Poets and Poetry

ORIGINALITY MOVEMENT
FREE MEDIA
POETRY

Our
Policies

أنت الزائر
رقم:

El-Funoun photo by
Mike Odetaalla

http://hanini.org/Elfunoun.html

Last Saturday night, I took my wife and 3
children to see the Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe,
El-Funoun, for their one and only performance at an
oversold packed house in Dearborn, Michigan. We had been
anxiously waiting for more than a month for a rare
chance to see these talented dancers perform here in the
US.

The dancers didn’t disappoint, they put on a
world class, emotionally charged non stop show.

While I watched the show, I kept peeking at my
kids out of the corner of my eyes to see the expression
on their faces. They were totally mesmerized by the
talented dancers, their colorful costumes, and the
music, which they were very familiar with. Even my 13
years old son, Omar, who had initially balked at having
to go see “dancers”, was totally absorbed, smiling and
clapping all throughout the show.

As the show went on, and judging by the audiences
enthusiasm and appreciation, I could not help but think
of what the American public was missing out on by not
being exposed to a side of Palestinians that is rarely
shown or talked about in the mass American media which
chooses to focus on violence, ignoring the much larger
and more complex picture of Palestinians as a talented
and diverse group of people who enjoy and practice the
arts even under the most difficult of circumstances. In
fact, they would be amazed to learn that as Palestinians
continue to struggle for their legitimate rights and
freedom, they resist their oppression at the hands of
the Zionists in many diverse non-violent
ways.

Just by existing, living, crying, laughing, and
yes, dancing, they are resisting the tyranny and
oppression that has been hoisted on them for over 57
years.

More pictures are available at my site. Click on
the link below…

http://hanini.org/Elfunoun.html

Mike

December 2,
2005

Dance Review | El-Funoun
Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe

Palestinian Dreaming: Resistance
and Joy

By
GIA KOURLAS

El-Funoun Palestinian
Popular Dance Troupe may have called its program
"Dancing Tragedies and Dreams," but outside Alice Tully
Hall on Wednesday night, the atmosphere was all flashing
cameras and unabashed delight. A woman approached a
circle of friends to exclaim, "I just saw my sister!"
Clearly, the company, as its name indiscreetly hints, is
extremely popular. But its polished assortment of
dancers was attractive on many levels - and not simply
because opportunities to see Palestinian dance are rare.

Presented by the Network
of Arab-American Professionals of New York, El-Funoun is
a nonprofit troupe based in Ramallah, on the West Bank. For its New York
engagement (the company appeared at the United Nations
on Tuesday and will continue on to Washington today and
Dearborn, Mich., tomorrow), the group offered nearly two
dozen dances, some based in folklore and others rooted
in a more contemporary style. "People think of us as
being in a box," said Omar Barghouti, who is the
company's dance trainer and one of its choreographers as
well as the tour's artistic director, "but Palestinian
dance isn't just about one form."

The company, formed in
1979 to preserve Palestinian culture, was not always as
revered as it is today. In its beginnings, occupation
authorities viewed El-Funoun negatively. "We were
persecuted in many ways," Mr. Barghouti recalled. "There
were travel bans, and some of our members were arrested
and accused of belonging to a subversive dance company."
In the 1980's and early 90's, he said, that view began
to shift as the company's reputation grew. "The
challenge became, What type of identity do we want?" he
said. "We see our dance as a form of civil, cultural
resistance to oppression, and that starts with the
occupation, but not just that - we are also against
social oppression, so in our dances you'll see a lot of
issues dealing with women's liberation, equality and
democracy."

The current tour features
30 dancers, ranging in age from 11 to 42 (there are
nearly 50 members in the actual company); obtaining
visas for them was not a pleasant experience. "Must we
talk about that?" Mr. Barghouti asked with a pleading
smile. "We want to come back, and unfortunately now we'd
better watch what we say. It's not like in the past. It
was very hectic, very difficult."

