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"From
Deir Yassin to the Wall": Unusual Memorial
Like
the Palestinian tragedy itself, the
village
of
Deir Yassin
that symbolises it lies forgotten. The site of the massacre of
9 April 1948
today lies unnamed and unmarked not 1500 meters from the most famous Holocaust
memorial in the world at Yad Vashem. Deir Yassin Remembered (DYR) is an
international organisation that has put the village and the people back onto the
conscious map of the world by building memorials and holding yearly
commemorations.
“From
Deir Yassin to the Wall”, this year’s London commemoration of the massacre,
was directed by Jordanian actor/director Nadim Sawalha, and performed to a
packed audience of Palestinians, Arabs, Jews and many others at the Royal
Geographical Society in London’s Knightsbridge.
Beginning
with "Asfour"
In
the event, the high expectations generated by the three previous commemorations
were both met and dashed. They were met by the quality of the performance, this
year written, performed and directed entirely by professionals, but dashed for
anyone who came expecting a conventional commemoration or a mere repetition of
previous years’ successes. Nadim Sawalha stated, “This year we tried
something new, emphasising the theatrical side of the event, and I think we have
succeeded in getting the message across to our audience in an entertaining and
engaging fashion.”.
There
was a selection of readings of poems, comments and heartfelt pieces
written by various people over the years about Deir Yassin
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It
began simply enough with 17-year-old Shadia Mansour singing “Asfour” by
Marcel Khalife: “I asked him where do you come from. He said my home is the
sky. I said, what happened to your feathers? He said time has scattered them
away.”.
It’s
about a small bird of course, but for Shadia, it’s about a small Palestinian
boy taking refuge in the house of a Jewish woman. Deir Yassin commemorations
always salute those Jews prepared to stand up and be counted.
Shooting
with Parsley was a new play by Palestinian playwright Razanne Carmey.
Through the Deir Yassin commemorations, Carmey has established herself as the
foremost English-language Palestinian playwright. Fascinated by a subject that
has occupied her attentions for the past three years, Razanne writes:
“Like
many Palestinians, I grew up hearing about Deir Yassin. Also, like many
Palestinians, my parents didn’t go into detail: it was a massacre and many
innocent villagers died. As if a blow-by-blow account was somehow obscene,
as if we were preserving the dignity of the victims by glossing over what was
actually done to them. This left us, the new generation of Palestinians
born and raised in the Diaspora, with a vague sense of horror, all the more
disturbing for the lack of information.
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iIn the event, the high
expectations generated by the three previous commemorations
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“So,
when I was asked to write the story of Deir Yassin, even as the writer in me
wanted to convey a sense of this horror, the Palestinian in me wanted to lay the
ghosts to rest by uncovering the mundane truth. But it was the mundane
truth, which proved more terrifying. In my mind, the villagers had been heroic,
noble even saintly in their martyrdom at the hands of Zionist monsters. In
reality, they were not all that heroic, they were ordinary people with ordinary
faults—people like me. Sometimes they made mistakes, or were cowardly, or
sometimes foolhardy. They refused the Arab Liberation Army’s protection,
preferring to trust to their negotiations with the Jews of Givat Shaul. Were
they collaborators and appeasers, or were they just plain frightened and
confused Palestinians trying to guess at the best course in increasingly dark
times?
“In
fact, the single most disturbing discovery I made while researching Deir Yassin,
is how similar it all is to present day issues. If the Jews who killed the
people of Deir Yassin were in fact ordinary people saturated with hatred of
Arabs, is it any wonder they found it easy to massacre Arabs? The culture
of hatred and racism against Palestinians made killers of the Zionists, even as
racism and hatred made killers of the Nazis. What will hatred and racism do
now?”
So,
in a timeless and imaginary courtroom, a trial takes place. On trial, the state
of
Israel
, and to be determined, the following issues: Was it a massacre or a battle? Was
it premeditated or accidental? Indeed, was it just an attack that got a little
out of hand, or part of a master plan for the ethnic cleansing of
Palestine
? As the Chief Prosecutor says:
“Make
no mistake, Deir Yassin wasn’t a massacre of a village, it was the massacre of
a nation, the extermination of a country, a society and a culture.”
