sephardim-in-israel_-zionism-from-the-standpoint-of-its-jewish-victims.pdf

7/24/2019 sephardim-in-israel_-zionism-from-the-standpoint-of-its-jewish-victims.pdf

1/36

Sephardim in Israel: Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Jewish VictimsAuthor(s): Ella ShohatSource: Social Text, No. 19/20 (Autumn, 1988), pp. 1-35Published by: Duke University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/466176.

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2/36

Sephardim

n

Israel: Zionism

from

he

Standpoint

f

ts

Jewish

ictims

ELLA

SHOHAT

Alternativeritical

iscourse

oncerning

srael nd Zionism as until ow

argely

focussed

n the

Jewish/Arab

onflict,

iewing

srael s a

constituted

tate,

llied

with the West

against

he

East,

whose

very

foundation as

premised

n

the

denial of the

Orient nd of the

legitimate ights

f the Palestinian

eople.

I

would ike to extend

he terms f the debate

beyond

arlier ichotomies

East

versus

West,

Arab

versus

Jew,

alestinian ersus

sraeli)

o

incorporate

n issue

elided

by

previous

ormulations,

o

wit,

he

presence

f

a

mediating

ntity,

hat

of the

Arab

or

Oriental

ews,

hose

ephardi

ews

oming argely

rom heArab

and

Moslem ountries. more

omplete

nalysis,

will

rgue,

must onsider

he

negative

onsequences

f

Zionismnot

only

for he

Palestinian

eople

but

also

for he

Sephardi

Jews

who

now

form he

majority

f the

Jewish

opulation

n

Israel. For Zionism does not

only

undertakeo

speak

for Palestine nd the

Palestinians,

hus

blocking

ll Palestinian

elf-representation,

t also

presumes

to

speak

for

Oriental

Jews.

The Zionist denial of the Arab-Moslem nd

Palestinian

ast, then,

has as its

corollary

he denialof the

Jewish

Mizrahim

(the

Eastern

Ones )

who,

like the

Palestinians,

ut

by

more

subtle

nd less

obviously

brutal

mechanisms,

ave also been

stripped

f the

right

of self-

representation.

ithin

srael,

nd on the

tage

f world

pinion,

he

hegemonic

voiceof sraelhas

almost

nvariably

een

hat

f

European

ews,

he

Ashkenazim,

while he

Sephardi

oicehas been

argely

muffledr

silenced.

Zionism

claims

to be a

liberationmovement

or

all

Jews,

nd Zionist

ideologists

ave

pared

o effortn their

ttempt

o make he wo erms

Jewishand Zionist

irtuallyynonymous.

n

fact, owever,

ionism as been

primarily

a

liberationmovement or

European

Jews

and

that,

s we

know,

roblemati-

cally)

nd more

precisely

or hat

iny

minority

f

European

ews

ctually

ettled

in

Israel.

Although

ionism

claims o

provide

homeland or all

Jews,

hat

homelandwas

not

offeredo all with he same

argess. ephardi

ews

werefirst

brought

o

Israel

for

specific uropean-Zionist

easons,

nd

once

there

hey

were

systematically

iscriminated

gainst by

a Zionism which

deployed

its

energies

and material resources

differentially,

o

the consistent

advantage

of

European

Jews

and to the

consistent etriment

f

Oriental

Jews.

n

this

essay,

1

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3/36

2 Ella

Shohat

would

like to

delineate the situation of structural

ppression experienced

by

Sephardi

Jews

n

Israel,

to

briefly

race the historical

rigins

of

that

oppression,

and

to

propose

a

symptomatic nalysis

of the

discourses-historiographic,

sociological, political

and

journalistic-which

sublimate,

mask and

perpetuate

that

oppression.

Superimposed

on the

East/West

roblematic

will be another

ssue,

related

but

hardly

dentical,

namely

that

of

the relation

between the First and the

Third Worlds.

Although

srael is

not

a Third World

country

y

any

simple

or

conventional

definition,

t does have affinities nd structural

nalogies

to

the

Third

World,

analogies

which

often

go

unrecognized

even,

and

perhaps espe-

cially,

within

srael

itself.

n

what

sense, then,

can

Israel,

despite

the

views

of its

official

pokesmen,

be

seen as

partaking

n

Third Worldness?

irst,

n

purely

demographic

terms,

a

majority

f the Israeli

population

can be seen as Third

World

or at least as

originating

n

the

Third

World. The Palestiniansmake

up

about

twentypercent

of

the

population

while the

Sephardim,

he

majority

f

whom

come,

within

very

recent

memory,

from countries such as

Morocco,

Algeria, Egypt, Iraq,

Iran

and

India,

countries

generally egarded

as

forming

part

of the Third

World,

constitute nother

fifty

ercent

f

the

population,

thus

giving

us

a total of

about

seventy

percent

of

the

population

as Third

World

or

Third

World-derived

and

almost

ninety

percent

f one includes the West Bank

and

Gaza.)

European

hegemony

n

Israel,

n

this

ense,

s

the

product

f a distinct

numerical

minority, minority

n whose interest t is to

downplay

Israel's

Easterness s well as its

Third Worldness.

Within

srael,

European

Jews

constitute First-World lite

dominating

not

only

the

Palestinians but also

the

Oriental

Jews.

The

Sephardim,

s a

Jewish

Third

World

people,

form

a semi-colonizednation-within-a-nation.

y analysis

here is indebted

to anti-colonialist

discourse

generally

Frantz

Fanon,

Aime

Cesaire)

and

specifically

o Edward

Said's

indispensable

contribution

o that

discourse,

his

genealogical critique

of

Orientalism

s the discursiveformation

by

which

European

culture

was able to

manage-and

even

produce-the

Orient

during

he

post-Enlightenmenteriod.1

The Orientalist ttitude

osits

the Orient

as

a

constellation

of

traits,

assigning

generalized

values

to

real

or

imaginary

differences,

argely

to

the

advantage

of the West and the

disadvantage

of the

East,

so as to

justify

he

former's

rivileges

nd

aggressions.

Orientalism

ends

to maintain what

Said calls

a

flexible

positional

superiority,

hich

puts

the

Westerner

n a whole

series

of

possible

relations

with the

Oriental,

but

without

the Westerner ver

losing

the relative

upper

hand.

My essay

concerns, hen,

the

process by

which one

pole

of the East/West

dichotomy

is

produced

and

reproduced

as

rational,

developed, superior

and

human,

and

the

other

as

aberrant, nderdeveloped nd inferior,ut nthis ase as it affects rientalJews.



4/36

Zionism

rom

he

erspectivef

ts

ewish

ictims

3

The ZionistMaster

Narrative

The view of

the

Sephardim

as

oppressed

Third-World

eople goes directly

against

the

grain

of the dominant discourse within srael and disseminated

by

the Western media

outside of Israel.

According

to that

discourse,

European

Zionism

saved

Sephardi

Jews

from

he

harsh rule of their

Arab

captors.

t

took them out of

primitive

onditions

of

poverty

nd

superstition

nd ushered

them

gently

nto a modern

Western

ociety

characterized

y

tolerance,

democ-

racy,

and humane

values,

values with which

they

were but

vaguely

and

erratically

amiliardue

to the levantineenvironments

romwhich

they

came.

