    Russians in the Holy Land

    By Israel Shamir

    Quarter of a century ago (time runs fast!), when Israel was far more
    intimate than it is today, when we did not value privacy and did not
    know how to spell it, I left my kibbutz in Galilee and moved into a
    house in Jaffa to share it with few families. Such an arrangement was
    quite common these days.

    Once Jaffa was called the Bride of the East, and it competed with its
    neighbours, Beirut and Alexandria. Surrounded by fragrant orange groves,
    this city of one hundred thousand inhabitants boasted the first cinema
    in the Levant, and housed the headquarters of European companies.
    Americans and Germans built their red-roofed houses on its outskirts,
    and in 1909, the East European Jews established Tel Aviv further to the
    north. But her days of prosperity were long gone, in 1948.

    In my days it was (and still is) a dilapidated seaside village to the
    south of the big city. Bulldozers have torn down every second house and
    given the town its jagged look. They have also dumped building waste on
    the seashore, in preparation of big real estate development. Salinger’s
    Esme would love this place of squalor. Still, it is a good place,
    reminiscent of Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet. Drug dealers’ big Cadillacs
    cruise its unpaved streets; kids in long galabie dresses play at the
    corner; the bells of St Anthony Catholic church blend with those of St
    George Orthodox church and with the call of muezzin from the nearby
    Ajami mosque; fishermen carry their catch to the seashore restaurants
    for the diners from Tel Aviv; Palestinian women crack seeds and chat
    outside their homes; the smell of fresh falafel comes from market
    stalls; ten stray cats stare down a king-size rat; the French ambassador
    returns to his residence; a film crew shoots a Beirut scene. We lived
    together, one of the few desegregated communities, in a small sliver of
    the land between the road and the sea, a remainder of Jaffa of old.

    We lived in a crumbling pink mansion built by a Palestinian trader in
    1920s. It was a classic Arab house; yard-thick walls of soft local stone
    kurkar blocked hot easterly wind, wide and high doors allowed bringing
    in a grand piano without much difficulty, spacious rooms, broadleaved
    shesek, a native tree with sweet apricot-like fruits, besieged our
    window. Ceilings painted by Egyptian craftsmen rose six yards high above
    its Italian marble floors. Crown of Count adorned the front, as the
    trader received this title from grateful Vatican in 1928.

    The only entrance of the house led into spacious hall big enough for
    Scarlet O’Hara maiden dance, and from there, six double doors opened
    into six big rooms, where we lived: the Moroccan family, owners of small
    garage, an Armenian guide, a Russian painter who helped us to find the
    place, a Bulgarian family who run a small burekas stall. The owner’s
    family lived there as well, but now they kept only one room, for in 1948
    a Colonel Arad, an old combatant of Yitzhak Rabin, took over the house.

    The Colonel had the legal title over the central hall and he was
    responsible for the rent to be paid to the state authority. He had a lot
    of fun making our life difficult: did not allow us to pass by ‘his
    territory’ after 11, interfered with our guests, incited quarrels and
    carried out traditional policy of divide et impera. He was an East
    European with Russians and Bulgarians against Moroccans and
    Palestinians, a man of cultured elite with the Count and the Russian
    painter, and a Jew against the Count and the Armenian. His strategy
    worked for a long while: Moroccans loved to belong to the ruling Jews;
    Palestinian elite is happy to be considered ‘elite’, Russians are rather
    lost and confused and ready to take up any offer.

    Our Israeli lifestyle reminds me this old Jaffa house. In the centre,
    there are military and political elite of the land, descendents of
    pre-war settlers from the Eastern Europe, generals and media owners, the
    families of Sharon and Barak, Moses and Schocken, Netanyahu and Peres;
    while the side rooms are for ‘minorities’ – Russians and Moroccans,
    native Palestinians and Orthodox non-Zionist Jews, Ethiopians and
    Bulgarians. The ‘minorities’ together present majority, and a huge one;
    but the old colonel succeeded to keep us in the situation of eternal
    strife. One of his preferred tools is ‘the Jewish State’, a device to
    separate and split minorities.

