1.

When staff from the Swiss architects firm Herzog & de Meuron looked around the halls of the old National Library of Israel in Giva Ram a few years ago, they became curious about people wandering between the shelves carrying enormous books – giant volumes covered in thick leather, with gold writing on the front. When the archaeologists asked what the oversized books were – if they were special encyclopedias or photo albums with an unusual format, they were told that they were volumes of the Babylonian Talmud. The Gemara, they were told, requires a special and uncompromising page format, and therefore it was published in an exceptional size.

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The insistence of the Swiss doesn't require explanation and debate (unlike in the Talmud), and after a week the architects returned with a plan: In the new National Library building, a Talmud library, including all the Gemara volumes in the National Library's possession, would sit at the heart of the planned reading room (which was designed like the shape of a descending spiral).

Now it's here – a cloud-like wooden bookcase, bright and polished, branching out like a small altar in the center of the shared space of the reading rooms. "It's a modernist firm, not Jewish, but they invested a lot of time into thinking about and understanding Jewish culture and its roots," explains Oren Weinberg, director of the National Library, while running his hand over the dusty shelf that will soon be full of books. "Since they discovered the Talmud, they've also discovered the laws of shmita, and even planned the building's mezuzot with us."

2.

We visited the new National Library when countless books were being transferred from the old building to the new facility. In the last few weeks, four million books have traveled the 870 yards from their iron and wooden shelves to the illuminated and spacious hall at 36 Ruppin Road, in the government complex, opposite the Knesset. Previously, the important collections were unceremoniously moved. At the library, the commotion of a project nearing its completion fills the air, full of passion and rustling, and some fatigue, which dissipates in the greater vision that is almost upon us. There is no havoc, only a constant buzzing afoot. Appropriately, given that it is managed by a Swiss firm, which has managed mega-projects like the Tate Modern, the Allianz Arena in Munich, and the Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing – the project has kept on schedule without deviating from its budget, a kind of operative calmness which is almost scandalous in these parts. The library is currently scheduled to open to the public on October 22nd.

Video: The new Israel National Library / Credit: Yaniv Zohar

The temporary management offices were set up in the demarcated wooden areas in the underground parking lot and will be removed when the library is opened to the public. Everywhere, the workers are engaged in painting, preparations, and sanding the final corners. This enormous project, which has cost around NIS900 million, is basically complete: with precise lighting that relies partly on sunlight, with precise air conditioning, and most importantly a feeling of spaciousness, full of glory and honor. There's nothing flashy here, just an exceptional depth of detail and architectural, technological, and museum-like implementation.

Most importantly, it's still a library: It took a lengthy process to decide on the optimal chair for the visiting public. Different types of chairs were distributed around the old library, and studies were carried out before choosing the winner. 600 of these will be placed around the halls, representing the maximum number of readers.

These are days of constant tension and anxiety. The move carried with it great responsibility for the fragile collections, which require careful preservation, and millions of books, as well as the digital collection. The hierarchy during the move is nearly military; everything is being done quietly, but there is still great tension. At the entrance to the elevator is a portable bookshelf on wheels on its way to its new dwellings: German Requiem by Amos Elon alongside a volume of The Laws of Inheritance and Estate and Principles of Chemistry.

When one pauses to think about the range of the books, about the layers of text, about the knowledge, the information, about the memory that has been gathered and stockpiled and grows bigger and bigger every day – and about the need to move it all – one starts to have palpitations. When the German writer W.G. Sebald wrote about the new national library in Paris in his outstanding novel Austerlitz, he described how "birds which had lost their way in the library forest flew into the mirror images of the trees in the reading room windows, struck the glass with a dull thud, and fell lifeless to the ground." The Israeli National Library, with its endless bibliographic aspirations, can easily become a forest to get lost in.

3.

The encounter between the Swiss architects and the Israeli culture of implementation wasn't easy. Every contractor was equipped with a book of precise instructions featuring sketches and detailed instructions on how to install every last item. European perfectionism became obsessive. Weinberg, a librarian since birth and a tech figure, said: "The building has been ready for nearly two years, but workers have been going back and forth according to the book, checking that there isn't any damage to the concrete. With time, one of the Swiss managers has learned the Hebrew phrase "a local solution" – and when he uses it you know that he isn't satisfied," Weinberg said. Alongside the Swiss architects are staff from the Israeli architectural firm Mann Shinar.

A maximum of 2,000 people can visit the library at any one time. While 180,000 people visit the old library in Givat Ram annually, Weinberg's forecast is that more than 500,000 people will visit each year. "We need to be an obligatory stop, alongside the Western Wall and Yad Vashem," he said.

The library has two main entrances – one opposite the Knesset and another on Ruppin Road. The light rail's Green Line, the Campus line, is supposed to stop nearby, but that will probably only happen in 2026. Meanwhile, for those coming from the city center, the walk from Shazar Avenue or from Begin Station is not pleasant during the summer.