Within

srael,

of

course,

they

have suffered

rom he

problem

of the

gap,

not

simply

hat between their tandard

f

living

nd that of

European

Jews,

but also

from the

problem

of their

incomplete ntegration

nto Israeli liberalism nd

prosperity,

andicapped

as

they

have been

by

their

Oriental, lliterate,

espotic,

sexistand

generally re-modern

ormation

n their

ands

of

origin,

as well as

by

their

propensity

or

generating

arge

families.

ortunately,

owever,

he

political

establishment,

he welfare nstitutions

nd

the educational

system

have done

all

in

their

power

to reduce this

gap

by initiating

he Oriental

Jews

nto the

ways

of a

civilized,

modern

society. Fortunately

s

well,

inter-marriage

s

proceeding

apace

and the

Sephardim

have

won

new

appreciation

or heir traditional

ultural

values,

for

their

folkloric

music,

their rich

cuisine and

warm

hospitality.

A

serious

problem

persists,

however.Due to their

nadequate

educationand lack

of

experience

with

democracy,

he

Jews

of

Asia

and

Africa end

to be

extremely

conservative,

ven

reactionary,

nd

religiously

anatic,

n contrast

o the

liberal,

secular,

and educated

European

Jews. Anti-Socialist,

hey

form

the

base

of

support

for the

right-wing

arties.

Given

their cruel

experience

n

Arab

lands,

furthermore,

hey

tend to be

Arab-haters,

nd in this sense

they

have been an

obstacle

to

peace, preventing

he

efforts

f

the Peace

Camp

to make

a

reasonable

settlement

with

the

Arabs.

I will

speak

in a moment

of

the

fundamental

alsity

f

this

discourse,

but I

would like first o

speak

of its wide

dissemination,

orthis discourse s shared

by

right

nd

left,

nd it has its

early

nd late

versions s well

as its

religious

nd

secular variants.

An

ideology

which blames

the

Sephardim

(and

their Third

World

countriesof

origin)

has been elaborated

by

the Israeli

elite,

expressed

by

politicians,

ocial

scientists, ducators,writers,

nd the mass-media.

This ideol-

ogy

orchestrates

n

interlocking

eries of

prejudicial

discourses

possessing

clear

colonialist

overtones.

t is

not

surprising,

n this

context,

o

find he

Sephardim

compared, by

the

elite,

to other lower colonized

peoples.

Reporting

on the

Sephardim

in a

1949

article,

during

the

mass-immigration

rom Arab and

Moslem

countries,the

ournalist

Arye

Gelblumwrote:



5/36

4 Ella Shohat

This

is

immigration

f a

race

we have not

yet

known

n

the

country

...

We

are

dealing

with

people

whose

primitivism

s at a

peak,

whose

level

of

knowledge

s

one of

virtually

bsolute

gnorance,

nd

worse,

who have ittle

talent orunderstandingnythingntellectual.enerally,hey reonly lightly

better han

he

general

evelof the

Arabs,

Negroes,

nd Berbersn

the

same

regions.

n

any

ase,

they

re at an

even

ower

evel

hanwhat

we knew

with

regard

o

the

former rabs f Eretz srael

. .

.

These

Jews

lso ackroots

n

Judaism,

s

they

re

totally

ubordinatedo

the

play

of

savage

nd

primitive

instincts

...

As with

the

Africans

you

will find card

games

for

money,

drunkennessnd

prostitution.

ost of them ave erious

ye,

kin nd sexual

diseases,

without

mentioning

obberies

nd

thefts. hronic

aziness nd hatred

for

work,

here s

nothing

afe about this asocial element . . .

Aliyat

HaNoar

[the

official

rganizationealing

with

young mmigrants]

efuses

o receive

Moroccan hildrennd theKibbutzim illnothear f their

bsorptionmong

them.2

Sympathetically

iting

the

friendly

dvice of

a

French

diplomat

and

sociologist,

the conclusion of the

article makes clear the colonial

parallel operative

in

Ashkenazi

attitudes towards

Sephardim. Basing

his comments

on

the

French

experience

with

ts

Africans

olonies,

the

diplomat

warns:

You

are

making

n

Israelthe same fatalmistake

e

French

made

...

You

open yourgates

too wide to Africans.. the

mmigration

f

a

certain

ind

of

humanmaterial ill debase

you

and

make

you

a

levantine

tate,

nd then

your

ate

will

be sealed.You willdeterioratendbe

lost.3

Lest

one

imagine

this discourse to be

the

product

of

the

deliriumof

an

isolated

retrograde

ournalist,

we

have

only

to

quote

then

Prime

MinisterDavid

Ben

Gurion,

who

described the

Sephardi

mmigrants

s

lacking

even the most

elementary

nowledge

and

without

a

trace

of

Jewish

r human

education. 4

Ben

Gurion

repeatedly xpressed ontempt

for

the culture

f

the Oriental

Jews:

We do notwant sraelisto become Arabs. We are in

duty

boundto

fight

gainst

the

spirit

of

the

Levant,

which

corrupts

ndividuals nd

societies,

and

preserve

the

authentic

Jewish

alues

as

theycrystallized

n

the

Diaspora. 5

Over

the

years

Israeli leaders

constantly

reinforced nd

legitimized

these

prejudices,

which

encompassed

both

Arabs and Oriental

Jews.

For

Abba

Eban,

the

object

should

be

to infuse

the

Sephardim]

with

an

Occidental

spirit,

ather han allow

them

to

drag

us into an

unnatural Orientalism. 6Or

again:

One

of

the

great

apprehensions

which

afflict

us . . .

is

the

danger

lest the

predominance

of

immigrants

f Oriental

origin

force

srael

to

equalize

its cultural

evel

with

that

of the neighboringworld. 7Golda Meir projectedthe Sephardim, n typical



6/36

Zionism

rom

he

erspective

f

ts

ewish

ictims 5

colonialist

fashion,

as

coming

from

another,

ess

developed

time,

for

her,

the

sixteenth

entury

and

for

others,

vaguely

defined Middle

Ages ):

Shall

we be

able,

she

asked,

to elevate

these

mmigrants

o a suitable evel

of

civilization? 8

Ben

Gurion,

who called the Moroccan

Jews

savages

at a session

of a Knesset

Committee,

nd who

compared Sephardim,pejoratively

and

revealingly),to

he

Blacks

brought

o the

United States

as

slaves,

at timeswent so

far

s

to

question

the

spiritual

capacity

and

even the

Jewishness

f the

Sephardim.9

n

an

article

entitled

The

Glory

of

Israel,

published

n

the

Government's

nnual,

the Prime

Minister amented that the divine

presence

has

disappeared

fromthe

Oriental

Jewish

thnic

groups,

while he

praisedEuropean

Jews

or

having

led our

people

in both

quantitative

and

qualitative

terms. 10

Zionist

writings

and

speeches

frequently

dvance

the

historiographicallyuspect

dea that

Jews

of the

Orient,

prior

to their

ingathering

nto

Israel,

were somehow

outside

of'

history,

hus

ironically choing

19th

century

ssessments,

uch as those of

Hegel,

that

Jews,

like

Blacks,

lived outside

of the

progress

of Western Civilization.

