      Paradise Mombassa
      -Translated and introduced by Gilad Atzmon

      http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/

      On 22 November 2002, Hotel Paradise Mombassa, an Israeli Hotel in Kenya,
      was attacked by a group of terrorists. The following Maariv piece isn't
      concerned with Al Qa'eda, but rather with the devastation the Israelis
      left behind.

      This is the story of a beautiful Israeli hotel on the African seashore.
      It is the story of an Israeli owned holiday resort in Mombassa, Kenya,
      designed and built solely for the Israeli tourist market. It is also the
      story of total abuse of the local impoverished population. It is a tale
      of humiliation, cruelty and continuous daily rape of struggling African
      women. It is the usual horrendous story of Israelis inflicting pain on
      others but at times it is very funny in spite of itself. For instance,
      once a week, when the Israeli groups were departing in busses on their
      way back to the Mombassa terminal, the local crew ordered the African
      staff to chase their departing busses with tears in their eyes and to
      scream 'please don't leave us, we love you, please come back'. This
      bizarre instruction was given to the local crew by the Israeli hotel
      management as part of the package deal, the last image to bring home of
      an unforgettable holiday. I allow myself to assume that the Israeli
      managers detected some clear yearning for love amongst their Israeli
      clients. One may ask what may stand in the core of such a longing for
      declarations of love. Considering the clear fact that those Israeli
      tourists were mainly engaged in turning Mombassa into Hell on earth, why
      do they really need to feel beloved after all that? I wonder why the
      Israeli offender insists upon being loved by his victim? Ordinary human
      beings do not expect to be loved by their hotel receptionists or room
      cleaners. But then, ordinary human beings do not tend to humiliate,
      abuse and rape hotel staff. They may spend some time in the hotel, they
      may enjoy its services and then they just pay and leave politely and
      quietly. For the Israeli tourists, as you will soon read, staying in the
      hotel is a clear 'letting go'. It is the ideal environment to manifest
      one's darkest libidinal impetus and practice total denial of any moral
      conduct. For the Israeli tourist, holiday is the materialisation and
      embodiment of their control zeal. For the Israelis, as you will read
      shortly, to go to for a holiday in Africa is to experience the varied
      possibilities of becoming a very wild animal.

      The following journalistic piece is a glimpse into some Israeli
      pathological psychotic conditions. It is a bizarre story of an absurd
      criminal identity that demands affection from its victims. The story
      wasn't written by myself, I just translated it into English. It
      originally appeared only in Hebrew in Maariv, Israel's 2nd biggest daily
      paper. I spent time translating it because I do believe that is rather
      crucial to permit people outside of Israel a better understanding of the
      Israeli character and characteristics. Seemingly, some amongst us tend
      to believe that the Israeli approach towards the Palestinians is the
      outcome of specific colonial circumstances. Apparently, they are wrong.
      Israeliness is a radical form of blind cruelty and the Israelis have no
      problem taking it with them wherever they go. In Palestine it would be
      the Palestinians who suffer, in Goa it is the poor Indians. In the
      following story it is the deprived labour force of Mombassa, Kenya who
      confronts Israeli sadism. There is an old and famous saying, 'you can
      take the man out of Israel but you can never take Israel out of the
      man'. You may want to take a nice deep breath before you read what the
      men of Israel are up to.

    Fear and Contempt in Heaven

    Omri Hasenheim, Kenya Maariv, 14.10.2005
    http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART/995/971.html

    In hotel Paradise Mombassa, crew members were humiliated by the Israeli
    tourists, it's no surprise that even after the 2002 terror attack on the
    hotel, they refuse to forgive, not Al-Qa'eda but rather us (the
    Israelis).

    It is standing on the white sand that is apparently more beautiful than
    ever. The luxury buildings invite you for a 'dream of a break', the
    rooms and the suites are loaded with exceptional handmade wooden
    furniture. In between the restored buildings you find a stream with
    golden fishes. At the bar you can hear the echo of some laidback African
    beat. All around the gigantic swimming pool you can see many monkeys
    jumping around. From the dining room windows you can see the magnificent
    sea-view. On your way to the dining room you may want to visit the
    alligator pool, clearly the alligator grew a bit since that horrible day
    of terror.

