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The Tzabar and the Sabbar: A Refection on Memory and Nostalgia
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Tim Murphy - activ-l
Peace Palestine - Jan 3, 2008
http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2008/01/gilad-atzmon-tzabar-and-sabbar.html
The Tzabar and the Sabbar: A Refection on Memory and Nostalgia
By Gilad Atzmon
Zionism is a total disaster. It is a colonial, expansionist, nationalist
philosophy based on racial chauvinism. Those who take its precepts to
the letter have been robbing the land of the indigenous Palestinian
people in the name of the Jewish people. It is regarded by many of us
as a major threat to world peace. Its devoted supportive lobbies around
the world call for more and more bloodshed in the name of 'liberalism',
'democracy', 'freedom' and even in the name of the 'Judeo-Christian'
alliance. Yet, Zionism, and we better admit it, has managed to do
something that even God has failed to do: it united the Jews. Zionism
has become the Jewish symbolic identifier.
In a recent paper of mine, The Politics Of Anti-Semitism, I explored the
role of Zionism as the cultural identifier of the contemporary Diaspora
Jew. I argued that Zionism has managed to win its ideological foes by
offering a transparent collective structural set of symbolic
identifiers. Rather than ideology and politics, it was a Zionist fetish
and Hebraic paraphernalia that made Zionism into a success story.
Accordingly, it established a language (Hebrew), it provided the Jew
with a concrete geographical orientation (Eretz Israel), it conveyed an
image of a culture (the new Hebraic folklore), it even managed to
present a false image of political and ethical polarity (left and
right). If the founders of Zionism set about to save the Diaspora Jew
from his anomalous condition, we then have to confess that it has
fulfilled its mission. Zionism's success has nothing to do with its
ideology, politics or even with its devastating practices. Clearly, not
many Jews understand what Zionism stands for (ideologically,
politically, ethically and practically). Not many Diaspora Jews openly
succumb to the Zionist school of thought nor to its non-ethical praxis.
Instead, they subscribe to 'Israeli folklore', the odd Hebrew word, the
falafel and the humus which they mistakenly identify with Israel
(rather than Palestine). They sing along to Israeli music whether it is
Hava Nagila, Yafa Yarkoni or Yeuda Poliker. For those who fail to see
it, 'Israeli culture' is a direct product of the Zionist project.
Clearly, modern Hebraic culture has managed to hijack the world of
Jewish symbolism. Zionism established a new form of Jewish tribal
belonging.
Yet, as much as Zionism conveys a cultural success story within the
Jewish Diaspora discourse, it is rather meaningless as far as Israelis
are concerned. The Tzabar, native-born Israeli Jew, does not benefit at
all from Zionism being a structural set of symbolic identifiers. In
fact, the Tzabar doesn't need to identify with any symbolic structure
based on geographical aspiration. He or she is born into a
self-sufficient brand i.e., Israeliness. Similarly, the Tzabars do not
need the Hebrew language as a means of identification, they use it as a
means of communication. Nor does the Tzabar need a geographical
orientation, he or she is orientated by birth. The Tzabar doesn't even
subscribe to Israeli folklore, in fact, most Israelis can't stand
Israeli folklore and they by far prefer foreign pop, rock, Turkish and
Greek music and even some wild free jazz.
As funny as it may sound, that which is taken by the Diaspora Jew as a
structural symbolic identifier, i.e., the Hebraic fetish, means very
little to the Israelis. By the same token, as much as the Diaspora Jew
subscribes to 'Israeliness', that very 'Israeliness' means very little
to the Israelis. This shouldn't take us very much by surprise: the
notion of 'Americanism' means far more to non-Americans than it does to
Americans. Similarly, the tendency to drop the odd French word, a habit
that is apparently so common amongst British or American
pseudo-intellectuals, is a reflection of a similar fetish. 'Frenchness'
attributes very unique meaning to those who know only very little about
France. Yet, not a single French person thinks that speaking French is
something astonishingly clever. Likewise, the Diaspora Jew may use the
odd Hebrew word to ascertain his tribal belonging, however, it would
take more than just a single Hebrew word for the Israelis to feel at
home on a stolen land, namely Palestine.
Memory and Nostalgia
"I am a human being, I am a Jew and I am an Israeli. Zionism was an
instrument to move me from the Jewish state of being to the Israeli
state of being. I think it was Ben-Gurion who said that the Zionist
movement was the scaffolding to build the home, and that after the
state's establishment it should be dismantled." Ari Shavit's interview
with Avrum Burg Interview: Leaving the Zionist Ghetto, Haaretz.
