Israel, It Seems, Is a Sh*tty Country

This has been updated. Please see added material at end.

Remember when Daniel Bernard, the French ambassador to Britain, uttered an ugly anti-Semitic remark at a party hosted by newspaper publisher Conrad Black when he referred to Israel as a "shitty little country"?

Well, there's a problem. It is.

Well, not all of it.

Just the area around the temporary housing project (the "caravilla" site) at Kibbutz Ein-Tzurim where those evacuated from the Gush Qatif area of Gaza are residing, three years after their expulsion.

Listening to Eve Harow's radio interview with Anita Tucker today (here), I learned that the building contractor simply did not hook up houses to the main sewerage line, saving the money for about 8 meters of piping for the houses plus labor costs.

In essence, the site has become one huge cesspool.

Such a situation is dangerous. In Gaza, in March 2007, 9 persons died, or perhaps only four. Ein Tzurim is too far from the sea to do what the Gazans have been doing: pumping the sewerage into the ocean.

And disengagment expellees do not receive the same sympathy as Gazans. I guess you first have to be a terrorist to gain pity.

So, if you combine greed and avarice (the contractor et al.) with disinterest (the Disengagement Authority) and lack of responsibility (Ministry of Housing) what you have is a country which can't even take care of a little bit of sh*t.

And that, deserves criticism. And protest.

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UPDATE

From a letter to me from Anita this afternoon:-

there was at least one sewage pipe not connected in so far about 9 caravillas that were dug up. Many more are complaining of odors of sewage and since nothing major happened in the others, other than terrible odors they haven't been dug up yet to prove that it is the problem . All the engineers that saw presume it is and it was a "shitah" [systematic procedure] of the subcontractor

what happened in my caravilla and in others was that because so much water was flowing underground from the house sewage pipe and since sand wasn't put under water pipes to protect infrastructure but rather building debris, the main water pipe to the house moved and rubbed on the debris (wood with nails, ceramic cut tiles, etc.) that cut holes -- so I called all responsible for upkeep of house and pipes near house...[all] said we are not responsible -- so we brought someone to start digging to repair water leak -- they soon saw that after they repaired leak there was still water flowing from somewhere -- of course it turned out to be two years of water that had accumulated underground from a sewage pipe from the kitchen sinks from house that the contractor never connected sewerage pool.

Then he saw that crap was coming out of the sewage pool as well because the standard sand that is according to standard put under these pools to absorb movement was never put so the bottom the pool moved upwards closing any exit possibilities so that all the bathroom flush pushed its way pushing open any rubber connection rings and also pouring under ground as the narrow bulldozer type digger worked to try and enable fixing the leaky pipe possible I yelled STOP as I saw a green electric wire about 30 cm from the surface - peeking from the dark soaked earth; no protective sleeve as required - no colored tape sticking out as a warning to diggers and no thick layers of sand as required.

Everyone watching was shocked -- but the pros working there decided to continue digging from the other end about a meter away in every direction from the electric wire - as electric wires are always layed in straight lines and certainly there would be no electric wire there considering where the "Peeler" Electric main box is located on street -- The narrow digger bulldozer's first dig caused a noise and as the elctricity was shorted from an electric wire that was cut in two as the other fellow was wallowing in the crappy water trying to identify all the leaks. The electric wire was shockingly laid in the shortest distance between the house and the Peeler with not a centimeter spare at a total angle! Luckily the fellow working in the water was not turned to toast.

...all been ripped off by contracter who built infrastructure, ripped off by building supervisors who approved thios and ministry of housing who approved it all. After a few more days only the deputy director of Minhelet Sela and the Engineers of the regional council showed up each lookes at the pit neaar my house and were shocked at what they saw -- and each said how terrible but it's the contractor's fault and the next oone said no - he is a nice guy it was the supervisor's fault - the next one said no it was Housing Minsitry's fault.

...all extra funds were used up in winter when over 20 solar heaters exploded from frost and had to be replaces as well as pipes leading to solar barrels leaked and had to be replaced . Those replaced them showed us how the originals were all without proper standard insulation. Apparantly another rip off ignored, for some reason mmm??? So we repaired the basics so we could move back home on our own -- but first had a licenced engineer document the defects and safety and health hazards in not meeting standard here and obviously in every caravilla.

To this moment no one has taken responsibility for repairs and for the rip off of publc funds in work done in building caravillas infrastructure. There are many more defects in safety of caravillas but who has any more energy. I invited all to look in the pit near my caravilla and see the situation of the state from sewerage man to the prime minister -- too many people don't care about the next guy!!!

... anita