I am not an historian, decent author or a journalist, and the chances are that unless there is a link or reference to somewhere else, the perpetrator is yours truly – Renaud Sarda. I created this blog as a focal point, to arm people with arguments and facts that they can perhaps use to counter biased media reporting and anti-Israel propaganda, and to help counter (BDS) campaign. I am a Zionist/Sephardi/Jew who will fly the Israeli flag, and defend whatever Israel does.
The history of anti-Semitism is long, interesting and terrifyingly homogeneous. Anne Frank wrote: “What one Christian does is his own responsibility, what one Jew does is thrown back at all Jews.” While true, something even stronger seems to be the case: the actions of no Jew are thrown back at all Jews.
The pattern of blaming any and all problems on Jewish meddling goes back to early Christianity. The story is a well-known one: the Jewish Pharisees, jealous and doubtful about the success of a new preacher and miracle-worker on the block, savagely murdered him for their own greedy ends. In Matthew 27:24-25, Pontius Pilate washed his hands of the decision, and the Jewish people replied: “His blood is on us and on our children!” This blood curse is where the persecution of Jews for evils they demonstrably did not commit has its beginning.
It’s perhaps instructive to note that even the very first instance of Jewish scapegoating is most likely false. The Jews had no apparent motivation to murder Jesus, whereas the Romans, currently in process of a rather violent occupation of the territory, were understandably worried about an up-and-coming ‘King of the Jews’. The crucifixion itself was a Roman tradition.
Christianity continued to have a complicated relationship with Jews. Martin Luther, the original ‘liberal’ reformer, wrote a book called On the Jews and Their Lies, in which he advocated burning synagogues and Jewish homes and, if all else failed, Jewish people. The Catholic Church proclaimed in 1965 that not all Jews (although some) can be blamed for the death of Christ – a nice effort, but a bit too late. The blood curse had already caught on.
Facts aren’t really all that welcome in anti-Semitism. Jews were behind the Black Death, both world wars (yes, even the second one), and more recently, the 2008 financial crisis, either the Conservatives or the Labour Party, ‘PC culture’ or the rise of neo-fascism (depending on whom
you ask).
While, in 2017, these opinions are usually found in the darkest corners of the internet, historically, the image has been advocated by the ruling classes. Kings often had ‘court Jews’ who handled financial matters and collected the king’s taxes, since usury was considered a sin (although, luckily, paying for usury was not). They provided the face of the ruling class for the people to hate, while keeping the king himself relatively blameless. The court Jew could gain impressive power for someone who was essentially a second-class citizen. But when things went wrong and the pitchforks were at the gates, kings would feel no remorse in placing all blame on the court Jew.
“Whatever feature of our political system that anyone has ever disliked has at some point been blamed on the Jews”
Such scapegoating has been going on for a larger part of the last 2,000 years. It’s not that individual Jews never do anything wrong, but the usual claims of Jewish orchestration are blatantly absurd. The haphazard way the ‘Jew behind the scenes’ trope is used by all conspiratorially minded sides of the political spectrum is shown by the paradoxical nature of all the things associated with
Jewish meddling.
We’re both the warmongerer, manipulating Bush to invade Iraq, and the meddling pacifist, putting personal safety over national glory – the banker exploiting the poor and downtrodden, and the revolutionary communist ready to confiscate people’s hard-earned private property. Any feature of our political system that anyone has ever disliked has at some point been blamed on the Jews.
Although happily absent from the maintream in western politics, the dynamic keeps playing out on the fringes. The ‘George-Soros-funds-everything-I-dislike’ mentality found in conservative circles, as well as claims that Jared Kushner, an out-of-touch goblin who can’t tie his shoelaces, is the intellectual centre of the trump administration. These ideas of nefarious jews behind the scenes have of course never been true.
The immediate consequences of this, whether they manifest in systematic and state-sponsored anti-Semitic campaigns or in individual hate-crimes and terrorism, are bad enough. But the part that really gets to me is that scapegoating Jews often masks the people who are genuinely responsible for horrible things. The banks did cause a global financial crisis largely due to stupidity and greed. There is too much money in politics. These are all real problems – but claiming that they are due to the orchestration of Jews is both false and unproductive. The truth is more complex, and relates to the deepest structures of the global political system – whether that be capitalism, political corruption or oil. Chasing the bogeyman of the ‘Jew behind the scenes’ will change precisely nothing, since the white old men who disproportionately control the world remain safe in their
corner-offices
He is the (hot) artist who won the Israeli national selection The Next Star for Eurovision 2017earlier this month. And on Sunday Imri Ziv and his team announced that his song will be called “I Feel Alive”.
Imri will present the song during a special broadcast on IBA on Thursday March 9 at 20:00 CET.