From Ruppin Street one can already see the image of the oval roof, which refers both to a water well and a scroll, a hint to the library's Gershom Scholem collection, which includes many scrolls. As one comes closer to the outer walls of the building, one understands that a new Jerusalem cornerstone is being created here. "Our architects wanted to create one monumental stone, like the massive stone of the walls," Weinberg says. The results combine an industrial design of stone digging and its penetration into large concrete surfaces, which creates a smooth movement of the wall, and along it are clover shapes – representing the Bunting Clover Leaf Map, which is stored in the library. The map, a historic 16^th-century map by the German Protestant pastor and cartographer Heinrich Buntin, describes the world as a clover leaf with Jerusalem in its center.

Like bunkers in the Golan Heights, the building work here also makes use of the stones that were confined within special meshed cages, accumulating the Jerusalem chill during the night, and emitting it into the halls during the day. In this way, the building saves 20 percent of its electricity costs.

The library is an architectural sustainability project, the first of its kind in Israel. Apart from the clover stones that cover the entire building, slits have been made that spill adjusted light from the outside into the halls and the permanent exhibition spaces. The building is not fenced, allowing visitors to circle it by foot, and as well as the classrooms and reading rooms there are views of gardens and wild vegetables.

By the side of the building is Letters of Light, an environmental sculpture by Micha Ullman. This is an artistic venture that aims to close a circle, to complement and correspond with Ulman's The Empty Library installation in Berlin. There, one sees a white library, whose burning books no longer exist, a disturbing and powerful image in the sealed cell on the square's sidewalk. Here, in Jerusalem, Ullman's "library" is above the ground, going down to the foundations – to their letters and phrases. Ullman created a circle of letters that are exposed to the Jerusalem sunlight. The negative shadow of the stone creates the body and the form of the letter, like a sundial. 18 letters are arranged in a circle, and guttural letters are placed separately, in the passage leading to the library building.

4.

The permanent exhibition, "Treasure of Words," is the only part of the National Library that will charge an entrance fee. Despite this, they are promising that once a month, or maybe once a week, there will be free entry, like at other museums and cultural institutions around the world. The exhibition is still being prepared; at its entrance sits the voice artist Victoria Hanna with a voice technician and computer. Her work, called The Power of Words, is based on 'the incantation bowl,' an ancient clay bowl decorated with text that has magical properties to fight demons and witchcraft. This will serve as the introduction to the exhibition. According to the curators, Neta Assaf and Yigal Tzalmona, the exhibition seeks "to present the power of the text to change the world, to formulate and to lead great ideas, to define a place, community, and nation and sometimes even to set them in motion, and of course – to create an imagined reality."

The technological and design investment in the exhibition space is unprecedented, as is the possibility to experience from up close incredible items from the library, which until now were kept far from the public eye. Only five millimeters of clear, anti-reflective glass separate visitors from the Damascus Pentateuch, a Bible codex that was written in the 10^th century and received Maimonides's seal of approval. The volume of this great and majestic Pentateuch lays open on a shtender, the book stand used by yeshiva students, so that visitors can almost read and learn from it. Nor is it alone – the first printed Bibles, Maimonides's handwriting, the source of the Peshitta – an Aramaic translation of the Bible – all of these are finally going on public display.

The great challenge in presenting these in a museum stems from problems caused by modern paper. It wears out more quickly and absorbs chemical materials and artificial preservatives, which don't survive. Because of this, the library ordered a special glass-fronted cabinet display from Belgium, the first of its kind in Israel. It is divided into display draws, which are pulled out digitally by pressing a button next to the curatorial text. In this way one can see from up close the suicide letter of Stefan Zweig (the author of The World of Yesterday), the handwriting of Agnon, and the time cards and characters that served David Grossman when he wrote "See Under: Love."

5.

That the National Library is joining the national institutions in late 2023 teaches us that, even as we enter the fourth quarter of its first century, the State of Israel is still young. While in most countries the national library is independent and always located geographically close to government institutions, in Israel the law recognizing the National Library was only enacted in 2007. According to the law, the purpose of the National Library is to "collect, preserve, cultivate and endow the treasures of knowledge, heritage, and culture in general, with an emphasis on the Land of Israel, the State of Israel and the Jewish people in particular." Control of the national bibliography is achieved through laws for the deposit of all books and printed material, which requires that a copy or final draft of each text is sent to the national library.

This law, as well as the Hebrew University's agreement to "to nationalize" its library's treasures and collections, led Yad Hanadiv to financially support the building of the new library, like the support it provided for the building of the Knesset and the Supreme Court building. The Guttman Foundation also contributed. Planning for the building began in 2012, and the cornerstone was laid the following year. Once the foundations had been dug in 2018, the building work itself began.

