israeli politics

So while I try to figure out where my office account is and how I can upload it, while I still haven’t found out where my domain is. I’m trying to understand the subject I wrote about yesterday – tradition. I was talking about art and how a style was created that was uniquely Israeli in the thirties and forties – even though I have yet to find a painting from those days where a camel actually looks like a camel. The palm trees, the sea, the women in long solid color skirts and long blouses – often with some utensil on their head. Ah, Guttman, Rubin, etc. Then Simon, Sebba becoming more and more abstract… then… well you can look it all up. And I’m sure that most artists are acquainted with what happened before they started painting. But I think of all the paintings that were sold, that are in private collections, or that are hanging in somebody’s bedroom or living room, and I wonder what the tradition really is – what was thrown out as a scribble because the managers of taste didn’t know about their development, or didn’t like their background, or felt it wasn’t representing the country properly. I mean it is only in very recent years that Palestinian artists have begun to be known and to influence the mainstream. How amazing this thing called tradition is. how arbitrary. how silly. how powerful.

israeli politics

Every once a while we get a chance to see an art collection of an institution, something that has been put together over the years – mostly works of local unknown artists who ultimately became valuable. Today was a private viewing of some amazing art in the offices of Discount bank. Works of artists from Rubin to Cherkaysky. It must be worth a fortune, and it must be stuff that should be used to educate a society for the development of Israeli art culture. I imagine most artists around their world get some of the inspiration from seeing great works of their society. But I’m in the middle of writing an article about English writers in Israel and it’s clear none of them know anything about earlier writers, and learn nothing from them, so maybe the whole idea of the development of culture doesn’t exist, Maybe the whole concept of tradition doesn’t exist, maybe culture doesn’t develop. But I always believed I have to do whatever I can to promote and develop Israeli culture.

july 2, 2021 – bank art collection Read Post »

israeli politics, my life in tel avivwhen complain?

Years ago Ezi used to lecture in the army about saving people from fallen buildings. Ever since then when a building falls down he watches closely and kibbitzes. The Surfside tragedy is the worst. So much to kibbitz. Yes, as the Israelis are saying, there still may be pockets where people can be alive, but from the first moment he was giving me the proper plan of action. Of course he never tells anyone because he really has no avenues of communication, but I’m pretty sure he was right. He said it’s a layered operation and you have to lift off the ceilings layer by layer with forklifts, very carefully but with gread speed.

I don’t know anyone who lives there but I have not been able to take my eyes off the news for hours a day. This is not like me – today a soldier was stabbed here and I haven’t turned on the news. We’re usually used to ignoring terrible things so we can go on with our lives. I don’t think we’re nonchalant, but helpless. There are so many tragedies in daily life here that we note them, and go on. Not just political. One minor example: the streets of Tel Aviv have been ripped up for a few years now, part of the preparation for a subway that will probably be in use after I’m long dead. So I ignore the mess. Today they ripped up the beautiful green corner of our street – this time to widen the turn-off. We went to see it. The olive trees had disappeared, and the grassy arc where we used to sit was a hole. We have been listening to bulldozers for months, widening the avenue nearby to create a designated bicycle lane and a wide walkway (where NOONE ever walks) . They work at night – noisily and voraciously – and we just close all our windows and keep counter noise on. I doubt that any one of the neighbors who haven’t had their land confiscated by the government has said a word. We haven’t.

But the rescuing procedure in Florida has been too much to bear.

july 1, 2021 – when does one complain? Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

today’s Jerusalem Post:

I love my Arab neighbors. Why don’t you?

It is true, I cannot deny it. Is there something wrong with that?

By GERSHON BASKIN

JUNE 30, 2021

I am sometimes accused of being an “Arab-lover.” I have to come clean: It is true, I cannot deny it. Is there something wrong with that? I have lived and worked with Arabs for more than 40 years. I live in Jerusalem, which is a binational Israeli-Palestinian Arab city. My wife comes from an Iraqi Jewish family. Certainly her family’s cultural roots are Arab. My mother-in-law’s cooking (before she fell ill) was among the best Arab food I have ever eaten.

