Howard Halle in Time Out New York on Palestinian-American Emily Jacir's very political show at the Guggenheim:
Jacir’s tendentiousness is hardly a career impediment in an art world where any expression of identity appended by the word politics
is applauded with the gusto of a seal performing at Marine World. But
one can sympathize with her having to work in a country that’s so
overwhelmingly pro-Israel. Most Americans see the Jewish state as a
sister democracy. Cynics might say we share common histories of
uprooting indigenous populations, though such a comparison overlooks
the fact that the argument over Palestine revolves around the question
of just who is indigenous: the Jews who conquered the place
three millennia ago, or the Arabs who did so 2,000 years later? (Maybe
neither group belongs!) It’s also worth noting that when, for example,
Andrew Jackson evicted the Cherokee from Georgia, there was no CNN or
BBC to report the fact, no horde of indignant university students to
condemn his actions. Israel enjoys no such refuge from international
opprobrium, even when countering existential threats.
Yet some of
the loudest voices questioning Israel’s policies—indeed, its very
viability—are those belonging to Israeli artists. Jacir’s work, on the
other hand, appears unconstrained by intellectual honesty.
I don't know about Jacir's defense of Wael Zuaiter, which is at the heart of this show, but this kind of unreconstructed Zionism in the American press is offensive. We're sister democracies, the Jews (whoever we are; I think my people came from the Kazakhs for all I know) have an equal historical claim on Palestine? Rationalizing Israel's behavior by reference to 1820s America, a time of slavery? Also: questioning Israel's viability is something alot of people are doing in the political realm lately. Gaza changed everything. Jim Crow on the West Bank, too.
Rationalizing the behavior of American and Israeli Zionists by referencing America's past does get old. The parallels are never exact, and are always distorted in favor of the Zionists. It's obnoxious and worn.
The aim is to have Gentile Americans believe that they are obligated to fund and fight for Zionism because of supposed Gentile sins in America's past, while maintaining the situation of the moral inferior. Americans could have drunk the blood of mutilated blacks and Indians in the past, and it still doesn't leave me with a debt owed to Zionists.
It points to hypocrisy is the point.
Phil,
You might be partially descended from Khazaks, but that is unlikely. And it is a certainty, that you are partially descended from Hebrews.
The point that "noone was always there" is important. It humbles. It humbles Jewish assertions of national property and it humbles Palestinian assertions of national property.
We are ALL recent immigrants.
Consider that in the video posted above, the interviewee described that his family moved there 150 years ago. Thats long enough to establish title, but NOT long enough to establish being indigenous.
Todd, you're an isolationist–and in the real world that doesn't fly. Sorry.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that all your angry feelings about zionism and Jews has to do with your discomfort with America's role as superpower.
I understand it, but it's simply not realistic…and your anger is misdirected.
I doubt we'll see the end of America's global dominance in our lifetime…maybe, but likely not. So I suggest you make peace with it. :-)
Suzanne,
I see no reason to allow the world to come to the U.S. or for the U.S. to have troops in over 100 nations. If live-and-let-live is isolationism, then I'm guilty. Either way, there is no place for Zionists and minority elites with an ethnic grudge in any nation. There is nothing unrealistic or misdirected in that statement.
My problem with American global domiance is that it truly benefits few Americans, and savages many of the people under the boot. The current order shouldn't stand, and I hope that it doesn't. Some people actually do view America as a home with a people and culture rather than as a political experiment or a work camp.
We'll just have to see what does and doesn't fly in the real world. I have a pretty good grasp of my own powerlessness and of the fact that what I would like to see happen probably will not happen. Do you understand the same things about yourself and your desires?
Isn't it simply amazing how easily Zionists place the primary Zionist fraud so easily throughout US media?
Every Israel Advocate is a Madoff.
Halle is smoking something really strong if he thinks that it is easy to bring Palestinian art, culture, or narrative to the American public.
In the Boston area, the local Zionists fight every exhibition tooth and nail.
Zionist Big and Little Brothers are out there all the time. See Atheo News: Lessons from the Seattle Divestment Initiative.