IMRI ZIV’S “I FEEL ALIVE”
Following Imri’s victory on “The Next Star for Eurovision 2017”, IBA convened a special committee with members of the IBA, Keshet Broadcasting and the IPBC. They received dozens of songs from a wide array of songwriters but ultimately went with “I Feel Alive”. Apparently it was giving them life.
The song comes from Israeli songwriters Dolev Ram and Penn Hazut, who have previously worked with some of Israel’s most prominent artists, including Sarit Hadad, Eyal Golan, Eden Ben Zakenand Noa Kirel.
Their music leans young and fresh, and frequently includes Oriental / Mizrachi touches, making them danceable and uplifting. But they are not one-trick ponies. They also have some strong ballads in their back catalogue.
You can listen to a series of their songs below. Do any of them sound like something we could hear from Imri?
The rumour mill is churning hard and suggesting that we can expect an up-tempo song. That will, no doubt, make his number a refreshing change of pace given the sea of female ballads he’ll likely be up against.
Regardless of the style and genre, Imri will be able to draw on his vast Eurovision experience: He served as a backing vocalist for the Israeli artists Nadav Guedj and Hovi Star in 2015 and 2016.
If you need a reminder of Imri’s abilities and strengths, here is a short recap of his performances during the Israeli selection this year.
Israel had a tough start to the past decade at Eurovision: Between 2011 and 2014 the country failed to qualify for the final.
But it experienced something of a revolution in 2015 when Nadav Guedj took Israel back to the final — a feat Hovi Star replicated the following year.
The pressure is now on Imri to make it three in a row to qualify.
Are you looking forward to hearing “I Feel Alive”? What are your expectations? Tell us in the comments below or via our app!
Ron Kavaler, our Israeli correspondent, says his biggest Eurovision memory is the unforgettable night in 1998 when Dana International won with “Diva”. He’s also a big Melodifestivalen fan and has followed the event every year since 2003. “Euphoria” is his favourite Eurovision song ever. He attended ESC 2013 in Malmö. He met Wiwi in the press center and has been contributing to the web site ever since.
KISSUFIM CROSSING, Israel — The Star of David is the best-known symbol of Jewish identity and of patriotism for the state of Israel.
So it may come as a surprise that a six-pointed star hangs around the neck of Sgt. Yossef Saluta, a Muslim Arab.
Sgt. Yossef Saluta David Copeland / NBC News
The 20-year-old poses proudly wearing the necklace and his Israeli army uniform, a rifle slung over his shoulder. He is among a tiny but growing number of Arab Israelis to defy tradition — and often their communities — to serve in the Israeli military.
"There is more openness among Arab Muslims that are not Bedouins to volunteer and join the army," according to Col. Wagdi Sarhan, the head of the minorities unit in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). "We're talking about recruitment of dozens of Arab Muslim youth and we are hopeful that the numbers will grow."
Four years ago, the number of Arab Israelis who volunteered for military service was under 10. Today it stands in the dozens, according to Sarhan.
National service is compulsory in Israel, with some exemptions — three years for men and two years for women. This rule also applies to the country's non-Jewish Druze and Circassian communities.
Muslim Bedouins, who tend to identify more as Israeli than other Arabs, and Christian Arabs can voluntarily sign up and each minority is represented by a couple of hundred members of the armed forces.
Israeli soldiers patrol on the West Bank village of Arura in June 2014. Mohamad Torokman / Reuters
However, Muslim Arab Israelis have traditionally seen the military as a tool to oppress fellow Arab Palestinians in the West Bank — which Israel captured in 1967 and still occupies — and often avoid military service.
But Saluta does not see it this way — and neither does his family.
"This is my country and it's my duty to protect its borders," he said. "When I told my family I want to serve, they backed me up."
He admits that his friends gave him "a strange look" when he first made the decision. "But after I told them about my experiences in the army they were convinced to also join."
Saluta's view is not widely shared among Arab Israelis, who make up around one-fifth of Israel's population.
Parliamentarian Yousef Jabareen believes that fellow Arabs should not serve in Israel's military.
"We in the political leadership of the Arab community and the public itself strongly oppose the recruitment of Arab citizens because we cannot be part of an oppressive regime against our people," he told NBC News.
The Israeli army not only imposes Israel's occupation of Palestinian land in the West Bank, it is a way to indoctrinate young people, according to Jabareen.
"The army is also a framework for instilling Zionist Jewish narrative on the recruits, a narrative underlying the denial of the equal status and rights of the Palestinian collective," he added.
But new troops are not necessarily making decisions based on politics. Most believe the army opens doors in Israel according to Sarhan. They believe that being a soldier makes them more Israeli, which in turn garners respect, he said.
