City Notes: Haifa Arab Culture Festival features topical art exhibition on foreign workers

The exhibition combines political, national, ethnic, religious and aesthetic perceptions of this issue in an exploration of the concepts of foreignness, imitation and origin.

By TAMARA ZIEVE
'Foreigners Among Us' explores the status of foreign workers (photo credit: Courtesy)
'Foreigners Among Us' explores the status of foreign workers
(photo credit: Courtesy)
NORTH
Haifa’s Jewish-Arab Culture Center launched an art exhibition this week on the topic of the status and rights of foreign workers in the West, and specifically in Israel. The exhibition, titled “Foreigners Among Us” and curated by Dor Guez, is on display at the Beit Hagefen Art Gallery, as part of the this year’s Arab Culture Festival, running from May 8 to 17.
“In the early 1990s, with the end of the first intifada and by a deliberate initiative of Israel, hundreds of thousands of work immigrants started coming to the country, gradually pushing Palestinian workers out of the labor market. Today, Israel tops the list of industrial countries importing a foreign workforce,” explains a statement released ahead of the exhibition launch.
“While today Israel receives foreign workers from over 70 countries, during decades of occupation the ‘foreign worker‘ in Israel was a worker from a Palestinian origin, a ‘foreigner’ living ‘among us,’” it continues. “The foreignness of the Palestinian worker, foreignness established in relation to the Jewish-Israeli hegemony, does not stem from planned immigration. It is most certainly not geographic; its origin is forced expulsion, exclusion from the civilian space and occupational hardship.”
The works combine political, national, ethnic, religious and aesthetic perceptions of this issue in an exploration of the concepts of foreignness, imitation and origin.
The festival also features music shows, including young Palestinian DJs and musicians, as well as lectures and events for children at the University of Haifa and downtown – offering Jews and Arabs the opportunity to get acquainted with young Palestinian music in Israel. All events are open to the public free of charge.
Nahariya hospital treats 2 wounded in Syrian civil war
The Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya treated two Syrians last week who were wounded in their country’s civil war, Army Radio reported.
One of the injured Syrians, a 25-year-old man, suffered serious wounds to his head and chest. The second injured man, a 34-year-old, suffered light-to-medium wounds to his face.
According to the report, this hospital has to date treated more than 250 injured Syrians.
CENTER
Givat Shmuel: Man burned to death in apartment fire
A 30-year-old man died last week after a fire broke out in an abandoned apartment in Givat Shmuel. United Hatzalah volunteers rushed to the scene and extinguished the flames, but found that the man had been burned to death.
United Hatzalah said the victim had apparently taken refuge in the apartment due to the cool and rainy weather, but the cause of the fire was unclear. Police and firefighters were investigating the incident.
Save a Child’s Heart launches photography exhibition
The Save a Child’s Heart NGO launched a photography exhibition last Wednesday, displaying works by leading photographers who followed the recovery of some of the children who were successfully treated thanks to the efforts of the organization’s doctors, nurses, support teams and office staff.
The Israeli-based NGO provides cardiac surgery to children as well as training to medical personnel from developing countries.
The exhibition will be open until July 19 at the Opera House, Center for Performing Arts in Tel Aviv. Opening hours: Sunday-Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Parents plan class-action suit against Tel Aviv amusement park
A number of parents intend to file a class-action discrimination suit against a Tel Aviv amusement park after the mother of a child with physical and mental disabilities was denied permission to board a roller coaster over Passover, Army Radio reported Monday.
The case has attracted the attention of Meretz MK Ilan Gilon, who said that he would refer the matter to the state agency responsible for ensuring equal rights to those with disabilities.
A spokesperson for the Luna Park amusement complex, which is located in north Tel Aviv, told Army Radio that management had little choice but to refuse the child since the roller coaster is classified as “extreme.” The mother of the child in question told Army Radio that the child had gotten on the roller coaster in the past.
TA’s Romanian Cultural Institute hosts children’s ballet show
Tel Aviv’s Romanian Cultural Institute last Thursday put on a children’s ballet show of The Puppet Store, of the Studio M Ballet School – Bucharest National Opera House. The show was held at the Studio Hall of the Israeli Ballet School in Tel Aviv.
The Puppet Store is a mixed performance that includes parts of well-known classical ballet shows, such as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and Don Quixote, as well as contemporary dances, instrumental music and acting intermezzos. The costumes are made by Romanian fashion designers.
The Studio M Ballet School, established in 1982 at the Bucharest National Opera House by ballet professional Magdalena Rovinescu, comprises 190 members and has been granted first-class distinctions in both national and international competitions.
SOUTH
Car goes up in flames, killing driver
Early Monday morning, a vehicle caught fire on Highway 42 between the Ashdod Interchange and a nearby gas station.
Magen David Adom paramedics reported that the car seemed to have hit a wall and then gone up in flames, engulfing the body of the driver as well. Paramedics pronounced the driver dead.
The circumstances of the accident were unknown.
Dead Sea: Police officer fires at man brandishing knife
Police opened fire at a man who allegedly threatened a tourist with a knife at a Sdom gas station in the Dead Sea area last weekend. The man allegedly also threatened police, refused to let go of the knife and ran toward them.
Police arrived on the scene after receiving a report of a man brandishing a knife in all directions at the Neveh Zohar gas station. A patrol car from Arad arrived, and when one of the officers told the suspect to put the knife down he reportedly began to run toward her, at which point she used a Taser. After falling to the ground, however, the man allegedly got up and ran toward her once again with the knife drawn. The officer subsequently fired at his lower body.
The suspect, a Beersheba resident in his 30s, was moderately wounded and evacuated to the Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba.
The case was transferred to the Police Investigation Unit. The Negev District Police opened a parallel investigation to clarify circumstances.