visits Givat Haviva

 

Dr. Claudio Bizzarri being shown around the Givat Haviva campus with

Dr. David Mendelsohn from the International Department

 

DR. CLAUDIO BIZZARRI, one of Italy's most prominent archaeologists and personal friend of International Department's Dr. David Mendelsohn, paid a visit to Givat Haviva during a recent and very hectic five-day first visit to Israel.

On his first morning in Israel, Dr. Bizzari joined the students of the Givat Haviva MASA Intensive Arabic Semester and MASA academic director David Mendelsohn, in a study visit to Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek in the Jezreel Valley.

A member of the kibbutz since making aliya forty years ago, Lydia Aisenberg – also a staff member of the International Department at Givat Haviva – showed the students and Dr. Bizzarri around the veteran kibbutz of the Hashomer Hatzair movement.

During the visit to the 1922 founded kibbutz, the students and Dr. Bizzarri heard about the pioneers who settled the kibbutz, of their relationship with the Arab people in the neighboring communities up until the  1948 War of Independence, and a great deal about the kibbutz of yesteryear and that of present times – and the wish of most of the members to remain a kibbutz of the old style and not privatize as have many other kibbutzim in latter years.

The MASA students and Dr. Bizzarri viewed an exhibition of photographs in the kibbutz communal dining-room.   The photographs were of members of the community who lost their lives whilst serving in the Israeli Armed Forces, or were killed in attacks on the kibbutz, and displayed every year as part of the Remembrance Day for Fallen Soldiers.

They also visited the kibbutz memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, sculpted in 1946.  During the fierce battle of Mishmar HaEmek in 1948, some of the images in the memorial were struck by bullets from the Arab Liberation Army under the command of  Iraqi officer al-Kauji.  Following the war it was decided by the kibbutz to leave the bullet holes in the images making up the impressive memorial.

 

  

Founder members working the land; kibbutz nestled among the trees and the Jezreel Valley; Mishmar HaEmek's Holocaust memorial – Pinat HaGola.

 

The MASA students and Dr. Bizzarri culminated their walkabout Mishmar HaEmek with a visit to Lydia's home, and where they discussed the pros and cons of kibbutz life, then and now – and thoughts of the future. 

The following day Dr. Bizzarri – who resides and teaches in the city of Orvieto where he is also Professor in Residence for the University of Arizona overseas study program – called in at the Givat Haviva Art Center and Peace Gallery where he met with director Etti Amram, and also at the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace, where he spoke with director Ahmad Bdir.

He also visited the Al-Qasemi Academy in neighboring Baka el-Gharbiya, (accompanied by David and Lydia), to view an exhibition of the Givat Haviva Art Center's Through Others' Eyes photographs on display in the main foyer of the academy – a teachers training college.

 

 

Through Others' Eyes at the Al-Qasemi Academy, Baka al-Gharbiya.

 

Whilst at Al-Qasemi, Dr. Bizzarri also viewed the fledgling Art Gallery and Islamic museum the academy is founding, in co-operation with the Israeli Archaeological Authority.  Archaeological artifacts already arranged in display cabinets were of great interest to the visiting archaeologist from Italy and he wished them success in their new venture.

Following the successful visit to Baka al-Gharbiya, Dr. Bizzarri viewed a section of the security fence that runs close to the main road and offers a view across to the other side of the fence where numerous Palestinian large and small villages are situated in the valley and across the hills and nearby mountain ranges.

 

  

Dr. Bizzarri at the Al-Qasami museum, with Dr. David Mendelsohn outside the main entrance to Al-Qasami, and with  Lydia Aisenberg near the security fence in Baka al-Gharbiya

 

Lamenting that his visit to Israel was all too short, but promising to return for a longer period next time around, we bade farewell to Dr. Bizzarri and hopefully will see him again in the not too distant future.

 

TEXT & PHOTOS: Lydia Aisenberg

MAY 2009