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May 24, 2006 Village Tales – Anthology of Arab Folktales Quietly and unobtrusively, cultural activities whose goal is to cultivate the fabric of the relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel is being carried out by the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace at Givat Haviva. To nourish it with knowledge, with empathy, with historical memories, and with penetration into deep codes of identity. Village Tales is a bilingual compilation in Arabic and Hebrew, collecting fables and stories of life in the Palestinian villages in the Galilee, as they have been told aloud by their inhabitants. There is no standing or hope for an Israeli identity without developing a deep relation with place, with territory and with history. There is no place in Israel where Palestinian Arabs were not also partners and a presence, whether directly or indirectly. And therefore if we do not also understand and learn their presence and deep attachment to their villages, our attachment will not be complete and developed. I believe that the identity of the Arab-Israeli minority in Israel does not necessarily contradict our Israeli identity, which I define as the complete Jewish identity which takes responsibility for all aspects of life. The identity of a national minority enriches the identity of the national majority, concentrates its attention, variegates its tolerance, and thereby strengthens the better values of democracy which bring a blessing also to the nationalism of the majority. The outstanding work done by Yoram Meron, Riad Kabha and Rafa Abu Raya in diligent collation of the stories of the villages in the Galilee is another facet in the important and unending effort towards a deeper acquaintance between the majority and the minority in the common homeland. A. B. Yehoshua (Translated from the Hebrew) A.B. Yehoshua is one of Israel's most widely-read authors and a prominent intellectual. Read more about Yehoshua at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/bio... Read tales from Village Tales (Arabic and Hebrew) at http://www.givathaviva.org.il/hebrew/peace/yora... |
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