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On the Face in the News
Lebanese and Israelis blog
the war: edited by Michael Totten This Month
Month Archive
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Wednesday, June 27
Golda had a lover? Who knew?
by
Lisa Goldman
on Wed 27 Jun 2007 05:15 PM IDT
I am on a brief hiatus, with blogging to resume early next week. Meanwhile, check out the book I photographed at an Amman bookshop. ;)
Don't freak out - it's a novel. Review is here. Sunday, June 24
Death of a beautiful young dreamer
by
Lisa Goldman
on Sun 24 Jun 2007 12:52 AM IDT
About a year ago, I wrote about a blog called Israel 2046 . "Shai," the 28 year-old Israeli who created incredibly imaginative posts about a border-less, peaceful Middle East forty years hence, was someone I met via the Internet. After reading some of his wise and perceptive comments on a now defunct blog, called Palestinian Princess, I left a comment in Hebrew (sorry Lucy, that was a bit rude;) in which I asked him to send me an email.
We exchanged notes, then phone calls, and finally we met at a cafe near Rothschild Boulevard and talked for hours, as if we had known one another for years. He died today, after a long struggle with cancer. When I met him for the first time, in the spring of 2006, he was already very sick - bald and jaundiced from chemotherapy. But he lived a life that was fuller than that of most healthy people. He had traveled around the world, he was always surrounded by friends, he somehow managed to read the entire Internet every day, he studied at university and he never, ever refused a favour - especially if it was geek-related, because he was the ultimate geek who could find a creative solution for any computer or Internet-related issue you could think of. He was also a pragmatic idealist with a huge heart, amazing powers of observation and a dry sense of humour. He never, ever complained about being sick. When he was in bed recovering from chemotherapy, he sent me emails several times a week. He was always curious and engaged, always planning his next project. Once he told me that his oncologist wanted him to have his vocal chords removed, but he had refused because he was too young. "I want to get married and have kids first," he said, even though he didn't have a girlfriend at the time. He was so strong, so utterly lacking in self-pity, and so completely convinced that he was going to recover, that I simply believed he would. It did not seem possible that someone so determined to live, could die. In one of his last emails, sent just a few days ago, he asked if I had heard of Hometown Baghdad, a web documentary made by middle class university students living in Baghdad. He wanted to know if I thought it was feasible to do a similar project with Israeli and Palestinian university students. Below is his response to my last email: I thought it might catch your interest, wow, doing it for real is something that I'd be very interested in, but it might be a long time until i am able. The operation i ended up having was better as i didn't lose my vocal chords, but by some rotten luck they stopped working about a week before, so right now i can't talk, but since i still have them, I'll work on it and find a way...(I can't eat right now either, so don't bring chocolate :), flowers and hugs are always welcome) I'm still tired most of the time and i don't really like having visitors at my parents house, but as soon as I'm up for it, i promise to come visit you in Tel Aviv. Hmmm, yeah the more the idea settles the more i think i actually would love to be involved with some sort of documentary similar to the Iraqi one, i don't know what skills i have that would lend to it, but it could be great. (If you think there is a chance pushing on with this now, don't wait for me and miss it though). I don't think editing would be much of a problem, I don't know about the cameras... maybe you'd like to email the producers of Hometown Baghdad for tips? I wasn't quite prepared to feel as bad as I do at this moment. I wish he had let me visit him last week. The world is a much, much poorer place without him. And I am going to miss him so much. "Shai" means "gift" in Hebrew. It wasn't his real name, but it was an appropriate one. Thursday, June 21
Ivri goes English
by
Lisa Goldman
on Thu 21 Jun 2007 03:07 AM IDT
