PREVIOUS     BACK TO HOMEPAGE     NEXT

CHAPTER 2: HELPING MY MOTHER , THEN MILITARY CONSCRIPTION,

                           THEN BECOMING A LAWYER IN TEL-AVIV AND MARRIAGE

 

With big money flowing into her husband's coffers my mother again demanded that he give her the money she needed to build a house-home for us. This time he gave her enough money to pay for the design of the house and for the first down payment to the building contractor so that he would start work on the site. However, when the next payment was due  Moshe Apelstein refused to give her any money unless she would agree that he would become the registered owner of the building. So the fight between the two was on again. My mother decided then to be self- reliant and get the necessary money by increasing her workload at her shop, and I had to spend more time nursing her baby son. It meant that  I could not find sufficient time for my school work, much less time for any other personal needs.

Those intensive experiences and traumas that I went through during my childhood, and now during my adolescence, have sharpened my sense of justice and my determined opposition to any injustice of any kind, anywhere. The first poem I have ever written ( in Hebrew) was a political one, concerning social injustice, and I wrote it when I was 16. By then, and much to dismay of my mother, I joined what was considered by my peers the most radical youth movement in Rehovot : a "left wing" zionist group by the name Hashomer Hatzair ( it took me some 20 years later to find out about the zionist, therefore , the fascist, essence of that organisation). At that stage of my life I had numerous questions, a desire to be part of the "good guys", and much hope...

My mother's much desired home-house was at a stage of half completion. The concrete skeleton of the house was ready as my second year at high school was drawing to an end. She managed to pay for the building of the walls and the roof before she run out of money again, and the building contractor withdrew from the building site altogether. Yet she remained determined to complete the building even by herself, if necessary, and she made me her labourer on the building site. With the money she saved she paid the various sub-contractors who performed the skilled jobs under her supervision. All unskilled jobs were done by the two of us : my mother and myself. The work had to be done after school in my case, and in the case of my mother she took time off her shop and chores. We worked 7 days a week, late into the night.

The new house, now in the process of completion, was situated in the town's market street, a stone throw from the market. Up to 1948 the market had been dominated by Palestinian peasants who had their stalls there for selling their farm produce.  Many of Palestinian stall owners were women in the traditional embroided Arab peasant dresses. Some of them would serve the customers while breastfeeding their babies or while weaving. Alas, they were all gone after the zionist "war of liberation". By 1950 it became an all zionist produce market, and Tnuva, the huge zionist rural monopoly, moved into the street and began building huge stores for its farm produce, as well as a big office block.  It was next door to my mother's new house, and would bring our new home the horrible noise of loading and unloading trucks, day and night. So my mother had a new battle on her hands. This time she had to take court action to stop the noise of the trucks during night time at least.

At the age of 17  I was entering my last year at high school, and I had to spend more time on my studies if I was to pass , at the end of the year, the matriculation exams. Another event at end of that year to worry about was my military conscription for two and half years duration. However, unlike the usual military service I have made up my mind to settle in a Kibbutz, as part of the military service, together with my mates in the zionist youth movement. When my mother heard about my decision she became very unhappy. She knew zionism better than me, and she knew that settling in a Kibbuts would be a waste of time because the zionist regime would reward those who take up a personal career with the aim of climbing the zionist hierarchical ladder, or with a business career. However , my decision was motivated by my deep desire to fight against injustice and build a better future for all humanity, and I mistakenly believed that the road to the Kibbutz  would lead  me to this direction. As for the possibility of refusing military conscription altogether  it never occured to me to even think about it . It was not an option to be considered  then.                              

As soon as I became a part of the collective which was designated to be a military company and do military training before settling in a particular Kibbutz , nothing else mattered to me - not the matriculation exams results, not the objections of my mother, or the opinion of anybody else. However, the period of military training that we had to undergo was very humiliating, as we were subjected to fascist suppression of each one of us as a human being. The purpose of this humiliation was to substitute our human values and our human empathy with blind discipline and with obedience coupled with a ruthless desire to carry out the orders of our superiors. As for our training in Kibbutz life it became clear to us, as time went by, that we have been used as cheap labour by the host Kibbutz. In spite of that ,we had performed our work with great enthusiasm, while dreaming about a would be Kibbutz of our own. Personally, I aimed at being a most hard working person within our collective, and soon I did become the most  sought after labourer by the various branches of the Kibbutz economy. Particularly so when there happened to be a job nobody else wanted to take, while I would be happy to take on.

At the end of one year Kibbutz training we were transferred to our permanent destination, namely, to a 10 years old Kibbutz in Western Galilee. Unlike my mates  the romantic side of our collective commitment was never essential to me and I was prepared to live in that Kibbutz as long as we would be able to maintain our political and ideological commitments to the working class ( believe it or not it was the declared aim of that zionist youth movement which sponsored our collective, but it was a brazen lie, of course). Due to my political involvement I was elected by the Kibbutz to chair the Political Committee of the Kibbutz, and I was rather proud of that. The appointment gave me the opportunity to find out the degree of sincerity of Kibbutz members. Would they be ready to commit themselves as I was ? After all, no one individual can make society change. If changing society is just one person's hobby then what point is there in pretending ? I actually brought the matter before the General Meeting of the Kibbutz, and I demanded a clear decision on the matter. I was then less than 20 years old, but I thought that my age should not be a consideration  in the context of voting  one way or another.