Serving is a step toward building a career, said Sgt. Saleh Halil.
Sgt. Salah Halil (center) with other Arab members of his unit. David Copeland / NBC News
"I want to finish my three-year army duty and hope to become a policeman," said the 20-year-old from the Arab village of Judeida Makr in the north of the country.
According to Sarhan, recruitment is growing because of widespread despondency among Arabs. Serving will help them find a purpose and boost confidence, he said.
"The army is a great platform to strengthen the bond between the Arab population to Israeli society," Sarhan added. "We understand that by serving in the army they will become more connected and more positive towards the state."
Saluta and Halil took their oath to the state while holding the Quran, rather than the Bible as Jewish soldiers do.
But serving in the armed forces doesn't come without hardship and the first few months in are not always easy for the new recruits.
"Suddenly they meet different Israelis who don't always treat everyone equally, so sometimes they feel like they are looked upon differently," Sarhan said.
Sgt. Saleh Halil serves in the Givati Brigade, an amphibious force of the IDF. David Copeland / NBC News
The other major difficulty these soldiers face comes from how their own communities treat them. It is not easy for these youngsters to be seen wearing a soldier's uniform.
"After basic training I served in Jenin and worked closely with Palestinians," said Halil, referring to a Palestinian city in the West Bank. "You can imagine how surprised they were when I spoke Arabic with them."
But this experience did not dampen his enthusiasm for being a soldier. On a recent evening on a base only a mile away from the Hamas-held enclave of Gaza, Halil took a break from his duties patrolling the border to speak to NBC News.
"It doesn't matter if you are Muslim, Jewish or Christian," he said. "We're all the same with one helping the other."
Dr. Elaine Cawley Weintraub is a cultural historian who has published extensively in the US and Ireland.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward.
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In the small country town of Castlebar, Ireland, you’ll find a road named after a German Jewish refugee and Nobel Prize winner, Bothar Sior Ernst Chain. Chain was awarded the Nobel for his work in developing penicillin. Sir Ernst Chain Road is a major road in the center of the small town. Visitors and local people often wonder: what was the connection between Chain and County Mayo?
Ernst Chain, born in Berlin, fled Germany for England in 1933 as the Nazis took power in Germany. He worked at Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London. Together with fellow chemist Howard Florey, he worked to make penicillin usable as a medicine. Chain, Florey and Fleming were all awarded the Nobel prize in 1945 in recognition of their discovery of a lifesaving drug. In 1969, Ernst Chain was knighted and bought a home in the remote village of Mullranny in County Mayo about 24 miles from Castlebar. He and his family had vacationed in the village for many years. He lived there for nine years until he died in Castlebar Hospital.
Chain’s old house is still owned by his family. He is still remembered in Mullranny, where resident and pub owner John Daly recalls that Chain drove a large Bentley and that such a vehicle had never been seen in the remote village. It’s hard to imagine what a sophisticated Berliner found in this remote western part of post-colonial Ireland, then probably the poorest country in Europe, but it is evident that he enjoyed his time in Mulranny. Certainly, he must have found beauty and solitude and may have seen for himself the remarkable transformation wrought in rural Ireland by the development and use of penicillin. Before its discovery, children died of diphtheria, pneumonia and infected tonsils. Farmers died from infections caused from injuries and women died from post childbirth infections. Official recognition of Chain’s work in England was not given until 2012. He was not honored in the same way as Alexander Fleming and Howard Florey, a fact he attributed to the rampant anti-Semitism he encountered at Oxford and Cambridge Universities where he did the pivotal work.
x
Ernst Chain is not Castlebar’s only link to Jewish history. There is another story that links two desperate communities: the impoverished people of Castlebar in newly independent Ireland and European Jews seeking to escape from Nazi dominated Europe. In 1938, the then minister of trade in Ireland, Sean Lemass, visited Europe seeking businesses that might relocate to the west of Ireland and provide business expertise and work opportunities for what was then a desolate part of the world racked by the scourges of unemployment and emigration. He attracted three Jewish owned businesses from France, Austria and what was then Czechoslovakia. A Polish Jewish businessman, Marcus Witzthun, who lived in Ireland accompanied Lemass and Irish Senator, John McEllin, and helped make contacts. Together they succeeded in bringing one complete business from Austria. Hirsch Ribbons relocated from Austria to Longford in County Roscommon. Hirsch brought everything with him from Austria and needed only factory premises. The military barracks, a remnant from Ireland’s colonial past, was leased to Mr. Hirsch for thirty years and official permission to work in Ireland granted. A French factory “Les Modes Modern” was relocated from Paris to County Galway. Nazi aggression had reached a point where those businesses would not be able to survive in countries that would shortly be overrun.