    Welcome to Heaven, Hotel 'Paradise Mombassa'

    At just a kilometre from there, in a Msomrini village, two orphan girls
    are making dreadlocks for each other. Not far behind them, an isolated
    miserable mud shed is standing, all around poorly clothed toddlers are
    playing. They are dirty, their noses are dripping. A few broken stools
    are spread around. On one of them, Dama Safaria is sitting. Before Al
    Qa'eda blew up the very little she had, she used to work as a dancer at
    the hotel. For two years she danced traditional African folk dances,
    something that helped her to forget the misery she was born into. In
    Msomrini, everyone was happy to dance for just $2 a day. In the
    beginning Dama was rather happy, but then, as time went by, the Israeli
    employers realised that they could probably get away without paying.
    After the performances, her husband used to march from the village to
    the hotel to beg for her wages. "We loved to dance for the Israelis,"
    says Dama, "but then once the payment day arrived our smiles would fade
    away."

    On the morning of 22 November 2002, Al Qa'eda terrorists attacked at the
    hotel. Once the explosion went off, it didn't take long before Dama
    realised that her husband was missing. She was horrified, a few minutes
    later she was told that he was killed. Since then, she is struggling on
    her own to maintain herself and her nine orphans. Her youngest son is
    just four years old. From the hotel management she heard nothing. No one
    came to visit or even just to offer condolences. Neither the Israeli
    Government nor Kenyan officials have shown any interest. "We, the
    dancing company, are still owed $120 for the last four performances in
    front of those Israeli tourists," she claims in despair.

    "After the terror attack my life became impossible. In the winter I beg
    for the farmers to cultivate our land for literally pennies," in the
    summer she herself doesn't realise how she makes it.

    Two month ago 'Paradise Mombassa' was reopened under a new management
    comprised of one Israeli, one French and one American. They try to
    minimise their exposure, very much like the previous Israeli owner Yeuda
    Sulami who denies to this day his involvement with the previous
    management. The new management does its utmost to change the hotel's
    image, they are trying to leave the Israeli market behind. Instead they
    aim to appeal to European and American markets.

    But for many locals, this new business face lift won't make a big
    difference, the memory of those very years of total abuse by Israeli
    tourists and management is not going to fade away. They won't forget the
    Israeli guests that sexually assaulted them or were just rude and
    arrogant. They won't forget the Israeli management who came along with
    some bizarre professional demands, failing to pay their monthly wages on
    time and eventually just stopped paying altogether. Now, maybe out of
    hope, or just the will to open their hearts, they are giving their
    personal account of 'Paradise Mombassa'.

    The idea to erect an Israeli hotel on Kenya's seashore in the late
    1990's was proved to be ingenious. Until then, Kenya was famous for its
    wild Safari adventures. Yeuda Sulami and his business partner Itzik
    Mamman came up with the idea of using Kenya as an Israeli holiday
    resort. They founded a company and started to sell holiday packages
    including flights, accommodation and local tourist adventures. In the
    beginning, they were buying accommodation services from local companies.
    But the Israeli appetite knows no limit. 'Why don't we make the big
    money ourselves' asked the two, 'we shall build our hotel on the beach.'
    Soon, they joined forces with local investors and founded a company
    based on 'time sharing' holiday rentals for Israelis. The Israeli client
    reacted enthusiastically, at the end of the day it was: a beautiful
    hotel offering sunny beaches at the time of the Israeli winter, complete
    with a flourishing cheap sex industry and just four and a half hours'
    flight time from Tel Aviv.

    The leitmotif that guided Sulami and Maman was that the Israeli guest
    who may come to Kenya once would return. Thus the promotion packages
    were sold ridiculously cheap. It all worked out perfectly well. Many
    Israelis returned and invested in holiday accommodation (one Israeli
    bought 52 holiday units for the sum of $1.5 million). Every week 250
    Israelis landed at Mombassa airport, they found an Israeli hotel, it was
    fully Kosher and it even had a proper synagogue.