I can only identify one Hollywood movie that is Palestinian sympathetic (and only via metaphor). See Planet of the Zionist Apes.
Todd, your standard of living is A LOT better than it would've been otherwise, had it not been for America's role as global power. So you're basically arguing from a pretty privileged perch.
I'm not going to argue with isolationists because, while I can understand it…it's not how the world works. Never has, never will. Nature of the beast.
I brought it up because it dawned on me all of a sudden that's where some people are coming from.
I know I can't change your mind about your feelings. People have to come to their understanding of the world on their own terms. Can't be forced.
I may be incorrect about the specifics…but didn't the city of Somerville put out a restraining order against Martillo when his group tried to illegally sign the city up for divestment against Israel a few years ago?
I wonder if Martillo el Loquillo has a police record…probably.
It points to hypocrisy is the point.
Thanks Richard. Amazing what one can miss if one is "constrained" by mental shutters.
My favorite passages and a few comments:
Generalization. All Israeli artists are "constrained by intellectual honesty" Jacir, the Palestinian, is "unconstrained". Peculiar choice of word. Is Halle telling us something about his own "constraints"? Is art concerned with "intellectual honesty"? What exactly is "intellectual honesty" in the visual arts? What about trompe d'oeil. Is that intellectually honest? Honest to nature, but dishonest to the eye?
Could the "grimly" expression have something to do with concentration, after all she is aiming at a not so big target from a distance? Only having learnt to shoot for the performance. Why doesn't he notice the obvious here, she is slipping into the skin of a Mossad agent and combines it with a concept? 1000 + 1 …
Basically he denies Jacir artistic freedom, freedom to choose her subject. How does he know she makes a "case for Zuaiter's innocence". At least he doesn't give us the evidence for this interpretation, it's all his projection. Neither can I see martyr celebration but rather a special project, a memento mori. What is left after a person is dead?
In her performance she clearly combines the role of the Mossad execution symbolically with the book found on him. 1.000 + 1. But the partial change of perspectives he obviously misses above. Remember the "grimly" face. Was he somehow "constrained" to use it in connection with a Mossad agent?
******************************************************************************
Admittedly I am developing a fascination for adjectives lately. Someday somebody will study this issue in Phil's main concerns. I am absolutely sure.
Suzanne,
You are making me laugh. Realizing that U.S. troops are in many places where they do not belong, and rejecting massive immigration and multiculturalism does not make a person an isolationist. There is no way to esacpe dealing with the rest of the world, but there are different ways of doing so. Time will only tell what will happen.
Also, I don't think that having a high standard of living relies on having troops in well over 100 nations. I think that a good argument can be made for the opposite.
Interesting note about Joachim
matt cooper said…
I took a look at Joachim Martillo's profile and the guy pretty much writes that he has "business interests" which spur him to write drivel that borders on antisemitic. Clearly he has an agenda- one rooted in his business. For a man who claims he is responsible for Americans having access to the internet, it is rather silly to suggest through his writing that Israel is responsible for all of the problems in the world. As for hi-tech and innovation, Israel is second to the Silicon Valley in Nor Cal. Therefore I would say that we need Israel more than we need you.
"As for hi-tech and innovation, Israel is second to the Silicon Valley in Nor Cal. Therefore I would say that we need Israel more than we need you."
That's a pretty big claim, Chris. I'm pretty sure the Japanese, Chinese, Indians, Irish, Swiss, Germans and even Finns would have something to say about that.
"My people came from the Khazakhs"? Maybe yours did (most genetic tests, however, show that European Jews are Semitic and not Slavic) – but more than half of the Israeli Jewish population have immediate ancestors who never left the Mid-East.
Anyway, you clearly have left the Jewish civilization even if you have some genetic markers remaining from your folk's immersion in it.
Just to clear the air about the Khazakh meme – Jews, who were 10% of the Roman Empire, migrated from Judea to Rome. Up from Rome to Spain and Germany. From Spain, in 1492, to Turkey and parts of Europe. From Germany to Poland and parts of central Europe. And those in Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Morocco, Libya, Lebanon, Judea, Syria, Greece, generally stayed in the region for thousands of years and didn't migrate up through Rome.