I love Israel. I love living in Israel. There is nowhere, nowhere, nowhere else that I could ever live. I would die inside if I didn't live here; I would likely die on the outside as well.
A year after we moved to Israel, fulfilling my dream, my hopes, my prayers, my beloved husband and I were talking and he asked a hypothetical question, "what would you say if I said we should return to the US?"
He grew up in a religious family and yet, when it came to our moving to Israel, the decision did not entirely please his family. It was a wrenching departure, followed by a horrible year in which both of his parents were stricken with cancer. The thought he had was only natural - the hope of somehow going back in time.
Without taking a breath, without thought to the consequences, I answered, "I'd rather die." His horrified expression matched mine. Where did that come from? I have three small children? How could I say such a thing?
And as I opened my mouth to take the words back, I realized that I couldn't. That I meant them. I would rather die than live anywhere but here. That was almost 23 years ago and today, I still feel the same way.
And yet...
There are days when I join so many other immigrants wanting to bang my head against the wall and surrender. My eyes threaten to fill with tears and I'm so tired of fighting.
Years ago, I made the mistake of renting offices in a building owned by a relative of a man arrested, tried, and convicted of one of the largest real estate scams in Israel's history. This "minor" relative was enough trouble to make me so grateful I never had to deal with the rest of his family.
When we agreed to rent the office space, the landlord gave us contracts to sign. We asked for a few clarifications but everything seems fine. We were to pay the rent, the property tax (standard in Israel). We were to pay for the water and electricity we used. Logical, right? What could go wrong?
We signed. Renovated. Moved in...and found that our electricity was partially connected with one neighbor so that when we shut our power, they lost their air conditioning in one part of their office and came to scream at us. Our water was on a meter...that wasn't connected to the water company but rather to another neighbor.
For the first couple of months, we didn't really understand what was happening until we were hit with several months worth of bills. We paid our neighbor for the water; the building for the electricity. We got the electricity straightened out because it was driving us crazy. The water department was a bigger problem, we were told by the landlord as we paid another bill to the neighbor.
A while later, over a year or so, we moved across the hallway to a much larger office space. We gave up our two bathrooms and little kitchen and began using the public water on the floor. Electricity was paid normally; water was factored in to the large bill for renting and the building paid it...or so we thought.
Then, about 6 years later, the bank froze our account. We had no idea why. Finally, we tracked it down to an entity called, "Gihon." We didn't know what Gihon was...more learning to do. Gihon is the water authorities of the city of Jerusalem. But why did they freeze our bank account? We didn't even have water! In our new place, was the answer - but you did in your old place!
The landlord, without telling us, had finally implemented the contract we'd signed 10 months earlier and put the water on our name months before we moved over. The water company, ever incompetent, sent regular bills not only for the tiny bit of water we used but also for "our" share of the public water used by the entire building and sent those regular bills to a non-existent address with a very remote connection to the correct address we had given to the landlord. Bills were sent to our company at "POB 3206, Jerusalem."
This is roughly equivalent to sending a letter to Moshe Cohen in Tel Aviv or John Smith in Detroit (or anywhere else in the US). The 3206 was sort of correct...it was our post office box in Maale Adumim. So a better equivalent would be sending a letter to John Smith in Detroit, hoping that he would receive it even though he lives in Chicago. Well, John didn't get the water bill...and neither did we. We didn't get the bills. We didn't get any warnings they might have sent. We didn't get any threats or any demand to show up in court to explain why we weren't paying the bills we never received.
In 2012, six years after the bills were issued and only because they froze our account did we finally learn about all this. All of that time we were right across the hallway and even though our company is registered properly, we never received any bills - not even when they went to court. Did they ask the landlord - the one who had ordered the change of address? No idea. I know they never contacted us. I guess the courts didn't even wonder why we weren't there or ask for proof that we even knew.