    The hotel started to operate in the year 2000 and was officially
    launched a year later. Local crew was recruited from surrounding hotels.
    Most workers admit that in the beginning they were rather happy, but
    things deteriorated rapidly soon after the official opening. Rather soon
    it was clear that someone was about to pay for the Israeli extravaganza.

    Man should never be Alone

    Three years later, the humiliating practice is left like an open wound
    in the memory of the female hotel crew veterans. Once a week, just when
    the Israelis where checking out on their way back to the airport, a bell
    rang. 'Get ready, the guest are leaving,' announced the head of the
    entertaining team, frantically chasing the female crew. They were all
    ordered to gather near to the entrance gate and to chase the leaving
    busses while weeping desperately in front of the Israelis. Once they
    caught up with the busses they would bang on its metal frame with tears
    dropping from their eyes.

    "It was a bizarre order," giggled Saline Aching, the chief masseuse. "We
    were told to chase the bus, to sing and cry so the guests would know
    that we love them and want them to come back. I remember myself running
    like in a frenzied state, I would hit the bus with my fists shouting to
    the guests, 'why do you leave us?' 'We miss you', 'We love you'. The
    Israelis would stare at us from the windows, some of them believed us to
    be genuine, others were shooting us with their video cameras. "

    Rahima Josef Katan: "If you were not crying you may find yourself in
    danger of losing your job. We were asked to think of something bad that
    happened to us, so we can cry for real. I didn't cry." "I didn't cry,"
    Confesses Catherine Khaa, masseuse. "How could I, I didn't love them at
    all. I fact I hated them."

    The weekly bus chasing was just one example of the way the staff were
    supposed to treat the Israeli guests. The principles were obvious:
    humiliation, stripped of dignity and hard labour. The guidelines were
    clear: The client is always right, the client must be happy, the client
    must return. The ones who carried most of the burden were the females
    amongst the entertainment team. Dorothy Maly recollects that once a
    week, on the arrival day, five of them would be taken to Mombassa
    airport. "We used sing to them Jambo Jambo (hello hello) and Evenu
    Shalom Aleichem. The local Kenyans were sure that we had had lost it but
    the Israelis were over the moon. They loved noise, once we arrived at
    the hotel, again we started singing loudly. In the night we were
    instructed by the manager to scream till the last Israeli leaves the
    dance floor. If a guest decides not to go to sleep, you were required to
    stay with him till he quits to his room. We were demanded to produce
    noise almost 24 hours a day. When we took a break, the manager would
    come and bark: 'What's the matter with you, do you fall asleep? I will
    cut your wage, move on…'."

    The agenda dictated from above was that a bored guest would never
    return. Rahima Raymond, masseuse: "We were doomed to sit with the guests
    till the small hours, to hang around with them. Sulami made it clear
    that we must keep the guests happy. We were dancing with the men in
    nightclubs just to make sure that they weren't staying alone. In case we
    refused to do so, they would complain to the management: 'Why don't they
    come out with us?' 'We want to see the African night life'. They
    obviously didn't care about our commitments and family life. Obviously,
    we didn't get any 'extra' for those services. The day after, while they
    were still in bed we had to start again at eight in the morning. The
    slogan 'the client is always right' took over. Josef Katan: "they taught
    us a behavioural code, if a man is near to his wife we were supposed to
    hold his hand in a certain way, if his wife wasn't around then we should
    behave rather differently."

    "There were religious Jews who couldn't sign the room service notes on
    the Jewish Sabbath. We would then keep a note with their room number
    attached to their bill. Once Sabbath was over, some of them would just
    refuse to pay. They would argue that we invented it all, 'you forged our
    signatures', they would say. The management would always believe them
    and expect us to cover their bills. I just couldn't believe that humans
    can behave as such."

    To be seen like an African

    The ever-growing demand to entertain the Israeli guests enforced a
    maximised utilisation of the local workforce. The crew were mobilised
    from the many different departments to the entertainment team. "They
    could pool me out of the kitchen, telling me that the guests want to
    have a good time and I should go and hang out with them," says Josef
    Katan. " I would then ask, how can I bake cookies and dance
    simultaneously? The entire hotel was as an entertainment squad. The
    kitchen stuff were entertainers, the receptionists were entertainers,
    gardeners were entertainers." Mali, a dancer: "Saline, the chief
    masseuse would give us a shout when too many Israelis wanted a massage
    at the same time. At the time I knew nothing about massage. There was a
    woman that was brought over by the hotel's rabbi and she was supposed to
    teach us. After a short instruction of five minutes I was apparently
    ready to have a go."

