[News] A Tribute to Shimon Tzabar by Gilad Atzmon
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Thu Mar 22 18:19:24 EDT 2007
Thursday, March 22, 2007
A Tribute to Shimon Tzabar by Gilad Atzmon
(Note by Peacepalestine: I found the books by Mr
Tzabar extremely original and interesting, and
highly recommend them, if you can still find
them. I consider myself fortunate enough to have
heard a fascinating and insightful observation on
Israeli society from Mr Tzabar. In an email he
once sent me, he wrote this: They say there are
two kinds of people in Israel - Hawks and Doves.
I agree that there are two kinds of people, but I
would call them Hawks and Super-Hawks.)
A tribute to Shimon Tzabar
By Gilad Atzmon
Shimon Tzabar, one of the very few Israeli
genuine and authentic peace enthusiasts, died
three days ago (19 March 2007). He was
Eighty-one. Shimon was a friend. Though we hardly
ever agreed on anything, though he was sometimes
harsh in his criticism, he has always managed to
be charming, loveable and a good laugh. Maybe even the best laugh around.
As well as being a fabulous artist, a landscape
and portrait painter, Shimon was probably one of
the best storytellers one could find. This is
hardly surprising, the man obviously had some
stories to share. He was born in Tel Aviv in
1926. Already in his teens he had managed to join
every Israeli Paramilitary organisation. He knew
everyone and it is more than likely that everyone knew him.
Shimon participated in three Israeli wars.
However, it was only after 1967 that he fully
internalised the scale of the Zionist fallacy.
Repulsed by emerging Israeli imperialism, Shimon
left Israel and settled in London. I believe that
it was then that Shimon started regarding himself
as a Hebrew-Speaking Palestinian. By doing so
he detached himself from the classic Zionist
collective attribution to world Jewry, he instead
identified himself with an esoteric geographical orientation.
Like my peers, I came across his name as a young
kid. Every Israeli child knows Tzabars
Tusberindi the Hero (Tusberindi Hagibor). We
grew up with his special wit and captivating sketches.
Before leaving Israel, Shimon was an established
author. He was also a columnist for a number of
years for both the daily Haaretz and Uri Avnerys
Haolam Haze. In fact, till his last days,
Israeli journalists, intellectuals, academic
researchers and solidarity campaigners who
visited London tried to approach him and to learn his views about things.
Shimon always loved to surround himself with
creative people. When we got to know each other
he asked me to join the editorial staff of the
<http://www.israelimperialnews.org/>Israel
Imperial News. I was on his editorial board for a
while. In 2004, he asked me to join forces with
him in the production of the
<http://www.monabaker.com/pMachine/more.php?id=A2166_0_1_0_M>Better
than the Michelin Guide to Israeli Prisons,
Jails, Concentration Camps and Torture Chambers".
To join forces with Shimon, or to be on his
editorial board, meant to come over for a coffee
and watch him working. There was never much for me or anyone else to do.
Shimon was a workaholic, he was addicted to hard
work. In 1967, in his early forties, after
immigrating to London, Shimon became a builder.
Not exactly what you would expect from a
prominent writer. Evidently, the man was anything
but spoiled. However, in London Shimon found the
time to write one of the funniest books ever.
<http://deuceofclubs.com/books/158_white_flag.htm>The
White Flag Principle, How to Lose a War and Why.
It is a profound military doctrine that is there
to suggest that losing a war is always the best
way to win a future. The white flag principle was
there to teach generals and warlords how to get
everything wrong, how to train their soldiers to
run backwards and to bring their country to their
knees. Being defeated is the way forward, said Tzabar.
I believe that the necessary key to understanding
Shimons unique contribution to the
Israeli-Palestinian discourse has something to do
with the fact that Shimon was primarily an
artist. Rather than bouncing between political
campaigns and dealing with activists will to
power, Shimon was always focused on himself, on
his own acts, on his art, on his particular
creative way of saying things. Shimon always had
something in the pipeline: whether a large
landscape picture, a print, a portrait, a
pamphlet about Israeli occupation, a book about
Israeli atrocities, a virtual Israeli roadblock
in front of the Parliament. Though I myself
hardly agreed with Shimon on many things, I did learn a lot from the man.