 Ivri Lider. Credit: Ronen Ackerman Ivri Lider, one of Israel's biggest rock stars, has just released his first single in the United States. It's called Jesse - clip below. As you've no doubt guessed after viewing the clip, Ivri Lider is gay. He came out of the closet several years after he became famous, in a groundbreaking interview with Gal Uchovsky that was published in Maariv newspaper about five years ago. Somehow, the women of Israel managed to swallow their shock and disappointment and continue to love Ivri for his music, whilst maintaining a detached admiration for his biceps and sweet smile. Interestingly, declaring that he was gay did not have any negative effect on Lider's career at all. In fact, he just became more popular. This is one of the weird anomalies about Israeli society, which proudly sneers at American style political correctness (often confused with, uh, basic civility). On the one hand it's still common to hear the word "homo" used as an insult (okay, not so much in Tel Aviv), but on the other hand the army drafts openly gay soldiers into uber-macho combat units, and Tel Aviv is often included on lists of the most gay friendly cities in the world. Ivri Lider has composed and sung soundtrack songs for all of the Gal Uchovsky-Eytan Fox Films: Yossi and Jaeger, about a love affair between two soldiers stationed in southern Lebanon Walk on Water, about a Mossad agent who is assigned to track down and kill a Nazi war criminal by becoming friendly with his gay grandson The Bubble, about a Romeo and Juliet-type love affair that develops between an Israeli guy and a Palestinian guy after the two meet at a checkpoint in the West Bank. Seven years ago, I traveled around India listening to Lider's hit debut album on a loop. It's called Melatef uMeshaker (Caress and Lie)and the clip for the title song is below. Hebrew lyrics here; my rough translation is beneath the clip. Caress
and
lie And
sometimes when I smile
And
sometimes when I smile Ivri Lider's website Ivri Lider on Myspace Article on Ivri Lider that was published in Haaretz. Wednesday, June 20
Make love, not terror
by
Lisa Goldman
on Wed 20 Jun 2007 03:05 AM IDT
Further to my previous post, a spoof on suicide bombing can be funny. The clip below was filmed on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv back in 2002 (ignore the opening credit that says 2005 - they be lyin' ;) ). The team behind the clip is called Keta Keta, and they got tons of publicity for the creativity and humour.
The year 2002 was a strange, strange time: there were several suicide bombings per week in Tel Aviv over a period of months (it was a major relief when the number declined to "only" a couple per month), but somehow normal life continued - even though sitting in a cafe, traveling on a bus or entering a shopping mall was a high-risk proposition. I think the clip really captures the zeitgeist of fighting fear with irreverent humour that almost - but not quite - crosses the line into the realm of tastelessness. Tuesday, June 19
It's da bomb: new government anti-drug campaign
by
Lisa Goldman
on Tue 19 Jun 2007 12:22 PM IDT
See below for update.
Gen X Americans might remember a certain anti-drug commercial from the late 1980's, called "this is your brain on drugs." It showed a man who held up an egg and said, "This is your brain," before picking up a frying pan and adding, "This is drugs." He then cracks open the egg, fries the contents, and says, "This is your brain on drugs." Finally he looks up at the camera and asks, "Any questions?" As I recall, that campaign was the butt of a lot of jokes, but didn't garner the kind of publicity the Partnership for a Drug-Free America had in mind. The Israeli anti-drug authority decided that it would be a great idea to reach out to young people with a spoof of a shaheed poster - the type one sees in the West Bank, extolling young men who have blown themselves up for "the cause." The anti-drug authority placed the following advertisement in Maariv and Yedioth yesterday. At the top it says, "The hero Omer Kendel, 16 years old, mixed vodka and ecstasy and went to blow himself up at a party in Tel Aviv." At the bottom: "Drugs and alcohol taken together is suicide," followed by the phone number for the anti-drug authority. The font resembles Arabic calligraphy.  For comparison, below is a photo I took of a shaheed poster in a West Bank town.  Update: Wow, just when you thought the campaign couldn't get any more tasteless - it does! According to this article on Ynet, the anti-drug authority's campaign includes a video clip styled after the taped testaments of suicide bombers, featuring a teenager bidding goodbye to his family telling them he is on his way to heaven. Click on the link to watch the video with English subtitles. Monday, June 18
An Israeli in Ramallah
by
Lisa Goldman
on Mon 18 Jun 2007 01:30 PM IDT
 Your roving reporter in Ramallah's Manar Square, 13 June 2007 Israeli citizens are not allowed to enter Gaza, even if they have a foreign passport, so they have to content themselves with reports from the West Bank instead. Here is a report on what I saw and heard in Ramallah last Friday, the day after Hamas took power in Gaza. Friday, June 15
They do yoga in Ramallah, too
by
Lisa Goldman
on Fri 15 Jun 2007 07:33 PM IDT
Live blogging from Gaza: excellent reporting
by
Lisa Goldman
on Fri 15 Jun 2007 06:37 AM IDT
Brian Ulrich pointed me to Conflict Blotter, the excellent blog of Sunday Telegraph reporter Charles Levinson, who is one of the very few Western journalists currently reporting from inside Gaza. Charles has a lot of guts, and he's a great writer too. He's updating several times a day, so check him out.