The library building has 11 floors – five above the ground and six below. 46,000 square meters, on 16.5 dunams of land. Each floor is different. On the entrance floor, next to the "Library Experience," which aims to help the younger generation navigate the library, is the permanent exhibition space and an elegant auditorium with 500 seats. Beneath them begins the magic of the reading rooms, an exceptional location in terms of visibility and feeling, alongside which are dozens of classrooms, workspaces, and a restaurant that is open during the day.

The automatic book cache is located underneath. This is a skyscraper of metallic bookshelves, a breathtaking logistical monster. This is where millions of books that are available to all Israeli citizens are found. A book can be ordered using an app, and the robot will supply it within a few minutes. "So you can get on the train to Jerusalem and order a specific book on the way, and when you arrive it will already be waiting for you," Weinberg says. The big change is the need for technical hands. While at Givat Ram the assembling was done manually, now the book cache is maintained completely automatically. Like the logistical facilities of large retail companies, here the robot also runs around the different rows of the storeroom and pulls out a box. From there the box is taken to the collection room for the specific book to be chosen. These are optimal storage conditions. The oxygen is diluted in the space, and therefore the books are protected from the threat of fire. When a technician enters to carry out maintenance work, he needs to have an oxygen cylinder and saturation monitor with him.

We are now climbing to the reading spaces, and then to the special collections. Here you must register in advance to see the exceptional books and documents. But there is no discrimination – it doesn't matter if you are a university professor or a high school student – any reason is sufficient to receive access.

During the final preparations, I feel like documenting everything. The library shining in its emptiness. But, within a few weeks, it will fill up forever. This is the moment beforehand, and the spirit of Walter Benjamin dismantling his library pops up in my thoughts: "The books are not yet on the shelves, not yet touched by the mild boredom of order. I cannot march up and down their ranks to pass them in review before a friendly audience. You need not fear any of that. Instead, I must ask you to join me in the disorder of crates that have been wrenched open, the air saturated with the dust of wood, the floor covered with torn paper, to join me among piles of volumes that are seeing daylight again after two years of darkness."

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COMMENTARY – What would you say if a senior literary editor was appointed to a position on the Judicial Selection Committee? Imagine a situation where an esteemed researcher, a professor of Hebrew literature, was invited by the IDF chief to discuss the next round of appointments to the General Staff. Are these scenarios farfetched? Anyone with a healthy sense of logic would certainly agree they are. But that is exactly what's been happening in Israel's cultural and literary scenes for years.

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Last week, the Israel National Library announced the appointment of former State Attorney Shai Nitzan as the library's rector. This is a new role that was established following the Board of Directors' decision to institute a managerial reform at the National Library.

According to the INL press release, as rector, Nitzan will manage the library's content and as such will be responsible, among other things, for its collections and physical and digital archives, and his responsibilities will include issues such as "culture, education, exhibitions, international ties and activities, public relations, and fundraising."

Is Nitzan – who from the 1980s up to his retirement in 2019, served in a number of roles within the State Attorney's Office, and has never dealt with research, curation or the management of cultural assets, and certainly not with fundraising, neither in the public or private sector, or with public relations – a suitable candidate for this new role? According to the special committee appointed by the National Library to vet candidates, the answer is yes.

In public service, vetting committees are a compromise between a tender and personal appointments. In his ruling on a petition by the Israel Women's Network in 2008, High Court Justice Edmond Levy wrote, "It is easy for a professional committee to focus on professional decisions, that is its strength, and that is its contribution to correct managerial administration."

If this is indeed the case – and assuming that the process undertaken by the committee to find a rector for the INL was completely above board – then the committee should immediately publish its professional decision in full and specify why it chose a candidate who appears to have no connection to the role, or previous experience in handling any of the fields the role demands.

 Nitzan's appointment is not the first such appointment in these parts. Critical roles in the cultural arena, particularly in the literary world, have often been filled by people devoid the relevant experience. Only last year, former deputy commander of the Israeli Air Force Giora Romm – a legendary pilot – was appointed chairman of the committee granting the Sapir Prize for Literature.

Romm, who following his retirement from the military served in a number of public roles ranging from director-general of the Jewish Agency to head of the National Road Safety Authority, is an experienced, respected and decorated figure. However, his record in public service has no connection to the world of Israeli literature, and he certainly has no professional mandate to be the decisive voice in the country's most prestigious literary prize.

Prior to Romm, the Sapir Prize Committee was headed by former Justice Ministry Director-General Emi Palmor (a graduate of the Hebrew University's Faculty of Law). Prior to that, the position was held by retired District Court Judge Orna Ben-Naftali (a professor of international law). Before Ben-Naftali it was held by Edna Kaplan-Hagler. (Full disclosure: I was a member of the prize jury during her term in 2015). Next came another law professor – Menachem Mautner.