Following Shimon, I tend to believe that artists
better leave politics to politicians. Artists
should work independently. We should never
affiliate with anyone but our ethical
consciousness and moral awareness. In fact,
Shimon has never pointed it out in such a clear
manner, but thinking about the man and his role,
this is what Shimon was all about, a total
commitment. He was always doing his thing,
engaging in what he believed should be the right
thing to do. Shimon will be missed.
Michelin Guides Sue Israeli Satirist over Spoof
by Shimon Tzabar | Oznik.com | 19 July 2004
Micheling Guides have recently filed suite
against Israeli expat satirist Shimon Tzabar,
publisher of a pamphlet titled MUCH BETTER THAN
THE OFFICIAL Michelin Guide to Israeli Prisons,
Jails, Concentration Camps, and Torture Chambres.
Below is an excerpt from the guide, followed by
Tzabar's defense submitted to the British Hight Court.
Excerpt: The Guide (pp. 6-11):
Before we start our guided tour of Israel's
prisons, concentration camps and torture
chambers, it would make sense to ask why we are
doing this. Why should anyone go on such a tour?
The answer is simple: to see history in the making.
Usually, it is through newspapers that history
unfolds before our eyes. In the case of Israel
however, we cannot trust newspapers. They mix
everything up and make us confused. We cannot
distinguish any more between anti-Semitism,
anti-Zionism, and anti-Israeli government policy.
The only way to know the truth is to go there in
person and see with our own eyes and watch
history, true history, in the making.
Going to Israel is quite simple. Anyone can do
it; with or without a travel agent. The problem,
once you are there, is how to see the prisons.
There are two ways to see prisons, one is from
the outside and the other is from the inside. For
the sake of watching history in the making, there
is not much one can see from watching from the
outside but, after all, it is better than
nothing. Since this guide serves everyone, we
thought we would help people to reach the prisons
and concentration camps and to see them from the
outside as well as from the inside. We therefore,
where possible, provide telephone and fax numbers
of the prisons and police stations concerned. It
will be obvious that to see the prisons from the
inside, one has to be arrested. For Palestinians
or any other Arab, this is not a problem. But for
people who are not Arabs and may speak Arabic but
don't have the proper accent, it is not so easy
to get inside a jail. So, we have to give some guidance as how to be arrested.
Of course, it is easy to commit a crime and be
arrested, but we can't recommend such an
ungraceful solution, especially since being
arrested as a criminal may land you in the wrong
jail. So, you have to do something political. You
can demonstrate against the mistreating of
Palestinians or try to stop bulldozers
demolishing their homes or even try to save
children from being shot. But this carries with
it another danger. Instead of being arrested you
may be shot yourself, or buried alive by the bulldozer.
This is not a hypothetical suggestion because it
has already happened to a few English and
American people. We must admit that there is no
100% safe way to be arrested. Watching history in
the making, especially in Israel, carries some
risk with it, but we will try to help make that
risk as small as possible. The safest way to be
arrested, although this also carries a risk with
it, is to look like a Palestinian Arab. This can
easily be achieved by putting on some Arab garb,
such as, for example, an Arab head dress or a
kafiyeh, as it is commonly known. Once you look
like a Palestinian you have a good chance of
being arrested. Your chance is actually so good,
that you don't have to do anything in particular.
You can be arrested for anything, even for
smiling (in the wrong place or at the wrong
person!) Once you have been arrested, don't talk
or answer questions. Don't open your mouth even
if you do understand what is being said. We would
especially stress that whatever happens, never
protest because if you do it in any other
language apart from Arabic (in the correct
accent), you might be released at once or worse
still, you could be expelled from the country.
There is also another and much more important
reason not to open your mouth. This is especially
important if you want to observe what Israelis
are capable of and are actually inflicting on the
Palestinians. If you don't talk, they will assume
that you know and have something to hide, so they
will employ physical and psychological means to
make you talk. They will start by beating you up.
There are different methods of beating. One of
them for example is known as the 'bending
method'. After they have handcuffed your hands
with plastic wire behind your back, and seated
you on a small chair without a back support, two
people will hit you: one, sitting in front of
you, will push your chest with his left hand and,
at the same time,will slap your chin with the
palm of his right hand, while the other person,
just standing behind you, will hold your head
with his left hand, and box your left arm with
his right fist. We go into these details so that you will know what to expect.