In 1940, the Castlebar hat factory “Western Hats” opened under the direction of Franz Schmolka, a Slovakian man. It was ceremonially opened by Sean Lemass (later the Irish Taioseach) and formally blessed by the Bishop of Galway. The factory operated totally on steam provided by turf, water and daylight. In the words of Ernie Sweeney, recollecting the days of the hat factory: “it would have delighted the green party of today since everything ran on steam that we created ourselves.” The factory was a local landmark with a chimney 100 feet tall. Over the years, it employed 270 people many of whom spent their entire working lives there. Relations were cordial. In 1946, when Franz Schmolka left Castlebar for Dublin the Connaught Telegraph published a piece stating how his many friends would regret his departure and praising his technical skills and his direction of the factory. In 1952, when Mr. Schmolka died in Dublin, t an extensive obituary detailing his military service in WW1 . In 1940, thirty Jewish families moved to Castlebar and most of them worked in the hat factory. They were from Czechoslovakia and formed a community in the Blackfort area of Castlebar known locally as “Little Jerusalem.”
Local Irish historian Ernie Sweeney comments: “It was not easy for them to move to the West of Ireland. We have learned from history that almost everything was for sale. Irish passports were also “for sale” in the 1930’s. The Czechoslovakian Jews were not made welcome just because they were nice people or because we were nice people or that that they were victims of an evil man called Hitler. They were made welcome and “assessed” on what they had to offer. but the end result was that a number of families moved into Castlebar. Neighbors and employees spoke of the Jewish people with regard.” Another perspective comes from Ivor Hamrock, research librarian at Mayo County Library who grew up near the hat factory and who provided a great deal of information for this study. He recalls two particular families, the Porges and the Polesies. Karl Polesi was a native of Lubenz in Czechoslovakia and the manager of the technical staff at the Castlebar Hat Factory.
He died in 1942 at the age of 44 and an extensive and respectful obituary was published describing his funeral. It seems that every local leader and politician attended and a genuine attempt was made to be culturally respectful. “On Tuesday, as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, a two-minute silence was observed at noon in the hat factory. The desk formerly occupied by the deceased was draped in black and bouquets of flowers were placed on it in observance of an old custom common on the Continent.” In 1946, Irish citizenship was given to Walter Porges and to Franz Dielenz. Mr. Dielenz and his wife returned to Germany in 1960 and published a letter in the Connaught Telegraph thanking the people of Castlebar for their “hospitality and excellent good humor” and for “always being so eager to help us through out little difficulties.” These families were able to escape the tragedy of the Holocaust and find sanctuary in Castlebar, and the Western Hat factory provided years of employment helping to relieve the overwhelming poverty in post-colonial Ireland during that era. Two communities in great need of help were able to give each other opportunity, sanctuary and, ultimately, survival.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward.
A German court actually ruled that firebombing a place where Jews worship is somehow different from attacking Jews.
Why was the Israeli embassy not attacked, rather than a synagogue whose worshippers were presumably not Israeli? Presumably the worshippers were German. What happened in the German court was pure Nazi-think and the most undisguised antisemitism: that Jews are supposedly not Germans.
Meanwhile, another German Court again rejected an action against your friendly neighborhood "sharia police."
In Germany, it seems, firebombing synagogues is merely "anti-Israeli" even if there are no Israelis there, and "police" who use Islamic sharia law -- without legal authority and within a system of law that persecutes women, Christians, Jews and others -- are acceptable and legal.
The anti-Semitism facing Jews at UK universities led the Baroness Deech to declare British University campuses "no-go zones" for Jews.
Simply defining and identifying anti-Semitism is only the start. It is also necessary to start tackling the anti-Semitic attitudes of Islamic communities across Europe and the attitudes of immigrants coming to our nations.
What needs to be made clear is that you are welcome here as long as you respect Jews, Christians and all others, as well.
Antonio Tajani, the new President of the European Parliament, has made a bold opening statement of intent: "No Jew should be forced to leave Europe." While this is an admirable position to hold, it sadly could not be farther from the truth. The poison of anti-Semitism festers in Europe once again.
Europe is seeing yet again another rise in the number of Jews leaving the continent. Jonathan Boyd, Executive Director of the Institute of Jewish Policy Research (IJPR), notes that the number of Jews leaving France is "unprecedented"
The results of the study show that 4% of the French and Belgian Jewish populations had emigrated those countries to reside in Israel.
The IJPR attributes this demographic transformation to the inflow of migrants from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Is this really surprising? Sadly, when individuals come from nations that have culturally a high dislike of Jews, many of these immigrants might hold anti-Semitic views that eventually get spread.
