Hebron

I was on a tour in the West Bank city of Hebron, last Friday. Shovrim Shtika (Breaking the Silence) guided the tour. Hebron is a very complicated place. I can't even begin to explain in this blog posting. For a detailed article and history, read this Ha'aretz piece. Here are a few pictures, with a brief explanation. I am well aware that these photos and what I saw only reveal a small part of what is going on there. To really understand, or to start to at least, one must go to the city.


A sign displayed for visitors. Also appears in Hebrew.

Jewish graffiti: נקמה, revenge. A lot is covered up because it was bad for the Jewish settlers' PR.


The few Palestinian families who still live in the IDF-controlled area caged themselves in. Their front doors are bolted shut, by the IDF. They are only allowed out their roof or their back door.


The tomb of Abraham, in the Tomb of Patriarchs, a holy site.

A beautiful almond tree, amidst all the difficult, horrible, confusing things going on.

Is there any way out?

I was at a bike store in Beer Sheva with some friends yesterday. An older man named Jacques started talking with me. Jacques is probably 60ish, born in Fez, Morocco, and lived there until his family made aliyah at the age of 16. He started asking me if I love Israel too (my friend who was at the store had made aliyah and was saying how much she does). I said I love the place and the people, but not what the state does. And then I said, let's not get into this, as soon as I saw him gearing up for a fight. (I have slowly and painfully been learning that most Israelis are not open-minded in regards to Israel's military actions and support the state almost blindly, no matter what).

I tried to stop the conversation, but it was too late. Jacques is telling me that he knows Arabs because he grew up with them, and he served in the army. He provided me with an anecdote: if you say hello and good morning to an Arab, he'll kill you. If you say hello, while at the same time hitting him to keep him in his place, then he'll treat you ok. Jacques continued to tell me that the way for Israel to proceed is to kill as many Arabs as possible—the more the better.

Of course, no Israeli thinks my opinion is worthwhile, because I didn't know grow up here or serve in the IDF. I understand this, but I also know that many of these people I talk to have not even considered the alternatives; they have not read any of the important, academic articles that the intellectuals (both Israeli and Arab) have produced, showing that there is a very different side to the whole argument. But no one will listen; no one can see beyond his own fears.

Jacques went on to ask me what I think of Blacks in the US. I said, I can't answer, this shouldn't even be a question. And he asked if I'm going to vote for that "black guy running for President?" I said that'd be the best thing to happen to the US if Obama wins. He told me that Obama is a Muslim and how could I do that. At this point, I started to understand that Jacques didn't have all his facts straight.

Despite his lack of accurate information, Jacques represents a portion of the Israeli population; he is a bit more extreme in his call to kill all Arabs, but he knows only one narrative, and there is no discussion.

The way I see it, there will never be peace and understanding if one cannot open his mind to different ideas.

Then, a few minutes later, we heard there was a suicide bombing in Dimona. Jacques is from Dimona and his wife works in the exact area where the explosion was.

What can I say to that? The conflict here (sich-sooch in Hebrew; סכסוך) cannot be explained or described. I cannot help but understand what Jacques says. I cannot help but understand the Gazan plight for food, gas, and water. Is there any way out?

Sore Elbows

Classes ends about 2 weeks ago. We have 6 weeks off until the Spring semester starts, and during this break we must write our term papers. I have to write three 15+ page papers. So far, I've gotten 2 more or less done. I am working on the third one now. I have only had a few moments of panic, and I still have another 8 days to finish this last one. The topics include:

-the situation of foreign workers' children in Israel, who identify as Israeli, but are not considered "real Israelis"
-Mizrachi music and its role as producing counter-hegemonic resistance to the Ashkenazi hegemony; examinzation of Tipex and Zohar Argov (2 Israeli Mizrachi musicians/groups)
-(this one I'm still working on): the ways that Istanbul's urban fabric changed post-Tanzimat (1839) in an attempt to westernize; close examination of "westernization" in the Ottoman empire.

What's the point here? My elbows are killing me! I spend so much time at my computer reading and typing, resting on my elbows, that they really hurt! I'd never thought this would happen...but it's pretty serious.

