Shalom for Israel

Israel Ambassador Menashe Bar-on is formally bidding goodbye after three years of being posted here in the Philippines. Before he flies back to Tel Aviv, Ambassador Bar-on paid us a farewell call last Monday at The STAR with his deputy chief of mission Adam Levene.

The Philippines is his last foreign posting as ambassador as he retires from the diplomatic service of Israel. The 67-year-old Bar-on has only happy memories of his stay here in Manila. He was still apologetic when the Israel Embassy had to close down its consular services earlier this year over salary/benefit issues that Israel diplomats all over the world fought with their home government.

Sadly, however, Bar-on’s return to his homeland comes at a time Israel is on war mode anew in their conflict with Hamas rebels in Gaza. The current round of conflict began on July 8, with Israel announcing on July 17 that it would undertake ground offensive operations in Gaza.

During his farewell call, Bar-on could only wish better understanding of where Israel comes from in its decision to launch their offensive operations in Gaza. His wish finally came true after no less than United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon slammed reports that Hamas rebels have been using the UNRWA, a UN-administered school in Gaza, to hide their rockets under its grounds.

These are the rockets being fired and killing innocent civilians in target areas inside Israel. The UNRWA is sheltering 102,000 people in 69 of its schools amid the renewed conflict now on its 16th day.   

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) earlier this week issued travel advisory for Filipinos planning to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to defer for now their travel while there is ongoing full-blown strife involving Israel. The DFA raised to Alert Level 2 travel advisory to Israel and the West Bank due to threats to security posed by the continued armed conflict between Israel and the Palestinians’ Hamas.

Alert Level 2 — which means restriction phase — is issued whenever there are real threats to the life, security and property of Filipinos arising from internal disturbance, instability and external threats. It merely discourages non-essential travel.

But for some 36,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who are living in Israel, most of whom are employed as caregivers, Alert 2 means they are advised to restrict non-essential movements, avoid open spaces, and prepare for possible evacuation to take them out of harm’s way from the strife-torn country in case the armed conflict takes a turn for the worse.

The most well known Filipino caregiver in Israel is Rose “Osang” Fostanes who rose to fame after she won in the “X Factor Israel” singing contest last year. The 47-year-old caregiver endeared herself to the people of Israel when she bested homegrown singers she competed with in the maiden season of the TV singing contest in Tel Aviv.

Ambassador Bar-on and his wife Eti hosted a grand reception at the embassy for Fostanes when she returned last February in Manila to celebrate her victory with her countrymen. Unfortunately, we have lost track if Fostanes has pursued a singing career since she returned to Tel Aviv.

Like her fellow OFWs living in Israel, she has gotten used to such deadly rockets wheezing over their hosts’ houses.

Another Filipina caregiver, Maricel Garces shared her experiences on how they cope with the renewed war footing Israel has engaged itself. As posted in her Facebook account — and featured in a story that came out at The Manila Standard last Wednesday — Garces has been working in Israel for the past nine years and feels pity for the many innocent lives lost in the fighting.

Trained by their employers, Garces relates, they run inside the safety of bomb shelters once they hear the siren blaring. This means they have only a few minutes to take cover before rockets fired from Gaza reach targets inside Israel.

“Israel is blessed because they have “Iron Dome” while Gaza doesn’t have any. Every time Israel fired their missile, Gaza is pulverized,” Garces posted in her Facebook. Writing like she is a war zone correspondent, Garces explained the “Iron Dome” is a surface to air missile guided system positioned around Israel to counter any rockets fired by Hamas rebels in Gaza Strip which by her reckoning is about 80 kilometers away from where she works.

From where she lives, Garces believes they, as civilians caught in this war zone, are much safer in Israel than their counterpart civilians in Gaza where the Hamas rebels are using non-combatants as human shields. Amid the exchange of rockets and armed skirmishes, Garces said she has no plans to fly out yet from Israel.

“Thank God, we are all safe here. This is the Promise (sic) Land, isn’t it? The land of promise,” Garces pointed out. A devout Catholic, Garces visits the “Western Wall,” located about 45 minutes away from her workplace, where she says she feels “protected” while living in Israel. It is more popularly known as the “Wailing Wall” that attracts pilgrims around the world, including those from the Philippines.

Despite this travel alert, there is no OFW deployment ban for newly hired workers going to Israel. Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose clarified though Alert Level 2 gives the “ultimate decision” to the OFWs concerned and Filipinos still wanting to fly to Israel at this time.

On the other hand, Jose explained, there is already a mandatory repatriation of Filipinos who are in Gaza. The DFA raised Alert Level 4 in Gaza since Saturday, citing threats to security posed by the Israel-Hamas conflict to Filipinos in the region. According to Jose, most of the Filipinos in Gaza who are married to Palestinians, opted to stay behind.

Like the rest of the world, the Philippine government continues to closely monitor developments in the Israel-Hamas conflict, through constant communications with their embassy here in Manila.

During Bar-on’s watch in Manila, Israel stepped up bilateral ties with the Philippines and shared its resources in both war and peace. Israeli defense forces were among the first to respond to help victims and survivors of super typhoon Yolanda that brought devastation in Leyte and Samar.

To Ambassador Bar-on, the people of the Philippines wish him “Shalom” as he returns to his homeland Israel where peace also remains elusive.