Other methods of first stage torture include the
'tripping game'. While your eyes are covered and
you can't see, you will be given the command to
go forward. The moment you move, a soldier will
trip you with his boot. These are mere examples
but there are a lot more surprises once you are
in the hands of the Shabak, the Israeli army police.
You may rightly ask how we know all this. Is it
from personal experience? The answer is no. We
copied this information from a booklet by the
Public Committee Against Torture in Israel which
was published in Jerusalem, in April 2003. You
can order this booklet yourself, by writing to:
Public Committee Against Torture in Israel / PO
Box 4634 / Jerusalem 91046 / ISRAEL. (see also: related links)
Here is one concrete example of a torture case,
as published on December 12th 2003 by the
Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture (Case ISR101203.CC):
According to the information received, at around
2 pm on April 24th 2003, a 16-year-old Mejad
Abdalatif Fatah Sabach was arrested by Israel
Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers near Kfar
Geva/Jenin (see Map 1, pp. 12/13). He was in a
taxi on the way to school. The soldiers
handcuffed him, stripped him of his clothes down
to his underpants and hit him all over his body,
including the head. They reportedly subsequently
tightened his handcuffs so much that the marks
were still visible, two and a half months later,
when he submitted his complaint.
While they were transporting him blindfolded to
the prison facility at Araba, the soldiers beat
him again. When they arrived, they threw him into
the camp with his hands and feet tightly
handcuffed. [Editors Note: It turns out that
Araba is not a prison as such, but in fact a
small Palestinian village south-west of Jenin
which is occupied by a whole brigade of Israeli
soldiers, called Hativat Menashe]. He was left
that way until 10 pm, without receiving any food
or drink. He was then transferred to the Salem
detention facility (see Map 9, pp. 28/29). On
arrival, four soldiers, using the butts of their
rifles and sticks, beat him on the head, face, in
the stomach and on the legs until he bled. This lasted until 2 am.
Mejad was subsequently taken to the Kishon
detention center (see Map 2, pp. 14/15), where he
was questioned for three hours while seated on a
small chair, with his hands and feet handcuffed
and his body bent backwards. After this, he was
put in solitary confinement for a week. During
this time he was interrogated twice, once for 6 hours and once for 3 hours.
He was then taken to Megido Prison (see Map 9,
pp. 28/29). After having been held there for 15
days in a tent with 20 other prisoners, he was
sent back to the Kishon Detention center for
another week in solitary confinement. On the 7th
day of detention there, he was taken for
interrogation which lasted from 10 am to 5 pm.
During this interrogation, Mejad was placed in a
painful position, his back stretched backwards,
with his interrogator kicking him in the legs.
The following day, he was again interrogated for
three hours, seated in the same position. The
many kicks that he received made it difficult for
for him to stand. After this interrogation, he
was taken back to his cell, where he remained
until June 20th 2003, when he was taken to the
Hasharon Prison. There could be some confusion
here because there are 2 prisons called Hasharon.
One is situated on Road 553, near Tel-Mond, (see
Map 4, pp. 18/19) which belongs to the Prison
Service, and the other belongs to the Police and
is near Petach-Tikwa (see Map 5, pp. 20/21), where he is still being held.
On top of physical torture one can also expect
psychological torture. Since psychological
torture involves vocals, and is executed in
Hebrew or in Arabic, those who don't know these
languages will not understand a word and, therefore, have nothing to fear.
Bon voyage.
++++++++++++++++++
Letter submitted to the British High Court,
Chancery Division, in London, in response to a
suite by famed international publishing house
Michelin, against the MUCH BETTER THAN THE
OFFICIAL Michelin Guide to Israeli Prisons,
Jails, Concentration Camps, and Torture Chambres:
Michelin claim against me is invalid, for the following reasons:
1. The book that Michelin is referring to, is
not a book in a commercial sense.
The book that the claimants are referring to,
is not a book in a commercial sense. It doesn't
have an ISBN number or a publisher. It has not
been sent to the British Library as the law
requires of any book published in this country
and has not been sent to any bookshop to be sold
to customers. It is a political pamphlet given
free or in exchange for a small donation that
some people send us voluntarily or at our
request, to cover the cost of printing and
postage. A notification of the existence of this
pamphlet and a request for a donation was only
sent to a few people who are on my e-mail address list.
