Twenty Ways You Know Passover is Coming in Israel

Jerusalem Diaries ^ | March 29, 2009 | Judy Lash Balint

[jerusalemjudy]

For the past several years I've been putting out a light-hearted '18 Ways You Know Pesach is Coming In Israel' piece to describe the frenetic days leading up to Pesach in the holy city.

This year, there are a few additional notable events that are driving the news cycles over here.

Apart from the upcoming Mid-East visit of the pope and the ongoing saga of whether Gilad Shalit will be home for Pesach, there's the controversy over the Chametz Law. Never heard of it? Well, since 1986, Israel has had a law on the books that forbids leavened products from being displayed in public during Pesach. For the duration of the holiday, supermarkets cover their shelves containing non-Pesach items with thick white paper, whether to abide by the law or to avoid causing further pain to customers suffering from bread withdrawal is not clear.

Last year all hell broke loose when a Jerusalem judge overturned the law (that no one had ever been charged with violating) opining that it's permissible to sell chametz, as long as it's not publicly displayed. Meanwhile, Haaretz revealed in a poll that 68 percent of the population answers 'no'� when asked if they are planning on eating chametz during Pesach.

Citizens of southern Israel have far weightier concerns, as they face the prospect of a Passover under fire for the eighth year running. The ceaseless barrage of Kassam and Katyusha rockets toward our southern cities and surrounding western Negev kibbutzim has shattered any semblance of the 'enhanced security' we were promised by the 2005 Gaza pullout.

As if that weren't bad enough, almost all the former Gush Katif residents are still in temporary housing almost four years since their eviction.