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    • Avi Shalev’s new book shows Israeli Arabs from a different perspective – Israel News
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    Avi Shalev’s new book shows Israeli Arabs from a different perspective – Israel News

    Umito Posted on

    History is liberally peppered with stories of enemies turned allies and even friends. We see this with Israel and some of its neighbors and we have not given up hope that Israel will begin normal relations with other countries in the region.

    The reasons for changes in relations between nations are varied: a common enemy; the desire to use a former enemy as a springboard or link to another country; additional airspace to allow increased tourism; commercial joint ventures; access to certain products and areas of knowledge, or in the case of author Avi Shalev, simple curiosity about others while pursuing a teaching certificate.

    A retired colonel in the Israel Defense Forces and Civil Administration, where he spent 24 years of his life, Shalev wanted to explore the Israeli Arab sector from a different perspective. Certainly, Israel’s Arabs are not, by and large, the enemy, but most Israeli Arabs live separately in their own towns and villages and not in mixed communities, even if they work as doctors, lawyers , judges, academics, supermarket employees, etc. Dominant Israel. At the end of their workday, they return home to a different lifestyle, a different culture, and a different set of values ​​and traditions.

    Shalev came to the conclusion that the best way to learn to understand them would be to enroll in Al-Qasemi College in the Israeli Arab town from Baqa al-Gharbiyye.

    His friends and family tried to dissuade him. No Jews had ever studied there before and everyone worried for their safety.

    When he entered the city on a Saturday morning, some of Shalev’s bravado dissipated. Talking on his cell phone while still in his car, he wondered if it was wise for him to speak in Hebrew. Upon entering the university campus, he was surprised by the cleanliness, the architectural beauty, the signs in Hebrew and Arabic and the lively atmosphere generated by the students, most of whom were women – but without uniformity in dress, which means that they were of different religious, cultural and tribal origins.

    The only Jew in the room: searching for understanding at an Arab-Islamic college

    As evidenced in his new book, Shalev has a keen eye for detail, and his descriptions of his environment, the people he sees and meets, the characteristics of the teachers and the content of the lessons give the reader the feeling of being constantly at listening to it. his side. All this is so real and essentially new, even though Israeli Jews and Arabs rub shoulders on public transport, in markets, in restaurants and cafes, in hospitals and universities, on sports fields and elsewhere.

    The only Jew in the room: searching for understanding at an Arab-Islamic college is a mixture of Shalev’s impressions and experiences, and highlights more than anything else the lack of awareness among most Israelis about what motivates the Arab population, and whether Arabs also feel bad comfortable in predominantly Jewish areas as Jews feel in predominantly Arab areas. . There are mutual suspicions, which in most cases are unfounded and in many cases are more a matter of cautious curiosity.

    As is the case in most countries, minority populations know much more about the majority than the majority knows about the minority.

    Shalev becomes more aware of this in his conversations with his fellow students. For example, one of his classmates knows that Shalev initially felt uneasy because he didn’t know if he would be accepted. She draws a parallel with her own experience. During the week, when she is at work, she is surrounded by Jews with whom she also felt uncomfortable until she met them. Although as pleasant as they are to her, she also detects an underlying suspicion that she might want to kill them.

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    Shalev is aware of the eyes on him and the people whispering about him. Some college students would have preferred to study at Hebron University, which offers a higher level of education, but students had to attend classes all week, preventing them from working. In Al-Qasemi, classes were held on weekends, so it was possible to work for a living during the week. Shalev’s classmates were extremely curious about what made him enroll in an Arab college in an all-Arab town and teased him. that he was about to convert to Islam.

    On the other hand, some female students speak such fluent, accent-free Hebrew that those who do not cover their heads could easily be mistaken for students. Jewish women. One of the most difficult things for Shalev was trying to understand classical Arabic, which is very different from the colloquial Arabic he speaks.

    Anti-Israeli books outnumber pro-Israeli books in the Middle East section of the Harvard University Bookstore. (credit: Tomer Rayfer)

    Another thing that continually perplexes him is why Jewish students of Middle Eastern studies and Arabic language do not attend Arab higher education institutions, where they are taught by Arab scholars, and instead enroll in Israeli universities where, with rare exceptions, they are taught by Jewish academics. However, there are Arab scholars and students in most countries. Israeli universities and colleges.

    He discovered that critical thinking on religious issues is foreign to even the most intellectual Arabs if they are religious. Criticism of the prophets is taboo, whereas in Judaism it is not only permitted but encouraged.

    Shalev’s command of Arabic obviously improved through his contact with his classmates and through what was discussed in class. He was surprised to learn that in Arabic there is no distinction between the words “killed” and “murdered,” while there is a difference in Hebrew and English.

    Another surprise was the use of the word nakba, meaning “catastrophe” in Arabic, which he said had been adopted or invented by Palestinian Arabs in 1948 after Israel’s war of independence. But he learned that it had been used 100 years earlier in the destruction of Damascus, and as early as 1258 in the destruction of Baghdad, and again in 1492 when Spain relieved the Muslims of Granada, which had been their last bastion.

    1492 also resonates with Jews as the most significant year of the Spanish Inquisition, during which tens of thousands of Jews were exiled, executed, or forced to convert. It was also the year that Christopher Columbus set sail for the New World.

    Before studying at Al-Qasemi, Shalev spent time in Germany at the Free University of Berlin, whose plans include a mixed class of Muslims and Jews, primarily from Arab countries and Israel, with the aim to promote peace and harmony. While there, Shalev befriended an Afghan student, who apparently did not use his real name and who steadfastly refused to be photographed with Shalev.

    The reason, Shalev discovered, was that if such a photograph were seen in his friend’s home country, he would likely be a target for assassination, because studying with a Jew from Israel would be seen as “sleeping with the enemy “.

    During his military career, Shalev encountered Muslims who declared that Hamas, with its policy of violence, was not Muslim because Islam was a peace-loving religion. Another thing he learned in the military and in civilian life is that one cannot experience Arab culture without putting aside one’s own cultural beliefs and traditions; and if one really wants to immerse themselves in Arab culture, it is essential to read Arabic poetry, which is the true repository of Arab nationalism.

    Suffice it to say, the book is a fascinating read. It was originally written in Hebrew and beautifully translated by Anat Hinkis-Atzmon. It was written before October 7, 2023, but the translation was ready for publication by then. When the horrific events of October 7 unfolded, Shalev decided to dedicate his book to all those who lost their lives, were kidnapped, or who were and may still be missing.

    Despite this immeasurable loss, Shalev remains hopeful that one day the two sides will enjoy peaceful coexistence.

    The only Jew in the room: searching for understanding at an Arab-Islamic college by Avi Shalev

    369 pages; self-published 2023

    Requests should be sent to [email protected]



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