Dove's Eye View

Meron Benvinisti on Rafah

The following article arrived in my e-mail, and is not yet on the Tikkun website. I am posting it not because it is sunny, positive and hopeful, but because an Israeli wrote it.

When the Tikkun article becomes available online, I will link.

An Old Refrain that Stabs at the Heart
By Meron Benvenisti

The sights of Rafah are too difficult to bear - trails of refugees alongside carts laden with bedding and the meager contents of their homes; children dragging suitcases larger than themselves; women draped in black kneeling in mourning on piles of rubble. And in the memories of some of us, whose number if dwindling, arise similar scenes that have been a part of our lives, as a sort of refrain that stabs at the heart and gnaws at the conscience, time after time, for over half a century - the procession of refugees from Lod to Ramallah in the heat of July 1948; the convoys of banished residents of Yalu and Beit Nuba, Emmaus and Qalqilyah in June 1967; the refugees of Jericho climbing on the ruins of the Allenby Bridge after the Six-Day War.

And perhaps the most shocking of all, the grandfathers and fathers of the Rafah refugees, abandoning the houses in Yibna in which they were born, in fear of the approaching Israeli army on June 5, 1948. "At dawn," reported the AP correspondent, "it was possible to see the civilians fleeing from the town [Yibna] in the direction of the coast, without the intervention of the Israeli attackers."

Some 56 years have passed, and they are again fleeing in fear of the Israeli attackers.

And the attackers adopt the same tactics, spread rumors and fire warning shots; and when the residents flee out of fear, they claim that they are not responsible for the flight, but then destroy the homes, for "after all, they are empty and deserted."

Laundered language and sterile military terms camouflage a primitive desire for vengeance and uninhibited militancy. Slogans such as "combat heritage," "righteousness of our path" and "the most moral army in the world" immunize the soldiers and their commanders from having to contend with the humanitarian tragedy they are creating.

The political echelon, which is supposed to guide the army according to ethical criteria, reveals even crueler and more extreme tendencies that the commanders of the army. All they are interested in is the "image" of Israel and the condemnation of the "hostile media."

S. Yizhar has already said these harsh sentences about all of us: "To be deceived open-eyed, and to on the spot join the big, common throng of liars - composed of ignorance, expedient apathy, and simple unashamed selfishness - and to exchange one big truth for the clever shrug of the shoulder of a veteran criminal." He said this in May 1949, in reference to the incident at Khirbet Khiza'a, some of whose former residents live in one of the Rafah refugee camps.

The community of those seeking vengeance, and who crave "the appropriate response" will no doubt respond with anger and abuse: How can you show empathy for a bunch of base murderers, desert savages who are led by corrupt gang chieftains? But there is a sneaking suspicion that this too is "combat heritage" - exploitation of the murderousness of the Palestinians to "punish" them, uproot them from their homes, "bare" their fields and then "redeem" the abandoned land for the needs of Israelis. Generation after generation, we cause them to abandon their homes, settling in them, and afterward, when the opportunity arises, take over their sanctuaries as well, and drive them away from there.

Generation after generation, we feed the refugee consciousness, reconstruct the pain of displacement and expose another generation to the powerless rage of the displaced person. Afterward we face, frightened and threatened, the "return" - the life's hope of every refuges and a stain on the settler's conscience.

Something basic has gone awry here. If commanders, the sons of the fighters of 1948, send the grandchildren of the fighters for independence to "widen the route" - which means the expulsion of the grandchildren of the refugees of 1948 - on the pretext of existential threat, then there was something defective in the vision of the founding fathers.

If after a half-century their enterprise still faces existential threat, this can only mean that they condemned it to eternal enmity, and there is no community that can for years on end survive a violent war for its existence.

And if this is merely a pretext - and Operation Rainbow in Rafah was an instinctive reaction that evolved into second nature - we must reflect deeply and sadly on our own responsibility for the enterprise that at its start embodied so many exalted ideals.

Is there some "original sin" that lies at the foundation of the Zionist enterprise? Those who initiated the Rafah operation, and those who are executing it, should know that one of the outcomes of their actions will inevitably be the raising of questions about this heresy.