I love the Arabic language and the more I study it the more I love it. I listen to a lot of Palestinian Arab radio stations while driving in my car. I have discovered hundreds of Arabic language films and series on Netflix, seriously expanding my world. In studying Arabic, I learn to appreciate and love the Hebrew language, too, even more than I already do. The two languages are so close to each other and share so much in common, it is such a huge loss that so few Hebrew and Arabic speakers in this world speak each other’s language.

I enjoy my frequent visits to Arab friends, in Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and other parts of the Arab world. There are differences between the different Arab cultures. I feel most at home in Palestinian homes, both inside of Israel and in the occupied territories. In those homes and communities, I always enjoy the closeness and warmth between friends and family.

Arab hospitality is well known. I encountered it first when I lived in Kafr Qara from 1979 to 1981. Until you experience the generosity and openness, it is difficult to even describe it. I often felt uncomfortable because there were certainly times when I knew that the family was not very well off, but that was never expressed when serving guests. They would quietly send one of the children out to the nearby grocery store to buy some sweet drinks and other things to put on the table. I always felt bad because I didn’t want to drink those sweetened beverages, but knowing of their situation I would gulp them down anyway.

It took me a while to understand the whole Arab hospitality thing. For me it was difficult to grasp. Why are they spending so much time, so much money, and demonstrating such generosity? It seems so disproportionate to be treated that way when I would probably not come close to showing the same kind of hospitality. Then it dawned on me. It all has to do with the notion of “honor,” which is a key value in traditional Middle Eastern cultures.

In Western society, the honor is to be the guest. In Arab society, the honor is to be the host. You gain honor and you demonstrate your honor by hosting in the best way possible. Not only is this a foreign concept in the West, the relationship to “honor,” particularly to “personal honor” in the West is completely different from the way that Arab society relates to it. Honor is the core of one’s existence.

THE HONOR of the individual embodies the honor of the family, all of its members, especially the women and, even more so, the elders. The collective honor of the family is embodied in the honor of the tribe or the extended family. This goes from the local to the national, where the concept of national honor becomes a core element in the Israeli-Arab conflict. It all can be distilled down to something that Westerners and Easterners can easily understand: dignity. Arab dignity is expressed, among other things, by their hospitality. Even the Arabic word to extend hospitality is yehtarem, meaning to grant honor.

I have heard so many stories over the years of Israeli Palestinians who hosted Israeli Jews in their home and showed them the generosity of Arab hospitality. I heard from the Arab hosts how insulted they were when their Jewish guests invited them in return and took them to a restaurant instead of inviting them to their home. The Jewish side, of course, felt that they were showing respect and generosity by taking their guests to dine out, and it didn’t even dawn on them that this would be seen as an insult.

I heard many times from young Israeli Palestinians who participated in meetings with Israeli Jews within the framework of school. The first visit usually takes place in the Arab town or village and almost always includes a home visit, often for lunch. When the reciprocal visit takes place, most often the kids have lunch together in the school, and the Arab kids end up being insulted. They say, “Why didn’t they bring me to their home like we brought them to ours?”

Why am I bringing all of this up? Because of the renewal of the so-called “citizenship law” that is really the anti-love, anti-Arab, racist, and one of the most despicable and disgraceful laws in the Israeli legal system. I have good friends who are the victims of this law. Even in 2003 when it was first passed, it had nothing really to do with security, as was claimed. It has always been about demography, which is Israeli coded language for pure outright racism. It has always been about preventing Arabs from receiving citizenship in Israel.

It is beyond my human ability to understand how our lawmakers and politicians can see the validity of denying citizens of a democratic country the right to freely marry and live with their spouses as full citizens within their own country. I can only imagine what the reaction of Israel would be if some other country passed laws that prevented Jewish citizens of that country from allowing them to marry freely and bring their spouses to live with them as equal citizens.

