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EFFI & AMIR

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(monitor 1: come with me)
 
With soft gray eyes she gloomed and glowered;
With soft red lips she sang a song:
What knight might gaze upon her face, Nor fare along?  
For all her looks were full of spells,
And all her words, of sorcery;
And in some way they seemed to say, "Oh, come with me!  
"Oh, come with me! oh, come with me!
Oh, come with me, my love, Sir Kay!"--
How should he know the witch, I trow, Morgan le Fay?  
How should he know the wily witch,
With sweet white face and raven hair?
Who, through her art, bewitched his heart
And held him there.

"We saw here, for the first time, a Fata Morgana ...to the south...as a sheet of water which
all of us believed was a shimmering oasis...they who gazed upon it had never known what
wondrous power it is capable of exerting... so strong was the impression of reality that
disillusionment did not come until long after...."

Illusions are a result of our mind's interpretation of what the eye sees.Only when we
recognize that what we are seeing is an illusion can we make some mental corrections to the
scene.When light waves travel through one medium into another, they are bent or refracted
from their straight-line path to a degree that depends on the density difference between the
two media. Under certain refraction conditions a distant object is made to appear displaced
from its true position. Objects hundreds of kilometers away can be seen, including those
located beyond the normal horizon. The image is often very detailed, whereas in a careful
look it would appear distorted, inverted or wavering. Although the mind might misinterpret
the image it receives from our eyes, the mirage is no figure of the imagination.

In the late 50's the Mirage had become synonymous with "advanced fighter", a product of
Dassault. As a private company eager to promote its products, Dassault had invited Israeli
Air Force personnel to visit its plant and fly the new aircraft. In 1959 Israel finally placed its
first order for the Mirage.

(monitor 2: we are busy creating a desert, which we can then call peace)

On the 21 st of February 1973 , a forceful sandstorm rose up at the northern part of the
Sinai desert. The storm arrived suddenly, in the form of an advancing wall several kilometers
long and thousands of meters high.On its way it encountered a Libyan aircraft. Commercial
Flight 114 was on its way to Cairo , when it was struck by the blinding dust.
The crew was forced to switch to automatic pilot because the geographic features which
ordinarily served as landmarks could not be discerned in the swirling tempest . A short time
later, the pilot discovered that a navigational error occurred because of a compass
malfunction.
The pilot radioed the Cairo air control tower with an urgent plea for assistance. The Egyptian
flight controllers radioed back, giving him the information necessary to correct the plane's
course and warned him that it appeared the plane might have strayed over the Sinai
peninsula , which at that time was occupied by Israeli forces.
The pilot immediately corrected the course, and LN 114 was heading back to Cairo when the
crew noticed two military jets approaching. They expressed relief, for they believed the jets
were Egyptian fighters sent to escort their plane to safety at the Cairo airport. Such, however,
proved not to be the case: The two jets were in fact Israeli fighters. Before the pilot of LN
114 was able to identify the "Star of David" mark on their wings, the fighters had directed
three bursts of cannon fire into the Boeing 727.
On 21 st of February 1973, a second cloud of dust was seen above the desert. A cloud so big
and dense that it eliminated the sky.

(Monitor 3: a report of an affected country)

Activities that expose and disrupt the topsoil increase the amount of dust blown into the air.
Windblown dust can choke rain clouds: The dust particles contain very little absorbing
matter, therefore, more dust reaching rain clouds produce less rainfall. This aggravates the
drought conditions and contributes to the desertification of the landscape. Thus,
development causes dust
And Dust begets dust.

Afforestation is one of the practices used rehabilitation of lands already affected by erosion
and desertification. The most common afforestation species in Israel is the Aleppo pine with
isolated indigenous populations in Israel restricted to specific areas. This restricted
distribution may be due to the species' life-history strategy that is typical to pioneering
species, fast to colonize after disturbances but with a low competitive ability. This species
has been widely used, on landscape, rock and soil types and often with exotic seed sources.
The major assets of this species are the fast growth and the high survivorship under difficult
conditions.
The disadvantages are the relatively low long life span, the low resistance to certain
parasites, and the high flammability.

reading:

Come with me- Chloe Morrison (E), Ilanit Ben Ya'akov (H)
Busy creating a Deseet- Max Sackstein (E) Yinon Magal (H)
A report of an affected country- Avigail Krispin (E), Ilanit Ben Ya'akov (H)

we'd also like to thank:
Guy Bahir, Brian McKenna, Paul Cosier and Paul Goodman

All the voice over text is based on real sources, the main are:

Morgan Le Fay - a poem by Madison Cawein, (1865-1914)
The memorial website of flight 114
NASA
Ben-Gurion University , The desert institute,
UNCCD reports
islandnet.com -weather phenomenon and elements