Tuesday, June 12
Shady oligarchs and the politics of pork
by
Lisa Goldman
on Tue 12 Jun 2007 02:43 AM IDT
 Arcadi Gaydamak at a Tel Aviv press conference. Arcadi Gaydamak, the shady Russian-Jewish oligarch who allegedly made his billions by funneling billions of dollars in arms and oil-backed loans to Angola's government in return for lucrative oil contracts with Western oil companies, is now busily trying to buy the State of Israel, Inc. Mainstream Israel has been watching, bemused and cynical but mostly passive, as he bought the Beitar Jerusalem football (soccer) team, purchased a radio station, donated millions to charity, was investigated for money laundering, created tent camps for residents of the north who were displaced during the war last summer, started his own political party (Social Justice), made back-room deals with uber-icky politicians like Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu and even announced that he aspired to be the next mayor of Jerusalem. But now, with his latest move, he has gone Too Far. Gaydamak has purchased a controlling interest in Tiv Tam, the chain of supermarkets that specializes in non-kosher products and stays open on Saturdays and holidays. According to newspaper reports, he paid $100 million for his shares - 80 percent above their value. In other words, he made the owners an offer they couldn't refuse. What's so terrible about that? Glad you asked. Almost as soon as the news hit the Internet on Friday, the man who last year threw a huge bash to celebrate the very un-Jewish holiday called Sylvester (a.k.a. New Year's Eve) and most probably couldn't list the Ten Commandments if you put a gun to his head, announced that he intends to make Tiv Tam kosher. No more milano salami or imported non-kosher cheese! No more shopping for pork chops and frozen shrimp on Saturdays! Thus pronounced the Arcadi the pious: "In my view, as a Jew and as a public figure in Jewish society, the promotion, distribution and sale of pork products in Israel offends the Jewish tradition. Therefore, my first order of business will be to ban the distribution and sale of pork products."  The Tiv Tam branch in my neighbourhood. This story was on the front page of all three major Israeli daily newspapers on Monday. Both Yedioth and Maariv put it on the front page of their magazine (opinion and human interest) sections, and Haaretz put it on the front page of the news section. Several Israeli bloggers have weighed in on the matter in both Hebrew and English. This, it appears, is what it takes to rouse mainstream Israel from its glorious apathy - take away Saturday shopping and non-kosher food. Who knew? Yes, I am being cynical. Also, a bit of a hypocrite. Because the truth is that I love Tiv Tam - and not because I'm a big pork fan. There is a branch in my neighbourhood that opened a few months ago, and it has rapidly become my primary destination for groceries. First of all, it's wonderfully convenient: I no longer have to cut short my Friday afternoon cafe socializing in order to get to the shops before they close for the weekend. I can also buy all sorts of imported products that are not under rabbinical supervision, even though they don't contain any non-kosher ingredients - like Rajah brand chutneys and pickles, chili sauce from Vietnam, or real English cheddar cheese. I can purchase all these items at any number of small groceries around Tel Aviv, and there are dozens of shops that specialize in pork and non-kosher meat if that's what I'm looking for, but it's great to have a one-stop shopping destination - especially during the sweltering summer months, when schlepping from shop to shop for various items is distinctly unappealing. If Tiv Tam stops carrying these items, and is closed from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning, I won't have any reason to shop there anymore. I can get my staples from the makolet - the traditional corner grocery - with the added benefits of purchasing on credit and free delivery; as for the specialty items, I guess I'll go back to schlepping.  