    We, dwellers of Israel, never describe ourselves as ‘Jews’, but refer to
    our community, ‘eidah’ in Hebrew: Israelis are only native-born children
    of old pre-war settlers; but a native born son of Moroccan, Kurdish,
    Iraqi Jewish immigrants remains a Moroccan, a Kurd, an Iraqi. ‘Jews’ is
    identification against Palestinians, as Ashkenazi is identification
    against Sephardis. Thus, a Jewish State means a state where East
    European Jews are on the top, native Palestinians are on the bottom,
    while other communities vie for their position in between by stressing
    their Jewishness. It is seen in shares of property and power: ‘Israelis’
    own 80% of private property, keep 80% of ministries in government,
    professorial positions in universities, leading positions in media.

    The stable situation changed with arrival of the Russians, for a simple
    reason: many of this 1.2 million-strong-community are not considered
    ‘Jews’ by the religious law which is the law of the land. Russian Jews
    intermarried with Russians as much as American Jews with their
    fellow-Americans. What is more important, in the Soviet Union, since the
    days of Lenin and Trotsky, there was a vast effort to assimilate Jews,
    and it succeeded to large extent. Russian Jews became Russified, while
    Russian elites became Jewified.

    Russians in Israel (whether of Jewish origin or not) speak Russian, read
    Russian newspapers, watch Russian TV and eat Russian pork sausage with
    Russian beer. What made these ordinary Russians seek the light of Zion?

    In Russia, as in the US, there are probably at least 20 million people
    entitled to become Israeli citizens. One does not have to be Jewish. If
    your daughter from a first marriage was married to an adopted grandchild
    of a Jew, you can go to Israel with your new family. Former USSR
    republics are in dire straits; their workers get no salary for months,
    so many families send their old folk away to Israel, where they get a
    few thousand dollars upon arrival, a small pension and public housing,
    if they are lucky.

    The majority of arrivals have had no exposure to Judaism or Jewish
    culture in Russia, nor are they interested in. Their Israeli ID cards
    bear the inscription ‘ethnic origin and religion uncertain’. They are
    not considered ‘real Jews’ and their dead are buried beyond the fence,
    on a special plot for those of ‘dubious origin’. After the dreadful
    explosion in the Dolfi discothèque it created a visible problem: the
    religious undertakers refused to bury the dead Russian girls in a Jewish
    cemetery, even as the Israeli government was bombing Palestinians ‘to
    avenge Jewish blood’.

    In the blessed air of the Holy Land many of them look for spiritual and
    religious revival. Judaism attracts but a few, while others turn to the
    Church for comfort. It is a risky enterprise: by Israeli law they can be
    deported for their belief in Christ. They gather and pray away from
    prying eyes, but on holidays they throng the Holy Sepulchre of
    Jerusalem, the Nativity Church of Bethlehem, St George of Lydda and St
    Peter of Jaffa.

    In 1991, when Russia’s future was exceedingly opaque, Israel received a
    lot of young blood from there. Israel-supporters in the US media carried
    out a two-pronged campaign: they warned of forthcoming pogroms, and they
    promoted the idea of a beautiful, easy life for immigrants in the US.
    Whole issues of Newsweek and Time concentrated on the neo-Nazi Pamyat
    group and rampant anti-Semitism. At that time, I was reporting for the
    Haaretz from Moscow, and interviewed Pamyat leaders for it. I found this
    sinister organisation to number about as many members as the Flat Earth
    Society. Still, a nice Russian Jewish film-maker and his wife came to
    our countryside house to arrange for protection in case of a pogrom. I
    tried to calm them down, but I could not fight the mighty media machine
    alone. Ten years later, I met a Russian Jewish lady writer in Jerusalem
    who told me that she had initiated the rumour of pogroms.

    “You Israelis should erect a monument to me,” she said.

    “Certainly”, said I, “Any particular reason?”

    “I brought you a million Russians: I announced on Moscow Echo Radio that
    there will be a pogrom.”

    I hadn’t the heart to disabuse her: her announcements would have had no
    effect if Israel’s American friends hadn’t amplified them. Anyway, the
    frightened and seduced Russians rushed for visas to the American
    embassy, and at that moment Israel requested the US stop granting them
    visas. The US gates were closed, and this mass of people on the move was
    forced to go to Israel.

    They had a hard time, for the Israeli elite subjected them to the unique
    Israeli method of “de-development,” (as one might call it), a method
    already tried out on Oriental Jews and Palestinians. The Israeli media
    described them as a bunch of criminals and prostitutes; they were
    required to sign contracts and promises in Hebrew which they did not
    understand; their specialists were set to sweeping streets or picking
    oranges. Their rate of divorce skyrocketed; and their children were
    pushed into drugs. In 1991, Israel ceased to employ the Palestinians
    from the occupied territories, and the yesterday’s elite of Russia was
    expected to take their place in low-paid menial jobs. But sheer mass
    allowed the Russians to create their own state-within-state, complete
    with its own media, shops, and mutual assistance. The Russians survived,
    and figured out the game. The clever ones went back to Moscow, the
    adventurous left for the US, the peaceable ones departed for Canada.
    Since then, Israel has been getting gets mainly old folks, single
    mothers, and the desperately unemployed.

