| "Palestinian Archives in Israel: A History of Silencing", Haoketz, 5.6.2016 | | | | First published in Hebrew at Haoketz, 5.6.16* | | | | and in Arabic, at Haoketz - اللّسعة | | | | * The article was translated to English by Ilona Merber | | | Israeli bodies - the military, for example - systematically censor, loot and conceal Palestinian archives. And where are Israel's museums in all this? The press? Academia? They too, like many others, adopt a tactic of self-censorship
Recently with students, I visited Ein Harod Museum of Art's excellent and important "New Horizons," exhibition curated by new museum director Yaniv Shapira. We discussed how the group - active after the establishment of the Israeli State/Palestinian Nakba - while connecting with prevailing trends of the world's art centers dealt primarily with questions of formalism and abstraction, so as not to confront the horrors spawned by the local reality. The art establishment, like others with colonial pasts, adopted the "New Horizons" group, in denial about the reality that gave rise to the native Palestinian's catastrophe. Aligning itself with the State, it became its official representative. Marcel Janco, a member of the group, which focused progressively more on abstraction, established an artist's community in the Palestinian village of A'yn Huwd. Their "artistic" concerns enabled them to evade the moral issues and questions raised by establishing an artist's village on the ruins of the Palestinian entity. Even today, the Israeli art establishment prefers to eschew political and critical questions, remaining national in its overall approach. While some exhibitions, here and there, are "critical-light," museums in general prefer the shelter of the political establishments funding them, and avoid criticism.
These self-silencing mechanisms are not only part of the art establishment, but are also shared by other organizations in Israel related to the media, academia, research, culture and history that prefer to avoid topics highly critical of the conduct of state bodies. Censorship is imposed by agencies that have adopted it, sometimes even if not required by the state.
I will describe briefly a history of silencing.
Two months ago, a welcome and important conference on "Archives and Society" took place at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem. Given the increasing interest in the subject of archives and the social and political implications, such a conference is of great importance in revealing the mechanisms that on the one hand, serve the Israeli establishment, and on the other reflect the face of Israeli society. As one who for more than twenty years has been researching visual archives related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how Israel loots and controls Palestinian treasures and archives, I proposed a lecture to the conference titled "Claim of the Captured Archive."
The lecture seeks to present two main mechanisms employed by Israeli organizations - military and others - in regimenting Palestinian knowledge. One - the seizing of Palestinian treasure and archives from organizations, groups, photographers, and private homes in a planned, organized and intelligent manner, by pre- state Jewish military bodies, and after its establishment, by Israeli State bodies, and their transfer to Israel's official archives. This also includes Palestinian archives/treasures looted and donated to archives by soldiers and civilians, who internalized codes of power since the early twentieth century. The second, complementing the physical mechanism of loot and plunder, is the archival mechanism - censorship, limited viewing pursuant to Israeli law (e.g. the Archives Act or Freedom of Information Act), and strict military archive regulations - classifying materials for fifty years and more creating difficulties for researchers who challenge the official narrative to access classified as well as declassified materials, interpreting Palestinian materials according to Zionist codes, and more. In my research and an exhibition, I revealed the repressive methods employed by Israeli archives in their handling of Palestinian archives and documents of Palestinian importance (for example, the Palestinian "Village Files": http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/it-took-a-village-1.363015). These methods expose Israel's systematic concealment and rewriting of any materials that challenge the Zionist narrative, and the role of official archives in concealing information. The Conference organizers preferred to present the subject as an esoteric poster (they presented a number of posters "dealing with archives and society" in the lobby) and not as a topic for discussion.
I first introduced the subject in a book and exhibition in 2009: "Made Public - Palestinian Photographs in Israel's Military Archives" (http://www.ronasela.com/en/details.asp?listid=45).
The exhibition was held at the Minshar School of Art, since most of Israel's museums, displaying self-censorship declined it. Only one director admitted that should she present the material she risked paying a personal price and possible restriction of official museum funding sources. All other museum directors were evasive in their answers. Not only did museum spaces not display it, newspapers and magazines also refrained from writing about it. For example, with the opening of the exhibition, I met with a reporter from one of the only daily newspapers that might, perhaps, publish an article on the subject. I provided him with information and materials on seized and looted archives, on the repressive management of Palestinian materials or material of Palestinian import by Israeli archives, my extensive legal correspondence with military archives and attempts to crack their power over archival materials, the strict rules and regulations and battle to break them, the meetings with soldiers who had looted or taken booty and their testimonies, the attempt to undermine the structure of the existing archives and more. The reporter wrote the story, but it was never published - neither on the date scheduled nor after that. He disappeared and did not inform me that the article had been censored. Only later I realized it was decided not to publish it. I encountered this trend repeatedly in Israel - self- censorship of different media, academic, research, and cultural bodies - since I began researching the looting and plunder two decades ago.
The conference "Archives and Society" (http://www.vanleer.org.il) ) like the museums and press, preferred not to address the subject of looting and plunder of Palestinian treasure and their repressive control and management by Israel's official archives - censorship, restricted viewing, attempts to control research, biased interpretation of Palestinian materials, restrictive rules, laws and norms regarding declassification of materials. Thus a discussion on the looting of Palestinian treasure and the destructive consequences of looting archives and controlling and erasing many areas of Palestinian history in Israeli hands is repeatedly avoided. The oppressive and total control of looted Palestinian treasures and materials of Palestinian significance by Israeli archives precludes presenting an alternative to official Israeli history. Moreover, erasing the subject exempts society from debate and taking significant action - returning the treasure to their owners. The response of the conference organizers was that only broad conceptual issues and not "specific cases" would be discussed, and that the choice of subjects in each session was an attempt to find a "delicate balance." Relating to the control and erasure of Palestinian history as an obscure topic, and the "delicate" treatment accorded it - presenting it as a poster rather than treating it as a broad conceptual issue requiring in-depth discussion - raises those very same concerns the conference was meant to address. Moreover, their response also reflects the erasure of histories of other marginalized groups in Israel, whose absence more than anything is indicative of the state of Israeli society today.
And finally, some words of optimism (or not). At one of the meetings several years ago with "Zochrot" – an NGO promoting acknowledgement and accountability for the Nakba- I revealed my work on looted Palestinian treasures and the sophisticated, informed Israeli archival mechanisms used to control them. The ensuing discussion on the functioning of archives, and the complex systems that allow Israel to control material of Palestinian significance and conceal it from the public, led to the establishment a year and a half ago of "Akevot: Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research." While the organization does not deal with looted Palestinian archives, but only with Israeli materials relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, its work is welcome and important. However its inclusion in the list of organizations affected by the proposed NGO law - constructed by the Israeli state to prevent the work of left -leaning NGOs - may prevent the continuation of its considerable achievements.
| | | | see also: "Israel's Art Scene Is Whitewashing the Nakba", Haaretz, December 28th, 2018 | | |
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