The Agha Khan on Diversity, Islam and Tolerance

The Agha Khan gave a talk in Canada on democracy, Islam, and diversity, excerpted here in Tikkun: The Current Thinking

"Democracies must be educated if they are to express themselves competently, and their electorates are to reach informed opinions about the great issues at stake. Lack of education is perhaps the greatest obstacle to pluralism and democracy.
"A dramatic illustration is the uninformed speculation about a clash of civilizations — conflict between the Muslim world and others. If there is such a civilizational collision, it is not of cultures but of ignorance.
"How many Western leaders are aware that the historic cause of the Middle East conflict was a legacy of the First World War? That the tragedy of Kashmir is another unresolved colonial legacy? And that neither had anything to do with the faith of Islam? Or that the use of Afghanistan as a proxy by both sides in the Cold War is a major factor in that country's recent tragic history?
Such matters touch the lives of all world citizens. Yet they're simply not addressed by general education in most Western countries.
"Humanities curricula in the West rarely feature great Muslim philosophers, scientists, astronomers and writers of classical Islam, such as ibn Sina, al-Farabi and al-Kindi, Nasir Khusraw and al-Tusi. This lack of appreciation of the Muslim world's civilizations is a major factor that colours media stereotypes. So does the tendency to concentrate on political hot spots in the Muslim world, and to refer to organizations as terrorist and Islamic first, and only obliquely, if at all, to their national origins or political goals. No wonder that the bogey of a monolithic Islam, irreconcilable with Western values — or, worse, a seedbed of violence — lurks behind Islam's depiction as a faith opposed to, and incapable of, pluralism. "

Gush Shalom - Israeli Peace Bloc

Gush Shalom - Israeli Peace Bloc website lists time and place for a big peace demonstration in Israel.

When 300,000 Israelis marched against the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the Dove vowed never to forget this gift. Imagine a similar percentage of Americans marching for peace - would have to be something like 20 million.

Not all Israelis support Sharon. Let's support the doves.

The Other Israel

What you'll read here isn't that hopeful, but The Other Israel , (publication of the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace), is a sign of hope.

Barenboim Follow-up

Aron of the Israel Peace Blog quotes an article from Ha'aretz on Daniel Barenboim: Barenboim Follow-up.

"Conductor Daniel Barenboim elicited angry responses Sunday night from President Moshe Katsav and Education Minister Limor Livnat after he sharply criticized Israel's policies toward the Palestinians."

"Barenboim, speaking at the Knesset where he received the Wolf Foundation Prize, said "With pain in my heart, I ask today whether a situation of conquest and control can be reconciled with Israel's Declaration of Independence? Is there logic to the independence of one people if the cost is a blow to the fundamental rights of another people? Can the Jewish people, whose history is full of suffering and persecution, allow itself to be apathetic about the rights and suffering of a neighboring people? Can the state of Israel allow itself to indulge an unrealistic dream whose meaning is an ambition to bring an ideological resolution to the dispute, rather than the aim of attaining a pragmatic, humanitarian solution, based on social justice?"

A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah

Sam Bahour, a Palestinian American businessman living in the West Bank, reports on Daniel Barenboim's concert in Ramallah here: A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah Mr. Barenboim announced at the concert that he and the late Edward Said set up a foundation to create a Palestine National Orchestra within five years. He then introduced the student orchestra that would feed that project.

"Mr. Barenboim spoke frankly of the need for both Palestinians and Israelis to remove the ignorance of "the other" in order for a peace based on social justice to ushered in. He spoke to the fact that more and more people from all corners of the world understand that the existing situation has reached a point that is now intolerable. "

The Dove played in student orchestras in the USA from the age of eight to eighteen. Her closest friends and most beloved teachers were all Jews. No amount of horror perpetrated by the state of Israel can now ever turn the Dove's heart against Jews or Judaism.

Music can truly heal us all.

Descending Lights -- Sounds in the Key of Praise

Sandala Limited Presents Descending Lights // Sounds in the Key of Praise Featuring The Fez Singers, Yassir Chadly, & Hamza El Din

More cultural beacons in the gloom.

Figs Preserved in Geranium Syrup

As told by Elias to Leila, March, 1998:

This is a method of preserving figs that have already been dried. The figs and syrup are stored in large, narrow-mouthed earthenware jars, and will last for "a very long time." Regular dried figs would eventually attract bugs or mold, so you want to preserve them this way. Dry the figs in the sunshine, up on the roof.