Frozen seafood at Tiv Tam  The other white meat  Rajah chutneys and Vietnamese chili sauce I suspect that most Tiv Tam customers feel the same, which makes me wonder how long the chain will last if Gaydamak makes good on his Tiv Tam also owns 75 percent of Maadaney Mizra, a meat processing factory that has been specializing in high quality pork products for over 50 years. The factory was originally established by Kibbutz Mizra, a veteran kibbutz that was founded more than 80 years ago - largely by German-Jewish pioneers. Gaydamak has promised that he won't fire any of the Mizra employees, but the kibbutz members are pissed off. They're proud of their factory's success, and of their secularism. They are suspicious of oligarchs and of religion, too.  Maadaney Mizra bacon and pork charcuterie at Tiv Tam Ultimately, I think, the overheated reaction to the news about Gaydamak taking over Tiv Tam and making it kosher is not really about food. This is the first time the shady oligarch's power plays have affected the lives of mainstream Israelis. It was worrying to watch him buy his way into politics, but most Israelis are so disgusted by politics and politicians that they're beyond reacting. They shook their heads at the news and laughed at the political satire shows, but that's about it. But now he is depriving them of their freedom to shop at their leisure at a one-stop shopping destination in a convenient location. They are feeling the creeping effect of religious extremists trying to impose their values on them, via a megalomaniac who is pandering to the religious minority in order to gain access to political power. A kosher Tiv Tam symbolizes an erosion of freedom for the largely secular Israeli public. It'll be interesting to see how this story unfolds. Me, I think some aspiring entrepreneur will just establish another non-kosher chain that will fill the gap. My friend Ana Schulick (photo here), a reporter who works for Channel 9 (Channel 2's Russian TV channel), did a fascinating Day in the Life of Gaydamak report a few weeks ago. The abridged version, with English dubbing and Hebrew subtitles, is here. The Hebrew version, which is much more cutting, is here (doesn't work in Firefox). She starts the Hebrew version by showing Gaydamak doing his morning exercises with a personal trainer, as she narrates, "This is the only time of the day when Gaydamak listens to a voice other than his own." At another point, he rapidly concludes a $100 million deal on the phone, then turns to her and says, "You work all day for, what, $300? I just made several hundred million with a single phone call." Ana is a tough, seasoned reporter who has covered many, many episodes of As the Middle East Turns, but she told me she never felt as emotionally exhausted as she did after a day in the company of Arcadi Gaydamak. Update: Ah ha! It appears that the shady oligarch may have changed his mind. That was fast. Apparently he is so ignorant of Jewish religious law that he actually thought he could make Tiv Tam kosher just by removing the pork products - thereby winning the support of the ultra-Orthodox rabbis. The article is full of eyebrow-raising quotes, like the one about the rabbi who supposedly said that not eating pork was more important than observing the sabbath. Wow, that's news to me. Sunday, June 10
While Shimon slept
by
Lisa Goldman
on Sun 10 Jun 2007 10:44 AM IDT
In two days the Knesset will choose a new president. The candidates are Ruby Rivlin (a.k.a. The Clown) of Likud, Colette Avital of Labour (my favourite, although, sadly, she has no chance) and Shimon Peres (Kadima), the 84 year-old deputy prime minister. Peres is currently the front-runner for the ceremonial role, although there's a rather recent precedent for a surprise result: Peres was a candidate in 2000, but lost to Moshe (yuck) Katsav because the Shas MKs decided, apparently at the, um, "suggestion" of their spiritual leader, to vote for the now disgraced former president. Despite his age, Peres is impressively active and seems to be very physically fit. According to an item published last summer in one of the mass-circulation dailies, he climbed 12 flights of stairs to reach his apartment when the elevator stopped working during an electricity cut. Although he has played a prominent role in public life pretty much since the founding of the state, the consummate politician, diplomat and Nobel laureate receives a lot more respect abroad than he does in Israel. Abroad he is the cultured Wise Old Man, but in Israel he is often seen as a too-professional politician who lacks the populist touch, and / or a "loser" who has never actually won an election for any position. Since the president's job is primarily to represent Israel abroad, and given