Saya mengira tadinya bahwa yang mendorong orang Yahudi mendirikan
negara Israel (yang saya anggap sebagai kesalahan sejarah) adalah
orang Eropa doang; saya kira perlakuan orang Arab terhadap orang
Yahudi di negeri Arab sebelum Israel didirikan tidak mendorong orang
Yahudi yang hidup di negeri Arab itu untuk bergegas pindah ke Israel.
Kebetulan saya sedang membaca kembali buku Bernard Lewis yang berjudul
"The Multiple Identities of the Middle East" ketika artikel BBC ini
muncul.
Ternyata, menurut Bernard Lewis (halaman 33-34) sejak tahun 1941 orang
Yahudi dinegeri Arab (dimulai di Badgad, kemudian di Siria, Mesir
dll.) juga suka diserang, sedangkan pemerintah Rashid Ali berpihak
kepada Axis...) dan penguasa Iraq dan Yemen malah ikut mentransfer
orang Yahudi ke Israel.
Kenyatan ini perlu kita ingat.
Satu lagi: orang Palestina yang pindah ke negeri Arab sering dibunuhi
dan ditindas seperti yang kita lihat di Libanon sekarang - ingat
dengan apa yang mereka alami di Yordania dengan "September Hitam"nya...)
-------
BBC NEWS
Israelis from Iraq remember Babylon
By Lipika Pelham
Jerusalem
"During the Shia festival of Muharram we would take part in the
procession and along with our Arab friends, beat our chests to
remember the epic battle of Karbala," said Yakov Reuveni, remembering
his youth in 1940s Iraq.
"My best friend was the son of the mayor of Ammara. After school we
would go out to the date palm grove with the freshly caught fish from
the river Hidekel, which we would barbeque in the fields over an open
fire."
The river Hidekel, Hebrew for the Tigris, runs through his home
province, Ammara, 380km (236 miles) south-east of Baghdad.
Among his most cherished memories, says Yakov, is the after-school
stroll along the riverbank with his Arab friend.
He grew up in a moderately well-to-do Jewish home with his parents,
four siblings and grandparents.
His father had a clothing store in the heart of Ammara's central market.
Nostalgia
It was an easy, happy life. Jews shared almost all aspects of life
with their Arab neighbours, reminisces Yakov.
He was 17 years old in 1951, when his family emigrated to Jerusalem.
For the Jews of Middle Eastern origins, like their European
co-religionists, coming to Israel was the culmination of a religious
journey - it was the fulfilment of the centuries-old dream to live in
the so-called Promised Land.
I still think in Arabic, still I can't string together all my
thoughts in Hebrew. You have to understand, my mother tongue is Arabic
Yakov Reuveni
But many who came over to Israel as part of the mass migration that
followed the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, look back with
nostalgia and fondness for the life that they had left behind.
Israel has a vibrant Iraqi Jewish community who arrived throughout the
1950s. Many Iraqi Jews settled in the area known as Mahane Yehuda in
the heart of west Jerusalem.
It is a famous market with alleyways lined with grocery shops: rows
after rows of shops laden with colourful fruit and vegetables, fresh
fish, dried fruit, sweets, different kinds of bread, cheese,
traditional salted fish.
These stores are still mostly owned by the descendants of the Iraqi
and Kurdish Jewish immigrants.
Fish feast
"The most memorable taste was the fish called maskuf, from the river
Hidekel," says Yakov.
"After the Sabbath, we would wander off to the fields and have a feast
with fish cooked on the spit, Iraqi pita and arak."
After maskuf and arak, a strong aniseed flavoured local alcoholic
drink, the boys would go to Ammara's club to watch belly dancing.
Most of us still feel connected to the country where we or our
ancestors came from. Our parents and our grandparents still remember
many things from their Iraqi past and they bring them to us, with
food, music, language
Eli Mizrakhi
Yakov recalls, with vivid, powerful details, the life that he had once
led, a life that was changed overnight by the political realities of
the time.
"We used to eat with them, sleep with them, go to school with them,
the Arabs and the Jews went to the same high school.
"We never thought of who was Jewish and who was Arab, until 1947. It
all suddenly changed. The people that you knew as good people turned
into bad people for you and you became bad for them. It was very sad."
Anti-Jewish sentiment flared up after the creation of Israel and the
subsequent Arab-Israeli war in 1948-49.
This led to the departure of most of Iraq's ancient Jewish community.
By 1952, 120,000 Jews had left Iraq for Israel.
Thinking in Arabic
In the heart of the Mahane Yehuda market is Cafe Mizrakhi, which
specialises in certain traditional delicacies from Iraq. The word
Mizrakhi means Oriental Jews.
It is owned by Eli Mizrakhi, whose family came from northern Iraq, or
what is now known as Iraqi Kurdistan.
"Most of us still feel connected to the country where we or our
ancestors came from. Our parents and our grandparents still remember
many things from their Iraqi past and they bring them to us, with
food, music, language."
Both Eli and Yakov agree that despite having gone through the process
of assimilation into Israel, they keep alive many aspects of their
previous lives, in particular, Iraqi food and speaking Arabic.
"We used to eat kubbeh and bamia, or okra. The kubbeh, made with
minced lamb, was the national food for the Jews all over Iraq.
Thursday was the day of khitchri - it's a dish cooked with rice and
lentils.
"I still think in Arabic, still I can't string together all my
thoughts in Hebrew. You have to understand, my mother tongue is
Arabic," says Yakov.
Now living in a small cottage with his wife in south Jerusalem, Yakov
keeps himself busy recreating sweet pickled orange from his youth,
while longing to someday return to Babylon.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6611667.stm
Published: 2007/05/07 19:37:33 GMT
© BBC MMVII
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