Hating it Lush
May 23, 2023 4:37 AM Subscribe
On Tel Aviv by Kaleem Hawa
This post was deleted for the following reason: I/P related posts tend to spawn a lot of angry reactions do the community no favors and this one was no different. -- Brandon Blatcher
Thank you for posting this to the Blue.
I just heard a good podcast episode with Inass Yassin, the curator of this exhibit on the Palestinians of the coast, going on at the Palestinian Museum through June 30. Wish I could go.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 6:12 AM on May 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
I just heard a good podcast episode with Inass Yassin, the curator of this exhibit on the Palestinians of the coast, going on at the Palestinian Museum through June 30. Wish I could go.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 6:12 AM on May 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
CW: tangential homophobia
posted by Fupped Duck at 6:48 AM on May 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Fupped Duck at 6:48 AM on May 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
To clarify, the homophobia is described by not produced by the (queer) author.
posted by latkes at 7:39 AM on May 23, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by latkes at 7:39 AM on May 23, 2023 [4 favorites]
This is an important perspective, and thanks for bringing it to the blue, Latkes.
And I want to say, for the public local record, that nothing in any of the history justifies the fact that a young child born in a Palestinian context has lesser prospects than her neighbor in the next city (because of course Israel's segregated), and so MUCH lesser if she was born under occupation in the West Bank, or under the brutal siege of Gaza going on since 2005, and - if born as a refugee - will have her life in that much risk and danger, at the whim of host countries.
No omission justifies apartheid.
posted by Shunra at 4:50 PM on May 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
And I want to say, for the public local record, that nothing in any of the history justifies the fact that a young child born in a Palestinian context has lesser prospects than her neighbor in the next city (because of course Israel's segregated), and so MUCH lesser if she was born under occupation in the West Bank, or under the brutal siege of Gaza going on since 2005, and - if born as a refugee - will have her life in that much risk and danger, at the whim of host countries.
No omission justifies apartheid.
posted by Shunra at 4:50 PM on May 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
No omission justifies apartheid.
No. But it justifies considerable disgust with Kaleem Hawa. When he says "While Jews lived in several Jaffa neighbourhoods prior to 1909..." he is omitting the events that caused Jews not to live in those neighborhoods soon afterwards. He is omitting murders. He is omitting repression.
This is personal to me. I lived in Jaffa. Right by Yefet Street, mentioned in the article. I went to school with kids whose families "lived in several Jaffa neighbourhoods prior to 1909." As I said, Mr. Hawa's under no obligation to tell the story. And he has good reason to tell the story he does tell. But his choice of those words is in reference to lives snuffed out. Lives that mattered, even if they did not matter to him.
posted by ocschwar at 6:01 PM on May 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
No. But it justifies considerable disgust with Kaleem Hawa. When he says "While Jews lived in several Jaffa neighbourhoods prior to 1909..." he is omitting the events that caused Jews not to live in those neighborhoods soon afterwards. He is omitting murders. He is omitting repression.
This is personal to me. I lived in Jaffa. Right by Yefet Street, mentioned in the article. I went to school with kids whose families "lived in several Jaffa neighbourhoods prior to 1909." As I said, Mr. Hawa's under no obligation to tell the story. And he has good reason to tell the story he does tell. But his choice of those words is in reference to lives snuffed out. Lives that mattered, even if they did not matter to him.
posted by ocschwar at 6:01 PM on May 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
This is personal to everyone involved, Ocschwar. Myself included.
Thank you for agreeing about the importance of equal rights (and obligations) under the law.
posted by Shunra at 6:37 PM on May 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
Thank you for agreeing about the importance of equal rights (and obligations) under the law.
posted by Shunra at 6:37 PM on May 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
I appreciate you sharing that part of your story ocschwar.
At the risk of veering into metatalk territory: Metafilter moderators for many years deleted the majority if not all posts that referenced Palestine, Israel, etc, with the reason given that it is impossible to moderate these threads. I'm hoping that is changing, but my guess is, for that to be a lasting change, we should take care and thought in how we engage with each other.
I bring this up not to chasten anyone, but to request we be thoughtful about going back and forth if this thread continues. My sense after many years on this website is that stating a position once is good and fine and back and forths tend to go south and become extremely depleting for moderators and the community, so I hope we can avoid that. I hope the article speaks for itself - and I would hate to lose the ability to post an article like this again. My two cents.
posted by latkes at 6:40 PM on May 23, 2023 [9 favorites]
At the risk of veering into metatalk territory: Metafilter moderators for many years deleted the majority if not all posts that referenced Palestine, Israel, etc, with the reason given that it is impossible to moderate these threads. I'm hoping that is changing, but my guess is, for that to be a lasting change, we should take care and thought in how we engage with each other.
I bring this up not to chasten anyone, but to request we be thoughtful about going back and forth if this thread continues. My sense after many years on this website is that stating a position once is good and fine and back and forths tend to go south and become extremely depleting for moderators and the community, so I hope we can avoid that. I hope the article speaks for itself - and I would hate to lose the ability to post an article like this again. My two cents.
posted by latkes at 6:40 PM on May 23, 2023 [9 favorites]
I read the article with care because it devotes a paragraph to a grandmother, and one to a great-uncle, persons left unnamed, and each of them will either get my attention for one moment and never again, or just never. So clearly their lives should matter enough to get a minute of reading time from each MeFite.
At the same time, I hope you noticed that Kaleem Hawa is an unreliable narrator. Throughout his article he is oozing with conservatism, his leftist credentials notwithstanding. How do we describe conservatism here? "Wanting to draw a line between an in-group protected by the law but not bound to it, and an out group bound to the law but not protected by it." That desire is everywhere between the lines in this article.
posted by ocschwar at 7:11 PM on May 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
At the same time, I hope you noticed that Kaleem Hawa is an unreliable narrator. Throughout his article he is oozing with conservatism, his leftist credentials notwithstanding. How do we describe conservatism here? "Wanting to draw a line between an in-group protected by the law but not bound to it, and an out group bound to the law but not protected by it." That desire is everywhere between the lines in this article.
posted by ocschwar at 7:11 PM on May 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
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Not his duty to tell that story. And every right to tell the stories he wishes to tell. But oh, the omissions. I lived right by one of the streets he mentions. And I went to school with kids whose families could tell the story behind this detail.
posted by ocschwar at 5:32 AM on May 23, 2023 [5 favorites]