But the effort was also
worth it. The company's recent program featured joyful
dances inspired by traditional Palestinian weddings,
along with a series of works dealing with oppression and
resistance. Though the company performed in New
York in 1999, this engagement
was the first to include such contemporary works, which,
in many ways, were defiantly obvious. "Key to Peace -
Exile and Dreaming of Return" featured dancers grappling
with life-size keys. That they didn't literally hit the
audience over the head with them was the work's only
measure of artistic restraint. It was one prop away from
Mummenschanz.

Another work, "43 -
Exorcising Defeat," began with a single boot placed in a
pool of light at the center of the stage. A dancer,
clearly browbeaten and wearing a torn shirt, ran in
frantic circles and collapsed to the floor. When he put
on a boot, he assumed the role of oppressor, but in
El-Funoun's optimistic state of grace, he found
salvation in the final seconds by kicking it off to the
side.

Still, El-Funoun remained
unpredictable; even when the contemporary pieces seemed
patently earnest, there was nothing artificial in the
performers' enjoyment of dancing. From time to time,
they may have lost their footing (or an actual shoe, in
one case), but the dancers remained radiant, moving with
a sweet and determined fearlessness.

None of the members
of El-Funoun are compensated, not even Mr. Barghouti,
who works as an engineer as well as an independent
researcher. The company is a strictly volunteer
organization. "Now, I'm on my own vacation time," he
said. "But this group is ours. We do it for ourselves
and for our conviction that this is how we contribute to
the struggle for justice."

Mike Odetalla..."A seed in the eternal fruit of
Palestine"

Palestine &
Iraq

Page
2

ORIGINALITY
MOVEMENT

حركة
إبداع

Jewish
Fundamentalism in
Israel

Israel Shahak and Norton
Mezvinsky

The
National Religious Party and the Religious
Settlers

As has been explained, an
embryo is called a human being, because it has both body
and soul. Thus, the difference between a Jewish and a
non-Jewish embryo can be understood. There is also a
difference in bodies. The body of a Jewish embryo is on
a higher level than is the body of a non-Jew. This is
expressed in the phrase "let us differentiate" about the
body of a non-Jew, which is a totally different kind.
The same difference exists in regard to the soul: the
soul of a Jewish embryo is different than the soul of a
non-Jewish embryo. We therefore ask: Why should a
non-Jew be punished if he kills even a non-Jewish embryo
while a Jew should not be punished even if he kills a
Jewish embryo? The answer can be understood by
[considering] the general difference between Jews and
non-Jews: A Jew was not created as a means for some
[other] purpose; he himself is the purpose, since the
substance of all [divine] emanations was created only to
serve the Jews. "In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth" [Genesis 1:1] means that [the
heavens and the earth] were created for the sake of the
Jews, who are called the "beginning." This means
everything, all developments, all discoveries, the
creation, including the “heavens and the earth- are
vanity compared to the Jews. The important things are
the Jews, because they do not exist for any [other] aim;
they themselves are [the divine] aim.”

After some additional cabbalistic
explanation the Lubovitcher Rebbe
concluded:

Following from what has already
been said, it can be understood why a non-Jew should be
punished by death if he kills an embryo and why a Jew
should not be punished by death. The difference between
the embryo and a [baby that was] born is that the embryo
is not a self-contained reality but rather is
subsidiary; either it is subsidiary to its mother or to
the reality created after birth when the [divine]
purpose of its creation is then fulfilled. In its
present state the purpose is still absent. A non-Jew's
entire reality is only vanity. It is written, "And the
strangers shall stand and feed your flocks" [Isaiah 61:
5]. The entire creation [of a non-Jew] exists only for
the sake of the Jews. Because of this a non-Jew should
be punished with death if he kills an embryo, while a
Jew, whose existence is most important, should not be
punished with death because of something subsidiary. We
should not destroy an important thing for the sake of
something subsidiary. It is true that there is a
prohibition against [hurting] an embryo, because it is
something that will be born in the future and in a
hidden form already exists. The death penalty should be
implicated only when visible matters are affected; as
previously noted, the embryo is merely of subsidiary
importance.

