There was a “Walk Like an Egyptian” sign, in English, on Rothschild boulevard in Tel Aviv. And even a giant إرحل"” - “Leave” in Arabic - on a banner on Kaplan street, followed by “Egypt is here” in Hebrew.
The Egyptian non-violent revolution was impressive in many respects, and the Israelis admired the events as much as anyone else; their banners this week reflected this.
A couple of days ago many in the Egyptian twittersphere took part in a running joke: #ThawretWeladElKalb, which can be roughly interpreted “those bastards’ revolution”. (before anybody goes in the comments to tell that it translates to"the dogs' children revolution", the word-for-word translation sounds more rude than it actually is in Arabic, and is completely irrelevant).
The jokes were mostly about translating the events of the Egyptian revolution into the Israeli context. (my favourite joke was about the Man Behind Shimon Peres). Some were insulting but most weren’t. But the hashtag itself is insulting, so to an outside reader the content of the tweet matters little.
The Israelis weren’t particularly amused. Some were insulted, shocked, surprised. Some, like @Elizrael, attempted to reason; some had ready-made responses. Haaretz was the first media outlet to pick up on the story (translation here).
The discussion within the Egyptians was interesting, too. Some people attempted to object to the unnecessary insults; some pointed out that there are Palestinian Israelis taking part in the protests (There are, but very few). the responses they got ranged from intelligent to utterly-insane-must-block-the-SOB.
"The Egyptian revolution is undoubtedly inspiring, but this does not justify any compassion to protesters demanding to improve their living conditions on occupied land"
This post isn’t about whether we should care about or support the J14 protests. (especially that it seems that, surprise surprise, it is ending by the construction of more settlements in occupied Palestine). Nor is it to object - yet again - to the unnecessarily offensive humour, which I did the very first moment, and still do.
What I am trying to figure out in all that is the difference of perception. Columnist Nawara Negm summed it up best - even if she only meant to crack a joke:
See this is fascinating. Many Israelis pray daily for the demise of every Arab and would like nothing more than a replay of the 10 plagues; but many, like the rest of the world, know nothing about us, and were actually fascinated by our revolution, hence the tributes on the streets of Tel Aviv. We can safely assume that most did not expect the #ThawretWladElKalb hashtag.
At the same time, for many Egyptians, the state of animosity is a given; that the counterpart - the adversary - fails to see it is also rather surprising.
There’ll be no conclusion here about “30 years after the peace agreement, etc etc”. Draw your own.
The Egyptian non-violent revolution was impressive in many respects, and the Israelis admired the events as much as anyone else; their banners this week reflected this.
A couple of days ago many in the Egyptian twittersphere took part in a running joke: #ThawretWeladElKalb, which can be roughly interpreted “those bastards’ revolution”. (before anybody goes in the comments to tell that it translates to"the dogs' children revolution", the word-for-word translation sounds more rude than it actually is in Arabic, and is completely irrelevant).
The jokes were mostly about translating the events of the Egyptian revolution into the Israeli context. (my favourite joke was about the Man Behind Shimon Peres). Some were insulting but most weren’t. But the hashtag itself is insulting, so to an outside reader the content of the tweet matters little.
The Israelis weren’t particularly amused. Some were insulted, shocked, surprised. Some, like @Elizrael, attempted to reason; some had ready-made responses. Haaretz was the first media outlet to pick up on the story (translation here).
The discussion within the Egyptians was interesting, too. Some people attempted to object to the unnecessary insults; some pointed out that there are Palestinian Israelis taking part in the protests (There are, but very few). the responses they got ranged from intelligent to utterly-insane-must-block-the-SOB.
"The Egyptian revolution is undoubtedly inspiring, but this does not justify any compassion to protesters demanding to improve their living conditions on occupied land"
This post isn’t about whether we should care about or support the J14 protests. (especially that it seems that, surprise surprise, it is ending by the construction of more settlements in occupied Palestine). Nor is it to object - yet again - to the unnecessarily offensive humour, which I did the very first moment, and still do.
What I am trying to figure out in all that is the difference of perception. Columnist Nawara Negm summed it up best - even if she only meant to crack a joke:
"The Israelis are shocked that the Egyptians hate them.
The Egyptians, in turn, are shocked that the Israelis are shocked."
The Egyptians, in turn, are shocked that the Israelis are shocked."
See this is fascinating. Many Israelis pray daily for the demise of every Arab and would like nothing more than a replay of the 10 plagues; but many, like the rest of the world, know nothing about us, and were actually fascinated by our revolution, hence the tributes on the streets of Tel Aviv. We can safely assume that most did not expect the #ThawretWladElKalb hashtag.
At the same time, for many Egyptians, the state of animosity is a given; that the counterpart - the adversary - fails to see it is also rather surprising.
There’ll be no conclusion here about “30 years after the peace agreement, etc etc”. Draw your own.
2 comments:
You should know that NitayP (the "ready made response") is a radical leftist who supported Jan25 and if anything, prays for the demise of Israel and not any Arab country. That tag surprised me, even though I'm familiar with Egyptian society and the polls numbers on antisemitism because I just didn't expect this barrage of hatred and racism to revolve around #j14, which is by far the most positive thing to have happened in Israel is years.
Elizabeth,
(apologies for the belated reply).
J14 may be an amazing feat on an Israeli level (and it seems to be one) but it remains largely irrelevant for us, insofar as it does not include what we deem as the main issue when it comes to Israel - Palestine and Palestinians. And overwhelmingly, it hasn't. That the organizers chose to steer away from such 'divisive' issues despite their critical importance is proof that they care little about Palestinians. Even more surprising is that settlements were a recurrent subject - but only from the unfair government subsidies point of view, not from a principled one. For many people who originally looked favourably upon the J14 protests, including myself, that was a huge turnoff.
Also, you mention polls on antisemitism. Actually this hashtag wasn't an expression of that. It surely wasn't an expression of love either! But it really was directed at Israelis as Israelis, not to Jews. If you're an optimist, you'll see that this is a political issue and not one of 'millennial hatred' and therefore is resolvable or reversible. If not, then you'll see in it the intractability of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and why those countries are unlikely to ever be friendly.
Most of all though - and I know that will be hard to believe - it was a bunch of kids having fun.
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