Recently, a German court decided that the firebombing of a synagogue in Wuppertal was only the expression of "anti-Israeli sentiment."
Really? Why, then, was not the Israeli embassy attacked rather than a synagogue whose worshippers presumably were not Israeli? They worshippers were German. What happened in the German court was pure Nazi-think: the most undisguised anti-Semitism: that Jews supposedly are not Germans.
The old wine of pure anti-Semitism is now dressed up in new "politically correct" bottles of criticism of Israel. At heart, however, it is your grandmother's same old Jew-hate, much of it still based on racist tropes. The Jews in that firebombed synagogue were German nationals and may have had absolutely no links to Israel. They do however, have a connection to Judaism.
The German court actually ruled that that attacking a place where Jews worship is somehow different from attacking Jews. Your pet slug would not believe that.
Meanwhile, another German Court again rejected an action against your friendly neighborhood "sharia police."
In Germany, it seems, burning down synagogues is merely "anti-Israeli" even if there are no Israelis there, but "police" who use Islamic sharia law -- without legal authority and within a system of law that persecutes women, Christians, Jews and others -- are acceptable and legal.
And people cannot understand why Jews are leaving Europe?
Even though German authorities evidently struggle to identify anti-Semitism, the Israeli government claims there has been an 50% increase in anti-Semitic incidents in Germany just since 2015.
Jew-hatred in Europe is spreading to the workplace and the hubs of supposedly enlightened discourse: universities. At Goldsmith's University, students scrawled on a public feedback board that they wanted "No more David Hirsch, no more Zionism -- a bitter Jew."
The message and tone here is clear: Jews are not welcome. The suggestion that academics would also not be welcome because of their religion is deeply worrying and should be unacceptable.
Goldsmith's have since condemned the action, but it is telling that someone felt he could comfortably post such anti-Jewish abuse. The anti-Semitism facing Jews at UK universities led the Baroness Deech to declare British University campuses "no-go zones" for Jews.
Students at Exeter University wear T-shirts glorifying the Holocaust; the Labour Party Chair at Oxford University commendably resigned over members calling Auschwitz a "cash cow" and mocking the mourners of the Paris terrorist attacks; SOAS University is under investigation for lectures likening Zionism to Nazism and delusionally arguing that it was Zionists who were conspiring to increase anti-Semitism to encourage Jews to leave the UK and go to Israel.
The Israeli government also believes there was an increase in anti-Semitic incidents in Britain by 62%.
While it is praiseworthy that UK Prime Minister Theresa May has backed and adopted a new definition of anti-Semitism to attempt to deal with the rising hate crime, simply defining and identifying anti-Semitism is only the start. It is also necessary to start tackling the anti-Semitic attitudes of Islamic communities across Europe and the attitudes of immigrants coming to our nations. What needs to be made clear is that you are welcome here as long as you respect Jews, Christians and all others, as well.
Robbie Travers, a political commentator and consultant, is Executive Director of Agora, former media manager at the Human Security Centre, and a law student at the University of Edinburgh.
Universities Minister Jo Johnson MP wrote a letter last week to Nicola Dandridge, Chief Executive of Universities UK (UUK), underlining the obligation of all UK higher education institutions to tackle anti-Semitism on campus, particularly in the context of ‘Israel Apartheid Week’.
The Universities Minister said in his letter that he expected that the legal position and guidelines of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism “are universally understood and acted upon at all times” by UK universities, including policy towards events “that might take place under the banner of ‘Israel Apartheid’ events”.
The letter opened by highlighting the Government’s recent adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, which is being applied by the police, councils, universities and other public bodies. It outlined the Government’s expectation that all UK universities followed the definition and had “robust policies and procedures in place to comply with the law, to investigate and swiftly address hate crime, including any anti-Semitic incidents that are reported”.
Jo Johnson MP wrote that universities have a responsibility to ensure a safe and inclusive environment for all students: “There is no place in our society – including within higher education – for hatred or any form of harassment, discrimination or racism such as anti-Semitism. High education institutions have a responsibility to ensure that they provide a safe and inclusive environment for all students and that students do not face discrimination, harassment or victimisation”.
The Universities Minister also emphasised in his letter that freedom of speech and academic freedom is fundamental to higher education, stating that universities have a legal duty to uphold it against students that use intimidation and violence to silence debate. Mr Johnson underlined: “Open and robust debate is how students should challenge those with whom they disagree. There is no space for students that use intimidation or violence to attempt to shut down the open exchange of ideas”.
In September 2015, the Government asked UUK to set up a Harassment Taskforce to assess what more can be done to effectively address harassment on campus, including on basis of religion and belief. This led to the publishing of the ‘Changing the Culture’ report on 21st October 2016 which offered recommendations, and UUK plan to look at the progress in implementing these in institutions.