that Katsav embarrassed the country in the international arena, Peres is widely considered a good choice for the presidency, for the very fact that he is held in such esteem outside of Israel. Last month Channel 10 broadcast a clip that shows Peres falling asleep during an interview. The interview was for an unnamed "foreign television station," but it is pretty clear that it is for one of the Arab television stations. The interviewer speaks to Peres in Arabic-accented Hebrew, and translates Peres's first response into Arabic. All the foreign Arab media outlets employ 1948 Palestinians (a.k.a. Arab-Israelis) or Israeli Druze as their correspondents in Israel, because they are bilingual and can provide insider-outsider perspective to Arab viewers. In the clip, which you can view by clicking on the photo of Sleepy Shimon below, Channel 10 anchor Yaakov Elon introduces the piece in his classic cynical style: "We've seen politicians showing signs of fatigue in public before, but not falling asleep during an interview. That's new!" The actual piece is narrated by correspondent Chico Menashe. He opens by showing footage of Ehud Olmert falling asleep during an official ceremony the day after the Winograd Report was published, then moves on to the Sleepy Shimon interview - which took place several months ago. The interviewer for the Arab television station begins by asking Peres, who is already nodding off, "Do you think that Iran's nuclear program represents an existential threat to Israel?" Peres lifts his head and gives a coherent answer, even though he is more than half asleep: "It's an existential threat to Iran. Why to Israel? What will they do to Israel? I don't think they will do anything to Israel. Let them spend all their billions on building shelters and developing nuclear weapons. They will discover in 10 years that they made a mistake." The interviewer quickly translates his response into Arabic. Turning back to Peres, who has meanwhile fallen asleep again, the interviewer clears his throat nervously and says, hesitantly, "The president of Iran says frequently that he wants to wipe Israel off the map..." At that point a female voice, off camera, is heard saying, "Shimon, I'm going to bring you a cup of coffee." Peres looks up at his assistant with relief and says, "Yes, yes." Chico Menashe then reminds the viewers that Peres is far more active than most younger men. He shows footage of Peres, whom he describes as "the man and the legend," descending from a helicopter, shaking hands with the pope, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, etc. etc. But still, says Menashe, this appearance of obvious fatigue won't do anything to help Peres win the presidency - especially given that no-one forgets how old he is. The official response from Peres's spokesman regarding the interview is quite civilized. He explains that Peres had just returned from a long overnight flight from the United States and gone straight to work instead of first sleeping off the jetlag. He admits that the clip is rather embarrassing, but says he doesn't blame Channel 10 for broadcasting it - because it was newsworthy and obtained legally. The spokesman did, however, blame the "unnamed foreign television station" for leaking the interview (cue ominous background music). I bet I know who is never going to obtain an interview with Peres again (mwahaha).  If you're experiencing difficulty
viewing the clip via Nana's streaming video, try pasting the following
code into your browser window:
http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ClipMediaID=837510&ak=null&st=00:04:05.634&dr=00:03:25.103
Friday, June 8
Hands off my mouse!
by
Lisa Goldman
on Fri 08 Jun 2007 01:14 AM IDT
Here's an issue that prominent Hebrew bloggers and Internet activists like Hanan Cohen, Jonathan Klinger (English version here) and Gadi Shimshon are taking very seriously: A bill that proposes to introduce Internet censorship to Israel has passed a first reading in the Knesset without opposition. A full list of Hebrew bloggers' posts about the bill is here. Gal Mor wrote about the issue for Ynet last March, but I noticed the article only after Julien Pain, Internet Freedom Editor for Reporters Without Borders, sent me the link and an inquiry: how likely is it that the bill will pass all the readings and become law? Hebrew speakers can read the original bill here; my translation is below.
