The state of Israel is exactly 75 years old this year. Just as old as 75-year-old Kees Andriesse from De Schiphorst. It is no coincidence that Andriesse therefore wrote the book Israel 75 years | screw you. In it he describes his own experiences with the state on the basis of photos, newspaper clippings and above all.
Andriesse left for Israel at the age of 18 to work in a kibbutz. There he fell in love with the country and the people. “I left a warm, familiar nest and ended up in a completely new world. It was a very friendly community in which we did everything together. We worked, lived and lived together. Then you soon notice that the way of interacting is much warmer and more flexible. That made a big impression on me at the time, so I really fell in love with the country and the culture,” he says in the radio program Cassata.
In the year 2023, according to Andriesse, it seems that the Orthodox Jews have increasingly left their mark on the society of Israel. “They literally give the country a different color. In the past, the Israelis saw the Orthodox mainly as a temporary phenomenon.” Andriesse calls it a worrying development: “Especially because of the hardening that you see everywhere in Israel. Not to mention the consequences for Israel’s relationship with its immediate neighbors.”
Andriesse hopes that after reading his book, the reader will gain a better understanding of the development of the state of Israel. “So much has happened in the past few decades. I know the country as extremely resilient. I still have a lot of love for the country, but the last few times I’ve been there, it has been incredibly restless. I’d like to go again back, but only when things calm down a bit.”