At the end of the letter, Mr Johnson wrote that the Government will work with public bodies and communities to “tackle intolerance and bigotry in every form” as part of the “pursuit of eliminating anti-Semitism and all forms of harassment, discrimination or racism”.
George Deek is an Arab in a Jewish state and Christian in a predominantly Muslim Arab world—and he recognizes that his multilayered identity is an asset
When George Deek uses the word “we” in a conversation, it is not entirely clear whether he means “we Palestinians,” or rather “we Israelis,” or perhaps “we Westerners,” or even “we Arabs.” At the age of 30, with a constant five-o’clock shadow compensating for his baby-face and thin silhouette, he is both an Israeli diplomat, representing the Jewish state, and a descendant of a Palestinian family who fled its home during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. His cousins live today in Canada, Dubai, Damascus, and Ramallah, and some of them are considered by the United Nations to be refugees of that same war.
This personal tension came fully into being last summer, during the war between Israel and Hamas, when Deek was Israel’s chargé d’affaires in Oslo. He presented Israel’s positions and defended its actions, while Norwegian TV networks were screening endless footage of destruction coming out of the Gaza Strip. He explained how the Israeli army works, without ever serving in it. He spoke on behalf of Israel, when none of his viewers and listeners knew that he was actually (also) a Palestinian.
A few weeks later, at the end of September, he decided to unveil his personal story for the first time. In a lecture in the House of Literature in Oslo, during the launching of the Norwegian translation of Benny Morris’ history book dedicated to the 1948 war, Deek recounted how his grandfather fled Jaffa and reached Lebanon, how he insisted on getting back into Israel when the war ended, and how he raised his family in the nascent Jewish state. He talked about the personal suffering of his own family, now scattered all around the world, but also about the fact that “the Palestinians have become slaves to the past, held captive by the chains of resentment, prisoners in the world of frustration and hate.”
But he talked mainly about the way forward, and mainly about hope. He spoke about his neighbor Avraham, a Holocaust survivor, who taught him always to look to the future and not to the past. He gave his listeners a sense of why a young Arab-Palestinian has decided to dedicate his career to the Israeli Foreign Service. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the speech quickly went viral under the somewhat ironic title “the best speech an Israeli diplomat ever held.”
***
As a native son of Jaffa, the mixed Arab-Jewish suburb of Tel Aviv (population 60,000), Deek knows its decaying streets and alleys inside out. Our meeting occurred when he was in Israel for the winter holidays, just after he returned from Sunday prayer in the local Christian Orthodox church. He was dressed in a dark blue suit and a pair of shiny black shoes. His late father, Joseph, was head of the Orthodox community in town, so everybody knew him and greeted him with a nod. A group of elderly women sitting outside a simple one-story home, all in black dresses, called to him and urged him to find himself a woman already. He chuckled.
Deek took me to where his grandfather’s house stood in the Ajami neighborhood before 1948; it was now a complete ruin. His grandfather George worked as an electrician and had some Jewish friends who even taught him Yiddish, making him one of the first Arabs to ever speak the language. He got engaged to his wife Vera in 1947. A few months later, when the United Nations approved the Partition Plan, Arab leaders warned that the Jews would kill them if they stayed home. “They told everyone to leave their houses, and run away,” said Deek. “They said they will need just a few days, in which together with five armies they promised to destroy the newly born Israel.”
His family, horrified by what might happen, decided to flee to the north, toward Lebanon. They stayed there for many months, and when the war was over, they realized that they had been lied to—the Arabs did not win as they promised, and the Jews did not kill all the Arabs, as they were told would happen. “My grandfather looked around him and saw nothing but a dead-end life as refugees,” said Deek. “He knew that in a place stuck in the past with no ability to look forward, there is no future for his family. Because he worked with Jews and was a friend to them, he was not brainwashed with hatred.”
His grandfather did what few others would have dared—he got hold of one of his old friends at the electricity company, and asked for his help to get back into Israel. That friend not only was able and willing to help him come back, but even made sure that he got his job back.
We stared at the ruined house for a few more moments. “Let’s continue?” he suggested.
Among Deek’s siblings and cousins living in Israel there are accountants, hi-tech engineers, factory managers, university professors, doctors, lawyers, architects—and of course electricians. “The reason we have succeeded,” he said, “and that I am an Israeli diplomat, and not a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, is that my grandfather had the courage to make a decision that was unthinkable to others.”