What is left for the Tzabar to identify with? Not much, so it seems: the
land on which he lives belongs to some other people. The food which
makes him feel at home (humus and falafel) is hijacked from those same
other people, i.e., the Palestinians. The language which he employs
when he is emotionally moved (either very happy or very angry) is
Arabic and it is borrowed again from - guess who? - the very same
'other people', the Palestinians. The home in which he dwells was built
by those other people.I think you know who they are, yes, the
Palestinians.
It is rather apparent that the core of the Hebraic cultural realty, the
slang, the food, the blue sky, the sea, the desert, the spring and the
autumn, the hills and the valleys, the olive trees. all belong to the
land (Palestine) rather than the swelling apartheid State that seized it
momentarily (Israel).
What could the Israelis do to escape their fragmented unauthentic
reality in which everything that may look like 'home' actually belongs
to those 'other people'?
Those who visit Israel learn the answer just a few minutes after they
land in Tel Aviv: cosmopolitanism and Western liberal glamour is the
Israeli answer. The Israelis deal with their hopeless craving for
authenticity by multiplying the symptoms of their inherent detachment.
New visitors to Tel Aviv are occasionally astonished by the cultural
multiple choice the town is there to offer. Tel Aviv is indeed one of
the most 'open' cities in the world. You can find every Western fashion
brand and American food chain there. Every rock star and pop act
integrates Israel into its world tour schedule. In some of Tel Aviv's
leading restaurants you can have Sushi for a starter, Hungarian Goulash
as a secondo, French entrecote for the main course and Baklava for
desert. I learned recently that Tel Aviv is not only a 'sex attraction'
but as well the next "gay capital of the world". This is indeed very
encouraging to learn that in between the humus and the falafel the
Tzabar can grab a sashimi and indulge in some highly advanced
socio-erotic activity according to his very personal choice. This may
as well be the ultimate form of freedom that the 'Jews-only State' can
offer: cosmopolitanism soaked in some advanced Western libidinal
liberalism.
Yet, Israel, the libidinal, liberal, 'only democracy in the Middle
East' is engaged as well in some very different sinister practices. In
spite of the Israelis embodying the ultimate manifestation of Western
broadmindedness, in spite of their 'culinary openness', they are also
starving millions of human beings to death, namely the Palestinian
people. In spite of the fact that the Israelis invested some real
effort into turning Tel Aviv, their cultural capital, into a 'town with
no boundaries', Gaza City is a now a boundary with no town. It is a
huge concentration camp, held back by repeated curfews and shattered by
constant artillery barrages and military raids. Israel has turned
Palestinian towns into large urban prisons that are surrounded by
barbed wire, watchtowers and guard posts.
We are left to ask ourselves, how is it that the people who are so
immersed in 'cosmopolitanism', 'multi-culturalism' and Western liberal
ideology are so sinister towards the indigenous population of the land?
How should we fit the exclusive inclination towards segregation
reflected by a gigantic apartheid wall together with the liberal
self-image peppered with 'culinary openness'? How do we fit the devious
tactics employed against the Palestinians together with the poetic
Israeli self-image of being an enlightened humanist nation? How do we
fit the 'Israeli Shalom seeking' together with 'security walls'?
We may have to admit that we are dealing here with a severe form of
fragmentation that is on the verge of collective Schizophrenia. I would
argue that here we are confronting an inevitable collision between
'Memory' and 'Nostalgia'.
Memory is realised as the ability to store, retain and retrieve
information. Memory refers to the factual recognised past and its
actual interpretation. Nostalgia, on the other hand, is the wish of
returning to the 'native land'. Nostalgia is usually accompanied by the
fear of never seeing it again. To a certain extent, Nostalgia is the
yearning for the unfulfilled past.
The clash between Memory and Nostalgia is of the essence of the Israeli
fragmented reality. The Tzabar is torn between the inclination to see
himself as the protagonist in the serial episode of "Sex and the City",
as much as his memory takes him to his last visit to London, Paris, New
York and Tokyo. Nostalgically, he is back in the Ghetto, surrounded by
'security walls' and soaked in chicken soup.
The yearning for the Ghetto could be explored in what the Israelis
regard as 'Shalom seeking'. Though Shalom is often translated into
'peace', it has almost nothing in common with peace. When Israelis talk
about 'Shalom' they do not refer to reconciliation, harmony or the
transformation of their society into an ecumenical community based on
universal values. When Israelis seek 'Shalom' what they mean is (their)
'security'. This is why Israelis and their supporters in the West
interpret 'unilateral disengagement' as a 'Shalom seeking' move. While
peace refers to the genuine search for love, harmony and brotherhood,
Shalom means pretty much the opposite: separation and segregation.
