The stranger within the gates.

At least once a week I perform a mental sweeping under the carpet. I simply hide all the things I'm ashamed of. Once I've put them out of sight I try to keep them out of mind. However after last week's huge sweep-away I can no longer tread on that proverbial carpet. So this week I've decided to carry out a mental spring cleaning, albeit in the middle of winter.

I realised It's time I aired some of the worrying things that have happened here recently.

I'm referring to:

1. The edict signed by 200 or more rabbis instructing the public not to rent or sell property to Arabs.
2. An amended version of that edict.
3. A letter published by a group of 27 rabbis' wives affiliated with the “Lehava” organisation, which works to prevent intermarriage in Israel. They called on Jewish women "not to date Arabs and not to work in places that employ Arabs or serve in the National Service with them."
4. Demonstrations against African workers and asylum seekers.

The biblical injunctions regarding attitudes to the "stranger within thy gates" seem to have been ignored. Admittedly our indigenous minorities could be considered to be closer to the category intended by the authors of the original canon than the word "stranger” chosen by the translators of the King James version of the Bible.

Almost by coincidence (I was searching for a parallel example) I stumbled across an article published by Kenan Malik in the Sunday Times. Under the title "Myths of the stranger at the gate," Malik reassures his British readers that immigrants aren’t overwhelming them, they don’t steal jobs and they don’t exploit the British welfare system. Understandably Malik an Indian-born British writer, lecturer, broadcaster and documentary film maker has to work harder to convince the British public that he is right. Arguing against policies intended to keep strangers out he postulates that, " open borders allow people to move in and out according to need. Closed borders compel people to settle, even if they have no desire to do so."

Quoting from an independent report commissioned by the UK Home Office he claims that immigrant workers don't take away jobs and depress wages. "Immigrant workers" says Malik "do the jobs that locals won’t do or can’t do." He also debunks the accusation that they exploit social services. Malik claims the government is powerless to control immigration. Keeping them out will make employers more reliant on illegal workers who are forced to work in appalling conditions, for derisory wages without social benefits and union representation.

Kenan Malik's conclusions are uncomfortably familiar; we see some of them here in Israel.

Witnessing expressions of xenophobia and more markedly Islamophobia in many places in the more developed world, I doubt if Malik's well argued conclusions will find receptive audiences.

Here in Israel some Israelis express antipathy towards three types of strangers:

1. Foreign workers brought here under contract. Sometimes they stay on illegally after their work visas expire.
2. Africans that have fled wars and persecution and now seek asylum in Israel. There are also many Africans that are not genuine asylum seekers. They simply come here looking for work.
3. Mostly our own indigenous minorities. They have been "within the gates" for a long time. Now they too are regarded by some people as strangers undermining our wellbeing and security.

Our prejudiced attitude to strangers is aggravated by additional factors.

In an op-ed article that appeared in Haaretz entitled “Jim Crow in Bat Yam”

Jessica Montell describes how, “A racist protest in Bat Yam advanced male supremacy alongside Jewish supremacy.”

Ms. Montell is the Executive Director of B'Tselem: the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories.

I know some people will dismiss her as a self-righteous leftist and skip her comments. Just the same she does highlight some of our darker actions.

In relating to the demonstration that took place at Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv, Montell says it was reminiscent of the Jim Crow era. Demonstrations took place in other towns, but Bat Yam’s demonstration was more pointedly against Arabs.

“The apartments issue was also part of the demonstration in Bat Yam, but most of the signs and speeches focused on the "danger" inherent in relations between Arab men and Jewish women. Some speakers railed against sexual harassment of Jewish women, others lectured against inter-ethnic dating. From a women's rights perspective, of course there is no connection between the two. But for the demonstrators, they are in fact the same thing. It seems a woman's free will is irrelevant.”

“Women are analogous to the apartments that the Arabs are trying to get; women are also a possession that the Arabs covet.” Says Montell and concludes, “Jewish extremists exploit the sex card in a backlash against Arab demands to be equal citizens in this country.”