He spoke slowly and softly, as someone who had given much thought to the issue. He said that his grandfather’s choice should be a model for the Arab minority in Israel as a whole: “Unfortunately, Arabs in Israel today are forced to choose between two bad options. One is assimilation—young Arabs look at their Jewish peers and decide they want to speak like them, walk like them, and behave like them. This attempt is a bit comic but also sad, since it is doomed to fail. In the end they are not Jews and will never be.
“On the other hand, and this is a far more common choice, there is an option of separatism, which is promoted by the Arab political and religious leaders. They say that we are not really Israelis, only Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, but this nuance creates dissociation. They speak about Arab cultural autonomy and about separation, which I think lead to extremism and animosity with the Jews. According to this version, a loyal Arab-Israeli must define himself first and foremost through being anti-Israeli.
“With the first choice, you lose who you are; with the second, you lose who you can become. But I believe that there’s a third way. We can be proud of our identity and at the same time live as a contributing minority in a country who has a different nationality, a different religion, and a different culture than ours. There is no better example in my view than the Jews in Europe, who kept their religion and identity for centuries but still managed to influence deeply, perhaps even to create, European modern thinking. Jews suffered from the same dissonance between their own identity and the surrounding society. Their success was not despite their distinctiveness, but because of it. I am talking about Marx, Freud, Einstein, Spinoza, Wittgenstein.
“Are we less smart? I don’t think so. We must contribute to the common good and be part of the Israeli mainstream in politics, economy, culture, fashion, technology, music, everything. We have our role models. Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran; Judge George Kara, who sent a Jewish president to jail; Weizmann Institute researcher Jacob Hanna; and authors such as Sayed Kashua and Anton Shammas, who are doing to Hebrew what Franz Kafka did to the German language.”
He lamented the fact that Arab leaders don’t follow this path and instead put the Arab identity and the Israeli identity on a constant collision path. The Arab minority in Israel, he said, could have a paramount role in creating a bridge with the entire Arab world through commerce, culture, and literature, thanks to its unique position. “There is a challenge here for the Jewish community as well,” he added, “who have to accept a minority that wants to maintain its distinct character and still be part of the decision-making process.”
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Orthodox Christians in Jaffa celebrated their New Year in mid January, and so a few thousand of them lined the city’s main street on a chilly winter’s night for the annual festive parade. There was a mixed boys-girls group of break-dancers, and huge balloons, and many many fireworks, but the main attraction was the Orthodox Christian scouts band that played anything from “Jingle Bells” to Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. As a trumpet player and a former leader of the band, Deek does not miss an opportunity to play with the band; each year he returns to Israel for the winter holidays to be once again part of the community.
As a boy he studied in Jaffa, but his father sent him to one of the best high schools in northern Tel Aviv, where he was the only Arab. He stood out as an eloquent speaker, and when the second Intifada broke out in 2000 he enthusiastically defended the Palestinian side, though he says today that already at that time he felt that he was only playing a role written for him and not expressing himself. After graduating, he practiced law for a few years but got bored. One day he saw an ad in the newspaper for the upcoming cadet course for diplomats.
His Arab friends told him he did not stand a chance; he didn’t even serve in the military, they said. Convincing his father, an Arab nationalist and member of an anti-Zionist political party, was a tougher sell. The young Deek promised his father that he was doing it out of a real sense of purpose and not for the status or the perks. “I will never forget his answer,” he said. “He told me that he wanted to bring up a man, and therefore taught me how to think and not what to think.”
Representing Israel in Norway, where for a while he was the most senior diplomat in the embassy, wasn’t always an easy task. However, his mixed and conflicting identities helped him notice elements that other people would have probably missed; always a stranger, he picked up nuances that others were blind to. “Despite all differences,” he said, “Norwegians and Israelis have in common the feeling that they know better than anyone else how to do things. Norwegians have this sense of geographical superiority toward the rest of the world; sort of ‘we are far away and above all this.’ I remember that when I just arrived there from my previous post in Nigeria, I saw a billboard advertising a ‘Films from the South’ festival. I was sure that these were going to be African films, but I discovered they were actually German and French films. For Norway, that was south. That’s beyond geography. That’s about the mentality of looking at the world from a higher pedestal.”
‘How could it be that I was both Israeli, Arab, Christian, and a diplomat in Norway?’
Until recently, Norway was considered one of the most hostile countries in Europe toward Israel, and Deek had to confront these sentiments on a daily basis. “If you ask me how many Norwegians think that Jews belong to an inferior religion, or that Jews control the world, the answer would be very little,” he said. “But I think that the State of Israel itself has become a substitute for those same old anti-Semitic sentiments.
