Hegemony inside and out: Nathan Alterman and the Israeli Arabs
2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 20; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/13537121.2014.889891
ISSN1743-9086
Autores Tópico(s)Public Spaces through Art
ResumoAbstractThis article examines the political protest expressed by Nathan Alterman over the years in poems published in the newspapers. It argues that this criticism identifies with the hegemonic political values rather than articulate alternative ones, in an attempt to nurture self-criticism on the part of the government regarding its failures and mistakes. This type of criticism seeks to preserve the reigning hegemony from within and to ensure that it projects an image of moral rectitude.Keywords:: Nathan AltermanIsraelpoetryIsraeli Arabsstate of emergencycriticism of violencehumanitarianism Notes 1. Hanan Hever, “Hatur Hashvi'i Umilhemet 1948,” Hamerhav Hatziburi 3 (2009): 9–34. 2. Yochai Oppenheimer, Hazechut Hagedola Lomar Lo: Shira Politit be-Israel (Jerusalem: Magnus Press, 2003), 81–102. 3. Dan Laor, “Shirat Haekstaza shel Milhemet Sinai,” Haaretz, October 6, 1995. 4. Dan Laor, Hashofar Vehaherev: Masot al Nathan Alterman (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuhad and Tel Aviv University, 1984), 123–4. 5. War stories influenced by Yizhar's novella include Nathan Shaham's “Shiva Meihem” (1949); Aharon Amir's “Haboker Hahadash” (1949); Shraga Gafni's “Hashevach LeElohim” (1949); Dan Ben Amotz's “Sipur al Hagamal Vehanitzahon” (1950); and Binyamin Tamuz's “Taharut Shiya” (1951). 6. Nathan Alterman, “Milhemet He'arim,” in Ir Hayona (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuhad, 1972), 74. All translations of Alterman in this article are by Rebecca Gillis. 7. Ibid., 79. 8. Nathan Alterman, Hatur Hashvi'i, vol. 1 (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuhad, 1977), 149–51. Many scholars have attributed this poem to the conquest of Lydda in July 1948 despite the fact that it was written four months afterwards. Menahem Finkelstein raised the more likely possibility that the poem actually referred to the conquest of Dweima in November of that year: Hatur Hashvi'i Vetohar Haneshek: Nathan Alterman al Bitahon, Musar Umishpat (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuhad, 2011), 151–2. 9. Laor, “Shirat Haekstaza,” 124.10. Alterman, Hatur Hashvi'i, 1: 151. Dan Almagor did not discern this double standard when he heaped praise on Alterman for ‘his amazing courage’. ‘His high moral stance did not prevent him later from harshly criticizing the IDF – which he greatly admired – and its senior officers.’ Dan Almagor, “Hatur Hashvi'i Vehaturim Letzido Uveikvotav,” Kesher 18 (1995): 112–29.11. Ibid., 129.12. Carl Schmitt, “Definition of Sovereignty,” in Political Theology, trans. George Schwab (London: MIT Press, 1985), 5–15.13. Judith Butler, Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence (London: Verso, 2004), 92.14. Slavoj Žižek, Welcome to the Desert of the Real! Five Essays on September 11 and Related Dates (London and New York: Verso), 107.15. Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998), 131–3.16. Alterman, Hatur Hashvi'i, 1: 279.17. Ibid., 281.18. Ibid., 287–8.19. Nathan Alterman, “Upstanding,” in Hatur Hashwvi'i, vol. 3 (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuhad, 1981), 355.20. Jacques Derrida, “Force of Law,” Cardozo Law Review 11, no. 5–6 (1990): 921–1045, 1017.21. Alterman, Hatur Hashvi'i, 1: 280.22. Ibid., 284.23. Nathan Alterman, Hatur Hashvi'i, vol. 2 (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuhad, 1978), 368–9.24. A document titled “The Spirit of the IDF” published by the secretariat of IDF's supreme command in 1994 and laying out the ethical code of conduct of the Israel Defence Forces, contained a similar assumption: ‘the purity of arms in the IDF involves the restrained use of weapons and force, while carrying out tasks, only to the extent necessary to execute those tasks, without unnecessary injury to people's life, respect, or possessions, be they soldiers, civilians or especially the helpless in wartime and during routine security operations, during cease fires and in peacetime’. Techelet: A Journal of Israeli Thought 2 (1997): 53.25. Alterman, Hatur Hashvi'i, 1: 284.26. Nathan Alterman, “Thum Hameshulash,” in Hatur hashevi'i, 2: 355.27. Alterman, Hatur hashevi'i, 2: 355.28. Alterman, Hatur hashevi'i, 1: 295.29. Ibid., 194.30.Hatur Hashvi'i, 2: 357–8.31. Ziva Shamir offers an alternative reading which does not see Alterman as ambivalent. She stresses the differences between the poet's position and that of Mapai members, thereby attributing to him an extremely critical stance. This article, on the other hand, argued that Alterman took the party line on board even while protesting deviations from correct procedure. His humanitarianism did not supersede his agreement with received party positions. Ziva Shamir, Al Et Ve'al Atar: Poetica Upolitica Beyeztirat Alterman (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuhad, 1999).32. Alterman, Hatur Hashvi'i, 1: 286.33. Alterman, Hatur Hashvi'i, 2: 356.34. Alterman, Hatur Hashvi'i, 1: 294.35. Anna Freud, The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence (New York: International Universities Press, 1946), 75–81.36. Baruch Kimmerling, “Patterns of Militarism in Israel,” European Journal of Sociology 34, no. 2 (1993), http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003975600006640.37. Hanoch Levin, “Hapatriot,” in Ma Ichpat Latzipor: Ma'archonim Vepizmonim (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuhad, 1993), 105–38.38. Yitzhak Laor, Ephraim Hozer Latzava: Mahazeh Be'ehad Asar Tmunot (Tel Aviv: Timon, 1987).39. See in this connection Yehuda Elkana, who argues that Israel's aggressive attitude to the Palestinians derives from deep existential anxiety rooted in ‘interpretations of the lessons of the Holocaust, and the readiness to believe that the entire world is against us and that we constitute the eternal victim’. He sees the consequent violence which Israelis have difficulty freeing themselves of as ‘Hitler's tragic victory’ (Yehuda Elkana, “Bezhut Hashicheha,” Haaretz, March 2, 1988).40. Alterman, Ir Hayona, 146.41. Alterman, Hatur Hashvi'i, 1: 279.Additional informationNotes on contributorsYochai OppenheimerYochai Oppenheimer is professor of Hebrew Literature at Tel Aviv University.
Referência(s)