israeli politics

Everywhere in Tel Aviv - 2.9.26

well, not everywhere.  We started off the day realizing on the way to the hospital that I forgotten to put the proper papers together for the skin examination I was supposed to do at the hospital.  Both of us were angry at my failures , but the receptionist was used to people like me, and even though my memory continued to fail me throughout the examination and everything went smoothly.

What didn’t go so smoothly was the  drive to the museum right after.  We kept finding ourselves on blocked roads, and I kept thinking – how great it will be to come to this city in a year’s time when the repairs are done, and even though the heat may still be unbearable it will be amazing, with everything accessible and easy to enjoy.

Once we got to the museum, we could begin to forget the morning and the tests.  It is not that the exhibits were so familiar  and well-known.  It was the fact of the exclusion Israeli artists have been experiencing that gave the opportunity to provide a safe space for local artists to blossom.  The imagination and invention of the curators provided us with a novel experience, and allowed us to skip the museum shop which always provides me with a consolation when the art is not as exciting as promised.  

We didn’t visit the ground zero exhibit – which is probably the most important one because it shows the art that was saved from the Nazis.  But we’d seen it twice, and we’ll see it again.

And I was very anxious to get to the library to get a library card.  I don’t know why I’ve waited so long, but I’m so connected to the university I only recently began to understand how wonderful the local library system is.  “How do I get a card?” I asked at information.  “You haven’t come around for a long time, have you?” he said.  “Well actually I had a show here 2 years ago…”  But that’s not what he meant.  EVERYONE knows the library.  It seems like the most popular site for young people in the city.  And when he pointed me to the desk one flight up, I saw how crowded it was.  Why didn’t I notice that the entrance was so full of people on the stairs I could barely get by?  Why didn’t I see that the cafeteria was full of people?  I just couldn’t digest the idea of excitement at a library.

Our final stop was with grandchildren, which topped our day.  

I will not leave the air conditioning tomorrow.

 

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israeli politics

attacks - 2.9.26

Yesterday i was jealous of my friend who came back from abroad and went up north to rest up from the trip.  I was also afraid.  Iran was also about to attack us.  So my friend got rockets over her head and I am a little less jealous and actually, have little to be jealous about at all in the world.  Everyone seems to be getting into some kind of trouble.  This is terribly sad.  I would prefer to be jealous.

Even some relatives from abroad have cut off relations with me because I’m Israeli. “You see Arabs as inhuman.”  You don’t belong in Palestinian land.”  First, you are seeing me as inhuman and I do not.  I have been teaching Arab students for over 50 years and until these years found them to be friends forever. Now Mayzun would answer my letters, Amal

has disappeared to me.  And others, and others, and others.  My projects with Arab writers have melted away… it is a loss for all of us.

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israeli politics

so what are you doing? 31.8.26

The first thing the optometrist asks me when we come in to pick up my glasses is “what are you doing?” (to change the administration ) “Don’t you know that more than a quarter of your neighbors are voting for Bibi?”  “I’m voting.  I’m trying to do what I can, to talk to as many people as… ” It doesn’t matter how much I try to do to change the situation – I am blamed – as a child killer, as a burner of innocent people.  “Do you know the book? Arnon Bartov?  how you have dehumanized the Arabs in the way Jews were dehumanized so they could be killed?”  

We answer – we don’t dehumanize anyone but we have no voice because we’ve been blocked for years.  I am the one who has been dehumanized.  i am the one who doesn’t have a voice. not on the left. not on the right.

 

so what are you doing? – 31.8.26 Read Post »

israeli politics

west bank chaos - 29.8.26

All day I’ve been wondering what I can do about this terrible chaos.  It’s clear the army is at a loss, and the government is supporting the settlers who are behaving in inhuman ways.  It is not only against Israeli law and international law, it’s against the sabbath.  I have been reluctant to complain in these pages because there’s enough bad news about Israel floating around.  But my sense of helplessness is so great I can’t even write about it….

 

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israeli politics

Parker - 29.8.26

Still very shook up by the poetry festival (i don’t know why – maybe because the festival was dominated by the right and it was a new world for me in literature. For example, someone made a point that it was the right wing poets who used Hebrew properly and the left was characterized by sloppy, unattractive language.  Everyone applauded)  Maybe it was the absence of food at the festival, making traveling in the intense heat imperative that got to me, or the fact that the rooms were so limited in time that we poets were forced to sit in the lobby for hours on end (without food) unable to prepare our presentations properly.  If it not been so hot, we would probably have managed alternatives.  Nevertheless, the result was strangely exhausting.

I could not have been alone wondering how the people in tents in Gaza are surviving in the heat.  if at all.  that pain is always in my heart.

ANYWAY we were still suffering the effects the day after when we met friends at PARKER, a bar in the forest in Hertzlia.  And suddenly the freedom – the openness, humor, generosity, inclusiveness – released me.  

It was not because of our friends:  our friends are wonderful, but no more exciting and inclusive than the poets we sat with for hours on end in the hall waiting for our panels.

I’m sure that had the lovely ladies who were doing the physical organizing of the conference would have loved to sit and chat with us, but were overstressed by the physical limitations of the organization.  

in any case, in Tel Aviv I felt free.  Strangely enough, I also felt comfortable with the people of Metula, who came to Jerusalem for some of the sessions, and reminded me of the discussions we had in Metula, before the war forced everyone to evaculate.   Let us pray that we will be able to go back to Metula next year – and open up the concept of Israeli poetry to everyone – to the different languages, nationalities, and ages.  Poetry should be for everyone, and should be experienced, not just talked about.



  


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israeli politics

poetry festival -27.8.26

oh dear, oh dear – from this poetry festival in Mishkenot Shaananim and the Confederation you would think that poetry is dead.  After all it was mostly about dead poets.  The living poets were few and far between. There were mostly memorials and analyses or groupings of types of poetry – religious poetry, right-wing poetry, poetry about graves…

Of course I talked about dead poets, but the highlight for me was having a chance for me to read Rafi Weichert’s poems to the sound of Yair Dalal’s oud.  

He hadn’t intended to remain on the stage with me.  He accompanied Rony Sommek and then I was called to read, and I whispered to Yair to stay.  Accomodating as always, he stayed, and his music gave the lines a chance to breathe.  Ezi filmed it and promises to share it with me.  If that happens I’ll share it with you.

And even though for some strange reason the talks were squeezed into a time frame of 2:30 p.m. – 9:30, with three parallel sessions at the same time, everything was incredibly well attended.  

I can’t wait until next year when we get back to Metula and poetry becomes something living.  Maybe Ezi will find some pretty girls to photograph instead of us old ladies.  

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israeli politics

festival - 25.08.26

i should have gone to the opening session of the poetry festival tonight, but I was a little unhappy about the change in schedule.  I was supposed to be giving a talk in a large lecture hall, and now it turns out it is the hallway.  No powerpoint, probably no mike.  

and the next day i read some translations of Rafi Weichert.  I would have loved to talk about the translations but i’ve been limited now to 7-8 minutes.  Compared to the screwups in today’s government, the threats of war,  it’s nothing.  But it all adds up.  With all the wonderful poets in this country, there is still a sense that we mess us even the greatest assets we have.  

I will probably feel very differently after I hear some great poetry tomorrow and see some wonderful friends.  


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