Harry Potter in Israel

Because I spend a lot of time in in countries that have fallen somewhat off the globalization fast track (Syria and Iraq, for example), I've started to become a little clueless about pop culture. So yesterday I foolishly went to the Jerusalem Mall to see the new Harry Potter movie despite the fact that I didn't have an advance ticket and despite the fact that it was Saturday evening. Needless to say I didn't get in. The large crowd in front of the movie theater showed a general disregard for ordered lines, while the ticket sellers kept posting signs in Hebrew with lots of exclamation points. "Do any of those say 'Harry Potter Sold Out?'" I kept asking people, who stared at me -- a single foreign man amid a sea of families -- like I was some kind of sicko.

After giving up on the movie, I tried to compensate by visiting a nearby bookstore chain where the latest Harry Potter book was going on sale for the first time. Like everywhere else, the series is wildly popular in Israel. But the book has been received in different ways by the nation's cultural guardians. On the one hand, religious politicians campaigned against the Friday night worldwide release, which would have violated Shabbat, so most stores in Israel waited until sundown on Saturday to start selling copies. On the other hand, some conservative commentators have lauded the Churchillian undertones of Harry's fight against evil, which they see as relevant in an era of relativism and appeasement. As of yet I haven't heard of anyone complaining about the spread of witchcraft and paganism in the Jewish state.

Anyway, all I wanted to do was take some pictures of Harry Potter fans and the bookstore staff dressed as if for Halloween. Now I admit that I should have gone through the process of explaining that I was a journalist and getting permission before I started snapping away, but it's not like I was trying to spy on troop movements or wanted militants. This is a book about a teenage wizard! Still, it wasn't long before a high-handed staff member told me -- in a tone normally reserved for shoplifters -- to see the store manager post haste, and while worried phone calls were made to corporate public relations, I slunk out of the store thinking I should give up on fantasy fiction and go back to covering Middle Eastern blood feuds.

--Andrew Lee Butters/Jerusalem