Poetry bridges Mid-East conflict

Poetry bridges Mid-East conflict

By Dina Weinberg

Two men sat in front of a quiet group of 30 in a third-floor
room of Ackerman Union. The crowd, consisting of a mix of older
people and students, strained to hear their personal stories about
the Middle Eastern conflict.

Salem Jubran, a prominent Arab poet, and Sami Michael, an
Israeli novelist and playwright, spoke of their homeland as an area
torn and occupied by a diverse population of people who are much
alike.

Both writers were featured in "An Arab-Jewish Poetry Dialogue,"
an event on Tuesday organized by the Israel Action Coalition and
Hillel Jewish Students Association.

The men are on a tour sponsored by the Consulate General of
Israel. Their two poems, read at the beginning of the talk,
silenced the group and spoke volumes about the wisdom and
experience of the older, graying men.

"We are made of two halves; one is Arabic and one is Israeli
Jew. We are so like each other and we don’t know why we have all
the wars," Michael said.

In fact, despite the continuing warring relationship between
their two groups, Michael and Jubran seemed almost like brothers,
speaking Arabic to each other before the discussion while their
listeners arrived.

"I felt as if there was a great storm lifted from my heart,"
said Jubran of the recent peace treaty between Israel and the
Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).

"(My people) suffer twice, as Israelis from the Arab’s side and
as Arabs from the Israeli’s side," he added, speaking about his
unique status as an Arab citizen of Israel.

Jubran was raised in an agrarian village in Israel that housed
Muslims, Jews and Christians as one. There were no barriers in the
town, he said. They were like one big family and everyone was the
same except at prayer time.

When the country was placed under military rule, Jubran said
that it was hard to move about.

"What was important was that we remained in our homes and our
land. We must be collaborators with the Israelis," he said.

Michael, on the other hand, was born in the city of Baghdad. His
mother tongue is Arabic, but he later learned Hebrew after he moved
to Israel. He does not like to speak about the past but rather uses
his literature as a "weeping for fighting."

"One day," Michael recalled, "I was walking to school in Baghdad
and saw black and red writing on a wall that said Hitler was
killing insects. I tried very hard to convince myself and my Muslim
friends that I was not an insect. I was a human being."

Indeed, the two men convinced the audience that they were people
with long histories of conflict. But Michael and Jubran said that
as they toured, they learned how similar their thinking was.

"We have the same common bases. We speak the same language. We
live in the same country. The climate is as dangerous for him as it
is for me," said Michael.

Jubran added that they were really equal in citizenship, but
that Arabs living under Israeli law did not have as much of an
equal chance.

Their talk explored the different emotions that they went
through as citizens and as writers. They believe that the writer
has a role in society, but it is not always good and it does not
always chronicle the times.