While peace means coming out of one's shell and opening one's heart to
one's neighbour, Shalom means the erection of a 'security fence' and
the emergence of some deep collective loathing towards the rest of the
universe.
Yet, this bizarre Hebraic interpretation of the notion of Shalom is far
from being an Israeli creation. As I mentioned before, Shalom expresses
the nostalgic yearning for the European Ghetto.
Already in 1897, in his famous speech to the First Zionist Congress, Max
Nordau conveyed some real explicit longing for the 'long lost Ghetto':
"The Ghetto.was for the Jew of the past not a prison, but a refuge. .In
the Ghetto, the Jew had his own world; it was to him the sure refuge
which had for him the spiritual and moral value of a parental home.
Here were associates by whom one wished to be valued, and also could be
valued; here was the public opinion to be acknowledged by which was the
aim of the Jew's ambition..Here all specific Jewish qualities were
esteemed, and through their special development that admiration was to
be obtained which is the sharpest spur to the human mind. ..The opinion
of the outside world had no influence, because it was the opinion of
ignorant enemies. One tried to please one's co-religionists, and their
applause was the worthy contentment of his life. So did the Ghetto Jews
live, in a moral respect, in a real full life. Their external situation
was insecure, often seriously endangered. But internally they achieved
a complete development of their specific qualities. They were human
beings in harmony, who were not in want of the elements of normal
social life. They also felt instinctively the whole importance of the
Ghetto for their inner life, and therefore, they had the one sole care:
to make its existence secure through invisible walls which were much
thicker and higher than the stone walls that visibly shut them in. All
Jewish buildings and habits unconsciously pursued only one purpose: to
keep up Judaism by separation from the other people and to make the
individual Jew constantly aware of the fact that he was lost and would
perish if he gave up his specific character."
Clearly, this old speech expresses the current Israeli innermost desire.
For the Israeli, living within 'security walls' is "not a prison, but a
refuge". .In Israel, the Tzabar has "his own world". In Israel, the
opinion of the "outside world" has "no influence", because it is the
"opinion of ignorant enemies". Nordau expresses the exact spirit that
led Ben-Gurion half a century later to say "It doesn't matter what the
Gentiles say, what matters is what the Jews do."
In his speech, Nordau speaks about the spiritual asset of the Ghetto,
which makes Jew feel "secure through invisible walls which were much
thicker and higher than the stone walls that visibly shut them in." May
I suggest here that it is this very insight that explains the
astonishing physical measures of the Israeli 'apartheid wall'? Yet,
while Nordau referrers to 'invisible' walls, the Israeli 'defence wall'
is rather visible and it is made out of grey reinforced concrete.
As much as the Israeli craves celebrating his imaginary cosmopolitan
liberal reality, as much as he wants to enjoy sex in a big city by
recalling his short-term memory, the nostalgic yearning drops him back
into a bowl of steaming 'chicken soup' in a very small Shtetl. He is
longing for a 'secure' Jewish life and it is this yearning that
transforms the 'Jews-only State' into an inflammatory Ghetto. Yet,
unlike the old European Ghetto, where Jews were rather timid, our
contemporary Israeli Shtetl is a belligerent, expansionist, nuclear
superpower.
We may also have to admit that the Tzabar has failed to generate a
homogeneous reality in which a new civilized being is reclaiming his
place in humanity based on harmony and peace. As much as Zionism was
there to create a new authentic Jew, it led to the emergence of a
commune of fragmented beings shattered by the inevitable collision
between the short-term cosmopolitan memory and the tribal clannish
nostalgia.
The Tzabar and the Sabbar
A friend who returned from Palestine a few weeks ago was kind enough to
share his impressions with me. On his journey from Jerusalem to
Ramallah he noticed that the Israelis invested some real effort into
turning the Israeli side the wall into an 'architectural feature'. In
places it was largely tiled and decorated with Jerusalem stone and with
flowers, in other parts artists created some pastoral imagery of
landscapes, lakes and olive trees. The Israelis also raised the ground
near to the wall on their side just to make the wall look smaller and
friendly. However, once my friend crossed the checkpoint towards the
Palestinian side, the full disturbing physical scale of the wall was
impossible to ignore. He saw a gigantic grey concrete wall measuring
eight to ten meters high now invading the skyline of what is left of
Palestine.