The problem is clear for all to see: Israel's culture administrators, with the assistance of veteran of the judiciary and defense establishment, have taken the literary establishment hostage. The justification is always "prominence," "public image," and "managerial experience," but in practice, what we have here is jobs on a wholesale scale, at the expense of the literati – managers, researchers, writers – who are being methodically excluded from key positions.

Public discourse about the decline of the humanities has become something of a dead letter. The humanities have not been a "science" for a long time and the weight of knowledge and experience required for those involved in the humanities has been pushed aside for something far more important – ties at the top and the image of the judicial and defense elite as the ultimate patron, spreading its patronage over the field of culture.

Such appointment in literary institutions and prize committees are akin to the defamation of the integrity of the literati. The literary clique is "corrupt," and "takes care of its own" and therefore we shall appoint an overseer – incorruptible jurists or alternatively, a military veteran who will put the house in order.

The result of this patronage is reflected in unprofessional decisions by people who are not suitable for their roles. Moreover, it cheapens the essence of the committees and institutions and brings with it further unsuitable appointments for more junior positions.

A look overseas reveals a more cultural climate where good governance is reflected in worthy professional appointments. The current chair of the British Booker Prize jury is Maya Jasanoff, an art historian. Her predecessor was Margaret Busby, an editor and literary critic. The current head of the Pulitzer Prize Committee is Elizabeth Alexander, a poet, author and playwright. Her deputy is Nancy Barnes, a journalist who herself is a Pulitzer Prize laureate. The winner of the French Le Prix Goncourt is decided by an academic committee comprised of 10 leading authors. Its current members include well-known names, such as Pierre Assouline, Philippe Claudel and Pascal Bruckner.

Nowhere will you find a former state attorney at the helm of any of the leading national libraries in the world: The Librarian of Congress (perhaps the closest role to rector) is captained by Elizabeth Morrison, a historian who worked for many years at the institution. The head of France's Bibliotheque Nationale is Laurence Engel, a leading cultural administrator, and Germany's National Library is headed by Frank Scholze, an experienced librarian and editor of a journal in the field.

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Israel's literary establishment must overcome the Stockholm syndrome with which it has been struck and demand the restoration of their intellectual and managerial independence. The legal and judicial persona, as excellent as they may be in their respective fields, have not the slightest advantage in a managerial position in the field of culture. In fact, the very that they do compete for positions in the cultural field is an act of patronage.

Shai Nitzan and Giora Romm are just current examples that point to a worrying process that has grown stronger over the past decade. Both gained a reputation for being concerned first and foremost with proper governance, but they should have thought twice before jumping on this lucrative jobs bandwagon.

In last year's 11-judge High Court ruling on then-Prime Minister Netanyahu's tenure, Justice Daphne Barak-Erez wrote: "Those in public office have a legal and moral obligation to examine whether they are worthy and suitable for their role." Can Nitzan and Romm honestly testify they have fulfilled that duty?

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Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature for his uncompromising portrayal of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee, the award-giving body said Thursday.

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Based in Britain and writing in English, Gurnah joins Nigeria's Wole Soyinka as the only two non-white writers from sub-Saharan Africa ever to win the prestigious literary award. His novels include Paradise – set in colonial East Africa during World War I and short-listed for the Booker Prize for Fiction – and Desertion.

"I dedicate this Nobel Prize to Africa and Africans and to all my readers. Thanks!" Gurnah tweeted after the announcement.

Gurnah left Africa as a refugee in the 1960s amid the persecution of citizens of Arab origin on the Indian Ocean archipelago of Zanzibar, which would unite with the mainland territory Tanganyika to form Tanzania. He was able to return only in 1984, seeing his father shortly before his death.

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The New York Times has included works by two Israeli authors in its 100 Notable Books of 2020 list: Yishai Sarid, the son of the late Meretz lawmaker Yossi Sarid, for his book The Memory Tunnel, and A.B. Yehoshua for his book The Tunnel.

The Times hailed" The Memory Monster, which details how one man's life becomes trapped in the memory of the Holocaust as "a brilliant short novel that serves as a brave, sharp-toothed brief against letting the past devour the present.

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The newspaper's second pick for the list, The Tunnel, tells the story of a couple, Zvi and Dina, dealing with the onset of the husband's dementia. In its review, the newspaper lauds the "great beauty" found in Zvi's "essential human decency. Rather than retreat inward and hide, he chooses - yes - to live."

Asked how he felt about being included in the list, Yehoshua said, "Since the age of 30 I have been saying this, and I will say it when I'm 84. From my standpoint, the most important thing is the reviews in Israel and the reading of my books here. Reviews in reputed newspapers like Le Monde, The Guardian, and The New York Times are less important to me than a review in Israel Hayom and other newspapers in Israel."

Yehoshua asserted, "The author's importance is in his homeland, and it is here that his remarks and his influence are weighed. Beyond that, I've already been on this list, and that's why I'm not excited. But beyond that, greater and more important names in Hebrew literature have not been included in the list, and they are still considered very important in the context of the State of Israel. I'm referring of course to Nathan Alterman, S. Yizhar, and others. These are the great authors we've had, and yet they never received much recognition overseas. The focus of literature is its country and its home."

