Monday, May 5, 2008
This week, "Al-Mutamyazoon," the weekly children's show on Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV, included a segment showing puppets Kuku, a bird, and Fufu, a chick, discussing the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel. The puppets repeatedly declared that the Palestinians will "return as victors" to Tel Aviv, Haifa, Acre, Jaffa, Ashdod, and other Israeli cities.
The following are excerpts from the show, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on May 2, 2008.
Kuku: "We will persevere, Allah willing, and we will return to our land, Allah willing. We will return to Jaffa, Acre, Lydda, Ramle, and Ashdod. We will return to all these cities, Allah willing."
Fufu: "Kuku, where are you from?"
Kuku: "I am from Tel Rabi'a, which they have named Tel Aviv. Allah is our support. I say that we must return to our homes, and to our lands, God willing."...
...Fufu: "What's now, Kuku? Are we done for? Will we never return to our cities, Kuku?"
Kuku: "What are you saying, Fufu? We must never say such things. We must return to our land, Allah willing. We will return to Jaffa, Tel Al-Rabi', Lydda, and Ramle. All those who emigrated to Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Iraq, and America will come to their country with their heads held high."[...]
...Kuku: "These years have made it clear to us that we must return to our lands, Allah willing, and that we must defeat the enemies of Allah."...
Of course, Tel Aviv wasn't renamed, because that's always been its name. If the Arabs spent 1/3 as much energy trying to build their own state as they do trying to destroy someone else's they'd have had one by now.
Update: An emailer chimes in with this important note:
A few years ago I started to hear from Palestinians that Tel-Aviv was built on an old Palestinian village called "Tel-Rabi'a" (in Arabic Rabi'a is .... (drum roll) spring!) Very original. The problem is that there never was such a Palestinian village.
I checked and rechecked old maps and history books. There is no such thing as "Tel-Rabi'a." I even went to look for it in Palestinian Nakba web sites - those who claim to list every village that was left by Palestinians. (I am not going into the whole nakba debate now - those who wish can read history books by Karsh and others) in any case: No Tel-Rabi'a what so ever.
There were two small villages north of the original 1906/1909 Tel-Aviv: One called Sheikh Munis which was north of the Yarkon river. The place had several families and indeed in the fighting in 1948 it was abandoned (again i don't want to get into reasons now. I am just looking at what villages existed back than). There was also another village called Sumeil which was not really a village as it was inhabited by Bedouins from the Jordan river valley. They came around 1910 and actually found work in the young city being built in the sand dunes. Further south near Jaffa (an Arab town no doubt) there was Manshia, and further east a village called Shalem. Both are frequently mentioned in history of 1948 but no Tel-Rabia.
Why am I telling you this ?
Because I am sure once Hamas started telling people the Tel-Rabi'a the story it will catch on. In a few weeks there will be few web sites mentioning it (in English), a month later there will be a dot on Google Earth (there are already thousands of such "villages" all over the Israel map in Google Earth) and at some point I am sure Wikipedia will have the Tel-Rabia article in which at first it will be described as "disputed" (due to the Wikipedia policy of showing both sides of every argument), but after some time the pro pal editors will win and the dispute will be over. Tel-Rabi'a will become part of history. Just watch.
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: More Hamas Puppet Theater: Getting the Kids Ready to Expel Their Neighbors.
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Tel Rabi'a? Yes, my father was born there. In a little flat right between the Starbucks and a 7-11...
This is the hamas version of The Itchy and Scratchy Show - except this uses real blood and gore.
This reminds me of a classic Efraim Kishon story, in which a misunderstanding results in the erroneous printing of a death notice for the nonexistent "Chaim Bodoni" (Bodoni is a printing typeface); "Bodoni" takes on a life of his own as a deceased Zionist founder, and soon high schools and streets are being named in his memory.
Evidently the desperate search for historical authenticity here is not unique to the Jews...
The book in question was Herzl's 1902 utopian novel Altneuland. A Hebrew translation was published in Palestine later that same year under the title Tel-Aviv. When Tel-Aviv was founded just a few years later (1909?) on sand dunes near Jaffa, the pioneers named their new city after Herzl's vision of what things could be like some 20 years into the future (1923).
Scratched my nappy head looking for where I'd read that recently but couldn't find it. So I googled and got lots of hits confirming it, including two articles in Wikipedia, and Shlomo Avineri's 1997 review of a new translation into modern Hebrew. The review was reprinted in 2002 on the occasion of the book's centenary.
After the excitement of Israel's 3,060th anniversary dies down, we can look forward to the party for Tel-Aviv's 100th birthday.