Comments concerning and partial
summaries of the above opinions have appeared, but with
insufficient emphasis in the Israeli Hebrew press. In
1965, when the above was published, the Lubovitcher
Rebbe was allied in
Israel to the Labor Party; his movement
had already acquired many important benefits from the
government then in power as well as previous Israeli
governments.

The Lubovitchers, for
example, had obtained autonomy for their own education
system within the context of religious state education.
In the mid-1970s the Lubovitcher Rebbe decided that the
Labor Party was too moderate and thereafter shifted his
movement's political support sometimes to Likud and
sometimes to a religious party. Ariel Sharon was the
Rebbe's favorite Israeli senior politician.
Sharon in turn praised the Rebbe publicly
and delivered a moving speech about him in the Knesset
after the Rebbe's death. From the June 1967 war until
his death the Lubovitcher Rebbe always supported Israeli
wars and opposed any retreat. In 1974 he strongly
opposed the Israeli withdrawal from the
Suez area, conquered in the October
1973 war; he promised
Israel divine favors if it persisted in
occupying that land. After his death thousands of his
Israeli followers, who continued to hold the views
expressed in the above quoted passage, played an
important role in Netanyahu's election victory by
demonstrating at many cross-road junctions before
election day; they chanted the slogan: “Netanyahu is
good for the Jews.” Although subsequently strongly
criticizing Netanyahu for meeting with Arafat, signing
the Hebron agreement and agreeing to a second
withdrawal, the Rebbe's followers continued their
overall preference for the Netanyahu government.

Among the religious settlers in the
Occupied Territories the Chabad Hassids constitute one
of the most extreme groups. Baruch Goldstein, the mass
murderer of Palestinians, was one of them. Rabbi Yitzhak
Ginsburgh, who wrote a chapter of a book in praise of
Goldstein and what he did, is another member of their
group. Ginsburgh is the former head of the Yoseph Tomb
Yeshiva, located on the outskirts of
Nablus. Rabbi Ginsburgh, who originally
came to
Israel from the
United
States and has good connection to the
Lubovitcher community in the
United
States, has often expressed his views in
English in American Jewish publications. The following
appeared in an April
26,1996 Jewish Week
(New
York) article that contained an
interview with Rabbi Ginsburgh:

Regarded as one of the Lubovitcher
sect's leading authorities on Jewish mysticism, the
St.
Louis born rabbi, who also has a
graduate degree in mathematics, speaks freely of Jews'
genetic-based, spiritual superiority over non-Jews. It
is a superiority that he asserts invests Jewish life
with greater value in the eyes of the Torah. "If you saw
two people drowning, a Jew and a non-Jew, the Torah says
you save the Jewish life first," Rabbi Ginsburgh told
the Jewish Week "If every simple cell in a Jewish
body entails divinity, is a part of God, then every
strand of DNA is part of God. Therefore, something is
special about Jewish DNA." Later, Rabbi Ginsburgh asked
rhetorically: "If a Jew needs a liver, can you take the
liver of an innocent non-Jew passing by to save him? The
Torah would probably permit that. Jewish life has an
infinite value," he explained. "There is something
infinitely more holy and unique about Jewish life than
non-Jewish life."

Changing the words ''Jewish" to “German” or
“Aryan” and "non-Jewish" to "Jewish" turns the Ginsburgh
position into the doctrine that made Auschwitz possible
in the past. To a considerable extent the German Nazi
success depended upon that ideology and upon its
implications not being widely known early. Disregarding
even on a limited scale the potential effects of
messianic, Lubovitch and other ideologies could prove to
be calamitous.The difference in the attitudes about
non-Jews in the Halacha and the Cabbala is well
illustrated by the difference expressed specifically in
regard to non-Jews who have converted to Judaism. The
Halacha, although discriminating against them in some
ways, treats converts as new Jews. The Cabbala is unable
to adopt this approach because of its emphasis upon the
cosmic difference between Jews and non-Jews. The Cabbala
explains that converts are really Jewish souls consigned
firstly to non-Jewish bodies as punishments and later
redeemed by conversion to Judaism either because the
punishment ended or because a holy man interceded. This
explanation is part of cabbalistic belief in
metempsychosis, which is absent in the Halacha.
According to the Cabbala, a satanic soul cannot be
transformed into a divine soul by mere persuasion.The
ensuing discussion of Gush Emunim ideas and politics
takes cognizance of the Lustick and Harkabi studies but
relies primarily upon primary source material and upon
analyses by Tal and other Hebrew-language writers.