European

Zionists in

this

sense resemble

Fanon's colonizer

who

always

makes

history ;

whose life s an

epoch ,

an

Odyssey against

which the natives

form

n almost

inorganic

background.

Again

in

the

early

fifties,

ome

of Israel's most

celebrated

ntellectuals

rom

the Hebrew

University

n

Jerusalem

rote

essays ddressing

he

ethnic

problem.

We

have to

recognize,

wrote

Karl

Frankenstein,

the

primitivementality

f

many

of the

immigrants

rom

backward

ountries,

uggesting

hatthis

mentality

might

be

profitably

ompared

to the

primitive

xpression

of

children,

the

retarded,

or

the

mentally

disturbed. Another

scholar,

Yosef

Gross,

saw the

immigrants

s

suffering

rom

mental

regression

nd

a lack of

development

f

the

ego.

The extended

symposium

concerning

the

Sephardi

problem

was

framed

s

a

debate

concerning

he

essence

of

primitivism.

nly

a

strong

nfusion

of

European

cultural

values,

the scholars

concluded,

would

rescue the

Arab

Jews

from

their backwardness.

And

in

1964,

Kalman

Katznelson

published

his

frankly

acist

The

Ashkenazi

Revolution,

where he

protested

the

dangerous

admission nto Israel of

large

numbersof Oriental

Jews,

nd where he

argued

the

essential,

rreversible

enetic

nferiority

f the

Sephardim,

earing

he

tainting

of

the

Ashkenazi

race

by

mixed-marriage

nd

calling

for

the

Ashkenazim

to

protect

heir

nterests

n

the

face of

a

burgeoning ephardi

majority.

Such

attitudeshave

not

disappeared;

they

are

still

prevalent,

xpressed

by

European

Jews

of the most

diverse

political

orientations.

he liberal

Shulamit

Aloni,

head

of the

Citizen's

Rights

Party

nd a member

f the

Knesset,

n

1983

denounced

Sephardi

demonstrators

s barbarous

tribal

forces hat

were

driven

like

a

flockwith

tom-toms nd

chanting

ike a

savage

tribe. 12

he

implicit

rope

comparingSephardim

to Black Africans

recalls,

ronically,

ne of the favored



7/36

6 Ella

Shohat

topic

of

European

anti-Semitism,

hat of the Black

Jew.

In

European-Jewish

conversations,

ephardim

re sometimes eferredo

as

schwartze-chaies

r

black

animals ).

Amnon

Dankner,

a

columnist

or the

liberal

daily

HaAretz,

favored

by

Ashkenazi intellectualsand known for its

presumably high

journalistic

standards,

meanwhile,

excoriated

Sephardi

traits

s linked to an Islamic culture

clearly

nferior

o

the

Western

ulture we are

trying

o

adopt

here.

Presenting

himself s the

anguished

victimof an

alleged

official

tolerance,

he

journalist

bemoans

his

forced o-habitation

with Oriental

ub-humans:

This

war

[between

shkenazim

nd

Sephardim]

s not

going

o be between

brothers,

ot

because here s

not

going

to be war but because

t

won't

be

between

rothers. ecause f am a

partner

n

this

war,

which s

imposed

n

me, refuseo name he ther ide smy brother. hese renotmybrothers,

these re not

my

isters,

eave

me

alone,

haveno

sister

.

.

.

Theyput

the

sticky

lanket f

the love of Israel over

my

head,

and

they

sk me to be

consideratef the

cultural eficienciesf

the authentic

eelings

f

discrimina-

tion

..

they

ut

me in the

ame

cage

with

hysterical

aboon,

nd

they

ell

me

OK,

now

you

are

together,

o

begin

the

dialogue.

And

I have

no

choice;the

aboon s

against

me,

nd the

guard

s

against

me,and

he

prophets

of the love of

Israel stand side and wink

t

me

witha wise

eye

and tell

me: Speak

o him

nicely.

Throw

him a banana.

After

ll,

you people

are

brothers.. 13

Once

again

we

are reminded of

Fanon's

colonizer,

unable to

speak

of the

colonized

without

resorting

to the

bestiary,

he

colonizer whose

terms

are

zoological

terms.

The

racistdiscourse

oncerning

Oriental

Jews

s not

always

o

over-wrought

or

violent,however;

elsewhere

t

takes

a

humane and

relatively benign

form.

Read,

for

example,

Dr. Dvora and Rabbi

Menachem

Hacohen's

One

People:

The

Story

of

the Eastern

Jews,

an affectionate ext

thoroughly

mbued

with

Eurocentric

prejudice.'4

In

his

introduction,

Abba Eban

speaks

of

the

exotic

quality

of

Jewish

ommunities on the outer

margins

f the

Jewish

world. The

text

proper,

and its

accompanying photographs,

convey

a clear

ideological

agenda.

The

stress

hroughout

s on

traditional

arb,

charming

olkways,

n

pre-modern

craftsmanship,

n cobblers nd

coppersmiths,

n

women

weaving

on

primitive

ooms.

We learn of a

shortage

of

textbooks

n

Yemen,

and the

photographic

evidence shows

only

sacred

writings

on the ktuba

or on Torah

cases,

never secular

writing.Repeatedly,

we

are

reminded

that some

North

African

Jews

nhabited caves

(intellectuals

uch

as

Albert

Memmi

and

Jacques

Derrida

apparently

scaped

this

condition)

and an entire

chapter

s

devoted

to

The JewishCave-Dwellers.

The

actual historical

record, however,

shows that Oriental

Jews

were



8/36

Zionism

rom

he

erspective

f

ts

ewish

ictims 7

overwhelmingly

rban. There

is,

of

course,

no intrinsic

merit

n

being

urban

or

even

any

ntrinsic ault n

living

n cave-like

dwellings.

What

is

striking,

n

the

part

of the

commentator,

s a

kind

of

desire

for

primitivism,

miserabilism

whichfeels

compelled

to

paint

the

Sephardi

Jews

s innocent f

technology

nd

modernity.

he

pictures

f

Oriental

misery

re thencontrastedwith the

uminous

faces of the Orientals n Israel

itself,

earning

o read and

mastering

he modern

technology

f

tractors nd

combines.

The book

forms

art

of a broader national

export

ndustry

f

Sephardi

folklore,

n

industry

which circulates

the

often

expropriated)

goods-dresses, jewelry,

liturgical

objects,

books,

photos

and

films-among

Western

Jewish

nstitutions

ager

for

Jewish

exoticism. n this

sense,

the

Israeli Ashkenazi

glosses

the

enigma

of the Eastern

Jews

for

the

West-a

pattern

ommon

as well

in

academic studies.Ora Gloria

Jacob-Arzooni's

The Israeli Film: Social and Cultural Influences

1912-1973,

for

example,

describes srael's exotic

Sephardi

community

s

having

been

plagued

by

almost

unknown

tropical

diseases -the

geography

here is

somewhat

fanciful-and

virtually

estitute.

