User:Yosef

36 / m / 31,34

I've lived in Israel after moving from Chicago in 2010. Like many Israelis I'm Shomer Shabbat so Saturday meetups likely won't happen. Let's meet up.

31. 2018-12-11 31 34 Luzit, Israel, Park Britannia, grazing land

30. 2018-11-11 31 34 Beit Guvrin, Israel farmland nearby

29. 2018-09-14 31 35 Nebi Samuel, Binyamin, Israel: goat pasture

28. 2018-09-06 31 34 Beit Nir: cow pasture

27. 2018-08-21 31 34 'Uza: residential

26. 2018-08-19 31 34 Farm near Nogah

25. 2018-08-09 31 35 Desert next to Mizpeh Yericho

24. 2018-07-23 31 34 Wheat field next to Emunim

23. 2018-07-18 31 34 Highway 4 near Ben Zacai: driving

22. 2018-07-10 31 34 Gezer Forest near Kfar Bin Nun - a couple of meters from the green line

21. 2018-07-03 31 35 Qetalav Stream near Bar Giyora

20. 2018-06-22 31 34 Shoval: fallow farm

19. 2018-06-12 31 35 Aminadav: forest preserve

2018-05-31 31 34 Nitzanim: forbidden military area failure that then became a retro

18. 2018-04-24 32 34 Orange Grove near Kfar Warburg

2018-04-14 31 35 Retro-hash in Jerusalem that I missed

17. 2018-03-30 31 35 Forest near Shoresh

16. 2018-02-04 31 35 Dry stream in Kalya, Megilot, Israel, 339 meters below sea level

15. 2018-01-17 32 34 Darom HaSharon: in a wheat field.

14. 2018-01-15 31 34 Gan HaDarom: between two houses.

13. 2018-01-07 31 34 A farm near Miflasim, Israel

12. 2018-01-04 31 34 A farm near Erez, Israel

11. 2017-12-10 32 35 Hitching post near Eli, Binyamin, Israel

10. 2017-11-28 31 35 Terraced farm near Sde Boaz, Gush Etzion, Israel

9. 2017-11-15 31 35 Rocky field with trees south of Nili, Binyamin, Israel

8. 2017-11-13 31 34 Forest near the Brosh Industrial Area.

7. 2017-10-24 31 35 Desert near Kalya, Megilot, Israel 348 meters below sea level

2017-10-16 31 35 Failed geohash near the Abdullah bridge in Israel. No trespassing.

2017-10-07 31 34 Retro-hash near Be'eri

6. 2017-09-25 31 34 An orange field near Yesodot, Israel.

5. 2017-09-14 31 35 Beit Hoglah, Megilot, Israel, 337 meters below sea level

2017-08-20 42 -87 PROTEST!!! Next morning geohash in Gurnee, Illinois

2017-08-17 42 -88 Failure to reach a farm in Slades Corners, Wisconsin

4. 2017-07-27 31 35 Forest on Har HaRuach near Nataf, Israel

3. 2017-07-25 31 35 A forest near Nebi Samuel, Binyamin, Israel

2. 2017-07-16 31 34 In a watermelon field between Mazkeret Batya and Yad Binyamin

2017-07-10 31 35 Failure to enter a construction site next to Beitar Ilit

1. 2017-06-23 31 34 A field near Kfar Aviv

30 successes - 7 non-success including four retro-hashes and three failures

14 farm, 9 forest, 3 desert, 3 residential, 1 highway

20 in '48 Israel, 10 in Judea and Samaria

15 in Beersheba, Israel, 12 in Jerusalem, Israel, 1 in Haifa East, Israel, 2 in Tel Aviv, Israel

I'm saving my minesweeper award for when I get a four. That can be a real challenge.

Hashing on Shabbat

Most people here haven't heard of Jewish Sabbath observance which is described in several places in the Bible (including Exodus 31:16) and throughout Jewish literature. As they say in America: "Read your Bible!". Then they realize that the Bible isn't very explicit on what you're supposed to do so they either get bored and go to a pub or open up the Shulchan Aruch.

A few of the many ground rules:

Shabbat starts 18 minutes before sunset on Friday until dusk on Saturday.

No traveling more than one kilometer outside of your settlement/city.

No burning fires: that includes operating electrical devices or burning the gasoline in your car.

No carrying outside of an enclosed area.

Considerations:

Geohashing Saturday night after Shabbat, but that's kind of boring and the dark might scare my wife.