Tal
described and analyzed Gush Emunim principles by quoting
extensively from writings of Rabbi Yehuda Amital, an
outstanding Gush leader who was appointed minister
without portfolio in the Israeli government in November
1995, by then Prime Minister Peres and who served in
that capacity until June 1996. Peres described Amital as
a moderate. In explaining Amital's views, Tal relied
heavily upon Amital's published article, "On the
significance of the Yom Kippur War [1973]." To
illustrate Amital's emphasis upon spiritual yearning and
the political-messianic stream of thought, Tal quoted
the following:The war broke out against the background
of the revival of the kingdom of Israel, which in its
metaphysical (not only symbolic) status is evidence of
the decline of the spirit of defilement in the Western
world ... The Gentiles are fighting for their mere
survival as Gentiles, as the ritually unclean. Iniquity
is fighting its battle for survival. It knows tat in the
wars of God there will not be a place for Satan, for the
spirit of defilement, or for the remains of Western
culture, the proponents of which are, as it were,
secular Jews.Tal further interpreted Amital's and thus
Gush Emunim's basic views:The modern secular world,
according to this approach, "is struggling for survival,
and thus our war is directed against the impurity of
Western culture and against rationality as such." It
follows tat the alien culture has to be eradicated
because "all foreignness draws us closer to the alien,
and the alien causes alienation, as is the position of
those who still adhere to Western culture and who
attempt to fuse Judaism wit rationalist empiricist and
democratic culture." According to Amital's approach, the
Yom Kippur War has to be comprehended in its messianic
dimension: a struggle against civilization in its
entirety

أم
الروبابيكا لإميل حبيبي: وثيقة علي
خشبة!

2005/06/05

رجاء بكرية
علي تساؤلات
الذين بقوا في وادي النسناس تنثر مسرحية أم الروبابيكا،
رائعة إميل حبيبي أضواءها.
وبمثل ما يرتعب المشهد علي
وجه من يتذكر يرتعب وجهها. روضة سليمان في عمل مسرح
الميدان الجديد تجيء كي توقظ ذاكرة الغيب تحت تأثير الهجس.
ترسم بالصوت والسوط، بالضوضاء والضوء، بالسكتة والحركة وجه
النكبة. تسوغ عودة غيابها برعدة العين مرة ونحيب الحنجرة
مرة أخري.
هكذا ربما يجوز إيقاف الزمن، وتسريع حضوره
عند أقدام حقائق لم تسعفنا الممارسة، نحن جيل ألما بعد،
اللحاق بها.
في هذه المينودراما أحدنا يتذكر الآخر،
الحقائق أو الزمن تماما حين تهرول أقدام المرأة التي علي
الخشبة كي تلحق بالأماكن التي لم نلحق نحن بها. وحين تنجح
في التقاط صورة كلوز لها تحشر أنت معها داخل الصورة، وتعثر
فجأة، وربما عن غير قصد، علي الأماكن الخربة في ذاكرة
أيامك.
علي غفلة تحس أنه إلي جانبك، إميل حبيبي، ومعه
عناوين الكلمات التي كتبها، والتي حبسها رهن قلبه أو روحه.
ليس سهلا أن توقظك مجرد عناوين من مرقد أبدك. لكن حين
تستحيل العناوين إلي قفار مرعبة قد تقرر أن تتجاوز أبدك.
أهذا ما حدث للحبر الذي ذهب مع إميل حبيبي إلي أبده؟ لست
قارئة للغيب، ولكنني قارئة لحاضر الغائب، وذهابه إلي ما
يشبه ضياع هند، أم الروبابيكا، وسواها من رجال ونساء. لكن
الملفت في شكل هذا الضياع إصراره علي الالتقاء بذات تتفرق
بقدر ما تتجمع، كأنها تريد بقدر ما ترفض أن تظل هلامية،
وغير ملموسة.
لماذا إذن تبكي أماكن رعشـــك وأنت تهرول
خلف هذه المـــرأة المخبولة، المجبولة من الهواجس وفيض من
الجرائم الجميلة، وأنت متأكد أنك ماض إلي أماكن فقدت
ذاكرتها، أو انفقدت مع ذاكرتها. ومهما صرختَ، أو قرعت لن
تصل لأبعد من دمعك؟
وأنا اليوم لا أعرض إلي هذه
التصورات الحزينة كي أفشي عدوي الحنين بقدر ما أحرض علي
العدو إليه. في مسرحية أم الروبابيكا لا تعثر علي الحنين
الحالم إنما تتعثر بحنين يزاحم الفسحة الضيقة المتبقية من
مقعدك كي يطيرك إلي طرقات الوادي الضيقة، أسواقها،
حيطانها، خيطانها، أبوابها ونوافذها، مخابزها وأناس خبزها.
ويبدو أن انهيارك وعدم تماسكك أمام الصور المتلاحقة علي
صفحة وجهها الغائم، بطلة المسرحية، روضة سليمان، لا يمكن
أن تسجله غير امرأة انهارت بها أشياء قبل أن تنهار
عليك.

