So, it turns out the beach we were at yesterday used to be a cemetery. Literally.
Today we got up earlier than we have so far to meet up with a friend of Emma’s. His name is Dimi and he is part of a Arab-Jewish coexistence organization in Yaffa. This week the organization was going for a tour of Yaffa. The tour incorporated two narratives of the city history; the Palestinian one and the official Zionist version. We tagged along with the tour and the subsequent discussions and lunch.
Again, it felt very strange returning to central Tel Aviv after having been in a more organic (albeit disrupted) urban setting. There is a lot I could say. For now I just give you some pics. As usual you can click the photos to see more on my flickr page.
Pausing for shade and a discussion of the historical part of the tour in the Arab-Hebrew Theatre of Yaffa:
Sami, the Palestinian tour guide briefs us on gentrification and displacement in modern day Yaffa:
Getting the Zionist narrative:
A razed house; most likely Palestinian:
Building new luxury developments:
Yaffa Cafe; a Hebrew-Arabic bookstore in Yaffa. Also excellent mint lemonade:
3 responses so far ↓
attendingtheworld // June 26, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Nice post.. but why does Emma seem so.. unhappy?
Interesting is that you also refer to the Israeli version of the guided tour as Zionist. Why?
ATW
sarahwanders08 // June 26, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Good question about the word choice.
I suppose I used the term Zionist since that is the word the two tour guides used to describe the “official” historical narrative. Though I do get your point about there being a certain asymmetry between using the name of a political stream for one narrative and the name of a people/ nation for another.
Emma // June 26, 2008 at 10:28 pm
‘but why does Emma seem so.. unhappy?’
Hmm.. It’s interesting that my somewhat more pensive facial expression is often perceived as an expression of anger or sadness. This comment is especially interesting as me and my sister were discussing precisely this just the other day.
It strikes me that as a woman people (almost exclusively men) somehow expect me to constantly sport a kind and smiley face.
Isn’t this a little strange though? Some situations do not stimulate a smile, not necessarily that grief is weighing a pending smile down, but simply a little bit of serious thought…