The title of our first panel is: \u201cNationalism kaput? Muslim and Jewish poetics in the Diaspora\u201d. <\/b>Our first panel deals with the moment of departure from the national project (the Middle East) And the emigration to Berlin. Back in our homelands, the Israeli national establishment, as well as the Arab nations, are constantly trying to strengthen the national identity. Culture is one of the important components in the creation of nationalism. But when people emigrate, suddenly nationalism has no grip on its citizens. Now what is created here with our cultural freedom?<\/b><\/p>\n
Here in Berlin I have a chance to decide which news to read. Should I read the news from Israel, Berlin, Germany, or the Middle East? If I will not open the Israeli news, I will be completely outside of the Israeli politics and culture. But what happens when I don\u2019t read the news from Israel? Do I feel lighter? Can I be for one moment out of the conflict or the inner debates of Israeli society?<\/p>\n
I was an Arab Jew in Israel, with family roots in Baghdad or Iran, and we were not included in the Israeli society as well as the Jews from European origin. So, what does this luggage do to my writing once meeting people from the other side in Berlin?<\/p>\n
I ask myself sometimes, do we Arabs and Jews who left the Middle East creates some new diasporic poetics in Berlin? <\/b>But how does it look like? Are the diasporic poetics completely disconnected from the middle east and the national projects that we left behind? I mean, Is it a post national project?<\/b> Am I free of my Israeli subjectivity? Or is everything here shaped by my Hebrew background?<\/b><\/p>\n
I will give u an example: Do I look at the S\u00fcdstern church in Neuk\u00f6lln (where I live) in the same way as the Arab migrant\u2026.in both our homelands Christians are a minority. Now, we are mutually looking at the Christian host majority culture in Germany, that has little to do with our own. Suddenly, our own backgrounds have even more in common than they had in the places where we come from. We also both desperately search for good Hummous places in Berlin, we try to find the few shops where they sell Arak or sesame paste \u2013 for which the Hebrew word \u201ctchina\u201d and the Arab word \u201ctahine\u201d sometimes melt into one. And when I hear \u201cFog El Nachal\u201d from a car radio passing by, my heart jumps in recognition of the sound that my grandma used to play in her kitchen.<\/p>\n
Going back to our panel, we ask our participants to similarly think about this context of an intercultural encounter. We looked for the intimate identity touch from their specific memories and upbringing.<\/p>\n
So how do we experience the German culture? Am I equally welcome as a Jew from Israel to Germany as the Arab and Palestinian writer? And do we really meet here in Germany? How do we meet? Do we talk about the conflict? Or do we avoid it? <\/b>I like to talk about my Baghdadi roots to those from Iraq or Syria or other Arab places. But maybe this is also how I avoid talking to them about Israel? What is re-created in this tectonic encounter of east and west?<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Mati Shemoelof, poet – Berlin, 20 November 2020<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The title of our first panel is: \u201cNationalism kaput? Muslim and Jewish poetics in the Diaspora\u201d. Our first panel deals with the moment of departure from the national project (the Middle East) And the emigration to Berlin. Back in our homelands, the Israeli national establishment, as well as the Arab nations, are constantly trying to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14832,"template":"","categories":[12],"class_list":["post-14805","stsp_text","type-stsp_text","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-fiction"],"yoast_head":"\n