So we went, in October, 2012 to the office in Jerusalem and asked why they'd frozen our accounts. They said our bill was about 4,000 NIS in water and another 5,000 or so NIS in interest and demanded that we pay nothing less than 8,909.57 NIS.
That's right - more than half the money they demanded was for interest because we never responded to the bills that we never received - and could never possibly have received. The other 4,000 or so was about 70-80% "partnered water" while a fraction of the original bill, never mind the much inflated amount they were now demanding, was for the private water we'd actually used. Most months, it came to about 40-50 NIS.
"Partnered water" is roughly equivalent to the public water. In other words, the owner of the building, via the water company, took all the publicly used water and divided it among the stupid residents who had legal water and were paying for the water used by all the other tenants. Others here means most of the tenants (including the illegally rented out bomb shelter tenants) who were siphoning off water into their offices from water pipes in the ceilings, from the fire department lines or other places - all while not paying anything.
We immediately protested this the few times the landlord tried to get us to pay for this through the neighbor and the landlord canceled the charge. The water company, however, didn't and so they expected us to pay for all these other places who used water and didn't pay. Fat chance, we told them.
Still trying to reach Gihon, we spoke to Tali, who explained what the bill was about. We spoke to Shir, who called us and told us we had to pay. We asked them to explain and a week later, Bosmat faxed us the details. Four days later, Wasim faxed us more details. Back to Tali the next day. We spoke to Tikva who told us we had to meet with Gadi. We were told Gadi would call us back. Yeah. Not. We called again.
We finally went to meet with Gadi, who very politely didn't listen to a word we were saying and told us we had to pay the full amount. We spent the next two months trying to speak to his manager. We finally gave up after two months, leaving it open that their manager was supposed to call us back.
And on it went for the last 5 years until they again froze our account, this time demanding that we pay over 17,000 NIS (of which 4,000 is for water, of which we used maybe 500 NIS). Their lawyer now offers us the opportunity to pay 8,000 NIS of the 17,000 NIS and he thinks he's doing us a favor. But you didn't bill us for FIVE years???? No answer. But we didn't use the "public" water! No answer.
Should we give in and pay the 8,000 NIS knowing the lawyer's fees will be even greater? Should we fight this and expose the utter incompetence of Gihon and the mafia-like way they expect to be paid even for amounts they don't deserve?
Should we try to sue the owner of the building...realizing that the chances of winning are slim when honesty and integrity are unlikely to grace the courtroom from the minute he enters the room?
It's days like this that I have to remind myself - they are not Israel...not the Gihon, not these lawyers, not this landlord. They are not the reason we came; they will not be what chases us away.
They are not Israel.
I'll probably agree to pay the stinking 8,000 NIS and remind myself that what you steal in this life, you pay for in the next. Yes, I believe the landlord and his family, who love to think of themselves as good people...will have a rude awakening.
I will remind myself that I'd rather die than leave this country and more, I'd like above all else to live here for a long, long time, in health and happiness with my children and grandchildren and, God willing, live long enough to see my children's children's children...and maybe even a baby or two from them!
There are two phrases that I've discovered along the way and they help me on frustrating days like this. The first is that I am determined to out-Israeli the Israelis. The second is that I won't let Israelis like these chase me away.
I am Israel. All of us - my children and my grandchildren, the kind man who collects bottles for charity, the old man who hands me the paper in the morning and wishes me a good day. The woman on the train this morning who asked me a question and when I answered, gave me a blessing.
And even the lawyers are Israel - even in the middle of demanding an outrageous amount of money, at the mention of my father having been hospitalized, he quickly gave him a blessing of health.
If you get overwhelmed by the bureaucracy - don't let it defeat you. Israel is ours...as much as theirs. Never forget that. Never lose sight of it. I know people who have chosen to leave and I am sorry for them, sorry for their surrendering, sorry for their forgetting to see that with all the bad, the good is ten times stronger.
