Art, Politics, Reason for Dispossession

Jewish Situational Ethics

Dear Editor:

White Jewish writer Anita Diamant reports in Art and politics, and a voice of reason (May 27, 2008) that white Jewish writer Nadine Gordimer asserted in a marquee discussion with white Jewish writer Amos Oz that Israel is not practicing apartheid against Palestinians

• even though Israeli politicians routinely advocate a policy (hafradah) that is the literal translation of apartheid from Afrikaans into Hebrew,
• even though every South African black anti-apartheid activist assessing the situation (matsav) has described Israeli policy as at least as atrocious as apartheid, and
• even though every Palestinian leader knowledgeable about apartheid has viewed the black experience in South Africa as the mirror image of Palestinian suffering under Zionist rule.

Does the rationalism for Israeli treatment of Palestinians really make a difference?

Jim Crow was the obvious American counterpart of apartheid even though white Americans had no claim of greater historical rights than black Americans.

Would the Boston Globe have provided op-ed space to a German racist to justify the Nuremberg Laws on historical claims that German Jews constituted an alien non-European immigrant population in German territories?

Gordimer is hardly the first Jewish anti-Arab anti-Muslim racist expecting a pass for Zionist crimes because Jews have worked on behalf of black civil rights. Such hypocrisy and pandering have no place in the Globe, but readers would probably benefit from a op-ed by Tel Aviv University Professor Shlomo Sand, who recently published a book entitled When and How Was the Jewish People Invented.

Sand correctly points out that Judaism but not the people emigrated from ancient Palestine and that modern Palestinians are descendants of the ancient Judean and Galilian populations of Palestine while European Jewish Zionists had practically no ancestral connection to the country they stole from the native population.

Joachim Martillo

Boston, MA 02126-2813

Original Article: Art and politics, and a voice of reason

Anita Diamant

Art and politics, and a voice of reason

Nadine Gordimer, the 84-year-old South African Nobel laureate
who has written more than 30 books. (TIZIANA FABI/AFP/Getty Images)

By Anita Diamant

May 26, 2008

FIRST, I was flattered at the invitation to attend the first International Jerusalem Writers Festival; the opportunity to visit Israel again was itself a great gift. But learning that Nadine Gordimer, one of my heroes, would also be there made it feel like an honor. The 84-year-old South African Nobel laureate has written more than 30 beautiful, complicated books, several of which were banned by the apartheid government she worked for decades, and at personal risk, to defeat.

Gordimer was under intense pressure to boycott the festival, which took place earlier this month. Given her past criticism of Israeli policies, it seemed possible that she might stay away. So her appearance was viewed as something of a coup and not only by the organizers of the event; President Shimon Peres, speaking at the opening-night ceremony, stopped to shake her hand on his way to the podium and cameras flashed.

The relationship between art and politics was a frequent topic during the well-attended four-day festival, which featured 15 foreign writers in public conversation with nearly 40 Israeli authors. Gordimer's appearances were packed, especially the marquee conversation with author and activist Amos Oz.

The two friends sat under a white tent on a promontory overlooking the tawny walls of the old city of Jerusalem. As the sun set, they discussed the process of writing and the challenge of being true to one's craft even when a story or a novel is set in the context of political conflict. They agreed that nothing kills art quicker than a political agenda, even though their works are shaped by a sense of their place in the world.

Then they talked about the "a" word. Gordimer said that it was incorrect and wrong to paint Israel and South Africa with the same brush. "White people can not lay claim to a single inch of Africa," she said. The Jews, on the other hand, have a historical claim on the land of Israel. "In this, they are not at all comparable and Israel is not an apartheid state." However, she continued, "The police actions in the occupied territories, the forced removals and such, are exactly what happened in South Africa in the so-called 'reserved areas.' "

Taking a breath, she added, "I'm sorry to say this, but it is shameful." The audience literally twitched in discomfort, but Oz did not turn a hair.

"I would go further," he said. "I would say it is criminal." No one moved a muscle.

Oz was only one of many Israeli writers to talk about the "matsav," the "situation," in such bold terms. In a city festooned with blue and white flags in celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary, writers spoke of the "dual narratives" about May 14, 1948, and even referred to the Palestinian term for what happened on that date: "naqba" or "catastrophe." It's a tough word for Israelis but no longer taboo, and not just among writers and public intellectuals. It's part of the vocabulary of citizens like Natalie Barkan, who works for the Abraham Fund, one of hundreds of nonprofits supporting coexistence projects between Jews and Arabs. She says, "With one son serving in the army and another about to enter, I'm just as concerned about the moral dilemmas they will face as I am about their physical safety."

The divisions in the region are so intractable, the prospects for peace are so slim, it's easy to despair. And yet, there was Nadine Gordimer, a cool presence most of the time, speaking with unabashed delight about seeing a street sign in Johannesburg bearing the name of her friend and fellow antiapartheid activist, Joe Slovo. "If we in South Africa can have reconciliation, anyone can," she said.

Gordimer was not the only writer who received pleas to boycott the festival. Irish novelist Niall Williams explained his decision to attend in terms of his country's history of bitter violence between nationalists and unionists, Catholics and Protestants. "All of my childhood and much of my adulthood was focused on 'the troubles.' For most of that time, it was literally unthinkable that there could be peace in Ireland," he said. "Not until imagination infiltrates politics - until the idea of reconciliation can be articulated - is change possible."

Anita Diamant's most recent novel is "The Last Days of Dogtown." She is a guest columnist.

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