    In order to maintain 'authentic African spirit' the staff was obliged to
    put on very minimal clothes. Unlike the other hotels in the vicinity,
    where men were serving in uniform, in Paradise Mombassa the male crew
    were walking around half naked and with bare feet. The females were
    allowed just a minimal fabric on their breasts and pubes. "Even when
    temperatures dropped we were not allowed to cover ourselves." Marci
    Mawagambo Aching said: "Sulami wanted us to look 'authentic' so when you
    walk around, the guests can check you out for the night. You must be
    attractive so they re-book another holiday. It was horrible, but what
    can you do? I needed the money. One of the Israeli female managers told
    us that we better follow Sulami's orders, if he wants us too look like
    Africans, we better look like ones."

    Even most basic conditions were lacking. 'Paradise Mombassa' is located
    8 kilometres from the main road. The dirt track to the hotel passes
    through a wild savannah loaded with outlaws. But then a solution was
    found, a truck originally built to transport livestock was converted to
    transport forty humans. An Israeli employee says, "it was a truck with a
    sealed cargo wagon without benches. People were so squeezed in that we
    had to leave the back door open." Josef Katan: "We felt like animals.
    Sometimes we were left with no oxygen, but we knew that if we complained
    we would then asked to stay in the hotel. That would obviously mean we
    would not be able to see our families. So we kept quiet." Once, a newly
    appointed manager asked how the Kenyans felt about the manner in which
    they were transported. The answer was rather clear, 'for them it doesn't
    matter, as long as they are delivered to their work they are happy.'

    Even for meals during the working hours, local crew were left to fend
    for themselves. But then a creative solution was found. Saline Aching:
    "there were times when Sulami was kind and let us eat the guests'
    leftovers. We were lucky because the Israelis are greedy, they would go
    to the buffet and put on their plates far more than their bodies can
    take. They would take piles of salads, and massive chunks of meat, but
    then, they would barely touch it and leave most of it behind." Mali: "If
    to tell the truth, we could see that the food was already on someone
    else's plate, but some of us had to eat it, just because they couldn't
    afford to buy somewhere else. They where hungry, what could they do?"

    But it goes further. It didn't take long before the local crew realised
    that they were not insured. It was clearly revealed after a security man
    was murdered and his colleague was wounded during a burglary: till this
    day, neither the grieving family nor the wounded man received any
    compensation. Work contracts were granted only to the very top managers.
    Lower hierarchy were provided with a meaningless paper stating an agreed
    figure. This document has never been respected by its initiators.

    Good Machine, Good Machine

    Saline Aching was curious to understand some Hebrew terms, it is her
    interest in the Hebrew language that helped her to grasp the meaning of
    Akol Kalul, all included. Not one hotel staff failed to understand the
    meaning of the Hebrew idiom that became the hotel business philosophy.
    All hotel services where included in the price of the holiday package
    purchased back in Israel. Soon the staff learned that this very idiom
    means a lot to Israelis.

    "All day long I heard the guests shouting Akol Kalul," says Josef Katan.
    "Some of them held me by my arm and shouted at me Akol Kalul. Even on
    the beach they would just shout to passing people Akol Kalul, Akol
    Kalul. I would then ask them what that 'Akol Kalul' means? They would
    answer, 'everything, even you'. I used to tell them that I am not
    Sulami's property. He owns the hotel but not me. I thought to myself,
    'God, do they behave as such in their own country?'"

    In the best case scenario, the Akol Kalul was practiced in the free
    buffet bar materialising into gigantic chunks of meat put on a single
    plate. In the worst case scenario, it found its way into the massage
    room. Needless to say, not even one guest evaded his right to be
    massaged. Aching says, "The first thing the male guests did upon
    arrival, even before they unloaded their suitcases in the rooms, they
    would sprint to the massage room. They would enter the hotel with their
    eyes wide open asking, 'where is the massage room?' I used to plan the
    daily schedule, there was a competition amongst them who is going to get
    there first.