The

North African

Jews,

we are told-in

language

which

surprises

o

long

after he demise

of the Third Reich-were

hardly

racially

ure

and

among

them one finds witchcraftnd other

superstitions

ar

removed

from

any

Judaic

aw. 15

We

are

reminded

f Fanon's ironic account

of

the

colonialist

description

of

the natives:

torpid

creatures,

wasted

by

fevers,

obsessed

by

ancestral ustoms.

The

Theft

f

History

An essential feature f colonialism s the distortion nd

even the denial

of

the

history

f the colonized. The

projection

of

Sephardi

Jews

as

coming

from

backward rural societies

lacking

all contact with

technological

ivilization s

at

best

a

simplistic

caricature and at worst

a

complete misrepresentation.

Metropolises

such as

Alexandria,

Baghdad,

and

Istanbul,

in the

period

of

Sephardi

emigration,

were

hardly

he

desolate backwaters

without

electricity

r

automobiles

implied

by

the official Zionist account, nor were these lands

somehow

miraculously

cut

off

from the universal

dynamism

of historical

processes.

Yet

Sephardi

and Palestinian

children,

n Israeli

schools,

are con-

demned

to

study

a

history

f the world that

privileges

he achievements

f the

West,

while

effacing

he civilizations

f the East. The

political dynamics

f

the

Middle

East,

furthermore,

re

presented

only

in relation

to

the

fecundating

influence

f

Zionism

on

the

pre-existing

esert.

The Zionist master-narrative

as

little

place

for

eitherPalestinians

r

Sephardim,

but while Palestinians

possess

a

clear

counter

narrative,

he

Sephardi

story

s a fractured ne embedded

in

the

history f both groups. Distinguishing he evil East (theMoslem Arab) from

the

good

East

(the

Jewish

Arab),

Israel has taken

upon

itself o

cleanse the



9/36

8 Ella

Shohat

Sephardim

of their Arab-ness

and redeem them from their

primal

sin

of

belonging

to

the Orient. Israeli

historiography

bsorbs the

Jews

of Asia

and

Africa nto the monolithic

official

memory

European

Jews.

Sephardi

students

learn

virtually

nothing

of value about their

particular

history

s

Jews

in the

Orient. Much as

Senegalese

and

Vietnamese

hildren earned hat heir

ancestors

the

Gauls

had blue

eyes

and blond

hair,

Sephardi

children re

inculcated

with

the historical

memory

f

our

ancestors,

he

residents

f

the

shtetls

f

Poland

and

Russia,

as well

as

with a

pride

in

the Zionist

Founding

Fathers

for

establishing

pioneer outposts

in a

savage

area.

Jewish

history

s conceived as

primordially

European,

and

the silence of

historical exts

oncerning

he

Sephardim

forms

genteel way

of

hiding

the

discomfiting

resence

of

an

Oriental

other,

here

subsumed

under a

European-Jewish

We.

From the

perspective

of officialZionism, JewsfromArab and Moslem

countries

ppear

on the

world

stage only

when

they

re seen on the

map

of

the

Hebrew

state,

ust

as

the

modern

history

f

Palestine s seen as

beginning

with

the Zionist renewal of

the Biblical

mandate. Modern

Sephardi

history,

n this

sense,

is

presumed

to

begin

with the

coming

of

Sephardi

Jews

to

Israel,

and

more

precisely

with the

Magic

Carpet

or Ali

Baba

operations

the

atter efers

to the

bringing

to Israel of the

Jews

of

Iraq

in

1950-1951,

while

the former

refers o

that of

Yemenite

Jews

n

1949-1950).

The names

themselves,

orrowed

from

A

Thousand and One

Nights,

evoke

Orientalist ttitudes

y

foregrounding

the naive

religiosity

nd the

technological

backwardness f the

Sephardim,

for

whom

modern

airplanes

were

magic

carpets ransporting

hem o the

Promised

Land. The

Zionist

gloss

on the

Exodus

allegory,

hen,

mphasized

he

Egyptian

slavery

Egypt

here

being

a

synecdoche

or ll the

Arab

lands)

and the

beneficient

death

of the

(Sephardi)

desert

generation.

European

Zionism

took on the

Patriarchal

role in the

Jewish

oral

tradition of

Fathers

passing

to

Sons the

experiences

of

their

peoples

( vehigadeta

ebincha

bayom

hahu

.

.

.

).

And the

stories f the Zionist

Pater

drownedout

those of the

Sephardi

fathers hose

tales

thus became

unavailableto the

sons.

Filteredout bya Euro-centric rid,Zionistdiscourse

presents

ulture s the

monopoly

of the

West,

denuding

the

peoples

of Asia

and

Africa,

ncluding

Jewish

peoples,

of all

cultural

expression.

The

rich

culture of

Jews

from

Arab and

Moslem

countries s

scarcely

tudied

n

Israeli schools

and academic

nstitutions.

While

Yiddish is

prized

and

officially

ubsidized,

Ladino

and other

Sephardi

dialects re

neglected- Those

who

do not

speak

Yiddish,

Golda

Meir once

said,

are

not

Jews -Yiddish,

through

n ironic

urn f

history,

ecame for

Sephardim

the

language

of

the

oppressor,

a coded

speech

linked

to

privilege.16

While the

works

of

Sholem

Aleicham,

Y.D. Berkowitz,

Mendle Mocher

Sfarim re exam-

ined in great detail,theworks of Anwar Shaul, Murad Michael, and Salim

Darwish

are

ignored,

and when

Sephardi

figures

re

discussed,

their

Arabness

s



10/36

Zionism

rom

he

erspective

f

ts

ewish

ictims

9

downplayed.

Maimonides,

Yehuda

HaLevi

and

Iben

Gabirol are viewed

as

the

product

of a

decontextualized

Jewish

radition,

r

of

Spain,

i.e.

Europe,

rather

than

of

what even

the

OrientalistBernard

Lewis recognizes

s the

Judeo-Islamic

symbiosis.

Everything

conspires

to

cultivate

the

impression

that

Sephardi

culture

prior

to

Zionism

was

static and

passive

and,

like the

fallow

land

of

Palestine,

ying

n

wait

for the

impregnating

nfusion

f

European

dynamism.17

Although

Zionist

historiography

oncerning

Sephardim

consists of

a

morbidly

selective

tracing

the dots from

pogrom

to

pogrom

(often

separated

by

centu-

ries),

part

of a

picture

of a life of

relentless

oppression

and

humiliation,

n

fact

the

Sephardim

lived,

on the

whole,

quite comfortably

within

Arab-Moslem

society.

Sephardi

history

can

simply

not

be

discussed

in

European-Jewish

terminology;

ven the

word

pogrom

derives from and is reflective

f

the

specificities

f the

European-Jewish

xperience.

At thesame

time,

we shouldnot

idealize the

Jewish-Moslem

elationship

s

idyllic.

While it is

true that

Zionist

propaganda exaggerated

he

negative aspects

of

the

Jewish

ituation

n

Moslem

countries,

and while the

situation of these

Jews

over fifteen enturies

was

undeniably

etter han

n the Christian

ountries,

he factremains hatthe

status

of dhimmi

applied

to both

Jews

and Christians

s tolerated

and

protected

minorities

was

intrinsicallynegalitarian.

