At the Arabic intensive I attended this summer in California, I immediately noticed the beautiful Askadinya (I think it is called Azarole in English) trees dotting the campus. Askadinyas are all over the Eastern Mediterranean and I loved eating them in Palestine in the spring.

Fittingly there was such a tree right outside the door of the campus kitchen. And fittingly it was ignored and the fruit – ripe in June  dropped on the pavement uneaten.

Then, from my classroom (where I was learning Arabic !), I watched the beeping Sysco Truck back its way toward the kitchen door, past the Askadinya Tree, to deposit fruit like this:

A good reminder of how far we have to go in creating a local and organic food system. And university campuses in the U.S. are supposed be some of the easiest institutions to encourage such a change. But this institution is located in the Bay Area – in the heart of the food movement and where local farms grow produce year round. And the irony of studying Arabic while fruit common in the Arab world is ignored was almost comical. Everyday I asked myself ‘Wyn Michael Pollen ?”  = “Where is Michael Pollen ?”

Boring, I found, quickly became offensive by the end of the program. A few students made a rap video  in which they repeated the phrase “Muthif Aakhr”. In Arabic this means “Another Employee” but said quickly it sounds like mutha’f#@%#$. So, that is just stupid and silly – why go to the trouble of making an Arabic rap that holds no meaning in Arabic and is obviously intended only for American audiences? In addition the video was not attempting to be ironic or funny – it was honestly made by students who seemed to think themselves very clever and talented and subversive. In fact they were painfully awkward – mimicking hip hop movements, peppering their dialogue with Arab and African-American Stereotypes – it came across as pathetic. Hence the title of this post

I should also say that this video was made with university resources for a talent show in which all classes were expected to participate. For their part, the university tried to distance itself by asking the students to read a statement that the university did not support their video before they showed it to the student body. Which allowed the students, whose feelings appeared to be hurt, to whine about “censorship” as though the university had questioned the work of a great auteur. They allowed themselves to confuse a reaction against their own stupidity as censorship.

In many ways this event would seem not to warrant space in my brain or time for my eyeballs. But it did make me think about how and why many Americans are studying Arabic. To what end? To better understand the places in which Arabic is spoken? Culture and context? I can only hope. Or is it an extension of Orientalism - to make the Arab a kind of object of study to achieve a job in finance or oil or with the State Department? All of which uses Arabic to further expropriate Arab resources for American use.  To some extent all study abroad programs encourage this kind of superficial cultural interface with a “foreign” place. And superficiality tends to breed the kind of stupidity displayed by the video described in this post.

After all of this, it is nice to take a break. Watch Ramallah Underground and appreciate a talented Palestinian hip-hop artist. An actual artist communicating about important political issues.

The film may be a few years old now, but it documents one of the more nascent tragedies of the Israeli occupation of Palestine – the economic strangulation. To the point where there are only two real keffiyeh makers remaining, both in Al Khalil. Palestinian importers are now looking to China because the product is cheaper. The painful irony that the production of one of the most poignant and function symbols of Palestine is now outsourced to China is another tragic effect of the Israeli colonization of the land. To the point that an Israeli businessman is now making an Israeli version of the keffiyeh. After 62 years, have they not stolen enough of Palestinian culture? They seem to still be mining it while simultaneously suffocating it.

I’m watching this program while attending an Arabic intensive in the U.S. – a fairly well know one but I won’t say anymore. It is truly absurd to study a language in a vacuum like this, without understanding the places where and the people who speak the language. The occupations of Iraq and Palestine are one of the most important issues in the entire Arabic speaking world, yet we never discuss it on the campus. We go to meetings on clubs and caligraphy and learn the roots of words and attend lectures, yet we don’t really talk. I don’t want to simplify Arabic language or culture to its political manifestations only, but by not talking about politics we seem to miss the nuances and realities.

