transmission: Constant Variable (CVT)

Power: 141bhp 

Torque: 250Nm 

Price: Dh64,500

On sale: Now