But

this

fact,

as Maxime

Rodinson

points

out,

was

quite

explicable

by

the

sociological

and

historical onditions

of

the

time,

and not

the

product

of

a

pathological

European-style

nti-Semitism.'7

The

Sephardi

communities,

while

retaining

strong

collective

identity,

were

generally

well-integrated

nd

indigenous

to

their countries

of

origin,

forming

an

inseparable

part

of

their

ocial and cultural

ife.

Thoroughly

Arabized

n their

traditions,

he

Iraqi

Jews,

for

example,

used Arabic

even

in their

hymns

and

religious

ceremonies.

The liberal and

secular trends

of the

twentieth-century

engendered

n even

stronger

ssociation

of

Iraqi

Jews

nd

Arab

culture

llowing

Jews

to achieve

a

prominentplace

in

public

and cultural

ife.

Jewishwriters,

poets

and scholars

played

a vital

role in Arab

culture,

ranslating,

or

example,

books

fromother

anguages

into

Arabic.

Jews

distinguished

hemselves

n

Iraqi

Arabic-speaking

heatre,

nmusic,as

singers, omposers

nd

players

ftraditional

instruments.

n

Egypt,

Syria,

Lebanon,Iraq,

and

Tunisia,

Jews

became members

of

legislatures,

f

municipal

councils,

of

the

judiciary,

nd even

occupied

high

economic

positions;

the

Finance

Minister

of

Iraq,

in the

forties,

was Ishak

Sasson,

and

in

Egypt,

Jamas

Sanua-higher positions,

ironically,

han

those

usually

chieved

by

Sephardim

within he

Jewish

tate.

The

Lure

of

Zion

Zionist historiography resents he emigration f Arab Jewsas the resultof a

long history

of

anti-Semitism,

s well as

of

religious

devotion,

while Zionist



11/36

10

Ella

Shohat

activistsfrom the

Arab-Jewish

ommunities tress the

importance

of Zionist-

ideological

commitment s

a

motivation

for

the exodus.

Both

versions

neglect

crucial

elements:

the

Zionist economic

interest n

bringing Sephardim

to

Palestine/Israel,

hefinancial nterest f

specific

Arab

regimes

n their

departure,

historical

developments

n

the wake

of

the

Arab/Israeli

onflict,

s

well as the

fundamental onnection between the

destiny

f

the

Arab-Jews

nd

that of the

Palestinians.

Arab

historians,

s

Abbas

Shiblack

points

out

in

The

Lure

of

Zion,

have also

underestimated he extent

o which

the

policies

of

Arab

governments

in

encouraging

Jews

to leave were

self-defeating

nd

ironically

helpful

to the

Zionist cause and harmful

both to

Arab

Jews

and Palestinians.18 t is

first

important

o remember hat

Sephardim,

who

had lived

in

the Middle East and

North Africafor

millennia

often

even before

the

Arab

conquest),

were

simply

not

eager

to settle in Palestine and had to be lured to Zion.

Despite

the

Messianic

mystique

of

the Land of

Zion

which

formed

an

integral

part

of

Sephardi

religious

ulture,

hey

did

not share

the

European-Zionist

esireto end

the

diaspora by

creating

n

independent

tate

peopled

by

a

new

archetype

f

Jew.

Sephardim

had

always

been

in

contact

with the

promised

and ,

but this

contact formed

natural

part

of

a

general

circulation

within

the countries f

the

Ottoman

Empire. Up through

the

thirties,

t

was

not uncommon

for

Sephardim

to make

purely

religious

pilgrimages

r

business

trips

to

Palestine,

at timeswith the

help

of

Jewish-owned

ransportationompanies.

Although

he

Zionist

geographical

mindset

projected

the

Sephardi

ands of

origin

as remote

and

distant,

n fact

they

were,

obviously,

closer to

Eretz

Israel

than

Poland,

Russia and

Germany.)

Before the

Holocaust and the foundation

of

Israel,

Zionism had been

a

minority

movement

among

world

Jewry.

he

majority

f

Sephardi

Jews

were

either ndifferentr at

timeseven hostileto

the

Zionist

project.

The

Iraqi-Jewish

leadership,

for

example, co-operated

with the

Iraqi

government

o

stop

Zionist

activity

n

Iraq;

the Chief Rabbi

of

Iraq

even

published

n

Open

Letter n 1929

denouncing

Zionism

and

the

Balfour

Declaration.19

n

Palestine,

some of the

leadersof the local (Sephardi) Jewish ommunitymade formalprotests gainst

Zionist

plans.

In

1920,

they

signed

an

anti-Zionist

petition

organized

by

Palestinian

Arabs,

and

in 1923 some

Palestinian

Jews

met

in a

synagogue

to

denounce

Ashkenazi-Zionist

rule-some

even cheered the Moslem-Christian

Committee

and

its

leader

Mussa Chasam

al-Chuseini-an

event which the

National

Jewish

Committee

managed

to

prevent

from

being published

in the

newspapers.20

ionism,

in

this

period,

created

wrenching

deological

dilemmas

for he Palestinian

Jewish,

Moslem and Christian

ommunities

like.The national

Arab movement in Palestine

and

Syria,

carefully istinguished,

n the

early

phases,between the Zionist immigrantsnd thelocal Jewishnhabitantslargely



12/36

Zionism

rom

he

erspective

f

ts

ewish

ictims

11

Sephardim)

who live

peacefully

mong

the

Arabs. 21

he

first

etition

f

protest

against

Zionism

by

the

Jerusalem

rabs stated

n

November,1918:

We want

to

live

...

in

equality

with our Israelite

brothers, ongstanding

natives of this

country;

their

rights

are

our

rights

and their

duties are

our

duties. 22

The

all-Syrian

onvention

of

July

1919, attended,

by

a

Sephardi

representative,

ven

claimed

to

represent

ll

Arab-Syrians,

Moslem,

Christians

nd

Jews.

The

mani-

festo

of the first

alestinian

convention

n

February

1919

also insisted on the

local

Jewish/Zionist

istinction

nd even in

March, 1920,

during

the massive

demonstrations

gainst

the

Balfour

declaration,

he

Nazareth

area

petition poke

only

against

Zionist

immigration

nd not

against

Jews

n

general:

The

Jews

re

people

of

our

country

who

lived

with us before the

occupation,

they

are our

brothers,

eople

of

our

country

nd

all the

Jews

f

the world

are

our brothers. 23

At the same

time,

there were real

ambivalences

nd

fears

on

the

part

of both

Arab

Jews

nd Arab

Moslems and

Christians.While some

Moslem

and Christian

Arabs

rigorously

maintained the

Zionist/Jewish

istinction,

others were less

cautious.

In

Nazareth,

the Palestinian

Anglican

priest

of Nazareth

deployed

theological

arguments gainst

the

Jews

n

general,

while Arab

mobs,

both

in

1920

and

again

in

1929,

did not

distinguish

etween Zionist

targetsper

se and

the traditional

ommunities

uite

uninvolved

n

the

Zionist

project.24

ionism,

then,

brought

painful

binarism nto the

formerly

eacefulrelationship

etween

the two

communities. The

Sephardi

Jew

was

prodded

to

choose

between

anti-Zionist Arabness and a

pro-Zionist

Jewishness.

or the first ime in

Sephardi

history,

Arabness

and

Jewishness

were

posed

as

antonyms.