I need a place to sleep with my wife within one kilometer of the hashpoint.

At the point we need: a ready fire, a reasonably large area fenced off with string, and enough food for the whole day. We probably also need a place to sleep which could be our tent.

Most importantly my wife has to agree to come.

My Map

Where I've been as of 2018-07-23

I think this map shows that I'm into using highways to get places and if the hashpoint is very far off of the path I tend to stay away. I also stay away from the boring city ones like Modi'in, Tel Aviv, and Netanya. Also you'll notice that the areas north and south of Jerusalem are very difficult to travel because there are Palestinian Authority villages everywhere. The blue point is my location, the four yellow points in the corners are a "personal graticule" with the corners at (31.25, 34.55), (31.25, 35.55), (32.25, 34.55), (32.25, 35.55). The rest of the yellow points are geohashes.

Quick translation: The Mediterranean Sea is in the northwest. The west coast from north to south is Netanya, Tel Aviv, Rishon Letzion, Ashdod, and Ashkelon. Jerusalem is the capital in the center. You can see the dotted line that outlines Judea and Samaria. Be'er Sheva is in the southwest, and Arad and the Dead Sea are in the southeast corner.

Geohashing in Judea and Samaria

In 1947 the United Nations recommended to partition the British Mandate of Palestine into Jewish and Arab districts. Judea and Samaria was supposed to be an Arab district and Jerusalem was supposed to be an international district. In 1948 when the British left, Jews declared the State of Israel and several Arab neighbors declared war. The Mandate was divided into three parts: the State of Israel, Egyptian 'Aza, and the Jordanian West Bank. In 1967 Israel responded to a blockade of the port of Eilat by attacking Egypt. Jordan joined the conflict. As a result of the war, Israel gained all of the territory of the former British Mandate and adjacent territories as well. The Jordanian West Bank was renamed after the original Biblical Judea and Samaria.

From a personal perspective, Judea and Samaria comprises the north, east, and south outskirts and suburbs of Jerusalem. It is the burial place of numerous prophets, it was at one point my home, it is the home of many friends and acquaintances, and it is an integral part of the State of Israel and mainly the Jerusalem and East Haifa graticules. While I don't live there now, I can see it from my office window. Even if I were not to leave my house, my personal safety is heavily dependent on what happens in Judea and Samaria because of the close proximity.

You'll see that many of my hashes are in Judea and Samaria. That is based upon convenience and knowledge. The Green Line hugs (and once nearly choked) Jerusalem. I have learned over the years how to travel the area and there are some places that I know quite well. If you'd like to travel there you can get in touch with me and I'll be willing to help you. Please don't do it without someone experienced on your side.

After starting to drive more, I've noticed that travelling is kind of limited (it's hard to notice limitations when travelling by bus). I once tried to travel from Modi'in to Kochav Ya'akov via Binyamin instead of via Jerusalem like Google suggested. I was quite disappointed to see that the Israeli Army blocked off entrance to non-Palestinians at Qalandiya which greatly lengthened my trip and forced me to travel via Jerusalem. I learned from this to trust Google. War can be inconvenient even if you're winning.

A discussion has popped up concerning a Palestine page. I have contributed to the discussion but as we are a group that is trying to be exacting in its definitions, the only Palestinian Authority presence is in Areas A, B, and the Gaza Strip. Area C is fully under Israeli control and can in no way be referred to as Palestine. It is more Israeli (51 years) than it is British (30 years), Jordanian (19 years), or Palestinian (0 years). My suggestion is in accordance with the conclusion of the Oslo Accords of 1994 and the facts on the ground.

Discussion of the Protest Hash

I personally believe that there should be a hash point in every graticule at all hours of the day. However, I will not change existing conventions in the rule and fork our insanely small community. Hopefully the community will come to a quick consensus on how to cleanly change the rule so that the developers can update the tools and there will always be a hash in every graticule.

Inventory of Tools

I've decided to take an inventory of the tools that we use so that in the event of an algorithm update we'll have everything ready. Here is the list that I'm aware of. Please add to this list on my page. It is very important that we know who the developer is and whether or not he is active:

Tools that must be updated:

geohashing.info

Tools that don't need updating:

maps.google.com

amudanan.co.il (for Israel)

Useful tool for making a page:

{{subst:Expedition
|lat = latitude of graticule
|lon = longitude of graticule
|date = date of expedition, in YYYY-MM-DD format
}}