Meanwhile the colonization of the body continues in Gaza. This report from Al Jazeera is heartbreaking because it clearly illustrates the incredible vulnerability of people in Gaza. To be dependent on aid is not to live, and to be dependent on aid that is far far less than nutritionally adaquet is a crime. Israel does not allow Gaza to feed itself. The colonization is so thorough that people have no control over their own bodies

]]> http://mappingthemargins.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/%d8%a3%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%af-%d9%83%d9%88%d9%81%d9%8a%d8%a9-%d9%85%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ae%d9%84%d9%8a%d9%84/feed/ 0 mappingthemargins http://mappingthemargins.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/alto-arizona/ http://mappingthemargins.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/alto-arizona/#comments Tue, 25 May 2010 19:48:36 +0000 mappingthemargins http://mappingthemargins.wordpress.com/?p=333 ]]> I have a fantasy where Mexico closes their border with Arizona so drunk U.S. college kids and shoppers who want cheaper products can’t go for their weekend trips across the border. But then I realize the families this would most likely impact. Wish I were attending this instead

It’s also interesting that Shephard Fairy’s design aesthetic has become so ubiquitous. Maybe he did actually design this, I’m not sure. It is a fantastic design, but still interesting, perhaps the style is popular because it is effective.

What is often called “peace” could actually be even worse for Palestine, look at Oslo.

Tony Judt has recently been diagnosed with ALS, the same disease that afflicts Stephen Hawking. I can’t imagine would it would mean to have such a mind trapped in physical-less world.

Here are some highlights from his piece:

“Identity” is a dangerous word. It has no respectable contemporary uses. In Britain, the mandarins of New Labour—not satisfied with installing more closed-circuit surveillance cameras than any other democracy—have sought (so far unsuccessfully) to invoke the “war on terror” as an occasion to introduce mandatory identity cards. In France and the Netherlands, artificially stimulated “national debates” on identity are a flimsy cover for political exploitation of anti-immigrant sentiment—and a blatant ploy to deflect economic anxiety onto minority targets. In Italy, the politics of identity were reduced in December 2009 to house-to-house searches in the Brescia region for unwanted dark faces as the municipality shamelessly promised a “white Christmas.”

In academic life, the word has comparably mischievous uses. Undergraduates today can select from a swathe of identity studies: “gender studies,” “women’s studies,” “Asian-Pacific-American studies,” and dozens of others. The shortcoming of all these para-academic programs is not that they concentrate on a given ethnic or geographical minority; it is that they encourage members of that minority to study themselves—thereby simultaneously negating the goals of a liberal education and reinforcing the sectarian and ghetto mentalities they purport to undermine. All too frequently, such programs are job-creation schemes for their incumbents, and outside interest is actively discouraged. Blacks study blacks, gays study gays, and so forth.

As so often, academic taste follows fashion. These programs are byproducts of communitarian solipsism: today we are all hyphenated—Irish-Americans, Native Americans, African-Americans, and the like. Most people no longer speak the language of their forebears or know much about their country of origin, especially if their family started out in Europe. But in the wake of a generation of boastful victimhood, they wear what little they do know as a proud badge of identity: you are what your grandparents suffered. In this competition, Jews stand out. Many American Jews are sadly ignorant of their religion, culture, traditional languages, or history. But they do know about Auschwitz, and that suffices.

In any event, all such labels make me uneasy. We know enough of ideological and political movements to be wary of exclusive solidarity in all its forms. One should keep one’s distance not only from the obviously unappealing “-isms”—fascism, jingoism, chauvinism—but also from the more seductive variety: communism, to be sure, but nationalism and Zionism too. And then there is national pride: more than two centuries after Samuel Johnson first made the point, patriotism—as anyone who passed the last decade in America can testify—is still the last refuge of the scoundrel.

I prefer the edge: the place where countries, communities, allegiances, affinities, and roots bump uncomfortably up against one another—where cosmopolitanism is not so much an identity as the normal condition of life. Such places once abounded. Well into the twentieth century there were many cities comprising multiple communities and languages—often mutually antagonistic, occasionally clashing, but somehow coexisting. Sarajevo was one, Alexandria another. Tangiers, Salonica, Odessa, Beirut, and Istanbul all qualified—as did smaller towns like Chernovitz and Uzhhorod. By the standards of American conformism, New York resembles aspects of these lost cosmopolitan cities: that is why I live here.