The

situation ed

the Palestinian

Arabs, meanwhile,

o

see all

Jews

s

at least

potential

Zionists.

With

the

pressure

f

waves

of

Ashkenazi-Zionist

immigration

nd the

swelling power

of

its

institutions,

he

Jewish/Zionist

istinctionwas

becoming

more

and

more

precarious,

much

to

the

advantage

of

European

Zionism. Had

the

Arab

nationalist

movementmaintained

his

distinction,

s even the Zionist

historian

Yehoshua

Porath

has

recognized,

t

would have had

significant

hances

for

enlisting

ephardi support

n

the anti-Zionist

ause.

Outside of

Palestine,

meanwhile,

t was not an

easy

taskfor Zionism to

uproot

the

Arab-Jewish

ommunities.

n

Iraq,

for

example,

despite

the Balfour

Declaration n

1917,

despite

the

tensions

generated

y

Palestinian/Zionist

lashes

in

Palestine,

despite

Zionist

propaganda

among

Sephardi

Jews

n

Arab-Moslem

lands,

despite

the

historically

typical

attacks

on

Iraqi-Jews

n 1941

(attacks

inseparable

from

the

geopolitical

conflicts

of

the

time),

and even

after

the

proclamation

f Israeli

statehood,

most

Arab

Jews

were notZionistand remained

reluctant

o

emigrate.

ven

subsequent

to the foundation f the

State

the

Jewish

community

n

Iraq

was

constructing

ew

schools and

founding

new

enterprises,

clear evidence of an institutionalizedntention o

stay.

When the

Iraqi govern-



13/36

12

Ella

Shohat

ment

announced

in

1950

that

any

Jews

who

wanting

to leave

were

free to

do

so

contingent

pon

relinquishing

heir

citizenship

nd

property,

nd set

a

time

limitfor the

exodus,

only

a few

families

pplied

forexit

permits.

ince

the carrot

was insufficient,herefore, stick was

necessary.

A Jewish

underground

ell,

commanded

by

secret

agents

sent

from

srael,

planted

bombs

in

Jewish

enters

so as to create

hysteria mong

Iraqi

Jews

and

thus

catalyze

a

mass exodus

to

Israel.25 n one

case,

on

January

4,

1951,

a bomb

was

thrown nto the

courtyard

of

the

Mas'ouda

Shemtob

synagogue

n

Baghad,

at

a

time

when hundreds

were

gathered.26

our

people,

including

a

boy

of

12,

were killed and a

score

were

wounded.

These

actions

appear

to

have

been the

product

of

a collusion

between

two

groups-Israeli

Zionists

(including

a

small

group

of

Iraqi

Zionists),

and

factions

n

the

Iraqi

government

largely

the

British-oriented

uler

Nuri

Said)

who were

pressured

by

the international ionist-led

campaign

of denunciation

and who had

an immediate

financial

nterest

n

the

expulsion

of

the

Iraqi

Jews.

Caught

in the

vice of

Iraqi

government-Zionist

ollaboration,

the

Sephardi

community

panicked

and

was

virtually

orced

to leave. What its

proponents

themselves

alled

cruel

Zionism -namely

the

idea that Zionists

had to

use

violent

means

to

dislodge

Jews

from

xile-had

achieved

ts ends.

The

same

historical

process

that

dispossessed

Palestinians

f

their

property,

lands

and

national-political

ights,

was linked to the

process

that

dispossessed

Sephardim

of their

property,

ands

and rootedness

n

Arab countries

and

within

Israel itself, f their

history

nd culture.)This overall

process

has been cynically

idealized

in

Israel's

diplomatic

pronouncements

s a

kind

of

spontaneous

population

exchange,

and

a

justification

or

expelling

Palestinians,

but

the

symmetry

s

factitious,

orthe

so-called return

rom

xile

of the

Arab

Jews

was

far

from

pontaneous

and in

any

case

cannot

be

equated

with

the condition

of

the

Palestinians,

who

have been exiled from

heirhomeland

and

wish

to return

there.

In

Israel

itself,

as

the

Palestinians

were

being

forced to

leave,

the

Sephardim

underwent

complementary

rauma,

kind

of

image

in

negative,

s

it

were,

of the Palestinian

experience.

The

vulnerable new

immigrants

were

ordered roundbyarrogant fficials, ho calledthem humandust, ndcrowded

into

ma'abarot

transient

amps),

hastily

onstructed ut

of

corrugated

in.

Many

were

stripped

of their

unpronouncable

Arab,

Persian

and Turkish

names

and

outfitted

with

Jewish

names

by

God-like

Israeli bureaucrats.

he

process

by

which

millenial

pride

and

collective

self-confidence

nd

creativity

were to

be

destroyed

was

inaugurated

here.

This

was a kind

of

Sephardi

middle

passage,

where the

appearance

of a

voluntary

returnfrom

xile masked

a

subtle

series

of coercions.

But while Palestinians

have been

authorized o

foster hecollective

militancy

f

nostalgia

n exile

(be

it under an

Israeli,

Syrian,

Kuwaitian

passport

or on the basis of laissez-passer),Sephardimhave been forcedby their no-exit



14/36

Zionism

rom

he

erspective

f

ts

ewish

ictims

13

situation

to

repress

their communal

nostalgia.

The

pervasive

notion of one

people

reunited n their ncient

homeland

actively

isauthorizes

ny

affectionate

memory

f life

before he

State of

Israel.

Hebrew

Work:

Myth

nd

Reality

The

Zionist

ingathering

rom he four corners f the earth was

never

the

beneficent

enterpriseportrayedby

official

discourse. From the

early days

of

Zionism

Sephardim

were

perceived

as

a

source of

cheap

labor that had to

be

maneuvered nto

emigrating

o

Palestine.

The

economic structurewhich

op-

presses Sephardim

in Israel was set in

place

in the

early days

of the

Yishuv

(pre-state

ionist

settlementn

Palestine.)Among

the

orienting rinciples

f the

dominant Socialist

Zionism,

for

example,

were the

twin

notions

of Avoda vrit

(Hebrew

Work)

and AvodaAtzmit

Self-Labor),

suggesting

hat

a

person,

and

a

community,

hould earn from heir

wn and not fromhired

abor,

an idea whose

origins

trace

back to

the

Haskalah

or

18th-century

ebrew

Enlightenment.

Many

Jewish

thinkers,

writers and

poets

such as

Mapu,

Brenner,

Borochov,

Gordon

and

Katzenelson

highlighted

the

necessity

of

transforming

ews

by

productive

abor,

especially agricultural

abor. Such

thinkers dvanced Avoda

Ivrit as

a

necessary

re-condition

or

Jewish

ecuperation.

he

policy

and

practice

of Avoda

Ivprit eeply

affected

he

historically ositive self-image

f the Hebrew

pioneers

and laterof Israeli as involved n a non-colonial

enterprise,

hich unlike

colonialist

Europe

did not

exploit

the natives and

was, therefore,

erceived

s

morally

uperior

n

its

aspirations.