And why, in the midst of all the negativity and bureaucracy and frustration did I add all these beautiful pictures? The answer is very simple...
I love Israel. I love living in Israel. There is nowhere, nowhere, nowhere else that I could ever live. I would die inside if I didn't live here; I would likely die on the outside as well.
He grew up in a religious family and yet, when it came to our moving to Israel, the decision did not entirely please his family. It was a wrenching departure, followed by a horrible year in which both of his parents were stricken with cancer. The thought he had was only natural - the hope of somehow going back in time.
And as I opened my mouth to take the words back, I realized that I couldn't. That I meant them. I would rather die than live anywhere but here. That was almost 23 years ago and today, I still feel the same way.
And yet...
There are days when I join so many other immigrants wanting to bang my head against the wall and surrender. My eyes threaten to fill with tears and I'm so tired of fighting.
Years ago, I made the mistake of renting offices in a building owned by a relative of a man arrested, tried, and convicted of one of the largest real estate scams in Israel's history. This "minor" relative was enough trouble to make me so grateful I never had to deal with the rest of his family.
When we agreed to rent the office space, the landlord gave us contracts to sign. We asked for a few clarifications but everything seems fine. We were to pay the rent, the property tax (standard in Israel). We were to pay for the water and electricity we used. Logical, right? What could go wrong?
We signed. Renovated. Moved in...and found that our electricity was partially connected with one neighbor so that when we shut our power, they lost their air conditioning in one part of their office and came to scream at us. Our water was on a meter...that wasn't connected to the water company but rather to another neighbor.
For the first couple of months, we didn't really understand what was happening until we were hit with several months worth of bills. We paid our neighbor for the water; the building for the electricity. We got the electricity straightened out because it was driving us crazy. The water department was a bigger problem, we were told by the landlord as we paid another bill to the neighbor.
A while later, over a year or so, we moved across the hallway to a much larger office space. We gave up our two bathrooms and little kitchen and began using the public water on the floor. Electricity was paid normally; water was factored in to the large bill for renting and the building paid it...or so we thought.
Then, about 6 years later, the bank froze our account. We had no idea why. Finally, we tracked it down to an entity called, "Gihon." We didn't know what Gihon was...more learning to do. Gihon is the water authorities of the city of Jerusalem. But why did they freeze our bank account? We didn't even have water! In our new place, was the answer - but you did in your old place!
The landlord, without telling us, had finally implemented the contract we'd signed 10 months earlier and put the water on our name months before we moved over. The water company, ever incompetent, sent regular bills not only for the tiny bit of water we used but also for "our" share of the public water used by the entire building and sent those regular bills to a non-existent address with a very remote connection to the correct address we had given to the landlord. Bills were sent to our company at "POB 3206, Jerusalem."
This is roughly equivalent to sending a letter to Moshe Cohen in Tel Aviv or John Smith in Detroit (or anywhere else in the US). The 3206 was sort of correct...it was our post office box in Maale Adumim. So a better equivalent would be sending a letter to John Smith in Detroit, hoping that he would receive it even though he lives in Chicago. Well, John didn't get the water bill...and neither did we. We didn't get the bills. We didn't get any warnings they might have sent. We didn't get any threats or any demand to show up in court to explain why we weren't paying the bills we never received.In 2012, six years after the bills were issued and only because they froze our account did we finally learn about all this. All of that time we were right across the hallway and even though our company is registered properly, we never received any bills - not even when they went to court. Did they ask the landlord - the one who had ordered the change of address? No idea. I know they never contacted us. I guess the courts didn't even wonder why we weren't there or ask for proof that we even knew.
So we went, in October, 2012 to the office in Jerusalem and asked why they'd frozen our accounts. They said our bill was about 4,000 NIS in water and another 5,000 or so NIS in interest and demanded that we pay nothing less than 8,909.57 NIS.