Shortly after being elected I presented to the General Meeting  a detailed plan of action with the participation all members in the implementation of the plan. The plan embraced a range of activities in the neighbouring settlements, Arab and zionist settlements alike. There was no vote taken by the General Meeting because the plan I submitted was considered as my annual report. However, it did not take long for me to realise the extent of political apathy - as I perceived it at that time - and it would lead me to conclude that I should quit the Kibbutz. In retrospect my expectations were misplaced because the Kibbutz, any Kibbutz , is a zionist enterprise, and zionist Kibbutz settlements have been the spearhead of zionist colonisation of Palestine, and anything beyond the zionist interests have no place in a Kibbutz. Therefore, all the talk about justice and equality associated with the Kibbutz are merely zionist propaganda lies. The zionist authorities would not finance Kibbutz settlements otherwise. As I see it now, I was then beginning to find out the truth about zionism, and eventually it would lead me to be anti-zionist.

In early 1955, on the day of my official discharge from the zionist army, I walked out of the Kibbutz heading back to Rehovot. I had no money, no plans, and no real home to go to... and I felt dejected and desolate, but I was physically fit and healthy.

I did not stay for long at my mother's home. I had to earn money as soon as possible so as to stand on my own feet. My search for a well paid job took me to the Dead Sea. During the summer of 1955 I began to work in Sdom, at the south end of the Dead Sea. The work conditions were very harsh, which is why the wages paid there were the highest in the country. When I reached the place the tempratures would reach 40 - 50 degrees Celcius, and by mid summer it would go up as hot as 60. My job involved the construction of new salt and potash ponds, and it would require me to be exposed to the scorching sun all day, for some 10- 12 hours.

By the end of that summer I managed to save enough money to keep me for a whole year in Jerusalem, where I was heading to study law at the Hebrew University. The reason I chose to study law was political. I believed  that by being a lawyer I would be best equipped to fight injustice and help the victims of injustice. Also my hope was that as a lawyer I could perform better in the political arena, which in turn would allow me to help bring about the necessary political changes in the country. I did not have the money making motivation nor did I want to climb the social ladder as a lawyer.

Upon my arrival in Jerusalem I began looking for a job, and I soon found one. The job was that of a school secretary at an elementary school, a full time job. Then a strange thing happened to me. Strange because it concerned a distant relative of my father who lived and died in the USA. She had left behind a small fortune of which I was one of the heirs. Not a big deal ,really, yet enough money to buy for myself  a motor scooter, and still have a few hundred dollars left to put in my bank account. From then on , it seemed , things began moving in a chain of positive events.

With my shiny new scooter, newly increased self confidence, and in a more easy going mood, I had girlfriends who made me feel carefree for the first time in my life. It lead me to neglect my studies, and I lost my well paid job too.  Somehow I managed to complete my studies, and got my formal certificate during 1959 ,which allowed me to start my training as an article clerk in a Tel-Aviv law office.

My first year of legal training was done in the office of the lawyer Shmuel Tamir. who some years later would be Israel's Minister for Justice. The reason I chose to train at his Tel-Aviv's office was that it was famous as the legal centre for struggle against all kinds of corruption and injustices. Tamir was known to the Israeli public as an anti-establishment lawyer, which is why I felt rather proud to be accepted as a trainee after an interview by him. However, despite Tamir's popularity and fame as an anti-establishment lawyer I would soon discover that he himself was part of the zionist ruling class, and that his work as a lawyer was designed to manoeuvre himself into a top political position within the establishment.

Tamir's most celebrated case was his successful role as counsel for the defence in Criminal Case no. 124 of 1953 in the Distric Court of Jerusalem, a trial which became known as the Kastner trial. The trial began in the mid '50s when the Ben Gurion government (zionist labor) instituted a criminal action of libel against a journalist who wrote in his paper that Dr. Rudolf Kastner, a senior government official, and former head of the zionist organisation in Hungary, collaborated with the Hitler murder machine during the 2nd WW. Tamir's line of defence was to expose the zionist labor party as treacherous, but without hurting zionism as a whole. Tamir himself was a fanatical zionist. The judge found the allegations against Kastner to be true, and he went even further to state - as one of his major findings - that the so called "Rescue Committee"of the Jewish Agency ( which is a top zionist organisation) was knowingly and willingly part of the Nazi murder machine. The judge's findings infuriated Kastner who at the time was the head of that "Rescue Committee". Kastner claimed all along that he just obeyed the orders of the top zionist hierarchy in all his dealings with Nazi hierarchy. Kastner threatened to reveal all, and in doing so made himself the target of the zionist Gestapo (Israel's secret service) and they gunned him down outside his Tel-Aviv home.

Upon completion of nearly a year of training at Tamir's office I moved out to do the rest of my training term at a government office  where I got a higher pay, as I needed money to survive. After receiving my lawyer's licence I workd for a few months with another lawyer, and then opened my own law office in one of Tel-Aviv's centres. Shortly before that, on 18 February, 1962, I married my young girlfriend and we began living together in small rented flat near Tel-Aviv. On the 19th of November that year our daughter Rebecca was born, and she brought us a lot of joy.

There were mountains of difficulties and many a battle on my road to an independent legal practice, a law office of my own. I began with very little money, and with no contacts with capitalists or zionists up on the echelons, but I was full of hope for a better future and had the confidence in my human values. The most formidable challenge was, of course, making a living out of my work without abandoning any of my ethics or my proletarian orientation. After two years of exhausting work I was on the way to consolidating my legal practice in every way. In fact, I was doing well enough to afford a holiday with my spouse. On 11 November, 1963, she gave birth to my son whom I named after my father: Israel.

While my law practice had reached a stage of consolidation I became increasinly involved in all kinds of struggles, the most important of which was the struggles for peace based on justice with the Arab people of Palestine. I must have been doing a very good political job because I would soon find out that the zionist Gestapo was on my back.

PREVIOUS     BACK TO HOMEPAGE     NEXT