More than a hundred activists from the Sheikh Jarrah movement in Jerusalem published an open letter to Elie Wiesel in response to the letter Wiesel published last week in the Washington Post:
Dear Mr. Wiesel,
We write to you from Jerusalem to convey our frustration, even outrage, at your recently published letter on Jerusalem. We are Jewish Jerusalemites – residents by choice of a battered city, a city used and abused, ransacked time and again first by foreign conquerors and now by its own politicians. We cannot recognize our city in the sentimental abstraction you call by its name.
Our Jerusalem is concrete, its hills covered with limestone houses and pine trees; its streets lined with synagogues, mosques and churches. Your Jerusalem is an ideal, an object of prayers and a bearer of the collective memory of a people whose members actually bear many individual memories. Our Jerusalem is populated with people, young and old, women and men, who wish their city to be a symbol of dignity - not of hubris, inequality and discrimination. You speak of the celestial Jerusalem; we live in the earthly one.
For more than a generation now the earthly city we call home has been crumbling under the weight of its own idealization. Your letter troubles us, not simply because it is replete with factual errors and false representations, but because it upholds an attachment to some other-worldly city which purports to supersede the interests of those who live in the this-worldly one. For every Jew, you say, a visit to Jerusalem is a homecoming, yet it is our commitment that makes your homecoming possible. We prefer the hardship of realizing citizenship in this city to the convenience of merely yearning for it.
Indeed, your claim that Jerusalem is above politics is doubly outrageous. First, because contemporary Jerusalem was created by a political decision and politics alone keeps it formally unified. The tortuous municipal boundaries of today’s Jerusalem were drawn by Israeli generals and politicians shortly after the 1967 war. Feigning to unify an ancient city, they created an unwieldy behemoth, encircling dozens of Palestinian villages which were never part of Jerusalem. Stretching from the outskirts of Ramallah in the north to the edge of Bethlehem in the south, the Jerusalem the Israeli government foolishly concocted is larger than Paris. Its historical core, the nexus of memories and religious significance often called “the Holy Basin”, comprises a mere one percent of its area. Now they call this artificial fabrication ‘Jerusalem’ in order to obviate any approaching chance for peace.
Second, your attempt to keep Jerusalem above politics means divesting us of a future. For being above politics is being devoid of the power to shape the reality of one’s life. As true Jerusalemites, we cannot stand by and watch our beloved city, parts of which are utterly neglected, being used as a springboard for crafty politicians and sentimental populists who claim Jerusalem is above politics and negotiation. All the while, they franticly “Judaize” Eastern Jerusalem in order to transform its geopolitics beyond recognition.
We invite you to our city to view with your own eyes the catastrophic effects of the frenzy of construction. You will witness that, contrary to some media reports, Arabs are not allowed to build their homes anywhere in Jerusalem. You [will] see the gross inequality in allocation of municipal resources and services between east and west. We will take you to Sheikh Jarrah, where Palestinian families are being evicted from their homes to make room for a new Jewish neighborhood, and to Silwan, where dozens of houses face demolition because of the Jerusalem Municipality’s refusal to issue building permits to Palestinians.
We, the people of Jerusalem, can no longer be sacrificed for the fantasies of those who love our city from afar. This-worldly Jerusalem must be shared by the people of the two nations residing in it. Only a shared city will live up to the prophet’s vision: “Zion shall be redeemed with justice”. As we chant weekly in our vigils in Sheikh Jarrah: “Nothing can be holy in an occupied city!”
Respectfully,
Just Jerusalem (Sheikh Jarrah) Activists
Can an affluent individual who backs the position of the Sheikh Jarrah activists (i.e., the reality-based community) pay to get this letter in equivalent full-page ads in the Wash. Post, the NYT, etc.?
This needs to be read outside the confines of people who already agree with the letter. Though it’s riveting to read it all the same.
I certainly don’t see why not. The authors of the letter will most likely be delighted to give their approval to have it published. The papers shouldn’t object as it is a paid ad that is neither graphic, explicit material, nor illegal, and certainly contains no profanity. It meets the basic requirements of public decency. I’m no journalist, but it seems to pass the breakfast test.
I agree, John K. Anyone out there who can pay to put this in the NYT or WaPo?
What a great letter. And it is riveting. I hope someone puts it under the phony’s nose, not that he would care. He’s dancing for his dinner these days.
This Haaretz article lists some of the signatories;
link to haaretz.com
MRW, if I may just squeeze in here for a second. Thank you for that article from yesterday. I learned a few things and it was quite informative. Please keep me in the loop.