That's right - more than half the money they demanded was for interest because we never responded to the bills that we never received - and could never possibly have received. The other 4,000 or so was about 70-80% "partnered water" while a fraction of the original bill, never mind the much inflated amount they were now demanding, was for the private water we'd actually used. Most months, it came to about 40-50 NIS.
"Partnered water" is roughly equivalent to the public water. In other words, the owner of the building, via the water company, took all the publicly used water and divided it among the stupid residents who had legal water and were paying for the water used by all the other tenants. Others here means most of the tenants (including the illegally rented out bomb shelter tenants) who were siphoning off water into their offices from water pipes in the ceilings, from the fire department lines or other places - all while not paying anything.
We immediately protested this the few times the landlord tried to get us to pay for this through the neighbor and the landlord canceled the charge. The water company, however, didn't and so they expected us to pay for all these other places who used water and didn't pay. Fat chance, we told them.
Still trying to reach Gihon, we spoke to Tali, who explained what the bill was about. We spoke to Shir, who called us and told us we had to pay. We asked them to explain and a week later, Bosmat faxed us the details. Four days later, Wasim faxed us more details. Back to Tali the next day. We spoke to Tikva who told us we had to meet with Gadi. We were told Gadi would call us back. Yeah. Not. We called again.
We finally went to meet with Gadi, who very politely didn't listen to a word we were saying and told us we had to pay the full amount. We spent the next two months trying to speak to his manager. We finally gave up after two months, leaving it open that their manager was supposed to call us back.
And on it went for the last 5 years until they again froze our account, this time demanding that we pay over 17,000 NIS (of which 4,000 is for water, of which we used maybe 500 NIS). Their lawyer now offers us the opportunity to pay 8,000 NIS of the 17,000 NIS and he thinks he's doing us a favor. But you didn't bill us for FIVE years???? No answer. But we didn't use the "public" water! No answer.
Should we give in and pay the 8,000 NIS knowing the lawyer's fees will be even greater? Should we fight this and expose the utter incompetence of Gihon and the mafia-like way they expect to be paid even for amounts they don't deserve?
Should we try to sue the owner of the building...realizing that the chances of winning are slim when honesty and integrity are unlikely to grace the courtroom from the minute he enters the room?It's days like this that I have to remind myself - they are not Israel...not the Gihon, not these lawyers, not this landlord. They are not the reason we came; they will not be what chases us away.
They are not Israel.
I'll probably agree to pay the stinking 8,000 NIS and remind myself that what you steal in this life, you pay for in the next. Yes, I believe the landlord and his family, who love to think of themselves as good people...will have a rude awakening.
I will remind myself that I'd rather die than leave this country and more, I'd like above all else to live here for a long, long time, in health and happiness with my children and grandchildren and, God willing, live long enough to see my children's children's children...and maybe even a baby or two from them!
There are two phrases that I've discovered along the way and they help me on frustrating days like this. The first is that I am determined to out-Israeli the Israelis. The second is that I won't let Israelis like these chase me away.
I am Israel. All of us - my children and my grandchildren, the kind man who collects bottles for charity, the old man who hands me the paper in the morning and wishes me a good day. The woman on the train this morning who asked me a question and when I answered, gave me a blessing.And even the lawyers are Israel - even in the middle of demanding an outrageous amount of money, at the mention of my father having been hospitalized, he quickly gave him a blessing of health.
If you get overwhelmed by the bureaucracy - don't let it defeat you. Israel is ours...as much as theirs. Never forget that. Never lose sight of it. I know people who have chosen to leave and I am sorry for them, sorry for their surrendering, sorry for their forgetting to see that with all the bad, the good is ten times stronger.
And why, in the midst of all the negativity and bureaucracy and frustration did I add all these beautiful pictures? The answer is very simple...
I love Israel. I love living in Israel. There is nowhere, nowhere, nowhere else that I could ever live. I would die inside if I didn't live here; I would likely die on the outside as well.
Family, that's what we have hear. And you love them warts and all.
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