Sayed Kashua's Exile

    After our class discussion on Thursday of Sayed Kashua and his book Second Person Singular, something I found rather interesting was Sayed Kashua's self-imposed exile from Jerusalem. Professor Spigel mentioned that Kashua's exile was for safety reasons, but I was interested to learn more about the specific reasons.

    Sayed Kashua grew up in Tira, Israel, which is about an hour drive from Jerusalem. He was born to a family of fruit farmers  Sayed Kashua had a dream for a future of peace in Jerusalem, but that would soon come to an end. In 2014, Sayed Kashua was invited by the Hebrew University to give a commencement address to the graduating class. With Sayed Kashua being the first Arab to speak at Hebrew University graduation, it seemed like a great accomplishment and a step in the right direction, but it led to Kashua's words being scrutinized. A week before giving the commencement address, there were 3 Israeli teenagers kidnapped in south Jerusalem, and during his speech, Sayed Kashua told a story of how his son told him about it. Seemingly to try and make a slight joke, the crowd had mixed feelings. Ynet, one of the most read news sites in Israel, wrote a story with students saying that "Kashua had complained that his children 'bothered him' with news of the kidnapping 'while he tried to watch the World Cup.' Another student said, 'Kashua used the technique of joke-telling but injected his speech with radical statements'" (Margalit, 2015). Although Kasuha was used to his words being scrutinized, with conflict rising, there seemed the be an "age of ostracism" coming about, according to Ayman Odeh and Sayed Kashua did not want his family to be a target for violence.

    

    The 3 teenage bodies were found 2 weeks after Sayed Kashua's commencement address on a mound of rocks near Hebron. With the bodies being found dead, there were heavy talks of Jews getting revenge for the murders, which terrified Sayed Kashua since his family was some of the only Arabs living in Ramat Denya. About a day after the 3 teenagers' funeral, there was a 16-year-old Palestinian found dead in the Jerusalem forest. The killers claimed that it was an act of revenge. This revenge murder terrified Sayed Kashua, as he did not feel his children were safe, especially as his teen daughter had previously been "pummelled with water bottles, apparently for being Arab" (Margalit, 2015). Sayed Kashua, who had a flight planned later that summer for Champaign, Illinois to teach at the University of Ilinois for a year, moved the date of his flight up and made it a one-way trip. Sayed Kashua promised to never return to Jerusalem. 

    What I found really heart-wrenching, was a quote from Amos Oz, an Israeli author who said that “The fact that he [Kashua] left saddened me greatly. I can tell you that over the summer there wasn’t a decent Israeli who didn’t have similar thoughts.” 

Sources:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/09/07/an-exile-in-the-corn-belt

Image:

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2021/08/14/advanced-hebrew-with-an-arabic-accent/