    Mali: "My role was to tell them: 'I am Dorothy and I am a masseuse in
    the hotel' as soon as I mentioned it they would scream 'massage,
    massage'. Most of them couldn't speak English. They would just say, 'I
    come now.' A tourist from another country would wait even two weeks but
    in Paradise they wanted it all right on the spot. Sometimes, even before
    breakfast. Someone would come and tell you, 'I come for a massage akol
    kalul, if you don't do akol kalul, I take another masseuse'."

    "They would say: 'I want Harpaya (ejaculation)', I would then ask what
    this Harpaya means and they would answer, 'not only harpaya but we want
    it *all inclusive*, full sex.' I used to tell them that we don't do it
    and he would reply, 'Read my lips, *the women are all included*, the
    salesman in Tel Aviv promised us that it's Akol Kalul!' Sometimes one of
    the female managers would suggest for to us to follow the guests'
    demands just as a guarantee that they would come back."

    Katherine Kaha, a masseuse, confesses that she had to follow the
    demands… "I would start doing a massage, and then the man would tell me,
    'do it all over, you must do it'. In case I wouldn't they would complain
    to the management. I didn't like it at all but I did it. They would give
    me $1 sometimes $2. I felt horrible."

    A frequent Israeli guest to the hotel: "There was always this problem
    with the massage, the Israelis used to abuse the girls to the very
    limit. It was appalling and it gave Israel a bad name. There were some
    groups I was really embarrassed to stand near to. They were so bossy and
    arrogant, they did whatever they liked, and just had good time."

    "One of the Israelis told me," says Rahima," 'you know Rahima, last night
    they provided me with a little baby girl, only 13 years old, I fucked
    her and gave her $5 just because she was penniless.' I then asked him,
    'Wasn't she the age of your granddaughter?' He didn't answer. On the
    same night he might as well have come back to the hotel shouting,
    'African women are the best value for money.' Let me tell you, here in
    Africa, it isn't that common that once you sleep with a woman you go and
    inform the rest of the world about it. But the Israelis kept it all
    open, they used to say about us: Mechona Tova, Mechona Tova (Good
    machine, Good machine)."

    The Power to Fuck

    The passion for sex wasn't only restricted to the massage rooms and
    wasn't solely the business of the single male guests. It was rather
    prohibited to let local girls into the hotel. But a solution was found,
    just across the road, again in an Israeli partnership, a motel named
    Calypso was founded. This was where Israelis were hanging around in the
    nights. "Men used to come to our rooms asking us to go out with them,"
    tells Katan, "but the worst happened in the morning when they shared the
    details of last night's affairs with the entire dining room. They used
    to shout things like 'ha, I went with her, I fucked and fucked and
    fucked her all night long and all for less than one dollar'. We
    understood exactly what they were talking about. When the first group
    arrived, I was telling myself that surely the second group would be
    better. But it was exactly the same. From time to time they used to ask
    for room service, once the room service crew would enter their room,
    they would try to touch her. The waitresses were horrified, they never
    wanted to go with food to the rooms, but my personal case was different,
    they were afraid of me because I was rude to them. They used to call me
    'big ass'. This was Ok, it is better being 'big ass' rather than being
    their sex slave."

    Rahima: "Even the married men used to find some ways to the girls rooms.
    For instance, one told his wife, 'go to the dining room, I will be right
    there with you.' Apparently he disappeared till the morning after. In
    the morning we were witnessing the woman screaming at her husband during
    breakfast. Once a man replied to his wife, 'the women in Kenya are so
    great, they have a small hole, unlike you having such a silly big one'.
    All that at breakfast, in the dining room, in public. When the animosity
    went wild we always rushed to bring the hotel's Rabbi in - he would do
    his best to make peace. Sometimes, the men used to sit in the dining
    room while the donkeys were having sex outside. As soon as the Israelis
    noticed the donkeys activity they would stand up and show their support:
    'good, good, good, forward, backward, good, good'."

