Linked with our presentation of Yael Lerer – Israel.
And linked with our presentation on The Word in Times of Crisis.
Homepage of the editor, publishing Arabic literature, translated in Hebrew:
Bridging over the Conflict … by Hannah Amit-Kochavi, she writes: Arabic literature has been translated into Hebrew by Jews, Arabs and Druze for over a century. However, Hebrew target culture, which has always welcomed translations from a variety of foreign languages that enriched it and provided models for its development, has assigned Arabic literature a minor position. This is mainly due to political circumstances – the ongoing century-old conflict between Jews and Arabs as well as between Israel and several Arab countries has been but partially resolved through peace contracts. Arabs and their culture have been perceived by Western-oriented Israeli culture as either arch-enemies or as abstract figures representing attractive oriental images and even as the Biblical forefathers of the Jewish people. Arabic language and culture are little known to most Israeli Jews, with the exception of those many Israeli Jews who are natives of such Arab countries as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Yemen and those relatively few who have studied Arabic at the high school and university level.
Translations from Arabic into Hebrew, then, have been relatively few and they have failed to exert any long term influence on Israeli Hebrew literature and culture. And yet, since the advent of Zionism and up to the present, there have been attempts by Jewish individuals and groups to reconcile Jews and Arabs and in the process mastered and cherished the Arabic language and culture. Translations of Arabic literature into Hebrew have been incessantly made, disseminated and used in an attempt to bring about Jewish-Arab mutual understanding and coexistence in the naive belief that literary translation could help bring about peace between Jews and Arabs on an individual basis as well as between Israel and the Arab neighboring countries. (Read the rest ofthis long article here).
Analysis given on the Alternative Information Center, by Yael Lerer, Founder of the Andalus Publishing House, and listen to the audio by clicking down of the page on ‘the Anti-Colonial Movement’.
links:
Al-Ahram Weekly online;