LITERATURE AND NATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

shai ginsburgthen interrupts the location of literary meaning; the reception history underminesthe equation of the literary text and meaning as the product of interpretation.In fact, the reception history in my argument functions analogously tothe way history threatens to undermine Uri’s myth in the novel. We are thusdrawn to look at a space between the critical text and the novel. To interrogatethat space, I would like to introduce here a third text and argue that Uri’scharacter, and particularly his death, comment upon the image of JosephTrumpeldor, one of the best-known Zionist figures, and upon the reception ofthe latter’s death. I juxtapose the two despite the fact that one is historical andthe other literary. 21Trumpeldor was born in 1880 in Russia. Though he opposed militarism, hemade no attempts to escape military service (as many Jews did) in order to provethat Jews were not cowards. He was drafted in 1902 and distinguished himself inthe Russo-Japanese War (1904–5) in which he also lost his left arm. Recoveringfrom his injury, he requested to be sent back to the front, and his request wasgranted. He was promoted to a non-commissioned rank, which was rare for Jewsin the Tsarist Army, and was cited for bravery. After the war he was promotedto a reservist Second Lieutenant and became one of the few Jews ever to beappointed to a commissioned rank in the Tsarist Army. He was a leading Zionistfigure both preceding and following World War I, a proponent of varioussocialist/communist plans to settle Palestine by Jews. When he arrived inPalestine for a second time in 1919, he was asked to inspect the Jewishsettlements in Upper Galilee, which were subjected to frequent attacks by theBedouins in the area. The precarious conditions that he found there persuadedhim to accept the command of the defence of three settlements: Metula, KefarGiladi and Tel Hai. On 1 March 1920, Trumpeldor was fatally wounded in TelHai during an armed conflict between the settlers and Arabs. As the Jewishsettlers were forced to evacuate the outpost, Turmpeldor’s last words reportedlywere ‘never mind, it is good to die for our land.’ 22Mourning Trumpeldor’s death, Berl Katzenelson, a prominent Zionist leaderof the time, wrote the following eulogy:May the People of Israel remember the pure souls of its faithful and brave sons anddaughters, people of work and peace, who followed the plough and risked their livesfor the glory and love of Israel. May the People of Israel remember and be blessed inits seed and mourn the splendour of youth and the preciousness of courage and theholiness of will and self-sacrifice that perished in the heavy campaign. Do not bepacified, do not be consoled, and do not let the mourning grow faint until Israel willhave returned to liberate its robbed land.Katzenelson uses here the yizkor, the traditional religious prayer over thedead, secularising and nationalising it. This yizkor became one of the cornerstonesof national consciousness and of the self-image of the Jewish public, and— 120 —www.taq.ir