ذاكرة الضوع، مكان الأمكنة في هذا الظرف
الحالك بالذات، بين محرضات الإرباك والانثناء نحتاج إلي
الذاكرة. نعم، لا وقت أصلح لنا منها. ولا يهم من يأخذ
الواحد إلي الآخر، فلقد أَخَذنا إميل حبيبي من قبل كرا
وفرا، غربة ووجدا، توقا وكرها، وإذا كنا نحتار، ونحن نتابع
اخـتلاف الأمكنة علي المكان الواحد، وادي النسناس، في أيها
الأجمل فذلك لأننا كباقين ومبعدين لا نزال متَنازَعين
فكريا وحسيا بشأنها، ولأن أحدا غيرنا يفوض جراب عقله
المسمومة بالتقرير عنا. هذا التنازع الفكري ـ الحسي يؤدي
إلي الاصطراع في شخصية البطلة هند، روضة سليمان، علي نحو
غريب ومدهش في آن، حتى أنه ينتقل بالعدوي إلي المشاهِد
معبأ بأزمة مكانها الخانقة، ويقيم فيه. وكأنه يهمس لنا
جميعا حينذاك، راجعون.. راجعون بمنطق الواثق من رجوعه.

ولعله من فروض الإحالات الدرامية الإشارة إلي أن هذا
التزاحم الحسي في شخصية البطلة ينتثر علي شكل هواجس
مستدعاة يخالط الحلم فيها الواقع علي طول المسرحية. ويريد
أن يصير إلي تعبير تقريري عن وضعية أو حالة تؤطر المشهد
بمرجعياته، وتحيله إلي لوحة متزاحمة بالألوان والأبعاد.
ولعله من المهم أن نؤكد أن فداحة ارتطام الشخصيات داخل
اللوحة الحاضرة بقوة، والغائبة بقوة أيضا تؤدي بها إلي
التلاشي. والارتطام في هذا العمل تكتيك مفصلي في مبني
التداعيات التي تفيض بها البطلة.

