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How low can Israel go? Need you ask? They can go so low that armed Border Police thugs break up a literary festival celebrating Palestinian culture and artistic expression.
What were the artists doing that threatened the security of the State? It appears they had the support of the Palestinian Authority. Say what? The very same Palestinian Authority the Israeli government holds up as its partner for peace? The one it tries to display as the “kosher” alternative to Hamas? That one? Yes, the very one.
A bit of Israeli political hermeneutics is in order here. You see, it is treif for Palestinians to make any claim that Jerusalem is theirs–even East Jerusalem where Palestinians are in the majority. So even a literary festival that expresses Palestinian cultural values alluding to Jerusalem–even that is verboten.
The Guardian points out an important political context for the police action:
Israel regularly prevents political Palestinian events in East Jerusalem, but has recently also started to clamp down on cultural events in an apparent attempt to extend control over the city.
The development comes at a time of growing international concern over the Israeli government’s demolition of Palestinian homes and the continued growth of Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem.
In March, the Israeli authorities banned a series of Palestinian cultural events in Jerusalem, including a children’s march, intended to mark the Arab League’s designation of Jerusalem as the capital of Arab culture for this year.
Israel said the events breached its ban on Palestinian political activity.
Earlier this month, Israeli police closed down a Palestinian press centre that had been established in East Jerusalem for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI.
The fact of the matter is that the literary festival was funded by the British consulate and UNESCO, not the PA. Invocation of the latter had nothing to do with disruption of the festival. The mere presence of Palestinian artisitic expression was enough to doom the event.
Thank God, the French cultural attache had the presence of mind to invite everyone into his courtyard to continue the event. Egyptian author, Adhaf Soueif writes about the festival audience transforming the shutting down of the festival into an act of constructive artistic resistance:
We started walking down Salah el-Din street towards the French Cultural Centre. I looked behind me and there was the Festival: a brightly-dressed, ornamented procession of authors and audience strolling along Salah el-Din Street, chatting and laughing and cradling in their arms trays of baclaveh and kibbeh and salads and bouquets of flowers.
We sat on the raised patio of the French Cultural Centre and our audience sat and stood in the garden. Henning Mankell spoke of how his involvement with Africa makes him a better European. Some workmen engaged on the first floor of the house next door paused to listen. Birds swept through their goodnight flight around us. Deborah Moggach spoke about children and the changing shape of the family. A cat shared the stage with us for a brief moment. Audience and authors were engaged and the energy flowed from the patio to the garden. Carmen Callil spoke about her Lebanese grandfather in Australia. A wedding party passed honking its horns outside. Abdulrazak Gurnah, M G Vassanji and Claire Messud read from their work. When the sunset prayers were called the audience started asking and commenting and suggesting. We could have gone on for hours – but we stopped at half past eight. We dispersed; energised, happy, shaking hands, signing books, promising to all meet up again.
Today, my friends, we saw the clearest example of our mission: to confront the culture of power with the power of culture.
Border Police stationed themselves outside the consulate until the event concluded. When a regime criminalizes culture, then you know it’s been debased beyond redemption.