To be sure, there is something self-indulgent in the assertion that one is always at the edge, on the margin. Such a claim is only open to a certain kind of person exercising very particular privileges. Most people, most of the time, would rather not stand out: it is not safe. If everyone else is a Shia, better to be a Shia. If everyone in Denmark is tall and white, then who—given a choice—would opt to be short and brown? And even in an open democracy, it takes a certain obstinacy of character to work willfully against the grain of one’s community, especially if it is small.

Incidently, this appeared in the same issue as a nauseating profile of Israeli racist and fascist party leader Avigdor “Yvet” Leiberman. The article focuses on his most controversial statements and attempted policies to make Palestinians within Israel’s 48 borders swear an oath of loyalty to the State of Israel or to be transferred to the Palestinian Authority. Yet not one Palestinian is interviewed by Joshua Hammar for this profile. He mentions Azmi Bishara, but makes no attempt to interview him. Which is why I will never again have a subscription to the New York Review of Books.

Short Al Jazeera video on the use of sea water to supplement Gaza’s water needs. Crazy that all this is happening to Gaza while meters away Israeli settlers could take three showers a day if they so desired.

Israel’s new war on Islamic sites

By Daud Abdullah

Palestinian protesters clashed with Israel forces over Tel Aviv’s decision to declare the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron a national heritage site for Jews [EPA] In a move that appears to be a celebration of the 16th anniversary of the massacre of 29 worshippers by the terrorist Baruch Goldstein, the Israeli government has proclaimed that the Ibrahimi Mosque in Khalil (Hebron) and Masjid Bilal ibn Rabah (mosque) in Bethlehem are “Jewish Heritage sites”. Goldstein, an American-born Israeli settler who served as a medic in the military, opened fire on worshippers at a mosque in Hebron on February 25, 1994, killing 29 and wounding more than 150, before being subdued and beaten to death. The announcement by the government of Binyamin Netanyahu, though not surprising, is the latest in a series of Israeli attacks on Islamic historical and religious sites in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It is consistent with the Israelis’ long-standing ambition to dispose of all non-Jewish religious symbols and presence in Palestine. While the Israeli government was announcing the annexation of the Islamic sites, dozens of settlers attempted to storm into Jericho on the pretext that they were visiting an ancient synagogue. Under the Gaza-Jericho Agreement of May 1994, Israel agreed to dissolve its civil administration and “transferred its powers and responsibilities to the Palestinian Authority”. Israel disinterested in peace In his first reaction to the annexation of the Ibrahimi Mosque, Amr Moussa, the Secretary General of the Arab League, said: “This proves that Israel is not interested in peace and negotiations.” The question is: when was Israel ever interested in such? When has it ever recognised the rights of the Palestinians? Israel’s founding fathers made no secret of the fact that they wanted all of historic Palestine, but without the Palestinians and all that is associated with their history. Hence, David Ben Gurion recorded in his memoirs, The Revolt: “The partition of the Homeland [Israel] is illegal. It will never be recognised. The signature by institutions and individuals of the partition agreement is invalid. It will not bind the Jewish people. Jerusalem was and will for ever be our capital. Eretz Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And forever.” Everything that has happened in Palestine since 1948, and in Jerusalem and Hebron in particular over the past year, can be explained in the context of this statement. Those who ignore it, not least the Arab and Muslim leadership, do so at their peril. That having been said, the timing of these latest provocations against the Ibrahimi Mosque has not gone unnoticed. The Israeli moves come at a time of huge embarrassment for the European patrons of the Zionist project, who saw their passports, among them diplomatic documents, being used illegally to carry out the murder of a Palestinian figure in Dubai, a “moderate” and thus by definition a friendly country. Crude distraction? Is Israel trying to divert global attention from the Mabhouh assassination? [AFP] In as much as the announcement of the new “heritage sites” coincides with the anniversary of the Goldstein massacre, it has been pointedly described as a crude distraction away from the issue of the criminal responsibility for the Dubai murder and the discomfort