I call on the new Israeli government to simply not bring the law’s extension to a vote. The law, which is a temporary order, will simply fade away. There are already more than enough safeguards within the Israeli legal system to prevent people who are genuine security risks from becoming citizens. All other applicants for family reunification should be immediately granted the right to love and to live in peace with their spouses and families as equal citizens of our democratic country. So yes, I am an Arab-lover. The question I ask is, why aren’t you also?

The writer is a political and social entrepreneur who has dedicated his life to the State of Israel and to peace between Israel and her neighbors. His latest book, In Pursuit of Peace in Israel and Palestine, was published by Vanderbilt University Press.

june 30, 2021 – from Gershon baskin Read Post »

israeli politics

So what have you guys been up to in lockdown, Grandma?

How do you keep busy at the Home?

Well, we bought a slingshot from abroad not realizing it’s considered a dangerous weapon and it was stopped at customs

The slingshot sounds like fun, a shame they wouldn’t let you keep it.

No big deal. We’ll make our own slingshots in crafts class.

What will you do with them?

Scare the wild parrots who eat the flowers off the tree in front of our window

It’s a problem now because in the lockdown we kind of adopted a wild cat who comes to eat every day and then leaves. But she has to let us know when she is downstairs and needs to get in. For a while she was calling us from outside the window, but now she climbs the tree and looks inside and meows. When she sees us, she climbs down and goes to wait at the door. But if we start shooting beans at the birds, she’ll get scared and fall out of the tree…

She’s an old cat. She has to watch her step.

See? We have to be very careful in these plague years.

june 30, 2021 Read Post »

israeli politics

The news keeps announcing that yes, we have a little wave of corona now – nothing to worry about because the hospitals aren’t full. But for Ezi, who is still immune to vaccines, it’s like being a little pregnant. The virus is dangerous to him, and he can’t take the chance. And since I could bring the virus – to which I’m probably immune – home to him, I have to be very choosy about going out.

But I was going to go out tonight – to a literary evening of my friend who is launching a book. And then I started getting the same symptoms that hospitalized me last year – pain, fever, shivering. Fortunately, I have antibiotics the sub-doctor prescribed last winter when i complained online – that I didn’t take then. I have a feeling I can take care of this with home medication, but if i disappear from these pages for a few days, you’ll know where to find me – in the halls of ichilov.

june 29, 2021 – a little pregnant Read Post »

israeli politics

One of the ways the ousted parties are trying to disorient and disrespect the present government is to deauthorize, delegitimize and infantilize the women. The most prominent example is Idit Silman of the Yemina party who has twice been called a ‘little girl’ by members of Knesset while she is trying to run a meeting. Here is a link. It is a terrible way to be treated but for some reason it seems familiar to me. Until recent years this was the way women were treated here. The wording was usually Yiddish. “Meidele, bring us some coffee,” or “Meidele, have you ever driven a car before?” “Be a good girl, let me run the meeting…”

There are all kinds of reasons for this, but none of them hold water. The army, for instance – in the ’40’s women performed all kinds of tasks in the army (and in the goverment). As the situation cooled down, it was almost a sign of victory and social success to have a woman at home, the wife and mother, one of the what Thorsten Veblen called “pecuniary canons of taste.” But now, I think, women have gained a sense of authority and are beginning to fill the same positions as men – and don’t accept the supercilious attitude of the past.

So this behavior in the knesset can not be acceptable today.

june 28, 2021 – good girl Read Post »

israeli politics

The summer camps have begun for the children of Gaza – where they learn to be soldiers to destroy Israel.

Until 1967 Gaza was part of Egypt, but in the peace talks with Egypt they told us to keep it. We returned part of it – against the will of the Israeli residents who had cultivated the land, built hot houses and luxurious towns. The towns were passed on to Gaza, who destroyed the farms, hothouses, and schools immediately.

they are not allowed to communicate with us. despite the fact that we are dying to speak with Gazans.

june 27, 2021 – Gaza summer camps Read Post »