Intensive Arabic Semester

Photos and text by Lydia Aisenberg

When the news of Gilad Schalit’s impending release in exchange for 1,026 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel was first announced I was in Britain. “Ima, Gilad is coming home next week,” I read on the small mobile telephone screen, the SMS message sent by my daughter in Israel. I fished in my bag for my reading glasses fearful I had misread the message and for once I hadn’t!

Walking down Putney High Street at the time I’m sure that if not for the noise of the traffic the people passing me by on the pavement would have heard my heart pounding and seen a smile that could have lit up Blackpool illuminations without any electricity!

Overcome with tremendous relief and unabashed happiness, I looked around to see if possibly there was someone – anyone – in the vicinity that looked as if their chest was going to burst along with mine, but nothing –gurnished, as my Dad would have said.

Frantically wanting to share with all and sundry the phenomenal feeling of joy that Gilad, whose boyish looks would have not been out of place had he been wearing a school uniform and not that of the IDF when he was kidnapped, was being released from the Hamas Gaza hell‐hole he had been kept in.

When I reached the home of my South London cousin, bursting with the news of Gilad Schalit and yelling “Gilad’s coming home, Gilad’s coming home,” I realized from the mediocre response that the name didn’t mean much – had known vaguely but forgotten ‐ nor was there any real understanding after a discussion that Gilad

could have been one of my four sons or that of one of my Israeli friends, fellow kibbutz members or work

colleagues…that he could have been – and over the years became – the son, brother and friend of all. By the time I returned to Israel the Schalit‐Palestinian prisoner exchange had been made and although still very much a topic of discussion, the initial excitement and media frenzy had calmed down.

A frequent visitor within the framework of my work at the International Department of the Givat Haviva Jewish‐Arab Center for Peace to the Wadi Ara village of Barta’a, part of which in the State of Israel and part of which in the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority, I was informed by a colleague that one of the released Palestinian prisoners was originally from East Barta’a. Following his release and banishment to Gaza – having served 18 years of a 30 year sentence – apparently there had been a huge celebration in East Barta’a (where the population is around 5,000) the fireworks seen for miles around by Israeli Arabs and Jews living in the Wadi Ara region.

Many people in the area took the celebrations in East Barta’a ‐ situated west of the electronic surveillance fence constructed in recent years and the pre‐1967 ‘Green Line’ ‐ as a show of support for Hamas and terrorism, a fact that didn’t ring true with this writer, familiar with the village residents for over 20 years.

“The celebration had nothing to do with Hamas but everything to do with a family celebrating the release of a close family member,” explained one of the local East Barta’a Palestinian merchants who said that Thaher Kabha, the released Palestinian, was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment in the early 1990’s for allowing a Palestinian suicide bomber from a nearby West Bank village to stay overnight in his home. He also said that Kabha hadn’t know that his house guest had explosives and was on his way to carry out a suicide bombing the following day in the Israeli town of Hadera, a half hour drive away.

“Thaher was engaged to a local girl and she has waited 18 years for him,” explained the same merchant. “When it became known that he was going to be released she sent to Jordan and from there to Egypt in order to be in Gaza to welcome him. They were married immediately and the celebration here in East Barta’a was to join his father – the mother died some years ago – and the family of the bride in a wedding celebration although the wedding actually took place in Gaza,” he said.

“It had nothing to do with whether he did or he didn’t deserve to be in prison, nothing to do with politics nor nationalism or anything else you want to throw in. It had everything to do with a family celebrating with and supporting close family,” he explained.

A local restaurant owner in East Barta’a reiterated the story and when asked if there was a possibility of Hamas representatives being active in the village as had been inferred to this writer, he laughed. “Nobody here wants any trouble. We are busy working hard to make a living and East Barta’a is doing well commercially so why would anyone want to endanger that? ” he asked.

Agreeing with the restaurant owner another local Palestinian merchant added that most East Barta’a folk were relieved that Thahar Kabha had been released to Gaza and not to East Barta’a. “We are happy for his close family that he is out of prison and happy for the girl’s family that she could marry the man she waited for so long – but we are also happy he isn’t here bringing attention of the type we definitely do not need nor want,” he added.

Photos and text by Lydia Aisenberg 
 
Over a period of years octogenarian Gerhilde Merz from Austria has taken it upon herself to translate from English to German articles by this writer dealing with Givat Haviva projects as well as events and stories from the daily life of the Israeli Jews and Arabs of Wadi Ara and Palestinians living in the nearby Dotan Valley in the West Bank.