Sarid said he was surprised to learn The Memory Monster had been included in the list.

"I didn't know about it until a friend in Israel told me, and then my publisher in the US also sent me an email updating me. Tens of thousands of authors contend for the list each year, and that's why it's a really nice achievement for me.

He said the book's inclusion was "confirmation that my books don't speak only to an Israeli audience but to other audiences around the world. Every author always wants to address new audiences, and that's why it's [given me] a sense of satisfaction. Nevertheless, what made me the happiest was being on the same list as A.B. Yehoshua, who is one of the greatest Israeli authors, and whom I admire. It's a really big honor," he said.

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The English writers' agency The Blair Partnership has signed Dana International to work as a literary agent for writers from the LGBTQ community all over the world.

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Dana International, the agent, has been charged with finding new writers and voices and helping publish their work and bringing that work to an international audience.

The Blair Partnership is one of England's most prestigious literary agencies and its clients include Rowling.

The Israeli star was somewhat surprised when the agency reached out.

"It's not something I ever thought about doing, and admit I was a little worried about disappointing them. It took me two days to say I'd be delighted, and a few days later we were already discussing a few ideas they were happy to listen to, which bolstered my confidence," Dana said.

"I believe that in Israel there are enormous talents who would be huge throughout the world if it weren't for the language barrier. Maybe this project will get some of them published and appreciated," she added.

What piques the new agent's interest?

"I'm interested in reading writers from Russia, the Ukraine, Arab countries and places where homosexuality is outlawed, where the LGBTQ community lives in fear and in secret, and I believe that wonderful work can come from those places," she said.

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"No," I answer indifferently. I had been hoping for a slightly more authentic setting for our conversation, but the heavy tourist traffic over the Sukkot holiday made the mall a more practical option.

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"Because this is paradise," Bisharat says, turning down the snobbery. "Jews and Arabs enjoying leisure time together."

At first, I find it hard to believe that the former secretary general of the Jewish-Arab communist party Hadash is so excited about a temple of capitalism realizing the vision of brotherly love.

"I'm not the communist I used to be," he will go on to say when we discuss his childhood in the shadow of what he describes at length in his new, second book, "Dunya," which was recently published in Hebrew.

"Shimon Peres once wrote to me that my first book reminded him of Shalom Aleichem's stories"

A dreamy young woman from the northern Israel town of Zatunia vanishes one morning, and her disappearance shakes up her relatives. The residents of the village organize themselves to help with the searches, and public institutions and functionaries join the community operation in a social tidal wave that recalls the characters in Israeli satirist Ephraim Kishon's "Blaumilch Canal." The same kind of keen humor follows the second story line, which tells the story of the families of the protagonists starting from 1948. Bisharat creates a village in which everything is picturesque, a kind of Arab shtetl in the Galilee. The descriptions are tongue-in-cheek, almost comical.

"Shimon Peres once wrote to me that my first book, 'The Streets of Zatunia,' reminded him of the village Katrielivka in Shalom Aleichem's stories," Bisharat says. "It's such a provincial little town, Zatunia, but it feels like it's the center of the universe and deals with the biggest issues of all."

"The Streets of Zatunia" (2007, and translated from Arabic into Hebrew and Finnish), a kind of political satire, like Dunya, throws the village's residents into a storm of events in the same imaginary village. But this time, Bisharat brings the residents back to their past, to the days when they took in the refugees from the nearby villages in 1948, were living under Israeli military rule, and found work building a nearby Jewish city. Bisharat himself was born in 1956 to a family that was uprooted from nearby Ma'alul and found a home in the village of Yafiah, near Nazareth.

"The residents of Ma'alul who were uprooted didn't even have time to grieve. Only six months later, when they had kind of gotten on their feet in Yafiah, did they have time, and the women went out to sit on a hilltop and rend their garments, and throw dust on themselves, and weep."

Q: What does that generation mean to you?  

"For me, they're heroes. That's the generation of my father and grandfather, whose lives changed in one chilling moment in 1948. I don't think that a week before it happened they realized that they wouldn't be there any longer. Instead of crying, or whining, they got up, built, taught their children, and lived in huts and then built homes, all while the government was against them, all with the horrible feeling that the country didn't want them, and as their relatives were being tossed out beyond the border."

A web of absurdities

Bisharat defines 1948 as a "tragedy of immense proportions."