    The Russians are a nice, hard-working but confused community. They
    hardly understand where they have landed, and incessantly try to compare
    their situation with that in Baku or Tashkent. Perusal of Russian
    newspapers shows people at a loss. One writer demands that Palestinians
    be castrated in order to solve the demographic crisis. Another blames
    everything on religious Jews, describing them as “blood-sucking
    parasites.” A third accuses the Oriental Jews of failing to live up to
    his expectations. They are being taught a brief version of the modern
    Jewish faith and its single commandment: “Thou shalt hate Arabs.”

    Now Prime Minister Ariel Sharon intends to import another million
    “Russian Jews.” It is possible: if the American Jewish friends of Israel
    will put a harder squeeze on Ukraine, ten million Ukrainians may
    suddenly recover their “Jewish roots.” But it is possible that in his
    greed Sharon will completely undermine the Jewish state, for dichotomy
    Jews/non-Jews is not the only possible one. ‘Jews’ in Israel are not an
    ethnic, cultural or religious unit but rather an amalgam of immigrants
    from various countries divided by mutual dislike and distrust and united
    by mighty propaganda machine promoting eternal and innate hatred of
    Gentiles. Such a structure has no real life force, and it can break
    down.

    The population of the Holy Land could be subdivided and classified by
    ‘Jewishness’ into Jews and non-Jews, or by the origin: native or
    adoptive citizens of European, Asian, American, African stock; or by
    relation to Christ into those who accept that Jesus is Christ and who
    rejects it; they can be divided by class, into poor and rich, working
    classes and exploiters, by language – Palestinian Arabic, Mughrabi
    Arabic, Modern Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian, English, French, Amharic
    speakers; or by confession – Orthodox, Catholic, Uniate, Monophysite and
    Protestant Christians; Sunni, Ahmadie, Alawi, Druze Muslims; Bahai;
    Sephardi, Iraqi, Yemenite, Ethiopian, Hassids, Litvak and Kookite Jews,
    or by profession or by place of residence. In other words, ‘Jewishness’
    is not the only natural criterion.

    For all but the elites, the best solution is creation of non-racist,
    democratic state, in which ‘Jewishness’ has no legal value and provides
    no privilege; where to be or not to be a Jew is a personal matter of no
    civic importance. As majority of Russians in Israel are not considered
    'Jews', even if they have Jewish-sounding last names, they suffer of
    many legal and illegal disabilities in the Jewish state. The Russians
    have no advantage in the Jewish supremacy in Israel i.e. supremacy of a
    certain socio-economic group, of wealthy Ashkenazi establishment whose
    neo-liberal position is unsuitable for the socially weaker Russians.
    These people have a strong personal reason to support the idea of 'a
    state for all its citizens', as opposed to the present concept of 'the
    state of and for the Jews wherever they are'.

    For transformation of Jewish supremacy into democracy for all its
    citizens these non-elite groups have to ally with native Palestinians,
    and here the Russians can play the role of avant-garde. Some Russians
    came to this understanding. Last year, their representatives entered
    besieged Ramallah and had met with the representatives of the native
    Palestinians. If this initiative were well met, the mass immigration of
    the Russian 'Jews' to Israel would become the Trojan Horse of Equality
    in the Jewish State.

    But this understanding did not penetrate into Palestinian thinking yet.
    The ‘Israelis’ present the elite group, and native Palestinian elites
    prefer to deal with Israeli elites. ‘Israelis’ are active in Peace Now,
    Gush Shalom and other left-wing groups, while Oriental Jews and Russians
    are perceived as ‘anti-Palestinian’. But it is an erroneous vision. In
    reality, liaison of non-elite groups is the way to deal with entrenched
    ruling minority. The native Palestinians should open direct channels of
    communication with Russians, Moroccans, Orthodox Jews etc – instead of
    empowering the Israeli elite.