The figs could either be preserved in a sugar syrup, or if you don't have the money to buy sugar, (a precious commodity in the village 50 years ago) use a syrup made of boiled down figs.

Sugar syrup first - boil sugar & water together with geranium leaves, lemon juice and perhaps fennel, until the liquid turns thick. (No proportions given) Strain out the leaves, and pour over dried figs in a jar. Add nuts: sesame seeds, walnuts, almonds broken or chopped into pieces "to make it rich, and good". Seal up the mouth of the jar with more dried figs ("like a cork"); cover the mouth with a cloth; then cover the whole opening with "mud" (I assume he means clay).

Fig syrup - boil cut up dried figs in water, again with the geranium, lemon and/or fennel if you like, to make a syrupy, sweet liquid. They refer to this as "fig molasses." Pour that over the dried figs. Proceed as above.

Elias says they made wrap sandwiches with the fig/nut paste as a filling, and carried them to the fields, to snack on when working. Or eat it in a dish, with a fork.

Grape Leaf Season

My friend in Rockridge was trimming her grape vine last night during our visit. I grabbed the discarded tendrils and stripped off leaves to make stuffed grape leaves. May is a good time to harvest grape leaves for stuffing in most climates, although here in California many of the leaves are already too big and tough. You want the smaller ones, the size of a saucer or a lunch plate. But I kept the largest leaves as well, for a special mushroom dish I got from Elizabeth David (in "An Omelet and a Glass of Wine").

Baked Mushrooms in Grape Leaves

Line a deep casserole with grape vine leaves. (Leila's note - I blanch them and freeze them first for keeping - if using right away, merely blanch 2 minutes in boiling water) Fill the casserole with plain old button mushrooms, either the boring white kind or the nicer brown criminis. Add a strip of bacon or some bits of ham if you like; salt, pepper, a garlic clove or two, and a healthy amount of good olive oil - at least a quarter cup. Cover the top with more vine leaves, then cover the whole casserole with a lid or tin foil. Bake in a 350 degree oven until mushrooms are tender. Serve with crusty bread to mop up all that mushroom liquor. This trick turns the tamest mushrooms into wild flavored delights.

Stuffed Grape Leaves

Harvest unsprayed grape leaves in early summer (May or June). Blanch leaves 2 minutes, drain, store in plastic bags, and freeze. When ready to make stuffed grape leaves, thaw frozen leaves.

If using canned leaves, rinse to remove extra brine.

Saute half a pound ground lamb or ground beef until just brown.

Add to a cup and a half (or so) of uncooked rice. Add a little tomato sauce, dash cinnamon and allspice, and the meat. Stir to mix.

Spread a leaf out, ribs face up, and put a teaspoon of the rice mixture onto the base, near the stem. Spread the rice out into a cigar shape. Fold the leaf ends over rice, then roll towards the middle. Don't roll too tightly - remember the rice has to cook and swell up. Put packet into a large kettle and repeat until you've used up the rice mixture. Stack the leaf packets pretty tightly.

You could put a lamb chop or lamb bone on the bottom of the pot, for flavor. My dad sometimes put in a couple of strips of bacon - very inauthentic but good. Pour in boiling water or stock to cover, bring back to the boil, put a plate on top to keep the packets from bursting, cover the pot and simmer on low for about an hour or until rice is fully cooked. (I hate crunchy rice). Be sure to check regularly and add water if needed.

You may also stir in tomato sauce or paste to the boiling water before adding.

Towards the end of this process, strew chopped garlic over the top. At the end, squeeze lemon juice and drizzle olive oil over all.

Stuffed grape leaves are served hot or room temperature, alone or with dollops of yogurt.

This recipe may be made vegetarian by substituting chickpeas for sauteed ground meat. You must then use tomato sauce in the cooking water, add lots of garlic, and use spices.

Adbusters

Adbusters Culturejammers is most famous for sponsoring "Buy Nothing Day". Their point is to draw the connections between over consumption and environmental devastation.

Today when I clicked on their link, I got a moving picture ad with portraits of two Hamas leaders, the US president and Israel's prime minister. The slogan said "If Yassin and Rantisi, why not Bush and Sharon?" and then another message: "In a World without Law, Everyone Is a Target"

By exploring the connections between consumption, the environment, media communications, and politics, Adbusters covers territory very close to my heart. I'm adding them to my favorites list.