British historian Geoffrey Alderman stresses an additional facet of the same topic. “On the face of it, the Israeli rabbis who signed an edict forbidding Jews from selling or renting homes or land to non-Jews have scored a spectacular own-goal. On the face of it this edict, which appears to have originated with the Chief Rabbi of Tzfat,(Safed) contravenes Israeli law, which naturally prohibits discrimination on racial grounds.”

Opposition to the edict was voiced in Israel and around the world. Some 900 rabbis mainly from the USA but including some from the United Kingdom have issued their own declaration condemning the decree.

Tzfat’s Arabs left before and during the battle for the town in the War of Independence. Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas was born in Tzfat.

Tzfat, considered one of Israel’s four holy cities has a mainly Orthodox population. This picturesque town is yet another not-to-be missed place to visit when touring the north of Israel. Geoffrey Alderman, recounts how Tzfat’s municipality issued a well-intentioned invitation to local Muslims to take part in the renovation of the holy places of all faiths. The offer was exploited by the northern branch of Israel’s Islamic Movement to open a centre in the town. The Islamic Movement has strong ties with Hamas. It’s leader Sheikh Ra'ed Salah , recently released from prison is an incorrigible agitator and participates in activities inciting against Israel including the notorious Gaza flotilla.

There is a clear seam-line between the legitimate rights of Israel’s Arab minority and a campaign to further the possession and repossession of land in this country, a campaign marked in some instances by open incitement against the state.

After the War of Independence deserted Arab villages, properties and lands were taken over by a body later known as the Israel Lands Administration.

They became state property. The policy of government appropriation of abandoned property is not anomalous. There are many precedents in other countries. Furthermore most of the property owned by Jews that left or were forced to leave Arab countries was appropriated.

After the War of Independence Israelis, mainly new immigrants were settled in abandoned Arab neighbourhoods of Haifa, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Beit Shean, Tzfat and other places. A number of structures – mosques, bathhouses, caravanserais etc., were either converted for another purpose or remained unoccupied.

With the passage of time, almost imperceptibly, mainly from 1965 onwards and more systematically after 1967, many of the abandoned Arab villages were demolished.

The demolition was conducted out of concern for public safety, archeological surveys, development projects and other reasons. However, it’s reasonable to assume that the levelling of more than three hundred perhaps four hundred abandoned villages was done mainly to obviate the possibility of repossession.

In the face of the determined and unrelenting efforts of groups like the Islamic Movement to acquire and repossess lands and undermine Jewish settlement in Israel, the obliteration policy was appropriate and well timed.

In the face of persistent Bedouin encroachment displacing Jewish settlement in Israel (use this hyperlink to access an enlightening clip [thank you Roberta]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGfc2oRYyxA&feature=player_embedded

the struggle for the land ( in Israel) is of uttermost urgency and importance.

In a survey she conducted for Yediot Ahronot’s weekend magazine investigative reporter Nehama Duek provided an eye-opening account of the land struggle. Under the heading “We are on the map, and so are they,” Duek says, “All over the country a war is taking place. The Islamic Movement seeks to repossess thousands of holy sites held by the Israel Lands Administration.

All means are fair in this war: fictitious headstones marking graves that don’t exist, unauthorised renovations and repairs carried out by night and the moving of sheiks’ tombs to suit the needs of the Islamic Movement.”

“They are trying to take over state lands,” claims the ILA spokesperson.

“We won’t yield an inch,” responds Knesset member Ibrahim Tzartzur, one of the leaders of the Islamic Movement. “We are determined to defend our holy places, they belong to us.”

On the pretext of cleaning and repairing ancient tombs the Islamic movement establishes a foothold, a place for further expansion.

The Israel Lands Administration is not the only obstacle in the path of the Islamic Movement in its struggle to reclaim its holy sites.

