According to Wikipedia, Odeh has 'expressed strong support for increasing recognition of Mizrahi culture and Arab Jewish history in official Israeli and Palestinian discourses; in a widely cited speech to the Knesset plenum in July 2015, MK Odeh argued that the State of Israel has systematically discriminated against and suppressed the culture of Jews who immigrated to Israel from Arab and Muslim lands in order to feed the idea of a natural separation between Jews and Arabs. He also argued that the large role played by Jews in forming historical and modern Arab culture (including famous Jews such as Rabbi David Buzaglo, who wrote Jewish religious poetry primarily in Arabic, and famous Jews who were popular in the Arab world in the mid-20th Century, such as Leila Murad), has been forgotten by Jews and Arabs alike due to the ideological elements of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the desire by Israel's elite to portray a Western image of Jews and of the country.'
Odeh called upon Jewish and Arab members of the Knesset alike to support a new Knesset committee (which he had joined as a member) lobbying for the re-emphasizing of the culture of Jews from Arab and Muslim lands. In that speech, Odeh summarized his position thus: "The culture of the Jews of Arab and Islamic countries is a shared Jewish and Arab culture. Because of this, the state has fought [against] it, and yet because of this [same reason], we must fight to strengthen it."
In a 2015 TV elections campaign debate,Odeh approached the leader of the Mizrahi religious party Shas, Aryeh Der‘i, in a call to form an alliance to fight poverty, given that their constituencies are similarly marginalized in society. But Der‘i declined to accept the offer.
Nevertheless, Odeh has been quoted as saying: "We represent those who are invisible in this country, and we give them a voice. We also bring a message of hope to all people, not just to the Arabs, but to the Jews, too".
What lies behind Odeh's pro-Mizrahi strategy? It seems that as a socialist he has absorbed the far left's 'narrative' that Mizrahim are 'Arab Jews' divided from their Arab 'brothers' by Zionism and the Ashkenazi establishment. But nostalgia for Leila Murad is not enough to bring Jews and Arabs together. An enormous political gulf separates Mizrahi Jews, who customarily vote for Rightwing parties, from Arabs in Israel. Few Jews, except for a minority of (Ashkenazi) farleft academics, would support the Joint List's anti-Zionist agenda, and to believe that a majority of Israeli Jews of Mizrahi background are 'marginalised' is not a view widely shared by mainstream opinion.
The bankruptcy of Mizrahi post-Zionism
Oudeh is very clever and he understands the power of Divide and rule.He is also very cynical.
ReplyDeleteHe was interviewed not long ago for an Arabic TV station and his mask came off. When speaking Hebrew or English he sounds rather moderate and reasonable. But in this interview in Arabic he exuded hatred and anger. He was asked about PM Netanyahu. He very angrily listed several of Netanyahu's diplomatic and economic accomplishments. Netanyahu had a good relationship with the US president, better than any previous PM of Israel; he had gotten the US president to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and to recognize the Golan Heights as part of Israel. Etc etc. In other words, Netanyahu's virtues and achievements made him angry. They made Netanyahu an enemy to be gotten rid of. This interview is probably available at the MEMRI site. Think of it as somewhat like Bil`am's ass and his prophecies.
Now, note that his proposals for Arab-Mizrahi Jewish collaboration include an emphasis on culture. But not on history. If his educational program included history, then it might have to recount the story of the Farhud or the dhimmi status of Jews and Christians in the Islamic domain. Or the story of the Arab conquests. How would that fit in with Oudeh's supposed anti-imperialist stance as a Communist [His party is actually Hadash, a communist party which is part of the Joint Arab List]? Or the genocides perpetrated by Muslims. Or that the Western powers sometimes improved the lives and security of the dhimmi peoples.
Building political cooperation on shared foods would not be honest and would be a flimsy basis for cooperation. So everybody in Morocco, Algeria, etc. eats couscous, and in Syria and Egypt etc we all eat humus. Very nice but, So what? On the grounds of shared foods the Polish and Ukrainian Jews could have a common program with Poles and Ukrainians based on stuffed cabbage, borsht [beet soup], and dumplings called pirogen or pirozhki. And then we could find a taste for some of the same kinds of music etc. Basing political cooperation on shared items of culture is OK up to a point. But history cannot be avoided especially when Arab Muslim attitudes towards Jews have not changed all that much and many Muslims want to see Jews as a Millet of dhimmis. [And unfortuneately some Xians do too].
Not too far away from that ostensibly moderate Muslim stance is that of one Noura Erakat, a PLO lawyer. See her attitude on Jews at the link:
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/noura-erakats-sordid-cynicism/
"On the grounds of shared foods the Polish and Ukrainian Jews could have a common program with Poles and Ukrainians based on stuffed cabbage,"
ReplyDeleteLove it, Eliyahu! Unfortunately much academic study of the Middle East, especially in the social sciences, emphasises shared culture while ignoring the fraught history between Muslims and dhimmi minorities.
Precisely, that is one of the problems with academic studies in the ME Studies field.
ReplyDelete