    Actually true interests of Russians and Palestinians coincide. For the
    both communities, one democratic state is the solution, and the only way
    to achieve it is to give full citizen rights to the three million
    presently disenfranchised native Palestinians. In the democratised
    Palestine/Israel of nine million citizens the concept of a Jewish State
    will follow its twin, the Aryan State, to oblivion. Much depends on the
    political maturity and wisdom of Palestinian leadership and the remnants
    of the Israeli Left. If all the pro-equality forces were to unite in our
    version of the South African ANC, they can bury apartheid. This union of
    non-elite groups will be able to change the political map of Israel, if
    properly supported and nourished.

    In the transformed state, there will be always an important place for
    the Hebrew-speaking Palestinian community, present ‘Israelis’, the
    nearest equivalent of South African Boers. While their supremacy is
    unacceptable, their equal status is guaranteed. The Hebrew-speakers are
    an integral part of Palestine - not because they are Jews but despite
    the fact that some of them identify themselves as Jews. (Likewise, the
    Boers are South Africans not because of their white skin, but despite
    the fact that some of them attach to it importance.) Indeed, one of the
    ‘Asli Israelis’ (‘pukka Sahib’) the famous painter Shimon Tsabar
    described himself ‘a Hebrew-speaking Palestinian’. The Hebrew-speakers’
    desire for separation of ties with World Jewry and for their
    nativisation in Palestine blossomed in 1950s (Canaanite Movement) but
    was crushed by Ben Gurion’s Secret Police. Now many Israelis petitioned
    the Supreme Court of Israel demanding to replace the ‘Identity – Jew’
    line in their ID cards with the ‘Identity – Israeli/Palestinian’.

    Thus the transformation we seek is not directed against the
    Hebrew-speaking, or indeed, Yiddish-speaking groups, but against their
    special and privileged legal position based on the concept of the Jewish
    State. This concept turned Israel into a colony of World Jewry. Removal
    of the special ties between Hebrew-speakers in Palestine/Israel and the
    Jews abroad is, in a way, a true declaration of Israeli independence. It
    does not preclude some future contacts, as the American Revolution did
    not preclude ‘special relations’ with England after a hundred-year-long
    separation. But on this stage, we need to cut off the umbilical cord of
    Jewishness, to reject the smothering care of American Jews so the child
    won’t suffocate. The settlers should go native.

    The Americans may support this initiative for it will usher in peace in
    the Middle East and stop outflow of their money to the Jewish State.
    What we do not need is the support of organisations like 'Jewish friends
    of Palestine', who bring back the ties with Jewry through the back door.
    Likewise, Mandela would not be interested in organisation called 'White
    Race friends of ANC'. There is no problem with a person who may be
    considered a Jew (or White), but there is an insurmountable problem with
    organised Jewry / White Race bodies. An American Jew has absolutely no
    standing - qua Jew - regarding Palestine. Being a Jew is not a
    qualification; not more than Philatelists for Palestine.

    Such separation will do a lot of good to the adepts of the Jewish faith
    abroad: they will be free to deal with the most important thing for
    every religious man, i.e. with their adoration of the Creator, with
    their prayers, with their spiritual improvement and with the study of
    Torah. Hopefully, people who tend to consider themselves ‘Jews’ but do
    not accept the Jewish faith will recognise their mistake and seek their
    way to God in the way they find fit; for ‘irreligious Jew’ is a concept
    that survives due to the existence of the Jewish state, as otherwise it
    would be as meaningless as ‘atheist Catholic’.

    The religious Jewish communities in the Holy Land will prosper as well,
    for their religious needs won’t be intertwined with the civic burden.
    Without state-imposed ‘Chief Rabbinate’, they will be able to worship
    God the way they find fit, whether Conservative, Liberal, or any other
    Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox school they prefer. Now in the present setup
    the Orthodox Jews are discriminated against, forced to go to the army,
    their chances to find a profession is severely curtailed; while the
    Oriental Jewish communities are forced to accept foreign - for them - ways
    of worship. The Ultra-Orthodox Jews were always against the Jewish State
    for they considered it a revolt against God. Thus, even for religious
    Jewish groups the democracy is the solution.

    Probably the united Palestine will not remain a cold laic state of
    individuals for ever. The fire of Prophets is not dead there. But
    instead of infighting, the people of the Holy Land will look for
    all-embracing way to serve God. To those who say, “But you are
    dreaming,” we shall reply with words of Sami Aldeeb, who presides over
    the Association for One Democratic State in Palestine/Israel: “Do you
    prefer the present nightmare?”