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?”