بعد امحاء اللون يمتليء المشهد
بالكراسي الفارغة، وبالأقدام المكسورة، والطاولات المقلوبة
رأسا علي عقب، المتراكبة والمتراكمة فوق بعضها بألوان
باهتة تبعث علي القشعريرة والخواء. وربما لأجل ذلك يقرر
عنك حينها قلبك وعينك. تبكي بحرقة وبشدة، عنك وعنهم. عن
الكراسي والطاولات المكسورة والسليمة بتكتم شديد، كأنك
خائف أن تقول لهم: لازلت أحن، ولا زلت أريد أن يكون لي
بلد. ولعل اللوحة الممزقة بأقدام الكراسي حينئذ فقط تلمحك
وتهتز بين قلبك وقلبك، ثم في عمق رأسك، ومعها رقصات المرأة
التي لا تكف عن النواح، هند أو روضة. هذا الاهتزاز المتموج
مع صول البطلة وجولها يحرض اليقظة علي البحث عن أيامها،
وأن تبدأ بالعد: الأولاد الغائبون، أبناء الجيران،
عبدالله، الحبيب الذي تزوج امرأة أخري وذهب، خصوصا لأنه
الثابت الوحيد في متغيرات الأمكنة.
ولا بد لي في هذه
المقاربة العجلة أن أعرض إلي المرافقة الإيقاعية التي
فننها يوسف حبيش بحسية عالية، بفلسفة روحية، وامتلاء فكري
عال بمضامين النص وأبعاده. لقد منح حبيش صرعة جديدة
للإيقاع، هي صرعة الانتشاء باللحظات المعاشة، وزخمها
برائحة المواسمية. إيقاعاته تحتضن بقدر ما تبعثر أزمة
البطلة. تقربها وتبعدها، وحين يتداخل القرب بالبعد يرميها
في خندق ذاتها.
التقنية الإيقاعية منسوجة في هذا العمل
بعناية ودراية. لقد نجحت في تحوير مزاجية البطلة إلي حد
بعيد، ودفعها إلي تجاوز حالاتها، بل والتنقل بمرونة فيما
بينها. فساندتها حد الاسترسال، وحيث يجب، حجمتها حد
الانقماع. ويجب أن نشيد بالتخصصية التي أشرنا في أكثر من
مناسبة إلي كونها شرطا لخلق فن مختلف.

عودة إلي
صاحبة الأداء لقد توزعت، روضة في مسرحيتها، فبهرت قلب
النكبة وحلكة العتمة. بموجودات مكانها الخرب المعبأ
بالدواشك، ومخلفات الحياة أيقظت عالما وأحيت فيه النبض.
حضورها جسور، ومونولوغها إذ يقصر أو يطول شفاف وغائم، لكن
السبق للقوة عندها علي الشفافية فوق الخشبة، ولعل هذا
بالتحديد ما يميز انتماء الإيقاع الدرامي الذي خرجت به علي
الخشبة، لونه الحاد، العميق والصارخ. هو بصمة حضورها
للموسم المسرحي الجديد.

فاصلة النهاية

تعرض
إلي قضية هامة تتعلق بمستوي الديناميكية العالية التي
تستشف من أجواء العمل بين النص والمخرج يوسف أبو وردة،
التي انعكست ايجابيا علي مؤدية الدور ومرافقها علي إيقاعات
الزمن، حبيش.
ولعله من المناسب أن نضيف إلي أنها ليست
المرة الأولي التي يجسد فيها أبو وردة هواجس أم الروبابيكا
علي الخشبة. يحسب لإنجازاته أنها المرة الثانية بعد أداء
الفنانة المسرحية الراحلة بشري قرمان. ولكنه اليوم ينجح في
تفنين تكوين امرأة جديدة حسا وفكرا وتجربة، ولن أضيف،
وإلباسها النص، بل وتطريز كينونتها علي مقاس النص. صوته،
نبضه علي مقاس نبضها وانفلاتات عالمها بضوئه وعتمته.

المسرحية: أم الروبابيكا
الأداء المسرحي: روضة
سليمان
عن: مسرحية إميل حبيبي، أم الروبابيكا
إخراج:
يوسف أبو وردة
كاتبة وفنانة تشكيلية من
فلسطين

Elza Home

OMedia Home

Painting
Home

Literature
Home

Poetry Home

Main Home

Voice of Bahrain
link

Do you have any questions? Send us an e-mail
at:

[email-masked]

Back to product
catalog

www.nazmi.org

Next to contact
us

ORIGINALITY MOVEMENT

Poetry
Homepage OM

About
Us

Our
Products

Product
Catalog

Our
Policies

Contact
Us

Poetry
1

Poetry
2

Poetry
3

Poetry
4

Poetry
5

Poetry
6

Jerash
Participant Poets2

poetry07

للإتصال
بنا