Fili’s world

When I left Israel towards Asia, there was really very little I knew about Asia. I've seen some famous kong-fu movies, browsed through some beautiful pictures of the Thai islands, heard some stories about peoples' adventures in Nepal, India, Thailand, Vietnam and China, but I was ignorant.

As a guy from Jerusalem in the year 2005, there was little to no interaction with Asian people. They just weren't around, and the few that were around were totally unapproachable. The closest I ever got to an Asian was when I played some basketball in Sacker park and was guarded by a Thai guy who's been taking care of an elderly man in Rehavia, and between using our elbows to kick each other off the rebound we exchanged a few sentences and laughs in broken English. I remember thinking it was really weird.

I read all those stories about the growing problem happening around Israel's largest city – TelAviv with illegal Thai workers massively replacing the Arab workers who've been denied entrance to Israel due to security considerations. Last I remember, just before I left Israel, there was a major crackdown of those Asian workers in attempt to control the Asian illegal immigration to Israel.

I have no idea whether something has really changed or whether it's psychological. Ever since my return here I've been amazed as to how many Asians are around here. When talking to Taiwanese folks about coming to Israel I always wondered whether they'd feel uncomfortable noticing that there were no Asians around. But nowadays, they are noticeable. Going for some supermarket food shopping this Friday morning, I entered the Wolfson shopping center in Diskin and stood there amazed for a few seconds. About 70 percent of the people shopping there were Asians gals, probably girls from the Philippines doing some shopping for the elderly people that they're taking care of. Some were speaking fluent Hebrew, some were walking around with young kids/babies. Walking over to the coffee shop next to the supermarket to greet a family friend I saw triplets of elderly Israeli men and women sitting down for late breakfast, each with their own Philippine caretaker. That brought me back to my last conversation with my grandmother that told me most of her friends don't really want to go to special elderly homes and only dream of having permits to get their own personal smiley and kind Philippine nurse.

Reading Saturday's massive newspaper I paused to check out a big article about a the Israeli Miss Asia beauty contest that took place last week. Asian girls around Israel were competing against each other in traditional clothing for the prize of a roundtrip ticket to go back and visit their families. Competitors were mostly from the Philippines, Thailand, India and Vietnam.

I've seen promos on TV for a documentary show coming up this Wednesday about a Vietnamese girl that was born in Israel. The movie follows her in her travels to Vietnam to face her parents' background. The long promo has managed to display the big conflict of that girl in a few seconds, not being fully accepted by the Israelis and being totally rejected by the Vietnamese.

Walking around university and Jerusalem's streets I've tried to chitchat with a few Asians I was surprised to see. Some South-Koreans, a shy Japanese and what I guessed to be a Chinese/Taiwanese. They all seemed very confused and somewhat taken back by the fact I took interest in them. From the little I've managed to get in response they all came for some Bible and religion studies and were quite pleased to be at Jerusalem.

Israel has changed, so it seems. I probably changed too, there's no escaping that. When my dad and I met at Australia for a short while, my dad was joking that it seemed as if the people I related to the most over there were the Australian Asians that I've seen, and truth is - it might also be true for my arrival at Israel. The combination of my intense interest in Asia and missing Taiwan has tuned my senses to spot Asians instantly and feel very sympathetic towards them, whether it's the a hard-working Philippine gal that came here to earn money for her family back home or the Taiwanese exchange student that came here to study the holy scriptures. In a way, I want to help them feel as much at home here as their people have made me feel at their country - to give back a little for all the amazing experiences that I've had in Asia.