“Back when religion was the source of authority, the Jews suffered because of their religion. When science became the source of authority, Jews suffered because of their racial-biological features. Now the source of authority is the issue of human rights, and the Jewish State is accused of committing all the gravest abuses at once: apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, crimes against humanity. Just as Jews posed a challenge to the non-Jewish society throughout the ages, so does Israel pose a challenge to the world today. This is what I had to deal with: the Norwegians’ ability to accept a Jewish State with all its uniqueness.”
He had a revealing conversation with one of Norway’s YMCA leaders, who decided to boycott Israel. “I asked her, ‘Why Israel?’ There are surely much graver cases of human rights abuses around the world. Even if everything she said was true, Israel was still not the worst country in the world. And to my astonishment, she replied, ‘Well, we have to start somewhere.’ She reminded me of the famous story of the former president of Harvard University, who when asked why he singled Jews out for quotas, responded, ‘Jews cheat.’ When he was reminded that Christians also cheat, he said: ‘You’re changing the subject. We are talking about Jews now.’ ”
One of the tricks he uses when discussing Israel is to reveal his full identity only halfway through the conversation. “During the war between Israel and Hamas in 2012, I invited a very senior journalist who was reporting at the time on the conflict. At a certain point he started to accuse me, saying, ‘You Jews don’t want the Palestinians to have their own state.’ I answered that I was not Jewish. I represent the Jewish State but I am an Arab-Palestinian with relatives in Ramallah, and I can tell him that he is wrong.
“Every Israeli diplomat could have told him that he was wrong, but when I did so, it had a different meaning. He said, ‘Wait a moment, are you Israeli?’ I replied yes. He asked, ‘And you represent Israel?’ I said yes. ‘But you are Arab?’ I said yes. He was very confused and did not understand how it could be that I was both Israeli, Arab, Christian, and a diplomat in Norway. And this was someone supposedly knowledgeable in Israel and its society. But many times very prominent figures in politics, in the media or the academia, make up their thoughts based on fashion and not on facts or substance.”
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Why, of all jobs and professions he could pick, did Deek chose to align himself with one part of his identity, which is set in such a conflict with other parts of his identity? A key to the answer lies perhaps in the fact that stories like his can happen only in free and open societies. His decision to fight for Israel and pursue the career of a diplomat is in a way a fight for himself—a multilayered persona, struggling to find his own voice in a double minority situation: Arab in a Jewish state and Christian in a predominantly Muslim Arab world. Israel’s survival guarantees his own survival.
“If there is no place in the Middle East for a Jewish State, than there is no place for anyone who is different,” he said. “And this is why we see today persecution of Yazidis, Christians, Baha’i, Sunni against Shia and vice versa, and even Sunni against other Sunni who do not follow Islam exactly the same way. The key to change is connected deeply to our ability as Arabs to accept the legitimacy of others. Therefore, the Jewish State is our biggest challenge, because it has a different nationality, religion, and culture. Jews pose a challenge because as a minority they insist on their right to be different. The day we accept the Jewish State as it is, all other persecution in the Middle East will cease.”
‘The key to change is connected deeply to our ability as Arabs to accept the legitimacy of others.’
It is clear to him that the problem with Israel, in the eyes of the Arab world, is not its policies but its identity. If Israel were a Muslim state, he says, nobody would care about its policies; after all, most Muslim states treat their citizens much worse, and no Arab cries foul at other abuses, wars or cases of occupation in the Middle East. “You don’t need to be anti-Israeli to acknowledge the humanitarian disaster of the Palestinians in 1948,” he said. “The fact that I have to Skype with relatives in Canada who don’t speak Arabic, or a cousin in an Arab country that still has no citizenship despite being a third generation there, is a living testimony to the tragic consequences of the war.”
But at the same time, he continued, some 800,000 Jews were intimidated into fleeing the Arab world, leaving it almost empty of Jews. And the list goes on: When India and Pakistan were established, about 15 million people were transferred; following World War II some 12 million Germans were displaced; and only recently, more than 2 million Christians were expelled from Iraq. The chances of any of those groups to return to their homes are non-existent.
Why is it then that the tragedy of the Palestinians is still alive in today’s politics? “It seems to me to be so,” he said, “because the Nakba has been transformed from a humanitarian disaster to a political offensive. The commemoration of the Nakba is no longer about remembering what happened, but about resenting the mere existence of the state of Israel.
“It is demonstrated most clearly in the date chosen to commemorate it, May 15, the day after Israel proclaimed its independence. By that the Palestinian leadership declared that the disaster is not the expulsion, the abandoned villages or the exile. The Nakba in their eyes is the creation of Israel. They are saddened less by the humanitarian catastrophe of the Palestinians, and more by the revival of the Jewish state. In other words: they do not mourn the fact that my cousins are Jordanians, they mourn the fact that I am an Israeli.”
“I,” said Deek clearly this time; he didn’t say “we.”
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