“YOU CAN HEAR PALESTINE ACHING”

MANTIQ AL-TAYR

August 24, 2012

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(Graphics by the very Graphic Visigoth).
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Prologue:
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Please allow me to introduce myself. I am a teacher from Jerusalem, born in acre, raised in Kiriat-Ono (near Kafr-’Ana) and currently living in Katamon neighborhood (in Jerusalem).

 All of them are occupied Palestinian territory. . . .

Living in Israel, you can always see Palestine if you have eyes for her.

She’s in the falling-apart houses you pass nearby when you go on a trip, and have no sign to tell their stories.

She’s in the changing, forgetting names: from Manshiya to Charles Clore Park (which was build upon its ruins), from Deir-Yassin to Har-Nof (“mountainview” ~ a lovely name for another ugly chapter in my country’s chronicles).

Living in Israel, you can hear Palestine aching, if you have a heart. Every inch of my childhood, of the most sweet and intimate memories I carry from my early years, is dripping with Palestinian blood and dust and tears. And such stains don’t clean easily, if at all. 

Amos Bar (An Israeli living in Jerusalem, not the late author with the same name)

1.

”This year, a record group of 127 men and women flew on the Soldier Aliyah flight sponsored by the Israeli immigration group Nefesh b’Nefesh. Thirty-two of these young volunteers are from the greater Los Angeles area. They were joining an increasing number of young Angelenos who choose to enlist in the IDF.”

The author thinks this is a good thing and part of a sign that young American Jews just love Israel.

2.

Hey there you folks at the New York Times and the Guardian, l’ve found a new Middle East expert for you dudes to hire. Here are some quotes showing her expertise: (Note to Shas Party members, green highlighting is mine.)

Though she eschews the term “religious” (too “man-made”), faith is what brought her to the Holy Land. It undergirds her intense passion for the country:

“Israel is a global minority and the hostility and venom thrust upon this great nation is just unbelievable,” she said.

But she insists that it is not faith alone, but also her belief in Israel’s humanitarian spirit that binds her to the country.

“Israel is not strictly a Christian value or an American value; it is a value of humanity.”

And how about this?

“I see bullying. I see a lot of revisionist history,” she said, earnestly. “All one has to do is look at the PLO and their own documents. This is not about land; the Arab League has 22 separate Islamic states spanning an area of 5 million square miles. Israel is 9,000 square miles! It’s not about the land, which is one sixth of one percent of the entire Middle East ~ it’s about a hatred that is so vile and so deep that it seeks to eradicate a people.” 

Seems to me that Kathy Ireland would be a perfect accomplice to the likes of Jodi Rudoren at the Times and Joshua Trevino at the Guardian.

3.

Speaking of Jodi Rudoren, whose defense by some recently strikes me as absurd, I have to take issue with an otherwise right-on comment from a reader posted by the Angry Arab. That comment points out she is nothing but a typical Zionist but ends with the following:

“and most importantly, she freely admits that she knows nothing about the region, which seems to be her main qualification for working there.”

No. Her main qualification is that she is a pro-Israeli Zionist Jew who is replacing another pro-Israeli Zionist Jew.

Btw, if you click on the link in the quote you will see the document the reader was summarizing and that document is very illuminating.

4.

Camp Yavneh looks like a most interesting camp. Alison Weir notes that:

“Rudoren’s knowledge of Hebrew may have been bolstered by her summertime attendance at Camp Yavneh, a Jewish camp in New Hampshire that has an Israeli flag at the top of its website and boasts of its “strong Israeli programming.”

It features a six-weeks “summer in Israel” program, though it’s unknown whether Rudoren attended this.”

You can read an interview with Rudoren which appears in the Camp Yavneh newsletter by clicking here.  The interview confirms Ms. Weir’s comments.

According to the interviewer, Rudoren will be living in “Old Katamon” with her family.

From Wiki:

Katamon was established just before World War I. German aerial photographs taken during the war show a grid of building lots demarcated by stones.[3] By 1914, a total of 5 homes had been built.[3]

From 1924, building activity resumed, mostly by affluent Christian Arabs, who built large mansions there.

At the beginning of the 1948 Palestine war the neighborhood was an Arab salient between two Jewish neighborhoods. On the night of 5–6 January 1948, the Haganah bombed the Semiramis Hotel in Katamon, killing 24 or 26 people.

On April 28, as part of Operation Yevusi, during a bloody battle over control of the Greek Orthodox St. Simon monastery, located on a strategic hilltop, Rafael Eitan, then a platoon commander, was shot in the head.[2] Many others were killed and wounded on both sides.

After the surrender of the Jewish Quarter at the end of May, around 1000 Jewish refugees were moved into Katamon.[4]

A gutted Jordanian Legion tank was left as a monument at St. Simon park, but was removed in the late 1990s.

Ofira Navon park, built on the site of Katamon football stadium

In her autobiography, Palestinian author Ghada Karmi describes growing up in Katamon, from which she and her father, linguist Hasan Karmi, and the rest of the family, fled in 1948 after fierce fighting broke out.

Arab scholar and poet Khalil al-Sakakini and writer Sami Hadawi also left Katamon at this time. Al-Sakakini’s daughter Hala wrote about revisiting the neighborhood in 1967.[5]

On September 17, 1948, UN Mediator Folke Bernadotte and UN Observer André Serot, were assassinated by members of the Jewish underground Lehi while driving on Palmach Street in Katamon.[2]

From a Zionist website:

Old Katamon, built in the 1920s during the British Mandate and known as the “Flower Garden of Jerusalem,” is located between the neighborhoods of Talbieh, Kiryat Shmuel, the Greek Colony, and Givat Oranim.

Old Katamon was established as a Jewish neighborhood following its liberation in 1948 by the Hagana and Palmach. The beautiful villas abandoned by former Arab residents became home to new immigrants who started to arrive from Middle-Eastern countries.

The early 1970s saw the onset of a process of renewal in the area. The neighborhood of Old Katamon has a romantic style, featuring beautifully designed houses with yards, pragmatically located close to the center of town. In the neighborhood are schools, preschools and synagogues of many different varieties; best known are the Shteiblich and Yakar. The population is a mixture of national religious, secular and chareidi, notably the ultra-Orthodox Elroi Chassidic group.

From an Israeli Jew living in Jerusalem:(Same text as at the start of this post.)

Please allow me to introduce myself. I am a teacher from Jerusalem, born in acre, raised in Kiriat-Ono (near Kafr-’Ana) and currently living in Katamon neighborhood (in Jerusalem). All of them are occupied Palestinian territory. . . .

Living in Israel, you can always see Palestine if you have eyes for her.

She’s in the falling-apart houses you pass nearby when you go on a trip, and have no sign to tell their stories.

She’s in the changing, forgetting names: from Manshiya to charles Clore Park (which was build upon its ruins), from Deir-Yassin to Har-Nof (“mountainview” ~ a lovely name for another ugly chapter in my country’s chronicles).

Living in Israel, you can hear Palestine aching, if you have a heart. every inch of my childhood, of the most sweet and intimate memories I carry from my early years, is dripping with Palestinian blood and dust and tears. And such stains don’t clean easily, if at all.

Maybe if Rudoren is lucky she and her family will end up in one of those really nice houses built by Christian Palestinians and later stolen by Israelis and she can invite Kathy Ireland to come over and do a fashion show. Make sure to invite Dan Shapiro. But I digress.