katalog-overlapping voices - Ritesinstitute

my hebrew today, is stronger than my arabic in writing
and reading. the majority of my friends are Jewish.
therefore, there is no denying my affiliation
to israel and my israeli identity. Us arab israelis are
strange hybrid people, not fully belonging on either
side. the (real) Palestinians tend to see us as collaborators,
as a corrupted people, and the israelis
see us as a critical infection of their society. we are
the biggest bomb, the largest threat to the state, on
its sacred demographic majority of Jews. we are
(generally) the no-gooders on both sides.
in political accords, we are never of any importance,
the world is not fighting for our cause as they are
for the Palestinians. at most, we are discussed in
the issue of land swaps in the case of a peace treaty.
who said that we want to be part of the future
Palestinian state (a purely theoretical future state,
which i have a hard time believing will ever come
to be).
who said the Palestinians of the west Bank will want
us after 60 years of living in, and in many ways building,
the enemy state? even if it is implemented politically,
the gaps between the west Bankers and the
‘arab israelis’ will most defiantly be there.
who do we want to be a part of? are we more interested
in becoming a true part of israel or strengthening
our Palestinian identity? of course the future
vision texts written by intellectuals from the Palestinian-israeli
community, focus on strengthening our
arab culture, autonomy, awareness, language and
at the same time fighting for equality within the
state.
i personally don’t see the future visions as implementable.
it would mean the destruction of the initial
concept of state of israel for the Jews. the state
is putting a great effort in suppressing and getting
rid of, rather than increasing the equality of the 1.2
million arab (or Palestinian)-israeli citizens.
Language
as a result of the education system and codes of
success in society, arabs find it very important to
perfect their hebrew. many times, this comes at
the expense of their arabic skills, making them below
average on both. most arabs insert a large
amount of hebrew words when they are speaking
arabic (which is looked down upon by west
Bankers).
when arabs speak hebrew, they have a distinct
accent which makes it easy to distinguish an arab
from a Jew. treatment of customers, interaction in
public spaces, in social situations etc. is in accordance
to how you are categorized, accent being
a main factor. everyday, i experience what difference
it is to be camouflaged under a Jewish-israeli
ashkenazi accent. when i speak, it is not possible
to distinguish my background. By the time
people ask and find out the unbelievable truth, that
in fact, i am arab, the stereotype of the arab has
already been broken, making it difficult for the new
acquaintance to return to point a. of throwing me
into the unwanted category of arabs. it is important
to mention that being a female helps, being
the more sympathetic of the two sexes. of course,
ways of dress, hairstyles, makeup and features are
part of the stereotype build and break.
the Jewish majority, do not speak arabic what so
ever. this enforces the difference between us and
them, and the dominance of the language and
hence the people over the area. arabic is the second
formal language in the country, yet many
times it is missing in public space. it is taught very
poorly in hebrew schools, and rarely do israelis
feel the need to learn the language. several arabic
words have been adopted into the hebrew
slang, yet many times the hebrew speakers are not
aware of the fact that these are arabic words, and
continue to misuse the words until their misuse
becomes their new form of correct use.
however, languages do develop in this way, making
them non-static and ever changing according
to historical events. is it possible to look at this phenomenon
as a positive one? maybe it needs to be
more balanced for that to happen, because for
now, the main side benefiting is the Jewish one,
for they are not losing as much of their ability in
language on the expense of adopting new words
from arabic. furthermore, traditions are invented,
and sometimes fabricated. there is no such thing
as pure culture. Palestinians have not always been
arab. it was not till the arab-muslim expansion that
the Palestinians, or the groups living in Palestine,
became included in what we see today as the arab
world. how large are the possibilities of our creating
different or hybrid traditions, considering our
small number, and our encirclement of arab states
and most importantly our segregation from the Jewish
israeli society. how can the Jews and Palestinians
in israel build a society that will not be of
infection of each other, but rather enrichment.
i see language as an important factor of identity
molding. who you identify with, where you do or
can fit in, and the way you are accepted amongst
others.
Uprootment
“how then, does one surmount the loneliness of
exile without falling into the encompassing and
thumping language of national pride, collective
sentiments, group passions? what is there worth
saving and holding on to between the extremes of
exile on the one hand, and the often bloody minded
affirmations of nationalism on the other?” 3
is nationalism only a form of paranoia? Just a result
of insufficiency within human beings, both as
groups and individuals? the so called developed
countries, who have enjoyed peace and independence
for decades in a place they call home, seem
more interested in breaking the exaggerated nationalistic
pride, and aim for a global identity. it is
a shame that we Palestinian israelis, or whatever
we want to call ourselves, are so behind. the trans-
european nationalism hit the arabs late, around
the early-mid 20th century. still today, the arabs
in israel have not formed a strong enough base.
we still suffer from an inability of belonging or self
definition. Unfortunately, i am unable to realize any
positive aspects of this, at least not on a group level.
we are uprooted, yet still laying in our soil. to
be rooted, is perhaps the most important and least
recognized need of the human soul, and not least,
to feel secure.
“the man who finds his homeland sweet is still a
tender beginner; he to whom every soil as his native
one is already strong; but the is perfect to
whom the entire world is a foreign land.”, (victor
hugo). – we are most defiantly beginners.
1 (originally taken from arabic, adopted to the israeli slang describing
a common ‘type’ of israeli who spends much time slicking his
hair, considered to be dressed with bad taste, or low cultured
taste, obnoxious, rude and like to pimp their cars. are generally
accompanied by a ‘frekha’ the female equivalent, [Bimbo]. on
this note, most young arab men are considered to be arsim
amongst the israeli public).
2 all throughout high school i trained professionally as a swimmer.
3 Reflections on exile, edward said.
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