Witnesses
are called for both prosecution and defense: survivors of the
massacre plus real figures like Haganah commander David Shaltiel,
“It was a bad business…stupid”, and the Israeli historian
Benny Morris, “Preserving my people is more important than
universal moral concepts.” There is surreal intervention by the
anti-Zionist Jew Moshe Menhuin (father of the violinist Yehudi),
“Jews and Blood! Jews and blood!” he rages, quoting the even
greater anti-Zionist Jew Ahad Aham, “Was there ever such a
contradiction?” He concludes with a thundering, “If this
is the Messiah then I do not wish to see his coming!”
There
was a selection of readings of poems, comments and heartfelt pieces written by
various people over the years about Deir Yassin and its commemoration: Edward
Said, Martin Buber, and Afif Safieh. There were contributions from Robert Fisk
and a recitation by Andy de la Tour and Susan Wooldridge of “Never Again Shall
We Forget” by DYR director of poetry Randa Hamwi Duwajui, with its refrain “La
Tensa…La Tensa…”(Don’t forget…don’t forget….), followed by an
astonishing performance from poet and Jewish activist Michael Rosen. Rosen, who
has appeared in two other Deir Yassin commemorations, performed his poem
Promised Land:
A
family arrived and said that they had papers,
To
prove that his house was theirs.
-No,
no, said the man, my people have always lived here,
My
father, grandfather…and look in the garden,
My
great grandfather planted that.
-No,
no, said the family, look at the documents.
There
was a stack of them.
-
Where do I start? said the man.
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No need to read the beginning, they said,
Turn
to the page marked ‘Promised Land’.
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Are they legal? he said, who wrote them?
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God, they said, God wrote them, look,
Here
come His tanks.
"Knocking
on Heaven's Door"
“Like
many Palestinians, I grew up hearing about Deir Yassin. Also, like
many Palestinians, my parents didn’t go into
detail"-Palestinian playwright Razanne Carmey
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These
were all professional actors, poets and performers called on to do a simple job,
so it was quite a thing to see, sitting as I was at the front, these seasoned
professionals slowly realising the importance of the occasion they were
attending and of the words they were uttering.
The
second half opened with Hadar from
Israel
. DYR’s
UK
Director had spotted her a few days earlier, busking on
London
’s Piccadilly Line. He handed her a card, “We’re casting for this, call if
you want to.” She did and ended up singing to an audience of Palestinians,
Arabs and their supporters Knocking on Heaven’s Door by, in her own
words, “that great Jew Robert Zimmerman, also known as Bob Dylan.”
But
nothing could have prepared the audience for what was to come when Company:
Collisions appeared. Was ever an audience so surprised as when four young women
and one young man took to the stage in white long johns and vests and performed
In the Shadow of the Wall, specially written for the commemoration?
Nadim
Sawalha, who discovered this group says, “This theatre company which operates
from
Brighton
has a fantastic track record. Their speciality is physical theatre, which means
putting more stress on movement than on words. So, we had four girls and one man
in long johns and white vests performing the tragedy of war and violence.
Although they only had one week to rehearse the piece, their facial expressions
were haunting, their movements beautifully controlled and the sound track was
breathtaking.”
Dressed
unbelievably as babies, these young avant-garde performers confounded our
expectations, raised and dashed our emotions and ended up totally seducing our
minds and hearts. A pillow fight breaks out over an orange that these children
seem unable to share. The conflict over the “promised fruit” becomes ever
more playfully violent and then ceases to be funny as the violence moves
inexorably from pretend to real. The “children” play soldiers with guns and
find pleasure in killing for killing’s sake.
And
they took it. The Arab audience, surely unfamiliar with such cavorting, sat in
total and stunned silence as the horror of violence was starkly thrust before
them. And, when it became almost unbearable, they were dismissed with a
baby-voice saying bye-bye.” Commemoration endings have always been important,
but was there ever an ending like this? Unsure what to do next, stunned and
disconcerted, we stumbled to our feet and went out into the night. Deir Yassin
had been remembered.
Amongst
others, the evening was attended by His Royal Highness Prince Turki al-Faisal
Ambassador of
Saudi Arabia
, H.E. Afif Safieh, the Palestinian General Delegate, H.E. Mr Ali Mohsen Hameed,
Ambassador of the Arab League, and by Rabbi Mark Solomon of the Liberal Jewish
Synagogue. During the interval, His Royal Highness, accompanied by Mr Safieh,
went backstage to chat to the actors and director. Rabbi Solomon, who expressed
an interest in bringing more and more members of the Jewish community to future
commemorations, warmly praised the performance.
*
Paul Eisen, based in
London
, is a director of Deir Yasin Remembered
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