I’ve already cast doubt regarding some of the tombs attributed to renowned sages and prophets. Many a forgotten Sheikh has been awarded a posthumous conversion. I refer to a growing popular trend of venerating ancient tombs. Formerly unknown tombs of long dead rabbis and prophets have been discovered all over the country. As is the case of Honi the circle drawer’s tomb situated geographically distant from his sphere of influence.

Even the identification of some of the more authentic tombs based on the evidence of various Jewish visitors to the Holy Land during middle Ages is open to question.

Medieval travellers gleaned their information from the local population recounted hundreds of years after the demise of the rabbi. The location of the graves of the prophets is even more a matter of guesswork and open to doubt.

For example the tomb of Benyamin the son of the patriarch Jacob according to one tradition is located on the road from Kfar Sava to Kochav Yair.. The tomb and ruins close by date from the Mameluke period and an inscription on a nearby caravanserai (khan) bears the date 1312. The Arabs call the tomb Nebi Yamin and there’s a village close to the site called Neve Yamin. It’s easy to see how Nebi Yamin became the prophet Benyamin

The tomb of Benyamin’s brother Shimon (Simon) is to be found not far from here. It was adopted by the Breslov Hassidic movement. The same people who support the grave of Rabbi Nahman of Breslov in Uman, in the Ukraine.

The Breslov Hassidim painted its dome (built during the Ottoman period) pale blue. The Israel Lands Administration rushed to avert a clash and painted the dome a neutral white colour. It wasn’t long before the Islamic Movement’s vigilantes painted it a nice shade of Islamic green. Fortunately the Breslov blue has come to the surface and now the dome is an inoffensive, ugly turquoise tint.

The vogue of tomb adoration received an initial impetus from Jews that hailed from the Maghreb. It has been argued that they copied the custom from their Muslim neighbours. The grave of the Kabbalist Baba Sali at Netivot is just one example of this imported custom. I hesitate to link the Breslov Hassisim with the Baba Sali’s followers, so I will conclude with a tale about two local graves.

Near the summit of Givat Moreh, an imposing hill a little north of Afula, is an ancient Sheikh’s tomb called Nebi Dehi. Nearby is an Arab village by the same name.

The villagers settled there some time in the eighteenth century and are not related to the venerable sheikh. According to legend Sheikh Dehi Ibn Halifa was one of one of Mohamed’s generals killed in battle with the Byzantine army at Ein Jelud. Ein Jelud is the Arabic name for Maayan Harod or Gideon’s Spring the original site of Kibbutz Ein Harod. The sheikh’s faithful dog dragged his body all the way to the summit of Givat Hamoreh and dropped dead when he reached the top of the hill..

According to tradition the dog is buried close to the grave of his master.

So far the Islamic movement hasn’t staked its claim on the tomb and the hill.

Across the valley opposite Givat Hamoreh is another imposing high place, Mount Gilboa. At the foot of the mountain close to Maayan Harod, where Sheikh Dehi Ibn Halifa fell in battle, is the Hankin family crypt.

Yehoshua Hankin the man responsible for most of the major land purchases of the World Zionist Organisation in Ottoman Palestine is buried here together with his wife Olga.

Olga Belkind Hankin died in 1943 at the age of 91. Her grave has become an authentic shrine visited by an endless flock of believers. Although not as popular as the graves of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai or Rabbi Meir the Miracle Worker, its unique attributes have nevertheless made it a major attraction . Infertile women, many of them from strictly Orthodox communities come here from all over Israel to pray by her grave in the hope of becoming pregnant.

In Bnei Berak, you can see posters offering bus tours and directions to Maayan Harod, the shrine of Olga Hankin.
This phenomenon is most surprising, especially because Olga Belkind Hankin was totally secular, and because she herself was barren.

Perhaps it is because Olga worked as a midwife among the Jewish pioneers and Arab families alike

This is the last letter of the year 2010 so I want to wish everyone good health and contentment in the coming year.

Beni 30^th of December, 2010..