"It wasn't a great honor to ask Ben-Gurion for Israeli citizenship ... but it was a badge of honor that they had stayed on their land"

"Out of every five people, four were deported. Do you get it? You live in a family of five, and your four brothers aren't here anymore, and you're left under the sponsorship, the leadership, and the charity of those who deported them. Not living with your uncle, but with the person who kicked them out. [Israeli Arab writer and former MK] Emil Habibi used the phrase, 'We were left like orphans on the table of the evildoers.' The paradox created even more paradoxes in Arab society, between it and the government, and between it and Jewish society, and amid all that mess people had successes. And one of the things I'm trying to do here is show sympathy for those people."

Q: More than sympathy. Sometimes it seems as if you're really swept up in nostalgia for that period, which was ultimately a moment of defeat, no?

"A lot of people who read the book saw, like you said, the nostalgic side of it. A real burst of nostalgia. Listen, those were really, really tough times, but also very beautiful. In the end, the Arab population in Israel went through a web of absurdities. On one hand, the regime deported most of our people, but on the other those that remained wanted ID cards from the people who had expelled their brothers. In absolute terms, it wasn't a great honor to ask for Israeli ID cards from Ben-Gurion, who among other things put the Arabs under military rule, but it was a badge of honor that they had stayed on their land."

"Ben-Gurion once said something along the lines of, 'the Palestinians don't have patriotism but they have a love for the land.' The existence of being only in your own home and village is something imprinted on the Palestinians. So yes, sometimes you're forced to do something bitter to avoid more bitterness. Even the mukhtars, who supposedly cooperated with the military regime, eventually came around to thinking about the good of their people. They knew we couldn't beat our heads against a wall forever."

Bisharat stresses that it's important to him to clarify these insights for the young generation of Arabs in Israel, who he says "are getting caught up in big slogans and see any activity that doesn't align with those slogan as defeatist.

"[But] what could be more defeatist than accepted an Israeli ID card in 1948? There are two approaches: you can close yourself off and hate and see everything as black, or you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Even in the toughest context, see the beautiful things."

Q: On the other hand, you can't understand the story and the characters without the huge trauma.

"True, but it's not a book about destruction and tears. I don't cry over the ruins, 'Al Atlal' as they're called in Arabic. Unfortunately, Palestinian literature – maybe because it had no choice – takes place in the context of the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict, of clashes with the state, and under the shadow of the victims. It virtually doesn't address the Palestinian people outside the context of the national struggle. But the Palestinians have another context, an internal one: the fights, the internal rivalries, the status of women, making a living, everyday life, experiences of growing up. I don't think about Palestine when I go to the office, and I don't ponder the struggle for liberation when I'm raising my kids. I live the everyday reality. And somehow all these aspects were bottled up and thrown away, under the claim that now is the time for struggle only."

Bisharat says that the focus on the Palestinian struggle has obfuscated any focus on wonderful experiences - "How people fought and how they made up, and how they built homes, and got married, and went to school. The experience of village life, which is bustling, loving, humorous. These treasures have disappeared, and it's important to me to stress that Palestinian-hood exists fully, even without the struggle. Incidentally, that approach played into the hands of those who didn't want to recognize our identity and our existence. So no, we don't exist only in that political context, but also as ourselves, as a cultural and national unit."

'We'll manage without the billions'

Bisharat was raised and educated in Yafiah. He regularly publishes op-ed pieces in Arabic-language news outlets, and for the past decade has had a regular weekly column in Haaretz. He grew up in the communist youth movement and continued his political activity at university. The communist party plays a major role in his personal biography, but also in the story of the characters in Dunya.

"There's plenty to say about it, and I'm not the communist I used to be," he explains. "But I can't take away the beautiful thing it instilled in me from childhood, from kindergarten, that Jews and Arabs are not enemies. We were enemies of the military regime, but not the Jews. We opposed the government, Ben-Gurion, but not the Jews. There is also the fact that we ran around together, Jews and Arabs, and organized joint activities and had parties together."

Q: But in your book the party's role as a channel of opposition to the military rule is stressed - it was an alternative to obedience or even cooperation with the government.

"True. In one sense, the communist party told us that we here in our little village were connected to Nicaragua, to Vietnam, to Algeria, and to Yemen – that we were part of the big socialist word, the movement of liberation. As closed off as we were, through the party we were open to the world. And that gave us strength. My family says that when I was in first grade, I read out loud, without understanding, the common slogan at the time: 'De Gaulle, go home, Algeria is free!' True, we were under military rule and at any moment they could have come to round us up, all 150,000 of us and put us in prisoners, but we felt that we were bigger."

"Palestinian-hood exists fully, even without the struggle"

Five decades have passed since the military regime was in place, and Bisharat still lives in Yafiah, now with his wife, Suher, a PhD in biology, and their daughter Hala, who is in the 10^th grade. His two older sons, Khaled, 25, and Yazid, 23, are university graduates and they both live in central Israel, one in Ramat Hasharon and the other in Ramat Aviv. That's a sign that gives Bisharat a reason for optimism.

"Without propagandizing for Netanyahu, 10 years ago there were 400 Arabs in high-tech. Now there are 7,000," he says.