Here's a picture of an elbow to enjoy.

I try sitting in different ways, resting on my hands, not putting my arms on the desk when I'm just reading, anything!

Being Ethiopian in Israel.

I was just reading an article for a paper I'm writing about the identity of foreign workers' children in Israel. While this article is about Ethiopians and not foreign workers, it's related because identity is both elusive and strictly guarded in the Jewish state of Israel where the Orthodox Rabbinate has a monopoly on deciding "Who is a Jew" and therefore who is a "real Israeli."

This article is about the identity of the Ethiopians who came to Israel in the last 20 years. It argues that a new kind of racism developed in Israeli society. But that Ethiopians have been able to create an unique identity. "In fact, they have developed a hybrid identity that meshes Israeliness, Jewishness, and blackness. Have they succeeded in escaping their marginalised status and in establishing their hybrid conception within Israeli
society?"

A paragraph I read in the article recalls the post I wrote a while back about the term "kushi." Before I speculated. Now, the author spoke to some Ethiopian youth: "Some Ethiopian youngsters aged 16 to 18 seemed to suggest that they were rebelling against the image that had been foisted onto them. Asked how they reacted to being called kushi (black), a term that connotes a slave in their traditional culture, they replied unequivocally that whereas in the past they had been offended and backed off, now they would lash out at anyone who used the term and ‘let him have it’, in the words of one interviewee."

Ben-eliezer, Uri (2004) 'Becoming a black Jew: cultural racism and anti-racism in contemporary Israel', Social Identities, 10:2, 245 - 266

שוקו בשקית--Chocolate in a Bag

I was just craving Shoko B'sakit (שוקו בשקית)! And then it occured to me that it's a worthwhile topic for a post.


This concept at first seemed really gross to me--sucking chocolate milk out of a plastic bag after ripping off the corner with your mouth--but then I realized how great of a satisfying snack it is!

Here's an excellent short "How to" video:

Post Modernity

As the semester comes to an end, all my classes seem to be converging on an interesting and important subject: Modernity and Post Modernity. While it seems that these are terms we throw around all the time, I don't often have a chance to really think about them...Here are some thoughts (albeit just a few) that have been discussed, interspersed with some photos I took from the net.

Modernity can be traced to the 17th century: the scientific revolution, new technology, and transportation (railroad and steamship) which all provided for totally new possibilities. The origins of modernity are located in Europe. Progress is big! There is a whole change in the way people understand their world, in every way.


Of course, besides there being this new forward-moving direction that history was thought to be moving in, there is a dark side: Colonialism (an ideology while acceptable at the time was about racism and imposing ideas on people), WWI and its unfathomable amount of death and suffering, WWII and the Holocaust, the invention of the atomic bomb.

In contrast to modernity and post-modernity, modernism and post-modernism are aesthetic styles, referring to literature, art, architecture, music. This style is clean and simple. One example is Bauhaus architecture.


The post modern era started in the 1970s, among French intellectuals. Existentialism and questioning of what really is truth. This new outlook can be termed a"paradigm shift," where there are no more certainties in life, and the concept of progress is dead. The post modern turn can be seen in subaltern studies, cultural studies, and social history. In the post modern era, there is also a resurgence of religion (since there is nothing else to believe in!). Nietzsche is confused.


Anthony Giddens writes in The Consequences of Modernity: "living in the modern world is more like being aboard a careering juggernaut rather than being in a carefully controlled and well-driven motor car."


In my class, "Muslim Mediterranean Cities," the professor challenged us with these questions: "Is post modernity just another stage of modernity? Is it an imploding of modernism?" I don't know the answers.

In a different class ("Production of Resistance in Arab Countries"), the professor posited that there are different concepts of modernity in the West and East. Western modernity can be seen as a total break from the past. In the East, modernity has some connection to tradition as well. They are not mutually exclusive. For example, Eastern music cannot be understood without looking at traditional music styles to understand the contemporary.

New Year's.

Here's an interesting (read: crappy camera phone) series of a few photos from Oded and my fun and low-key New Year's in Tel Aviv.

(Card from the bar we were at: "One who doesn't drink doesn't pee.")