In

its

actual

historical

implication,

however,

Avoda vrit

had

tragic

conse-

quences

engenderingpolitical

tensions not

only

between Arabs

and

Jews,

but

also between

Sephardim

and Ashkenazim as well

as between

Sephardim

and

Palestinians.

At

first,

he

European

Jewish

ettlers ried to

compete

with

Arab

workers or

obs

with

previously

ettled

Jewish

mployers;

Hebrew

Work

then

meant in

reality

the

boycotting

of

Arab

work. The

immigrants'

emands

for

relatively

igh

salaries

precluded

their

mployment,

owever,

hus

eading

to the

emigration

of a

substantial

proportion.

At

a

time

when even the

poorest

of

Russian

Jews

were

heading

toward the

Americas,

t

was difficult o convince

European

Jews

to

come to

Palestine.

It was

only

after

he failure f Ashkenazi

immigration

hat the Zionist institutions

ecided to

bring

Sephardim.

Ya'acov

Tehon

from

he Eretz

Israel

Office

wrote n

1908 about this

problem

f

Hebrew

workers. After

detailing

the economic

and

psychological

bstacles to the

goal

of

Avoda Ivrit

as well as the

dangersposed

by

employing

masses of

Arabs,

he

proposed, along

with other official

Zionists,

the

importation

f

Sephardim

to

replace

theArab

agricultural

workers. ince it is doubtfulwhether heAshke-



15/36

14

Ella

Shohat

nazi

Jews

re

talentedforworkother han n the

city,

e

argued,

there s a

place

for the

Jews

of

the

Orient,

and

particularly

or the Yemenites nd

Persians,

n

the

profession

f

agriculture.

ike

the

Arabs,

Tehon

goes

on,

they

are

satisfied

with

very

ittle and in this sense

they

can

compete

with

them. 28

imilarly,

n

1910,

Shmuel

Yavne'eli

published

in

HaPoel

HaTzair

(The

Young

Worker,

he

official

Organ

of the Zionist

Party

of the Workers n Eretz

Israel,

later

part

of

the

Labor

Party),

a

two-part

rticle ntitled

The

Renaissance of Work

and the

Jews

of the

Orient

in which he called for an

Oriental

Jewish

olution for the

problem

of the Arab workers.

Hazvi

newspaper gave expression

to this

increasingly

isseminated

osition:

This s

the

imple,

atural

orker

apable

f

doing ny

kind f

work,

without

shame,

without

hilosophy,

nd also without

oetry.

AndMr. Marx s of

course

bsent oth

from is

pocket

nd

from is

mind. t is not

my

ontention

that

the

Yemenite lement hould

remain n

its

present

tate,

hat

s,

in his

barbarian,

ild

present

tate .. the

Yemenitef

today

till xists

t

the

ame

backwardevel

s theFellahins

..

they

an

take

he

place

f

theArabs.29

Zionist

historiographers

ave

recycled

hese

colonialist

myths,

pplied

both

to Arabs and

Arab

Jews,

s a means for

ustifying

he

class-positioning

nto which

Sephardim

were

projected.

Yemenite workers

have

been

presented

s

merely

workers,

ocially

primeval

matter, while Ashkenaziworkers s creative and

idealists,

ble to be

devoted

to the

ideal,

to createnew moulds and new

content

of

life. 30

Regarded by

European

Zionists as

capable

of

competing

with

Arabs but

refractory

o more

lofty

ocialist

and Nationalist

deals,

the

Sephardim

seemed

ideal

imported

aborers. Thus

the

concept

of natural

workers

with minimal

needs,

exploited

by

such

figures

s Ben

Gurion and Arthur

Rupin,

came to

play

a

crucial

deological

role,

a

concept

subtextually

inked o

color;

to

quote Rupin:

Recognizable

in them

Yemeni-Jews]

s the

touch of

Arab

blood,

and

they

have

a verydark color. 31The

Sephardim

offered he further

dvantage

of

generally

being

Ottoman

subjects,

and

thus,

unlike most

Askkenazim,

without

legal

difficultiesn

entering

he

country,

artially

hanksto

Jewish

Sephardi) repre-

sentation

n

the

Ottoman Parliament.32

Tempted

by

the

idea of

recruiting

Jews

in

the form

of

Arabs,

Zionist

strategists greed

to

act on the

Sephardi

option.

The

bald

economic-political

interest

motivating

his selective

ingathering

s

clearly

discernible n

emissary

Yavne'eli's

lettersfrom

Yemen,

where he

states his

intention

f

selectingonly

young

and

healthy

people

for

immigration.33

is

reports

about

potential

Yemenite aborersgo into greatdetail about the physicalcharacteristicsf the



16/36

Zionism

rom

he

erspective

f

ts

ewish

ictims 15

different emenite

regional groups,

describing

the

Jews

of

Dal'a,

for

example,

as

healthy

with

strong egs,

in

contrast

with

the

Jews

of Ka'ataba with

their

shrunken

aces and

skinny

hands. 34These

policies

of a

quasi-eugenic

election

were

repeated during

the fiftiesn

Morocco,

where

young

men were chosen

for

aliya

on the basis of

physical

nd

gymnastic

ests.

Often

deluding

Sephardim

about

realities

n the land of milk and

honey,

Zionist emissaries

engineered

he

mmigration

f

over

10,000

Sephardim largely

Yemenites)

before

World

War I.

They

were

put

to work

mainly

as

agricultural

day-laborers

n

extremely

arsh

conditions

to

which,

despite

Zionist

mythology,

they

were

decidedly

ot

accustomed. Yemenitefamilies

were crowded

together

n

stables,

pastures,

windowless cellers

(for

which

they

had

to

pay)

or

simply

obliged

to

live

in the

fields.

Unsanitary

conditions

and

malnutrition aused

widespread

disease and

death,

especially

of infants.The Zionist Association

employers

nd the

Ashkenazi andowners nd their

overseers reated

he

Yeme-

nite

Jews

brutally,

t

times

abusing

even the women

and children

who

labored

over ten hours

a

day.35

The

ethnic division of

labor,

in

this

early

stage

of

Zionism,

had

as

its

corollary

he sexual division

of labor. Tehon wrote n

1907

of the

advantages

of

having

Yemenite families

living permanently

n the

settlements,

o

that

we

could also

have women and

adolescent

girls

work n

the

households

nstead

of

the Arab

women

who now

work

t

high

salaries

s

servants

in almost

everyfamily

f the

colonists. 36

ndeed,

the

fortunate

women

and

girls

worked as

maids,

the rest worked in the fields.Economic and

political

exploitation

went hand in

hand

with

habitual

European feelings

f

superiority.

Any

treatment ccorded

to the

Sephardim

was

thought

to be

legitimate,

ince

they

were

bereft,

t was

assumed,

of

all

culture,

history

r material

chievement.

Sephardim

were

excluded, furthermore,

rom the

socialist

benefits ccorded

European

workers.37

abor

Zionism,

through

he

Histadrut,

managed

to

prevent

Yemenites

from

owning

land or

joining cooperatives,

hus

limiting

hem

to the

role of

wage-earners.

s

with the Arab

workers,

he dominant

socialist

deology

within

Zionism

thus

provided

no

guarantee against

ethno-centrism.