Still, his second novel has come out at a fraught time in terms of Jewish-Arab relations in Israel: attempts to put cameras in polling stations in Arab communities; the Joint Arab List endorsing Blue and White leader Benny Gantz; and the war on violence in the Arab sector.

Q: Do you think about Jewish readers when you write, what role the book can play at a time like this?

"I wrote the book in Arabic, so I'm not sure I had Jewish readers in mind. Ask me when the next book comes out," he laughs.

"But I do understand how the book can give Jewish readers a more complex picture. You can't just show people in their final forms. That's shallow. You need to address how things happened, how they developed. You can't just come and say of the Arabs in Israel, 'It's a violent society,' and that's it. You need to ask how a society like that becomes violent. You also need to look at the Jews, what is happing in Jewish society. You can't merely call it a militaristic society, for example. You need to look at its history."

From Islamists to liberals

In his column in Haaretz, Bisharat takes positions that are very critical of the government, especially Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Nevertheless, our conversation started with the "paradise" of Jews and Arabs at the mall together. I point out that this is a vision that came to fruition under a right-wing government.

"I asked once and I'm asking now – what's preferable? Getting 15 billion shekels [a decision made by the government elected in 1992] or that Netanyahu stop inciting. As far as I'm concerned, we can manage without the 15 billion, but it's very difficult to handle the incitement. Obviously, there are some who will tell you, 'Travel abroad, work opportunities, why not vote for him?' But incitement against Arabs has reached levels we've never seen. When he accuses them of voter fraud in the election, then in that horrible post says that Arabs want to kill Jews. With incitement like that, everything could turn into a nightmare for the two peoples."

Q: I'm not sure I agree with your theory of incitement. Ultimately, Netanyahu is saying, 'I have a problem with the political stances of the Arab parties, and I know that when the Arabs go vote in large numbers, it will tip the scales in favor of the Left.' He is warning right-wing voters about an awakening in the rival political camp. He's right, but most importantly, he discusses their political stances, not their race or religion.

"That's worse, what you're saying right now. He's telling his voters, 'I'm presenting such a bad line for Arabs that it's clear they'll never vote for me.' In other words, the Likud DNA is anti-Arab. It's built-in racism, and this time it's being said with a flourish. Without apology or shame. It's similar to what they said about Jews in Europe. I think that anyone who has nothing to say to 2 million Arabs should take a look at himself. But as an incorrigible optimist, I think that his conduct will wake up a lot of Jews and maybe that will lead to more alliances between Jews and Arabs.

Q: You understand that a lot of Jews listen to messages like your or even [Joint Arab List leader] Ayman Odeh's, but look at the political expressions by the Joint Arab List, some of whose members are identified with statements and actions and in the best case can be said to challenge the things that Jews in Israel hold sacred.

"I'm familiar with the criticism. Why do all the Arabs join together on one list – the Islamists and the communists and the liberals and the nationalists? Because Netanyahu's policies don't distinguish between the Islamist or the liberal. Any minority, when they feel threatened, need to band together. But you should know that those parties, even Balad, even the Islamist movement, will always be on the pragmatic side at every watershed moment. For example, right now, if the choice is Netanyahu or Gantz, some of them are saying "no," but in the test of truth, they'll vote with Gantz."

Q: Even Balad?

"Even Balad, I think, and it's already happened. MK Azmi Bishara from Balad's vote tipped the scales in favor of the evacuation-compensation law without which [Arik] Sharon's disengagement plan would have been in serious trouble."

"Anyone who has nothing to say to 2 million Arabs should take a look at himself"

Q: Will Arab society in Israel one day be able to accept its existence as an ethnic minority in the Jewish state?

"All that propaganda, that the Arabs are supposedly isolating themselves, is a lie. Take the current battle against violence. What's the main slogan? That we want the government to treat us equally. We want the government to intervene. Can there be anything more civil than that demand? The opposite – it's the state that is failing in its role to defend and protect its citizens. The government is the one who neglected its responsibility. The nation-state law, too – what was the government telling the Arabs with that law? You're not equal citizens, you're outside the bounds of citizenship.

"There are citizens to whom the country belongs, and citizens to whom it doesn't. Could there be a clearer sign of the Arabs' desire to integrate into the life of the state than their opposition to the nation-state law? It's just that we mean an Israel that respects all its citizens, and doesn't exclude some of them. So the question should be addressed to the government, not the Arabs. Does the government want us to be part of it, or not? It's a test for the state, not for us."

Which leftists suffer more?

Bisharat came to literary writing relatively late in life, at the end of his 50s, when he published "The Streets of Zatunia." Dunya was published in Arabic four years ago. Last year, his third novel, which has yet to be translated into Hebrew, came out. It also takes place in Zatunia, but is more tragic than his first two. Bisharat also recently published a children's book, "Don't Steal my Turn."

"For me, literature isn't political, it isn't a position paper," he underscores.

