Two years ago I decided to follow love, step out of my comfort zone and live for the first time outside of Israel. What on the face of it can sound threatening, turned out to be convenient and even cheap and the most significant thing that happened is that the well-known term “things you see from there you don’t see from here” hit me with all its force. And really, when you look at us from the outside, everything here takes on a different meaning. When you see an operation in Gaza from abroad you immediately think “This is it, this is the end of us!” Then you call your friends in Israel to ask how they are and they reassure you that “everything is fine” and you remember how you also sat in a cafe in Florentine and indifferently went to a nearby shelter, left and came back to drink Coffee. Because that’s how we live. It’s normal. We got used to it. For a moment I forgot.
In Israel, each of us has lived our life, whether fulfilling dreams or busy with daily chores, we are so busy that who has time to think about the biggest problem of all (enough, why bother and mention the conflict now?); But here abroad (at least in London), not infrequently, people who heard that I am Israeli were not interested in the food or the pride parade, they were interested in what it is like to live alongside an ongoing conflict, blaming all the injustices of the State of Israel on me. Because when you say “Israel” abroad, In most cases, this is the first association people have. Thus, without a choice, I found myself becoming the ambassador of Israel, taking care to remind that there are good people here, a great beach, a great desert and there is nothing better than Tel Aviv even if it is expensive.
One evening I sat with my new Italian friend Federico. We never talked about his political views and I always assumed he was “pro-Israel” because he loves Tel Aviv and knows how to say “where is the central station” with a perfect Italian accent. At that dinner he told me lightly that for him the State of Israel is an occupied country that is entirely based on religion, and therefore he has a hard time with the idea of its existence. And yes, he is of course sorry for what happened in the Holocaust. I found myself, the one who defines herself as “left”, choosing words, formulating convincing arguments and looking for words to justify our existence in the Land of Israel, becoming a bit “right-wing”, a bit because there is no choice, I’m in favor of coexistence and peace but hey please don’t deny my existence Here. I felt how I was fighting to protect my Jewish state, going back to the days of the Bible and the destruction, connecting with the Jewish side in me, trying to justify why we deserve to live here, feeling a bit like a settler in my own country.
The confusing questions about the connection to our country, despite the repeated elections and the security complexity, floated and came up all the time. I watched the news about the settlers, with what dedication and passion they work and settle the entire Land of Israel, eliminating any complexity and the presence of another people here, and I truly and sincerely wanted to understand them and what is happening there in the mountains of Judea and Samaria. Let’s face it, the majority of people living in the State of Israel are not interested in this. Call it indifference, call it habit. In the end there are different groups here who see a different future for the same country and need to live here together. If we don’t get to know each other, I believe we won’t be able to exist side by side for long in this complex reality.
Until when and where does it go? “On the Hill” (photo courtesy of the Acre International Festival for Other Theater)
When I was 18, majoring in theater in the twelfth grade, I put on the satirical musical “Everyone was my son except Naomi or the shores of Switzerland” by Michael Gurvitz, which came out in 1984 and makes fun of the right and the left, and even then I said to myself “Wow, this play was written 25 years ago and is still relevant for today”. 38 years later, I find myself dealing with the same issues, living the same reality and asking – until when and where are we going. In our piece “On the Hill”, which is being performed these days at the Acre International Festival for Other Theater, we tried to understand who claims to be continuing the path of the pioneers of ’48. We watched dozens of articles and videos, read articles, conducted interviews with settlers and hill girls in the past and present – not with the intention of justifying acts of violence and racism, but really to try and understand who we live next to, what is happening there in the east of the country and what we can learn from them, especially about ourselves. And for all those who already jumped and denied the existence of the show before watching it, both from the left and from the right: let’s see and then we’ll talk. That’s why we created it.
>> “On the Hill – Land for Never”, a satirical musical by Keren Sheft, is currently performing at the Acre International Festival for Other Theater, details and tickets here // Direction and dramaturgy: Eliana Magon // Composers and musical management: Udi Ehud Kanval // Motion design: Light of Messiah