I thought about it for a while. I basically reflected about Nordau's
notion of the Ghetto and his duality between 'prison' and 'refuge'. And
I grasped that as much as the Israelis are inclined to lock the
Palestinians behind walls, the Israeli apartheid wall was also nothing
less than a self-inflicted imprisonment that the Jewish State imposed
upon itself. Within the Zio-centric discourse set by Nordau: prison
equals refuge.
Consequently, the Tzabar is nothing less than a tragedy. He was doomed
to failure. The Tzabar was there to erect the new Hebraic Ghetto, he
was there to repair the trauma of abandonment of the old Jewish Ghetto
which was a result of European enlightenment and the trend towards
Jewish emancipation. The Tzabar was set to become a new 'civilized
being'. Indeed mission impossible, it aimed simultaneously towards two
polar opposites: universalism as well hardcore tribalism. Apparently,
the seeds of the Israeli apartheid and the foundations of the 'security
wall' were established already in the First Zionist Congress.
However, as much as the Tzabar exposes himself as an aggressor and as a
self-inflicted historical tragic entity, it is pretty clear that not
many people fully understand the conceptual and ideological depth
behind that deeply charged word, namely Tzabar. The Hebrew word tzabar
is derived from the Arabic word Sabbar, which is the name for the
"prickly pear" cactus that is scattered all over rural Palestine. The
allusion is to a tenacious, thorny desert plant with a thick hide that
conceals a sweet, softer juicy and tasty interior. Israeli-born Jews
who call themselves Tzabars are there to insist upon regarding
themselves as 'tough on the outside, yet sweet and tender on the
inside'.
The Memory of Land
This very image of the Israeli native Jew as a duality between
'toughness' and 'sweetness' is now reflected in the topography of the
region. The prickly walls that shred Palestine into Bantustans are
there to protect the sweet juicy image of 'cosmopolitan' Tel Aviv.
Tragically, the landscape of shredded Palestine is now a reflection of
the Tzabar self-image and an extension of his identity. Israeli
aggression towards its neighbours together with self-proclaimed
righteousness is nothing but a reflection of the 'tough and the sweet'
fantasy.
Seemingly, Israelis insist upon regarding themselves as 'sweet and
juicy'. At the end of the day, self-loving has made it into the Jewish
common stereotype more than a while ago (as opposed to self-hating, a
quality that is attributed solely to the odd Jewish humanists and
thinkers). Yet, out of Israel, some people share some serious doubts
regarding the sweetness and the juiciness of the Israeli and the
Tzabar. We have recently learned that Israeli ministers and IDF
officers are now formally advised to refrain from making overseas
journeys just to avoid arrests for crimes against humanity.
However, there is something that even the majority of the Tzabars don't
know. It is all about the symbolism of the cactus they are so happy to
be called after. This very prickly pear cactus, actually symbolises the
Israeli robbery of Palestine.
The Sabbar cactus is actually one of the last remnants of old Palestine
on the ground. The Sabbar cactus grows in proximity to areas of human
settlement, it is nourished by human waste. The Sabbar was an integral
part of the Palestinian villages' rustic landscape. It was an inherent
part of the Palestinian life cycle. Though Israel has managed to erase
the traces of the entirety of pre-1948 Palestinian villages and rural
life, the Sabbars came back soon after. Wherever you see a cactus in
this land, you are more than entitled to deduce that a Palestinian
village, farm or a house had been wiped out. The Sabbars are indeed
prickly. Yet, their spikes are pointing at the Tzabars who colonise the
land and erased its history in the name of Jewish history.
For Palestine (the Land) and Palestinians (the People), the Sabbars are
far from being nostalgia, they are subject to short memory and a lively
present. They are there on the stolen land craving for the Palestinian
Falahs who nourished them all throughout history. They are there on the
land maintaining the history of the Palestinian villages. They are
there loaded with fruit, awaiting Palestinian kids to come and grab
their pears.
As much as the Tzabar proclaims to be 'tough and sweet', the Sabbar is
there to depict the facts on the ground:
Palestine is a piece of Land, Israel and the Tzabar are just another
passing moment in a phantasmic Jewish heroic phase. This phase is now
entering its final stage and it will be coming to an end very soon.
[The musician, writer and activist, Israeli-born Gilad Atzmon, lives
permanently in Great Britain, where he defends the cause of the
liberation of the Palestinian people. His most recent novel is My One
and Only Love and his most recent recording is Refuge. His site is
http://www.gilad.co.uk
]
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