Since it is not a book in the commercial sense,
it could not have caused any loss or financial
damage as Michelin claims. As for other, real or
imagined damages, like damage to reputation for
example, I will refer later on. This pamphlet is
a political publication. It attacks the
government of Israel for its treatment of the
Palestinians; for their imprisonment and torture,
for the demolition of their houses and for the
killing of hundreds of innocent people, including
children. To make it impressive, it is written in
a literary style of a satire that Ive learned from Jonathan Swift.
2. The cover of the pamphlet is a visual satire, to fit the style of the text.
I assume that what the claimants are objecting
to, is not the pamphlet itself but the cover of
that pamphlet. That cover, which was printed
separately and added to the pamphlet later on, is
in the same spirit of satire as the text is. I
chose the subject of the satire on the front page
to be that of the famous Michelin guide. However,
I made it clear that it is not a real Michelin
guide. I made this clear by printing, on the
cover, in bold letters, the title which is: MUCH
BETTER THAN THE OFFICIAL Michelin guide if it is
better, it cannot be a Michelin guide. This must
be clear to everyone. In addition, I printed on
the spine: THE TOURIST GUIDE THAT NEVER WAS.
These additions are clear evidence that it is not
a genuine Michelin guide but a spoof.
The idea came to me from the Campbell Soup
silk-screen print, by the artist Andy Warhol. He
took a commercial logo and made an art object out
of it. Since I am also an artist I thought that I
can create something in the same spirit.
3. The accusation that I have caused damages to Michelin is not true
I have already explained in paragraph 1), why my
publication could not have caused financial
damage to the claimant. As for damage to
reputation, I must say that the way I used the
name of Michelin in the cover of the spoof, could
only add to their reputation, not to damage it. I
used their name to make the international public
aware that Israel is trying to eliminate the
Palestinians. I tried to prevent a holocaust. I
am sure that Michelin, as a company that employs
many people, supports humanitarian causes but as
a commercial company they cannot express it.
4. Michelin has given me a tacit permission to distribute it
In spite of all that, I still wanted to make sure
that Michelin did not object to the spoof. Being
a French company, I was sure that they would know
what satire is and would have enough sense of
humor to tolerate a spoof based on one of their
products, especially for such an humanitarian
cause. To make sure that they did not object, I
made one copy of this cover, enveloped a pamphlet
with it and sent it to Michelin with a note of my
address stacked among the pages. Since I did not
receive any response from them for over three
weeks, objecting to what I had done, I was sure
that they did not mind. So, I enveloped all the
pamphlets with this cover and started to distribute them among my friends.
Allow me to end my defense by quoting a short
poem written by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda:
You will ask: where are the lilacs
And the metaphysics petalled with poppies
And the rain repeatedly spattering
its words, filling them with holes and birds?
You will ask why his poetry does not speak of
dreams and leaves, and the great volcanoes of
his birthplace?
Come and see the blood in the streets.
Come and see the blood in the streets.
Come and see the blood in the streets!
[oznik.comment: We have been able to obtain a
copy of the Much Better than the official
Michelin Guide and wish to inform our readers
that in addition to detailed maps and brief
descriptions of Israeli prisons, jails,
concentration camps, and torture chambers, this
pamphlet also contains a translation of a memoir
published in Israel, but nowhere else. Checkpoint
Syndrome by Liran Ron Furer, is a personal
account of an Israeli soldier's experience as an
occupier, and the his being haunted by this
memory. A note found among the pages of the book
says: "We asked for permission to translate
Checkpoint Syndrome from Hebrew into English bit
it was denied. Since we think the book is of
great importance, we have decided to translate
and publish it without permission. The Editors."]
Shimon Tzabar is a satirist, poet, and artist. A
new edition of his book, The White Flag
Principle: How to Lose a War (and Why) (buy from
an independent book shop, buy from Amazon) was
published by Four Walls Eight Windows in Feb.
2003. Tzabar is editor of 'Israel Imperial News'.
http://oznik.com/news/040719.html
Posted by: Mona Baker on Jul 23, 04 | 10:30 am
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