Paper 3 Israel Spiegel Eng

How have war, conflict, and the intifadas affected Israeli culture?

(please note: Rape and Violence Trigger Warning)

War, Conflict, and Intifadas have affected Israeli culture in ways so vast and numerous, it exceeds the scope of a mere 4 page paper. For the sake of brevity, this paper will asses Arts, Military Strength, and Legal Infrastructure, as areas where the effects of war, conflict, and Intifada can be seen. For sake of clarity for outside readers, by intifada, this paper ties itself to the narrow meaning of the palestinian uprising against israel. The infusion of collective trauma on the culture can seen to permeate the arts, where dance and theatre take on the most gory subject matters, including horrors of female genital mutilation (FGM) and Israeli on Arab rape and homicide. In Theatre and the Intifada by Dan Urian with no modern Rape Trigger Warning, the author plunges us into a scene of an elderly woman being raped (p.209). As a guiding force, his 1995 article lacks a totally modern appropriate level of respectfulness. Has war been so normalized, that no warning need be given? Is war always the subtext? He plunges us into horrors, as if horrors were the norm. Indeed, in the war torn pre-high tech eras, Theatre might be the last refuge of speech. Urian

uses term the "Palestinian Question" which begs an answer, or a solution. The term itself throws a specter of darkness upon the other of the intifada. When are humans ever a question? Are not humans the answers? But in this, war zone, humanity wars against itself, blinded by the self eating cancer which destroys. The confrontationalism, with harsh realities of war, glares through this article published in the Contemporary Theatre Review, where we might feel, that lack of suitable forum, laws, speech, or crying room, leaves humans wailing in the infinite open-ness of the stage. The glories of dance, as joyfully described in the Inbal dance testimony, reveal a political movement in the art form, where the ethnic, is the Israeli, and the Yemini dance traditions mesh with European, and convince the western gaze of the authentic Israeli format, whilst depriving the Israeli identity of full substance, as the identity wars amidst disparate elements in hierarchies of identity value placement. In Orientalism, the Body, and Cultural Politics in Israel: Sara Levi Tanai and the Inbal Dance Theater, Dina Roginsky describes the artistry of Sara Levi Tanai's whose adherence t a fusionary art form impressed The new York Times with its Israeliness, but inflamed political controversy on the home soil, where the arab fusionary elements outraged hierarchies of what was allowed to be the official Jewish identity, in art. As the wars give way, to other voices, and break down the supremacy of Ashkenazim, the other ways of Being Israeli might be danced out here. Where can the Arab Israeli experience thrive, in the art forms, arising from these wars? The high value on movement and sour, belies the insecurity, in all directions, where frenzies of hyper vigilance, keep the dancers on their toes, and their bright grins, defy shoah. there is a point at which art is an affront to disaster. But the show goes on. There is a piece "Invisible Unless in Final Pain" by Gaby Aldor, who describes an Israeli dance staging of a funeral, lamenting women, a soldier, reluctant in his task. The reader is the other invisible one, the

invisible erasure of meaning, waiting to transpire, should we, the reader, have the courage to continue. The development of the Suzanne Dellal Center for Dance and Theater (p.84), brightens the ominous "Final Pain" at the gates. There is love, there is geometry, there is silence. The hope that is in dancing, will give nothing to my words which now become tears. Military Strength and buildup is the highest level of power in the world system of preservation of this only democracy, there in the former British Land. War, preserves, impel, the force of strength, to protect that which is good, the elderly, the young, and indeed, women. But when, militarism, becomes the end of itself, where then military rape, is demeaned as an inherent spoil of war, in the war apologist, du jour, the war has lost its way. Waves of intifada resistance to Israel, has given way to the language of "terrorism" which derives complexity from the diverse spectacle of participants. No one state is the enemy, but an array of actors, and groups, whose subterranean ways, elude interference. The mind numbing effects of calling them terrorists, yields a pacificating over-generalization, which robs the uniqueness of their interest, their methods, and their religious imperatives, financial desperation, and resort to violence. It robs the catastrophes, the bombings of their unique horrors, their intricate planning and motivations? Is there a new anti-semitism, in the islamic world? some say yes. That European anti-semitic ideology has moved east. Which language we choose colors the shaping of realities and futures. As the Irish troubles masked the horrific obliteration of culture and starvation of Ireland, and the consequent retaliatory bombings, murders, and organized warfare, yes there is terrorism, but a greater level of understanding must guide our appraisal. The underlying horrors of the crusaders often united Jew and Arab in opposition to the murderous Christian conquest. It must be noted who started the war, to begin with. Who was the original oppressor? As increased militarism, makes a way for the total security of Israel, or total profits of war and oil industries, and yet Iran worries international communities, fraught

by war, there is no way out. The exclusionary racism, which impelled the aliyahs, the Zionism which sought to restore humanity of the subjugated, and the specters of women treated so unfairly in misogynistic religions, impels a new way be made in the Middle East. We must put our eyes on peace and human rights. Ignoring the murders of the Malalas, will not stop the war on women. War shocks, enervates. Cortisol flares. Adrenaline. The amygdala rewires, shell shock ensues. A culture made in war, is wired for a quick response. Even when there is lasting peace, there will never be peace in the hearts of humans scarred by war. In The Military and Militarism in Israeli Society, Maoz Azaryahu in the chapter "The Independence Day Parade" captures the formalized ritual military pageantry, the overcompensation of Army Day, and the signals sent through the entire culture and society. The non-optional militarism is a "message directed both outwards and inwards." The "joy and pride" described by defense minister Moshe Dayan (p.103) holds us in formation. The legal infrastructure of israel must be remembered to be a new occurrence, of a new National beginning. This nation, so fraught by war and fears of war at the north and the south, and the deeper internal wars of ideological spectrums, colliding with a desire for a national unity, must be seen as a nation in its beginning. The ancientness of the traditions in Diaspora gathered the influences of the British Common law and associated Diaspora jurisdictions. Waves of secularism, and the obligatory sanctifications of rabbinical authority, processed the secular Israeli state into a legal and political infrastructure, which like most modern law, denies the very religious underpinnings of the moral code, whilst avowing a pure legal positivist approach. Realistically, the law, as it is made, is good law. critics bemoan that lack of a constitution, because that is a word, that they have heard, and believe all nations need like a computer needs a hard drive. The actual substance of the law, is rich in the Basic Laws of Israel, which as they set out to establish a way forward, made a Knesset for the eternal

preservation of the state. as the imperative to make amore elaborate constitution, then became fraught witht eh weaves of war, and assassination, and political divisions, it is not because Israel is weak, that a 64 year old nation, has youth. Remembrance holds us fast, where memorial unlocks the repressed memories of the war scarred humans holding WWII mum.

War infects everything, the arts, the military preparedness, and the law. There is youth, without youth, trying, and the end of trying, as i lay dying, far from the maddening crowd.

Citations: Theatre and the Intifada by Dan Urian "Invisible Unless in Final Pain" by Gaby Aldor Orientalism, the Body, and Cultural Politics in Israel: Sara Levi Tanai and the Inbal Dance Theater, Dina Roginsky The Military and Militarism in Israeli Society, Maoz Azaryahu in the chapter "The Independence Day Parade"