Tel Aviv Diary -June 30-July 4, 2019 - Karen Alkalay-Gut
June 30, 2019
while editing my little collection of poems "A Word In Edgewise" that examines women's point of view in the Bible, and looking around for some more ideas for poems, I came across an interesting if perverted discussion of women in Genesis Rabbah 17. 7. i was going to talk about it tonight but i'm too tired so you might as well look for yourself. or check out this website about eve
July 1, 2019 While the Ethiopians are demonstrating - rightfully - about police brutality, about being killed by police because their color makes them look aggressive and/or violent - i am sitting in what has been renamed the Jaffa Theatre (formerly the Arab-Jewish theater. well it's still got a subtitle of the Arab-Jewish theater but Miri Regev changed the official name...) listening to poems about immigration to israel and the various experiences of newcomers here. It's a familiar experience, the sense of strangeness, the suspicion of others. But the difference now is that prejudice could be overcome by the similarity of circumstances and the color. July 2, 2019 All the Ethiopians would have wanted at first is an apology, a statement from the government, a few words of comfort. Lacking some solace, some acknowledgment of their pain, they are inflaming themselves and now cars as well. We were going out tonight - to a reading a block or two away from the demonstration but decided the chance of violence was too great and we decided to stay home and translate some medieval love poetry. Even though my heart is with the situation of the Ethiopian citizens - they have been complaining for years and no one has listened. we did little to develop. July 3, 2019 The July 4, 2019 I was going to write about the Ethiopian protest yesterday but my hands wouldn't move. i was paralyzed - the news was so antithetical to what i had been thinking, the situation of the shooting so different from what had been stated, it was impossible to conceive. That the protest was based on wrong information about the incident, made no specific demands, and generated senseless destruction and pain was too much for me to even write.