    "Occasionally, one would come to me telling me in front of everyone
    else. 'I will take Viagra and after that I will have the power to fuck.
    By the way, whats your name?' I would say Rahima. 'Good, Rahima. I want
    to fuck you today!' I asked myself what is going on. One guest asked
    me, 'do you know Chartie? I went with her to the disco, I fucked her but
    she wasn't good at all. Originally I planed to give her $10 but
    eventually I gave her $1 only!' He was shouting like a madman and then
    Chartie arrived in the room. He then pointed at her with his finger and
    shouted 'here she is, it was her!'."

    Karen Tiglo, a room cleaner: "We couldn't figure out whether the
    Israelis were wild animals or human beings. They would all the time
    offer me $10. I felt so humiliated. After a while they would know who
    amongst the female crew were desperate for money and would just go for
    them. Stela Matawa, a waitress: from time to time, a man would approach
    me abusively, in case I would refuse, the man would come to the dining
    room and shout, 'leave out this girl she is crap, I took her to the room
    and she was useless'."

    Katherine Kaa experienced an especially traumatic event when a
    seventy-year-old man decided that he was in love with her. "I didn't
    love him at all," she says. "We went out to a discothèque, I was sure
    that I was just escorting him to assist him killing his boredom. On the
    way back, he and the taxi driver tricked me, rather than driving back to
    the hotel, we arrived at a place that hires rooms for the night.
    Violently, he tried to force me to sleep with him. But I couldn't. When
    we went back to the hotel he told me that never wanted to see me again.
    And he would report to the management that I wasted his money without
    giving a thing back. After my refusal was reported, the hotel manager
    dismissed me for two weeks."

    According to a few of the crew members, not only did the Israeli
    management fail to denounce, some of the managers actually joined the
    party (their names are kept with the editors of the newspaper). R:
    "At the time one of the managers learned to enjoy the massages. He
    started to demand: 'do it here, here and there' just like one of the
    guests. Another manager would pick girls from the entertainment team, he
    would say, 'after all, I am a manager, no one would ask you where were
    you going.' I had to accept it although it was rather horrible. The day
    after when he would pass by me, he would hardly acknowledge me. Every
    time, after our performances, one dancer would disappear into one of the
    managers offices. The girls were afraid that this might be a
    professional issue to do with their performance but then, once in the
    managers office, they realised what it was all about."

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------

    From Alan, Beijing

    Re: Paradise Mombasa

    Shamir:

    Hi from Alan in Beijing. We have many foreign business people visit us
    in Beijing. If you treat the staff badly the local communist cadre will
    intervene politely but firmly to the hotel management who, the senior
    ones are probably cadres for the CPC anyway. When the US Sixth fleet
    first arrived for a visit to Shanghai, a little book was given to the
    sailors on how to treat the women in China. This is unlike the Christian
    Philipines and British run, at the time, Hong Kong. In China you can be
    executed for rape, especially of Children like that bastard who fucked
    the 13 year old.

    I have had 3 experiences of arrogant jewish businessmen visiting us.

    1. Took 2 out to dinner at a good restaurant, they looked at the food we
    ordered ( they said go ahead and order ) then said " We are not eating
    that !" and wanted to go to another restaurant. On top of it they where
    wanting us to help them.

    2. Another Israeli, jewish businessman during the meeting kept
    interrupting on points not that significant and kept taking phone calls
    and again he was wanting us to sell his product. Forgot him when he left
    the office

    3. Yet another lot came and during drinks at a hotel one guy kept
    propositioning my girlfriend without worrying that he knew she was my
    girlfriend. No business.

    Our company was informed by one of our Chinese senior clients in that
    "dont do business with Israel as they are arrogant and rude and cant be
    trusted as being a puppet of Israel, or the US is a puppet of Israel
    with no morals and a superiority complex that exceeds themselves ". They
    are reviled by some Chinese as much as many Hong Kong and Taiwanese
    businessmen are.

    That article on Mombassa was great and Im not suprised at least.

    Cheers,

    Alan

    Alan J Eriwata

    Vice President

    Beijing AustChina Technology Limited

    Room 8 ABC, Tower B, City Plaza

    Shilipu, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100025

    Peoples Republic of China