LITERATURE AND NATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

etween myth and historysake of that struggle. In fact, they often read the whole plot of the novel from theperspective of Uri’s death; from this perspective, the character’s tribulations andconflicts are rendered insignificant. Such sentiments on the part of the critics are notsurprising considering the time of the novel’s publication, during the first months ofthe armed conflict between Palestinian Jews and Arabs when the outcome of theconflict was still uncertain. What is surprising, however, is that Uri’s death in thenovel is much more ambiguous than the heroic death that so many critics perceived.Uri’s death cannot be dissociated from the Palma’h, the elite unit of theJewish military force in Palestine. The Palma’h was associated mainly with theyoung Hebrew natives, children of the Zionist agricultural settlements, althoughits recruits represented a wider range of the Jewish population in Palestine of thetime. Following its participation in the 1948 War, which was often underscoredat the expense of other military units, and the heavy casualties it suffered (morethan one-sixth of its men), it was commonly identified with the Israeli victoryin that war as well as with the price of blood paid for it. Consequently, a nexuswas established between the native Hebrew, the Jewish military force, victory,the dead of the 1948 War, and Israeli independence. 10 Shamir’s novel itselfplayed an important role in forming and circulating the Palma’h myth. Asmentioned above, Uri joins the Palma’h, becomes an officer, and ultimately getskilled while commanding his men. Indeed, as the Israeli critic Gershon Shakednotes, more than anything else ‘the novel was conceived […] as a portrait of thefighter as a young man’ (Shaked 1993: 248). Uri’s association with the Palma’h,then, serves as yet another sign for his symbolic status that ends with hisapotheosis as the national dead soldier. 11Early in the novel, however, the reader finds out that for Uri the life of thePalma’h is not one of hardship required for the realisation of national ideals butrather something like a boy-scout summer camp. Life in the Palma’h, as it isdescribed in the novel, lacks all of its more unpleasant aspects: hard labour,financial shortage, physical difficulty, and especially battle, death and bereavement.As a young platoon commander, Uri enjoys commanding other people,idling in bed, and flirting with the women while his subordinates are working:Dina’le is a hot woman, and what a concentrated joy is awoken within you whenyou’re late because of her, first in the common-tent and later among the pineavenues, in the orange-groves, alone – that is, coupled! And in your heart theparasitic contentment of the one who knows that he doesn’t have to wake up earlythe following morning, since the men work, and we – meaning the ‘riders’ – ride hardand sleep as much as the heat allows […] (Shamir 1947: 272–3)— 113 —It should be noted here that descriptions such as this were not only commonin ‘high’ and ‘popular’ literature of the time, but they were also instrumental increating the popular myth surrounding the life of the Palma’h. In the popularimagination, the life of the Palma’h fused together everyday personal carelesswww.taq.ir