John,
As one of the writers of this letter, I assure you, we will be extremely grateful for anyone who can help us advertise it in the NYT or WP. Unfortunately, the growing energies of the Sheikh Jarrah movement are not coupled with a growing budget, as legal expenses are mounting. We are therefore not able to fund this ourselves and will greatly appreciate any help. You can contact us at: sheikhjarrah@gmail.com or donate through our blog: link to en.justjlm.org
Of course, those good Jewish people that care for their Jerusalem will be simply branded “Jew-haters”. It’s sad what outsiders have done to that city. The remaining Arabs are being evicted and next will come the turn the “other” Jews to be made to leave. Those that published the letter see it coming.
The letter format reminded me of what Gibran Khalil Gibran wrote in the early 1920s, “You Have Your Lebanon and I Have My Lebanon” in sending a similar distressed message:
You have your Lebanon and its dilemma. I have my Lebanon and its beauty. Your Lebanon is an arena for men from the West and men from the East.
My Lebanon is a flock of birds fluttering in the early morning as shepherds lead their sheep into the meadow and rising in the evening as farmers return from their fields and vineyards.
You have your Lebanon and its people. I have my Lebanon and its people.
Yours are those whose souls were born in the hospitals of the West; they are as ship without rudder or sail upon a raging sea…. They are strong and eloquent among themselves but weak and dumb among Europeans.
They are brave, the liberators and the reformers, but only in their own area. But they are cowards, always led backwards by the Europeans. They are those who croak like frogs boasting that they have rid themselves of their ancient, tyrannical enemy, but the truth of the matter is that this tyrannical enemy still hides within their own souls. They are the slaves for whom time had exchanged rusty chains for shiny ones so that they thought themselves free. These are the children of your Lebanon. Is there anyone among them who represents the strength of the towering rocks of Lebanon, the purity of its water or the fragrance of its air? Who among them vouchsafes to say, “When I die I leave my country little better than when I was born”?
***********
For the rest of it: link to 4umi.com
I especially like the emphasis on the disparity between the fantasies of outsiders who seek to impose their views and the realities of the residents who want to have a say in their own destiny. Those outsiders are the most dangerous, as they are rarely grounded in reality and more often than not will not suffer the repercussions of their own decisions. For them, a second passport is their insurance policy. This letter is a message to the Wiesels, the Wittys and other dreamers. It’s also a shot across the bow of religious fanatics and ideologues alike.
The irony of your post is probably missed by you.
What is this site if not deluded outsiders trying to impose their views and realities on the majority of Israelis?
Oh, are the expatriate Israelis on this site outsiders to the issue? How about the Palestinians commentators?
Funny how your “Jewish nation” paradigm gets torn to pieces whenever you need a reason to attack your fellow Jews, ala Goldstone.
“Nobody expects the Israeli Inquisition!” (Somebody lobbied to get that YouTube clip removed, incidentally. Huh.)
You Tube is Zionist Occupied Territory.
Eee, yes, many here are against the use of US taxpayer dollars to fund Israel’s criminal activities. We also are Israeli ex pats and Palestinians, and some other regulars are citizens of Europe and other countries in the Middle East outside of Israel.
Jerusalem is not just being Judaized, it’s being Haredized. The Haredim operate like Gresham’s Law – they drive out everyone else whenever they move into a neighborhood.
Real estate prices are sky-high, which leads to pressure to colonize the cheap-because-stolen land to the east. The E Jerusalem building project is a giant real estate scam.
For real; one part of the successful capitol strategy.
~a successful business model.
“The E Jerusalem building project is a giant real estate scam.”
-So is Israel. The bible promised us this land. Ha! Add the religious aspect of it and it you hear ‘lay-off the criticism’ fellow citizens.
we should ‘respect’ others sacred beliefs!
Bloated Pastor Hagee knows the deal and wants a piece of the pork pie. But he’s a means to an end; he knows it, and so does everyone else.
Check out what the Haredim did in Postville, Iowa. Cute clash of cultures! Dershie is trying to save
their former leader there from getting an appropriate sentence right now. It’s always fun to keep up with Haredi antics, especially since it’s never covered by the US MSM even when it takes place in the USA. Here’s a good article about the former 20 year orthodox guy who brings you this barrel of laughs–as much fun as watching the Pope squirm for hiding pedophiles:
link to haaretz.com
Potsherd, they ran out of Brooklynites interested in relocating there and the current construction is on the very expensive units that are attracting wealthier investors from the US and Canada. This will drive prices even higher.
There is nothing new in this phenomenon. US cities sprawl all over the formerly-rural landscape as they stretch farther and farther in search of cheaper land to put up new cheaper housing developments.
Except that Israelis have figured out the cheapest way to get more land is to steal it.
“Wiesel should stop offering celestial prescriptions for a city he doesn’t live in”
So should the rest of the diaspora. They always tend to become the de-facto politicians for Israel.
Yes, those Jews should shut up and know their place.
They are always overreaching…
Reaching into someone else’s place and taking everything there.