In times of protracted conflict, can matters of the heart exist apart from politics? An award-winning documentary from Israeli filmmaker Ibtisam Mara\u2019ana Menuhin left me at once spellbound, uplifted, sad and restless, as I found myself wrestling with this question.<\/p>\n
Write Down, I am an Arab<\/em> depicts the life of Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish. The politics is important \u2013 more on that below \u2013 but what makes the film especially gripping is the story of Darwish\u2019s catapult to national and international fame against the backdrop of his private longings for a woman on the other side of the Palestinian-Jewish divide.<\/p>\n Darwish met Tamar Ben Ami in the early 1960s at a political rally \u2013 this one for the Communist party in Israel. Frequently separated geographically \u2013 he under military administration (as all Arab citizens were until 1966) in Haifa, she studying in Jerusalem \u2013 Darwish documented his feelings for her in a series of letters.<\/p>\n I spoke with Tamar \u2013 by phone, Facebook and email \u2013 over the course of a few days. A dancer and choreographer (the film chronicles her stint in the Israeli navy\u2019s performing troupe), Tamar divides her time between Tel Aviv and Berlin. She describes her art \u2013 and really her entire personal life \u2013 as being shaped by her time with Darwish. Her love for him is palpable, still.<\/p>\n Caught up as I am as a political scientist and columnist in contemplating political arrangements \u2013 refugees, Jerusalem, borders, one-state, two-state, federation or separation \u2013 Tamar operates differently.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s clich\u00e9, and maybe I sound naive, but I believe in unconditional love,\u201d Tamar tells me when I ask her what kind of political future she envisions. She is disturbed by what she sees as the artificial divisions of nations, races, ethnicities and religions, including what she sees as a dangerous interpretation of Jewish chosenness. \u201cOn this, the occupation has been nurtured.\u201d<\/p>\n And, while it\u2019s hard to disagree, I find myself confounded. Is the Palestinian national struggle one over occupation? Is it about the West Bank settlements, the land appropriation, the checkpoints and night raids and administrative detention? Or is it about the stones and earth of Palestinian towns and villages within Israel itself to which many Palestinians long to return? And, if it is the latter, how can the two national dreams ever be squared?<\/p>\n In the film, we see video footage of Darwish meeting a resident of Kibbutz Yas\u2019ur, which was founded on the ruins of Darwish\u2019s childhood village, al-Birwa. \u201cIt\u2019s a moment of sadness and hope,\u201d Darwish says to the man. \u201cThe sadness is that I\u2019m not allowed to go back to that place and you have the right to go back there. But if we have the ability to be friends and we are friends, then peace is still possible.\u201d<\/p>\n On one hand, it\u2019s a wholly human encounter. On the other hand, once we put the subject of Israeli towns, cities and kibbutzim within pre-1967 Israel on the table, we are talking about the core of Israel\u2019s identity, one which Israelis \u2013 and most Jews worldwide \u2013 are loathe to give up. And, if I\u2019m really honest with myself, as a (liberal) Zionist who shares the Jewish national dream of those kibbutzniks, then perhaps the pain is also mine.<\/p>\n Nowhere was the tension between resisting occupation and demanding more fundamental claims more evident than in Darwish\u2019s highly controversial 1988 poem called \u201cPassers Between the Passing Words.\u201d There, Darwish wrote: \u201cIt is time for you to be gone. Live wherever you like, but do not live among us\u2026. For we have work to do in our land. So leave our country, our land, our sea, our wheat, our salt, our wounds, everything; and leave.\u201d<\/p>\n With the first intifada raging at the time, Tamar is certain that the poem is about the occupation, not about Israel itself. \u201cWhat can the occupied do?\u201d Tamar recalls Darwish saying. The irony is that Darwish didn\u2019t even think it was a good poem, Tamar says. To be judged by that poem pained him, and more than anything he longed to be considered a universal poet, Tamar adds.<\/p>\n After the 1988 poem controversy, Tamar found herself in Paris, trying to reconnect with Darwish, who was now at the centre of Palestinian politics. While she was sitting with him, Darwish took a call from Yasser Arafat. They spoke in Arabic. She could not make out what they were saying. The next day, when she called him again, Darwish rebuffed her: \u201cYou are not my girlfriend.\u201d<\/p>\n We can never know whether Darwish, who died in 2008, chose politics over matters of the heart, or whether this unkind ending was just like so many ruptures between once-lovers: prosaic and universal.<\/p>\n But Darwish and Tamar did have contact again. After Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin\u2019s assassination, Darwish reached out to her in compassion. And, in 2000, Education Minister Yossi Sarid attempted to introduce two Darwish poems to the Israeli (Jewish) national curriculum. Stormy Knesset debate ensued, and the government narrowly survived a no-confidence vote. Darwish called Tamar. \u201cMy poetry is so important that over it the government nearly fell?\u201d he mused.<\/p>\n Though their romance had ended, they clearly shared a sense of absurdity in how the universal language of poetry can be thrust into the forefront of the ugly struggles over land, narratives, history and invisibility. It\u2019s a story that continues to be told, even as Tamar will always think in terms of interpersonal love as much as in terms of borders and territory.<\/p>\n Mira Sucharov<\/strong> is an associate professor of political science at Carleton University. She blogs at <\/em>Haaretz and the <\/em>Jewish Daily Forward. A version of this article was originally published on haartez.com.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In times of protracted conflict, can matters of the heart exist apart from politics? An award-winning documentary from Israeli filmmaker Ibtisam Mara\u2019ana Menuhin left me at once spellbound, uplifted, sad and restless, as I found myself wrestling with this question. Write Down, I am an Arab depicts the life of Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish. 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