While

presenting

Palestine as an

empty

and to be transformed

y

Jewish

abor,

the

Founding

Fathers

presented

Sephardim

as

passive

vessels

to

be

shaped

by

the

revivifying

pirit

f

PrometheanZionism.

At

the

same

time,

he

European

Zionistswere not

enthralled

y

the

prospect

of

tainting

he

settlementsn

Palestinewith

an

infusion f

Sephardi

Jews.

The

very

idea was

opposed

at

the first Zionist

Congress.38

In their

texts

and

congresses,

European

Zionists

consistently

ddressedtheirremarks

o Ashkenazi

Jews

and

to

the

colonizing

empires

which

might

provide

support

for

a

national

homeland;

the

visionary

reams of a Zionist

Jewish tate were not

designed

for

theSephardim.But theactualrealization fthe Zionistproject n Palestine,with



17/36

16

Ella Shohat

its concomitant

ggressive

ttitude oward

all

the local

peoples,

brought

with

t

the

possibility

f the

exploitation

f

Sephardi

Jews

as

part

of

an

economic

and

political

base. The

strategy

f

promoting Jewishmajority

n Palestine

n

order

to

create a

Jewish

national homeland entailed

at

first he

purchase

nd

later the

expropriation

f

Arab land.

The

policy,

favored

by

the

Zionut

Maa'asit

Practical

Zionism )

of

creating

de facto

Jewish

ccupation

of Arab

land formed crucial

element

in

Zionist claims

on Palestine.

Some Zionists

were

afraid

that Arab

workers

n

Jewish

ands

might omeday

declare

that the

land

belongs

to those

who

work

it,

whence the

need for

Jewish

Sephardi)

workers.

This skewed

version of Avoda

Ivrit

generated

a

long-term

tructural

ompetition

between

Arab

workers and the

majoritarian

group

of

Jewish

Sephardi)

workers,

now

reduced

to the

status

of a

subproletariat.

It

was

only

after the

failure of

European

immigration-even

in

the

post-Holocaust

era most

European

Jews

chose to

emigrate

lsewhere-that the

Zionist establishmentdecided

to

bring Sephardi

immigrants

n masse. The

European

Zionist

rescue

phantasy

concerning

he

Jews

of the

Orient,

in

sum,

masked

the need

to

rescue

itself

rom

possible

economic

and

political collapse.

In

the

1950's,

similarly,

ionist officials ontinued

to show ambivalence bout

the mass

importation

of

Sephardi

Jews.

But once

again

demographic

and

economic

necessities-settling

the

country

with

Jews,

ecuring

he

borders

and

having

aborers

o

work nd soldiers o

fight-forced

he

European

Zionist

hand.

Given

this

subtext,

t is instructive o read the sanitized

versions

promoted

ven

by

those most

directly

nvolved

n

the

exploitation

f

Sephardi

abor.

Yavne'eli's

famous

Shlihut

Zionist

emissary

promoting

liya)

to

Yemen,

for

example,

has

always

been

idealized

by

Zionist

texts. The

gap

between

the

private

and the

more

public

discourse

s

particularly

triking

n the

case of

Yave'elihimselfwhose

letters o Zionist

institutions tress

he searchfor

cheap

labor

but

whose memoirs

present

his

activity

n

quasi-religious

angauge,

as

bringing

to

our brothers

Bnei-Israel

[Sons

of

Israel],far way

in

the land of

Yemen,

tidings

from

Eretz

Israel,

the

good tidings

of

Renaissance,

of the Land and of

Work. 39

The

Dialectics

fDependency

These

problems,

present

n

embryonic

orm n

the

time of the

pre-state

ra,

came to theirbitter

fruition fter he establishment

f

Israel,

but now

explained

away by

a more

sophisticated

et of rationalizations

nd

idealizations.

srael's

rapid

economic

development

during

the fifties

nd

sixtieswas achieved

on

the

basis of a

systematicallynequal

distribution

f

advantages.

The socio-economic

structure as thus formed

ontrary

o the

egalitarianmyths haracterizing

srael's

self-representation

ntil the last decade. The

discriminatory

ecisionsof Israeli



18/36

Zionism

rom

he

erspective

f

ts

ewish

ictims

17

officials

gainst Sephardim

began

even before

Sephardi

arrival

n Israel and were

consciously

premised

n the

assumption

hatthe

Ashkenazim,

s

the self-declared

salt

of

the

earth,

deserved

better

onditions

nd

special

privileges. 40

In contrastwithAshkenazi

immigrants,ephardim

were treated

nhumanely

already

n the

camps

constructed

y

the Zionists

in

their ands of

origin

as

well

as

during

transit.A

Jewish

Agency report

on

a

camp

in

Algiers speaks

of

a

situation n which

more

than

fifty

eople

were

living

n

a

room

of four

or

five

square

meters. 41

doctor

working

n a

Marseille

transit

camp

for

North

African

Jewish

mmigrants

otes thatas

a result

f

the bad

housing

and the recent ecline

in

nutrition hildrenhave

died,

adding

that I can't

understand

why

in all the

European

countries the

immigrants

re

provided

with clothes while the North

African

immigrants

re

provided

with

nothing. 42

When information

bout

anti-Sephardi

discrimination n Israel filteredback to North

Africa,

there

occurred

decline

in

immigration.

ome left he transit

amps

n

order to return

to

Morocco,

while

others,

to

quote

a

Jewish

Agency emissary,

ad

virtually

to

be taken aboard the

ships

by

force. 43

n

Yemen,

the

voyage

across

the

desert,

exacerbated

by

the inhuman

conditions

in

the Zionist transit

camps,

led

to

hunger,

isease and massive

death,

resulting

n

a

brutalkind

of

natural election.

Worrying

bout the burden

of

caring

for

ick

Yemenites,

ewish

Agency

members

were reassured

by

their

colleague

Itzhak

Refael

(Nationalist

Religious Party)

that there

s

no need to fear

the

arrival

f

a

large

number

of

chronically

ll,

as

they

have to walk

by

footforabout two weeks. The

gravely

ll will not be able

to

walk.' 44

The

European-Jewish

corn

for

Eastern-Jewish

ives and

sensibilities-at

times

projected

onto the

Sephardim

by

Ashkenazi

orientalizing experts

who

claimed

hatdeath for

Sephardim

was a

common

and natural

hing -was

evident

as well in

the notorious

incident

of

the

kidnapped

children

of Yemen. 45

Traumatized

by

the

reality

of life

in

Israel,

some

Sephardim,

most of them

Yemenites,

ell

prey

to a

ring

of

unscrupulous

doctors,

nurses nd

social workers

who

provided

some six

hundred Yeminite babies for

adoption

by

childless

Ashkenazicouples (some of themoutside of Israel), while

telling

the natural

parents

that the

children had died. The

conspiracy

was

extensive

enough

to

include the

systematic

ssuance of fraudulent eath

certificates or the

adopted

children nd to ensure

that over

severaldecades

Sephardi

demands

for

nvestiga-

tion were silenced and

information as

hidden

and

manipulated

by

Documents

sephardim-in-israel_-zionism-from-the-standpoint-of-its-jewish-victims.pdf