"When Ben-Gurion wrote his memoirs, he knew that history was watching and he wrote carefully. I don't write that way. I want to express myself and expose myself more. You might have noticed that the book also deals with very difficult aspects of Arab culture."

Q: It that welcomed?

"When I published 'The Streets of Zatunia,' some people said, 'You're washing our dirty laundry in public.' They liked it in Arabic, but they were less happy that it was translated into Hebrew. I told them, 'If the [dirty] laundry stays inside the house, it will stink and the ones who suffer will be the people living in the house.' 'The Streets of Zatunia' didn't cause Jewish readers to be put off by Arab society. It created empathy.

"In literature, it's the internal discourse in a society that the other side identifies with. For example, when I read Amos Oz, I say, that character in his book is like me, that woman speaks to me. You, too, when you read Dunya – you identify with the woman and the young boy. Even when you're on the other side. I think that's the power of literature – it's not a confrontational discourse, so it brings different peoples closer. When you expose things, you get sympathy. Thank God, we are living in a time when it's possible to expose our weaknesses, our flaws, without feeling as if we're doing something wrong."

Q: I think you have plenty to talk about with the Jewish writers and filmmakers who encounter the same response from a Jewish audience.

"In that context, I think that the Jewish Left suffers much more than I do. Because if I take a stance against Netanyahu, I have the backing of my people, whereas an intellectual on the Jewish Left, if he opposes the war, for example, is by himself. So I admire their courage. I say the same thing to people on the Right, who claim that criticism from the Left smears Israel in the world. The opposite – Israel is strong because it has a critical society. If the spirit of criticism didn't run deep, society would find itself going backward."

The post A shtetl in the Arab Galilee appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The Swedish Academy which chooses the literature laureate said it had recognized Handke, 76, for a body of work including novels, essays and drama "that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience."

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Tokarczuk, 57, won for "a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life," it said.

Both have courted controversy – Handke for his portrayal of Serbia as a victim during the Balkan wars and for attending its leader's funeral, and Tokarczuk for touching on dark areas of Poland's past that contrast with the version of history promoted by the country's ruling nationalist party.

While Tokarczuk's agent said the award should not be seen in the context of a parliamentary election Poland will hold on Sunday, the author called on Poles to "vote in a right way for democracy."

"The prize goes to eastern Europe, which is unusual, incredible," Tokarczuk told a press conference in the German town of Bielefeld.

"It shows that despite all those problems with democracy in my country we still have something to say to the world."

On winning a Polish literary award in 2015 for "The Book of Jacob," which deals with Poland's relations with its Jewish minority and neighboring Ukraine, she outraged nationalists with her comments and received death threats.

Two prizes were awarded this year after last year's award was postponed over the scandal that led to the husband of an Academy member being convicted of rape.

Since then, the organization has appointed new members and reformed some of its more arcane rules after a rare intervention by its royal patron, the king of Sweden.

Handke, a native of the Austrian province of Carinthia, which borders Slovenia, established himself as one of the most influential writers in Europe after World War II, the Academy said. He also co-wrote the script of the critically-acclaimed 1987 film "Wings of Desire."

The author of books such as "The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick" and "Slow Homecoming," he attracted widespread criticism after he attended the funeral of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević in 2006.

An estimated 10,000 ethnic Albanians were killed in Kosovo and almost one million were put to flight during a brutal war waged by forces under Milošević in 1998-1999.

Kosovo's ambassador to Washington reacted angrily to Handke's win.

"Have we become so numb to racism, so emotionally desensitized to violence, so comfortable with appeasement that we can overlook one's subscription&service to the twisted agenda of a genocidal maniac?" Vlora Çitaku wrote on Twitter.

"We must not support or normalize those who spew hatred. We can do better!#Nobel."

Albania's acting Foreign Minister Gent Cakaj called the award ignoble and shameful on Twitter.

Tokarczuk trained as a psychologist before publishing her first novel in 1993. Since then, she has produced a steady and varied stream of works and her novel "Flights" won her the high-profile Man Booker International Prize last year. She was the first Polish author to do so.

"Nobel Prize for Literature! Joy and emotion took my speech away. Thank you very much for all your congratulations!" she wrote on Facebook.

She later told Polish broadcaster TVN she was proud that her books covering small towns in Poland can be read universally and be important for people elsewhere in the world.

"I believe in the novel. I think the novel is something incredible. This is a deep way of communication, above the borders, above languages, cultures. It refers to the in-depth similarity between people, teaches us empathy," she said.

Poland's culture minister, Piotr Gliński, said the award to Tokarczuk was a success for Polish culture. Earlier this week, Gliński said he had started reading Tokarczuk's books many times but never finished any of them, a failing that he said on Twitter he would now seek to correct.

The post Nobel laureate's writing probes 'dark chapter' of Polish history, outrages nationalists appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.