Gerhilde volunteered her translating abilities following a visit to Givat Haviva quite some years ago and her efforts have enabled many a German visitor to read about complicated issues, topics and life stories which are certainly complex enough to understand even when reading the material in one’s native tongue never mind in another.

Grateful for Gerhilde’s time and efforts and an exchange of lengthy emails over the years – and taking into consideration that we have met only twice, briefly at that ‐ one can say that a friendship has built up and absolutely nothing of the mutual respect developed has been lost in translation so to say!

Gerhilde, an activist for the Protestant church for many years including stints in Africa, is a member of Pax Christi – a nonprofit, non‐governmental peace movement working on a global scale on a wide variety of issues in the fields of human rights, human security, disarmament and demilitarization, and a just world order. She is also an ardent supporter of the Ecumenical Accompaniment program of assistance to the Palestinian people in the West Bank whereby people from all over the world volunteer their services for 3 months in different parts of the region under the auspices of the World Council of Churches.

“When I came to Givat Haviva with a Pax Christi group you showed us around and took us on a tour of the Green Line and introduced us to some of the people living in the area,” wrote Gerhilde recently. “During this tour I became familiar with the people and places you later described in your articles and can now honestly say that I truly understand the difficulties of living together ‐ and living apart.

“For many years I was involved with the Austrian Protestant Women’s Desk paper and I remember I was searching through material and found an article in English I really not only related to but translated and spoke about many times. That article had been written by you, Lydia – and then I met you and look what we have achieved together since,” writes Gerhilde.

Photos and text by Lydia Aisenberg 

Over 30,000 pages of Givat Haviva pre‐State Arabic Language FALASTIN newspaper collection now on internet

Stacked up on the  top of broad wooden cupboards in the main library of the Givat Haviva Institute in Wadi Ara are a dozen or so somewhat battered brown cardboard boxes containing scores of crumbling pages of Arabic language newspapers from the 1930s, 1940s and more. 

The disintegrating pages of history contain fascinating news reports, articles, opinion pieces and political cartoons, all of which pure gems of information for the serious researcher to the amateur sleuths of the regions past.

 Whether one knows the Arabic language or not it is easy to get hooked on the yellowing tattered edged pages of yesteryear  - the black and white photographs of Arab, British, Jewish and other personalities who were directly or indirectly connected to events in the pre-State of Israel region and major events taking place in other parts of the world in those times.

One would hardly believe that one could find a picture of the former American competitive swimmer and Hollywood movie star Esther Williams on the front page of a 1940s Arabic language newspaper dressed only in her swimsuit but it’s definitely her about to dive across a number of print columns, whilst at the same time stern faced politicians and uniformed British Army officers stand stiffly to attention on another part of the page.

Photographs taken from vintage – well these days they are – planes flying over British Mandate Palestine landscapes and others of scenes from the daily life of those living in the troubled region have been brought out of the musty cardboard boxes, brought to life with digitization and made available on the internet with the help of UNESCO and other organizations who recognized the importance of the Givat Haviva collection.   An astonishing 33,685 pages are already there at the touch of a button with plenty more awaiting the painstaking laborious and expensive process developed by specialists in the field of digitization and therefore preserving an important record of the past for both the present and future generations of researchers and seekers of genuine material from the past.

Many a visitor to the Peace Library at Givat Haviva has viewed the crumbling artifacts from the publishing world of over 90 years ago.  Immaterial if they know Arabic or not the first sight of the newspapers leaves an indelible mark on the memory boxes of those folks and for some is a definite key to another section of their curiosity boxes and motivated to know more.

“Until the recent digitization the Early Palestinian Newspaper Collection was unfortunately one of Israel’s better kept secrets,” says Canadian-born Dr. David Mendelsohn, a social linguist and Academic Director of the Givat Haviva Intensive Arabic Semester for overseas students.  Dr. Mendelsohn is fluent in Arabic, Hebrew and several others languages and is one of the founding staff members of the Intensive Arabic Semester at Givat Haviva due to start its fifth term in January, 2012.

“Having access to a local Arab journal recording the crucial years of 1936-1947 is a gift to any serious researcher into this region of the Middle East.  I would feel much more comfortable if these archives would be required reading for any leader or negotiator with the desire to influence or bring about positive change in terms of the Palestine/Israeli conflict.  Reading these records allows the for better understanding of the local Arab perspective of the time and safeguards against the natural temptation of both sides to give in to historical revisionism,” he added.

The Early Palestinian Newspaper Collection can be viewed at: www.pastnet.org