it has caused many in Europe. Observers have rightly noted that while the European Union maintains its proscription of Hamas as a “terrorist organisation”, they are yet to produce any evidence that the organisation has carried out a single military operation outside Occupied Palestine. This is in stark contrast to the Israeli government, which threatens, attacks and occupies the lands of neighbouring countries, and assassinates its opponents in other sovereign nations. Nevertheless, Israel continues to receive the patronage and support of the European Union. If nothing else, the Zionists have surely perfected the art of gradualism, taking Palestinian territory inch by inch and brick by brick. Thus, when the Israeli government partitioned the Ibrahimi Mosque in 1994 and took two-thirds of it for Jews, it was safe to assume that was not the end of the affair. PA surrender While many Palestinians hold the occupation authorities responsible for the escalating tensions and damage to the mosque, they are embittered equally with the Palestinian Authority (PA) for having surrendered the area adjoining the second most important mosque in all of historic Palestine, as part of the “Hebron Protocol” of 1996. Today, the security agencies loyal to US General Keith Dayton, the US security coordinator between Israel and the Palestinians, and the PA prevent young people living in Hebron from going to the Ibrahimi Mosque to defend it against Jewish settlers. With the greatest sense of foreboding they point out that today it is the Ibrahimi Mosque but tomorrow it could be Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest mosque in Islam, which is under serious threat. Salih al-Razim, the imam of the Ibrahimi Mosque, recalls that during the last five years the occupation authorities have prevented systematically the call to prayer in the mosque, particularly the daily maghrib (sunset) prayer, and all prayers on Saturdays. Typically, the occupiers’’claim that the mosque was being annexed because it was in a state of disrepair is disingenuous because they themselves have deliberately obstructed more than 90% of maintenance efforts by the mosque authorities. In effect, theirs is only a device to intervene and seize control of the mosque. “Second Temple” Since the Palestinians have maintained the Ibrahimi Mosque for more than one thousand years there is nothing preventing them from doing so today apart from the occupation authorities. Meanwhile, in April 2009 the same authorities took a huge stone from the Khatouniyah Palace and embedded it in the square in front of the Knesset, claiming that this was a stone from the “Second Temple”. Fakhri Abu Diyab, a member of the Council for the Defence of Real Estate in Silwan, reported that the Israeli operation was monitored and documented even though some of it took place in the early hours of the morning. Several months later, in late December 2009, the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage reported the theft of archaeological artifacts of historical importance from the Umayyad palaces in Al-Khatouniyah. The stones in question were transported to the Ma’ale Adumim colony-settlement where some were off-loaded in a dump; other items were taken to warehouses run by the Israeli antiquities department in the Rockefeller Museum, ironically the former Palestine Archaeological Museum. It is believed that the Islamic relics will be given cosmetic treatment and then reappear, miraculously, as “Jewish” relics. We know this because it’s not the first time that this has been done. Mosque destruction Scores of mosques were destroyed across Palestine in 1948 (as reported inter alia in Haaretz on July 6, 2009) and in the succeeding years as part of the deliberate policy to obliterate the Islamic identity of the country. Many were converted into museums, night clubs and restaurants. The Great Mosque (Jaame’a al-Kabir) in Bir al-Saba’a (Beersheba) was used as a detention centre and subsequently as a court before it was abandoned. The Afula Mosque was converted into a synagogue and Al-Qaysayrieh Mosque became a restaurant. None of these acts will give legitimacy to the claims of the Zionist Occupation. The presence of the Palestinian population in Hebron and Jerusalem represent the greatest obstacle to the process of annexation and Judaisation. This latest outrage could well signal the beginning of a new phase in the conflict - one that has the potential to resonate well beyond Palestine. Daud Abdullah is the director of the Middle East Monitor- an independent media research institution founded in the United Kingdom to foster a fair and accurate coverage in the Western media of Middle Eastern issues and in particular the Palestine Question. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.