Proposed law to limit Internet access for adults Definitions:
2. Blocking Internet sites
3. Punishment
My feeling is that this bill is unlikely to become law. I think it has failed thus far to attract wider attention because the Israeli public has become massively apathetic over the past few years. But if the day does come when people discover they have to apply to their ISP's for permission to surf "sex sites" at home, for example, I'm sure there will be a rather loud reaction. However, just the fact that this bill has been introduced to the legislature of a democratic state is pretty embarrassing. If parents are worried about their children accessing unsuitable sites, they can purchase filtering software or find some other way to monitor their kids' Internet use. It is not the government's job to decide for adults what sites are suitable for them to access. And besides, as Gal Mor and everyone else has pointed out, the wording of this bill is outrageously vague: by what criteria is a site deemed "violent"? The news is pretty damned violent - does that mean the Ministry of Communications can force Israeli ISP's to block access to Ynet and Haaretz? Will Youtube be blocked because it has hip hop videos?
Jonathan Klinger writes:
The bill was introduced to the Knesset by two members of Shas, an ultra-Orthodox party. One of its supporters is Shas MK Ariel Attias, who is currently Minister of Communications. The vast majority of the Israeli mainstream media is secular, as is the majority of the Israeli public, but the religious parties do have power that is disproportionate to their number of constituents. This has been a source of tension in Israel for decades, for reasons that are beyond the scope of this piece. I mention it only because much of the commentary in opposition to this bill has included anti-Orthodox mudslinging. It's easy to understand why: as Eran Gabay points out in this article for Haaretz, MK Attias does not use the Internet at home for religious reasons, and he could have suggested that ISP's supply their customers with screening software instead of taking the radical step of trying to censor the Internet. But I think it is a huge mistake, for both moral and pragmatic reasons, to let anti-religious prejudice distract from the real issue: censorship is wrong, full stop. The Internet is democracy in its purest and most glorious form: It allows free access to information, and unfiltered communication. Internet censorship has no business in a democratic society - or any society, for that matter - and ordinary citizens need to make their government aware that they oppose this bill. Update: Amos, who contributes to the group blog Kishkushim, makes an important point in the comments:...I am afraid that you are not really going to convince the other side that "censorship is wrong, full stop" either. The haredi elite and large parts of the public see censorship and surveillance as absolutely crucial to the maintenance of their ways of life. There is no real private sphere for unmarried individuals in that world - or at least, there aren't too many people who would invest energy in defending it. Not that it gets much better for married people. I am not saying this to denigrate that way of life; but I think those who care about this encroachment on their freedom should make it very clear that this is about a fundamentalist minority trying to impose its norms on the rest of society. Tuesday, June 5
Number 57, how do you say McDonald's in English?
by
Lisa Goldman
on Tue 05 Jun 2007 12:42 AM IDT
So an American couple gets hungry during a long day of shopping and darbuka drumming in Jerusalem's Old City. Instead of making the obligatory stop at Abu Shukri for hummus-chips-salad-pita-falafel-who-cares-about-the-calories-we're-on-vacation meal, they run over to a taxi driver and ask him where they can get a real "local" salad.
That is the silly-but-kinda-funny premise for the most recent McDonald's advertisement on Israeli television. Brought to you courtesy of Youtube. The punchline will make you smile, as long as you know your Middle Eastern foods. Monday, June 4
Poetry for the Road
by
Lisa Goldman
on Mon 04 Jun 2007 04:02 AM IDT
This post is dedicated to Nominally Challenged, as promised, for providing inspiration.
