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10 Responses to “Israel’s Arabs”

1. While we should be sensitive to the Palestinians and their troubles, I feel that it is completely inappropriate on today of all days to do so by calling éåí äòöîàåú the naqba.

   
   —Avi · May 8th, 2008 at 3:41 pm

2. As I said in the other thread, Nakba Day is usually observed on the secular anniversary (May 14). This year is the first time I’ve heard otherwise. It seems rather strange to observe it on a date determined by the Hebrew calendar, with adjustments made by the Knesset.

   
   —BZ · May 8th, 2008 at 3:55 pm

3. The date by any calendar is just a symbol. It’s not sacred.

   Avi, short of calling for death to Jews, I think all our Yom Haatzmaut celebrations are right to have a reality check. The Jews have always lived with joy caveated by sadness — ten drops of wine at Pesach, Holocaust rememberance days up the wazoo, and our prayers recalling the destruction of the temple while praising God. It’s all mixed together.

   
   —Kung Fu Jew · May 8th, 2008 at 9:12 pm

4. BZ, afaik Nakba Day is fixed on 15 May.

   
   —Steve · May 9th, 2008 at 12:03 am

5. Yes, I know, but since they are commemorating the same event, I “observe” them together (which this year meant pulling an all nighter to get my finals done. As you can see I am not very observant.)

   
   —Chorus of Apes · May 9th, 2008 at 4:23 am

6. Avi, short of calling for death to Jews, I think all our Yom Haatzmaut celebrations are right to have a reality check. The Jews have always lived with joy caveated by sadness — ten drops of wine at Pesach, Holocaust rememberance days up the wazoo, and our prayers recalling the destruction of the temple while praising God. It’s all mixed together.

   A very interesting point, and one that I think both left and right can learn from. The right seems so obsessed with celebrating and venerating Israel that they are blind to Palestinian suffering. And the left seems so obsessed with Palestinian suffering that they refuse to celebrate what I believe should certainly be a joyous day in Jewish history. Incorporating a serious recognition of the suffering into our celebrations seems like a much more balanced approach. But how do we do it?

   
   —themicah · May 9th, 2008 at 9:31 am

7. [...] can follow our co-blogger Chorus of Apes and go all Nakba on us.  You can go all “neo-Zionist” instead and lose yourself in congratulatory [...]

   
   —Jewschool » Blog Archive » Why I won’t give up Yom Ha-A · May 9th, 2008 at 11:04 am

8. Over the years I’ve come to have difficulty reconciling a celebration of Israel’s independence with a recognition of the “Naqba.”

   What are we “recognizing”? The suffering inflicted on a civilian population (in this case Palestinian) by the War of Independence? Okay, but it’s curious to just “recognize” it as if it just “happened” out of nowhere. It happened because of a war.

   If you think the Palestinians and Arabs started the war, then what are we recognizing? A war they started and that many of them died and were rendered homeless by? That’s like “recognizing” Japanese suffering on VJ Day. Seems sorta grotesque. Or taking a moment of silence for the Redcoats on July 4th. Who does that?

   And if you think the Jews started the war, then how do you celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut with good conscience? Is it because you somehow view the war as having been a necessary evil? On some “we-didn’t-mean-for-you-to-die-and-flee-your-homes-but-we-had-to”? On some “this hurt us more than it hurt you”?

   And if you do take this view (that the Jews started the war), and still celebrate it, then are you not implying that Jewish necessity was greater than Palestinian or Arab necessity at the time? Or that our prior suffering was greater than their soon-to-be suffering, and thus Israel’s War of Independence was justified?

   If that’s your view and you choose to “recognize both,” well I very much doubt many of the Palestinians next to you at the Naqba vigil would agree with that reasoning. In fact I think it would be insulting to them. You sorta gotta admit that the war was unnecesary and work from there. But I don’t see how you can have it both ways.

   I increasingly view the Yom Ha’atzmaut commemoration exercise as zero-sum. Either you celebrate Israel’s independence wholeheartedly, with a nod to the civilians on both sides who fell or fled (as civilians do in any war). Or you recognize the Naqba with full throat and ditch the Yom Ha’atzmaut exercise altogether.

   Anywhere in the middle it seems to me is dishonest and inconsistent.

   
   —rootlesscosmo · May 9th, 2008 at 8:45 pm

9. Arabic public service announcement:
   “Nakba” (نكبة)is spelled with a kaf, not a qaf. The spelling “naqba” is a hyperforeignism.

   
   —BZ · May 10th, 2008 at 12:59 pm

10. I’d like to know why your writers hide behind pseudonyms? At a time when most writers use their real names you hide your identities? Are you trying to maintain different identities for different audiences?

    
    —Rosalind Feldman · May 22nd, 2008 at 8:57 pm

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