Ajami - The Puzzle of Belonging

Scandar Copti aggravated plenty of Israeli Jews and even some Israeli Arabs by his remarks about not representing Israel when his film was nominated for an Oscar.

He said:

"I am a citizen of Israel but do not represent it. I cannot represent a country that does not

represent me."

My first response to Copti's remarks was the same as that of many Israelis – Funny that it didn't stop you from taking all that lovely Israeli money to make the film, hun. But on second thoughts I've decided that it's fine with me that Copti feels that way.

The money, by the way, is a BIG deal in Israel. Israel makes maybe six feature films a year, sometime three, sometimes two because arts funding is so dire over here. (As opposed to the US, where there is fabulous funding for movies, but no national health service).

Hundreds of filmmakers, scriptwriters and producers submit their projects every year, without success. Even successful directors, who have won prizes and made excellent films in the past, have a great deal of difficulty getting a second project funded.

"Ajami", funded by Israeli government money, meaning funded by income tax deducted from my own salary, was undoubtedly awarded the necessary foundation grants because of its outstanding script and because of the years of painstaking research that went into its creation. However, since none of these decisions are ever apolitical, we can assume that "Ajami" also got a million dollars of Israeli tax payers' money because Copti's voice, indeed the city of Jaffa's voice, was a voice that the Israel Film Fund wanted to be heard. The Israeli film establishment is super-left, and the last three Israeli films to be nominated for an Oscar are highly critical of Israel, of course. We have never, ever, seen a feature film about an Israeli Jewish family reeling from the impact of injuries sustained by a parent or child in a terrorist attack, even though civilian Israelis have been shot, stabbed and blown up since 1948. Strange that.

But for our purposes, none of this is relevant. Copti is entitled to feel that he doesn't represent Israel, and that it doesn't him. His feelings, living in a minority culture, are perfectly normal. If I look back at my upbringing in the UK, I see that I never felt that I belonged. A child of Britain with a British passport, I didn't feel that I represented Britain or that it represented me. The British government paid for my education, my health, my dental treatment and my university degree. Such a "chutzpa" for me to feel I didn't belong!

Why didn't I? Two main reasons:

One – I worked quite hard at not belonging. I practiced a religion not practiced by the British majority (my choice), I was passionately and idealistically devoted to Israel’s growth and development, not Britain's, (my choice), and as a result I felt somewhat separated from many normal aspects of ordinary British life (my choice).

Two – Britain made no attempt whatsoever to make me feel that I belonged. In the Britain of the 1970's, Judaism, the experience of Jews in society, their beliefs and practices, and their contribution to British Life, were barely acknowledged or discussed. In the late seventies and early eighties the Israel-hatred began in the British press, and every morning before breakfast I would be reading Robert Fiske's perspective on the Lebanon War. It was enough to make any Jew pack their bags and leave. Then there was the Holocaust. Don't be fooled by all the Holocaust stuff going on today. For all the years I was growing up, the Holocaust was considered to be a boring, let's-put-it-behind us topic, and was never mentioned. To the point that, on my first Holocaust Day in Israel, watching every single person in the street come to a dead halt during the siren, I wept like a child. Not for the Holocaust itself, but for the recognition of the Holocaust.

Minorities often feel they do not belong to the country where they live. Often but not always. The United States is a spectacular exception to this rule. Many orthodox Jews feel totally American, as do many Hispanics, African-Americans and Muslim Americans. But this is not the rule. Usually, minorities feel like minorities, and Christian Arabs living in a predominantly Jewish country are no exception.

Now we could say that Britain has failed its Jewish minority in many ways. So many of us felt we did not belong, and left for Israel, the US or Australia. Why was it so easy for us to go? Our American counterparts had much greater difficulty in leaving the country of their birth. We can surmise that the comfort level of a country's minorities, their sense of belonging in that country is probably a test of how well grounded the democratic values in that country are. We can certainly suggest that the UK has failed its Jewish minority in some ways. The Chief Rabbi sits in the House of Lords on the one hand. And on the other, thousands of British Jews do not feel wholeheartedly British and do not feel a sense of belonging. Especially those Jews who actively identify with a Jewish community and who live their lives Jewishly, in some way or other.

Similarly, if Scandar was born and raised in Israel, and is an Israeli citizen, but does not feel he represents Israel or that she represents him, then we can suggest that Israel has failed its Palestinian Christian minority.

But the other side of the argument also applies. Scandar Copti has probably worked quite hard at his Palestinian-Christian identity in Palestinian-Christian Jaffa in the predominantly Jewish state of Israel, just as in the nineteen seventies I worked hard at being an orthodox Jewish Zionist in a predominantly Christian UK. The question is whether Copti ever wanted to feel Israeli or be Israeli, and whether if he did, he was actively prevented from doing so. He certainly got $1,000,000 to make his film, in a circumstance where hundreds of Jewish Israeli directors were turned away.

We all make choices about how much we will melt into the majority, and how much we will keep ourselves apart, and what sacrifices must be made in each case. For myself, I got tired of being in the minority, of being different, of not being part of the mainstream of anything. I did the multi-cultural bit, living in an apartment with a Moslem, a Christian and a Hindu at university, and it was wonderful. I loved those women and I still love them today. But in the end, it was too hard for me. I wanted and needed belonging, and I moved to Israel because it felt normal to be Jewish there. It did not feel normal in the UK. You could say that this is a limitation of my personality and you could be right. It is almost certainly a limitation of the UK. But all I can say is this: I've done multi-cultural and I've done belonging. Belonging's better.

However, belonging brings with it a new kind of responsibility- I'm part of the majority culture now. And that means that I have to take care of my minorities. I have to be noticing them and listening to them. I have to be working towards a certain level of comfort for them. It's probable that I can never give them belonging. Perhaps Palestinian Christians would only feel a sense of total belonging in a Palestinian Christian country. But as an Israeli citizen I need at least to be concerned about their rights, their education, and their standard of living.

As for Scandar, he too has some choices to make. He can stay in Jaffa, feeling a relative sense of belonging in the Palestinian Christian community in which he lives. He can be aggravated for the rest of his life, if he so chooses, by the fact that the Israeli establishment is not sensitive to the needs of his community. He can work hard to right that as much as he can. He can campaign for Jaffa residents to be better treated and better understood. Many Jews in the UK have made this choice. Or, he could move to a country where Palestinian Christians feel much more at home. Where is that I wonder? It would have been Lebanon once, but the influence of Hezbollah and it's backer, Syria, has made that country unrecognizable to many Arab Christians. And I have the teeniest inkling in my stomach that when a Palestinian Muslim State comes into being, Palestinian Christians will not find much belonging there either.

Meanwhile, we can celebrate that Copti was given Israeli money to make his film. And if it's important to us that Copti will feel, next time around, that he "represents" Israel, then we will all have to work a lot harder at noticing, and feeling, the lives of Palestinian Christians in our country. Conversely, if Copti himself wants to represent Israel and it to represent him, then he also has some work to do. He will need to connect with our government, promote dialogue, and use his Israeli citizenship and high profile to achieve these things. In a few years he could run for the Knesset, and try and work wonders for the city of Jaffa from there. The question is whether or not he wants to. It's up to us, and it's up to him.