 Poetry banners on Rothschild Boulevard For the third year in a row, the municipality of Tel Aviv has mounted Poetry for the Road (Hebrew link; doesn't work in Firefox). Excerpts from poems in Hebrew, Arabic and French have been emblazoned on colourful banners and suspended from the trees lining the city's boulevards; there are also miniature take-home versions in the form of postcards that have been distributed amongst the cafes. It's a creative, inexpensive and charming way to add a bit of culture to every day life, and I find myself stopping frequently to read, and remember the courses in Hebrew and Arabic literature (the latter in translation) I took at university. This year the members of the committee that chose the poems decided to expand the canon a bit by holding a contest for local poets; five winners received their moment of fame in banner and postcard form. The Hebrew poets range from Yehuda Halevy, the Medieval Spanish-Jewish philosopher and physician whose influences included Arabic, Castillian and the Bible; to Chaim Nahman Bialik, the father of modern Hebrew poetry; to contemporaries like Nathan Zach, whose stunning autobiographical novella, Death of My Mother, was the first Hebrew book I read, many years ago, because I wanted to - and not because I was required to do so. I won't bore you by listing all the poets deemed canon-worthy by the committee, except to note that it was interesting to see they included Alexander Penn - handsome bad boy, heavy drinker, notorious womanizer and ardent Communist party member (Hebrew article about Penn, illustrated with an appropriately brooding photo, is here), who is a bit marginalized these days. The Arab poets are a mixed bunch, with some obvious choices - like Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish, who is probably the most famous contemporary Arab poet. There is an interesting article about Darwish here. Apparently he supports a two-state solution, but resigned from the PLO Executive Council in 1993 because he thought the Oslo Accords were fatally flawed and would lead to an escalation of the conflict (hmmm. Poet and prophet, I guess). A few years ago, when he was Minister of Education, Yossi Sarid suggested that Darwish's poetry should be part of the Israeli high school curriculum. The esteemed members of the Knesset disagreed rather vehemently with Sarid, but it appears that the members of the Poetry for the Road committee took a higher road (sorry, sorry). I thought it was kind of funny that the banner with an excerpt from Darwish's poem Ana min hunak (I come from there) was hung on Sderot Ben Zion, or Children of Zion Boulevard. Irony intended? I wonder...  Excerpt from I am from there, by Mahmoud Darwish. Full text here. I come from there and remember, I was born like everyone is borne, I have a mother and a house with many windows, I have brothers, friends and a prison. I have a wave that seagulls snatched away. I have a view of my own and an extra blade of grass. I have a moon past the peak of words. I have the godsent food of birds and olive tree beyond the ken of time. The Poetry for the Road committee also chose Arab poet Adunis (Ali Ahmad Said) a renowned Syrian-Lebanese poet who has been short-listed for the Nobel Prize in literature. Like Darwish, Adunis has had to deal with his share of political controversy: according to this Ynet article (Hebrew) he was heavily criticized, and banned by his literary peers in the Arab world, for speaking out publicly in favour of normalization between Israel and the Arab states after the signing of the Oslo Accords. The Nation published this article about Adunis in 2004.  Adonis poetry banner, Rothschild Boulevard I couldn't find a translation of this poem online, and don't dare translate it myself. If anyone has a link in English, the comments section awaits your feedback. Update: Egyptian blogger Zoss has translated the Adunis poem. He is braver than I, and he is talented too. The child I used to be, once appeared to me, a stranger. He didn’t utter a word. We walked, glancing at one another in silence. Our strides a river running astray. Oh, and there's a lighthearted video report about Poetry for the Road on Nana, here. It's in Hebrew only, but it should be fun to watch even if you don't understand what the reporter is saying (she takes the piss out of unsuspecting passersby by shoving a microphone in their faces and asking questions about poetry that they can't answer, but she also interviews poets and asks them questions like, "can you make a living from this?" Answer: No.). |
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