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Thoughts on a Lecture
Jun. 11th, 2008 02:50 pmThere's something fun about writing in the Uni computer room.
It's a bit like spending time in the library, only instead of people breathing and pushing papers there's a clickety-clack of key boards.
I just had the most fascinating lecture about the Canaanite movement; how they were secular and wanted to create a new nation separate from Judaism which would bring together the different groups in the Middle East (the movement opposed Zionism and Pan-Arabism, as their goal was to create a nation based on the view that Jews (in the jargon, the "Hebrews") and the Arabs in the Levant were descendants of the ancient Canaanite people.
It's pretty neat, in a Nationalist way I suppose.
They opposed the Partition Plan, regarding it as a total disaster to the whole ethos of a united land and new nation, as it created an even greater rift between the local Arabs and the immigrant Jews.
It's an interesting History which had a great impact on Israeli and Hebrew culture after the formation of the state. It had a lot of potential, but it neglected to take Arab culture, history and language into account, which I think would have proved just a hindrance just as powerful as Judaism and the British mandate were in the formative years of the movement.
The lecture was specifically about Aharon Amir one of the ideologues of the movement who died (at 85) just a few months ago, because he was a writer and poet who, though not a recruited author, was quite clear in his ideology in his writing.
I think the nucleus of the idea, a new nation separate from the authority of religion and based on the land and territory, is still powerful. Because of the greater rift that is occurring between Israel and the (American) Diaspora (and other various socio-political reasons), it seems that there will be no other choice, eventually, to somehow create an alternative nationality that will incorporate all the multi-cultures that are found in this tiny stretch of sand.
It's a bit like spending time in the library, only instead of people breathing and pushing papers there's a clickety-clack of key boards.
I just had the most fascinating lecture about the Canaanite movement; how they were secular and wanted to create a new nation separate from Judaism which would bring together the different groups in the Middle East (the movement opposed Zionism and Pan-Arabism, as their goal was to create a nation based on the view that Jews (in the jargon, the "Hebrews") and the Arabs in the Levant were descendants of the ancient Canaanite people.
It's pretty neat, in a Nationalist way I suppose.
They opposed the Partition Plan, regarding it as a total disaster to the whole ethos of a united land and new nation, as it created an even greater rift between the local Arabs and the immigrant Jews.
It's an interesting History which had a great impact on Israeli and Hebrew culture after the formation of the state. It had a lot of potential, but it neglected to take Arab culture, history and language into account, which I think would have proved just a hindrance just as powerful as Judaism and the British mandate were in the formative years of the movement.
The lecture was specifically about Aharon Amir one of the ideologues of the movement who died (at 85) just a few months ago, because he was a writer and poet who, though not a recruited author, was quite clear in his ideology in his writing.
I think the nucleus of the idea, a new nation separate from the authority of religion and based on the land and territory, is still powerful. Because of the greater rift that is occurring between Israel and the (American) Diaspora (and other various socio-political reasons), it seems that there will be no other choice, eventually, to somehow create an alternative nationality that will incorporate all the multi-cultures that are found in this tiny stretch of sand.
