I’d been at Rosh Hanikra recently for a wedding, held in the evening on the small plaza set on the side of the bluff, overlooking the sea. The grottoes were lit at night, but the water rushing into the chasms from the open sea was dark.
Until last week, though, it had been many years since I visited in the daytime, buying a ticket for the cable car down to the grottoes. Since my previous visit, a short introductory movie has been added to the tour, shown in the now-blocked railroad tunnel that once crossed the border into Lebanon.
The film explains how waves, wind and salt carved the grottoes in the rock. It shows how sea turtles lay their eggs on the bluff – the mothers returning to where they were born, the newborns racing at night toward the shine of the waves to escape predators.
And then there’s an explanation that the place was once called Sulamah shel Tzur, the Ladder of Tyre, in Hebrew. (Actually, the name refers not just to the bluff, but to the mountain ridge that ends at the bluff, and that one needs to ascend to come up or down the coast.) The film explains that according to legend, Abraham entered the Land of Israel here and received the promise, “To your seed I will give this land” (Gen. 12:7).
Skipping forward in history, the film describes how the British cut tunnels through the bluff during World War II, building a railroad line to speed transportation of supplies, and how some Holocaust survivors passed through the tunnel on their way into the Land of Israel, and how the Haganah blew up the bridge between the tunnels in 1948 to keep Arab forces from using the rail line to bring reinforcements from Lebanon into the Galilee.
Of this history, the part about the British building the tunnels and the Haganah destroying the rail route are necessary for understanding the site. The part about Abraham, and about the survivors, have a different function: They put the site inside of the national story, as if natural beauty can only be appreciated once it is part of political history, once ownership is established.
This is gratuitous. Nature testifies to creation. The proper blessing to be recited at Rosh Hanikra is oseh ma’aseh vereishit, praising God as creator. Nature is everyone’s story, or rather everyone’s story is inside the story of nature. To argue ownership in the grottoes is to change the subject unnecessarily.
And how does a family from Jish or Rama or another Arab town in the Galilee feel on watching this film? Before enjoying the beauty, it says, remember: this is really only our land. Don’t think you can get away from that here, where the sea water shifts color as it roars up the grottoes.
If creation says anything about nations, it’s that they are insignificant, merely human. The film reflected a reflex – certainly not solely Israeli – to make every shpiel for tourists into national narrative, so that visitors will learn who is right and who is wrong before they leave. The reflex is understandable – even if the history leans toward legend – when giving a tour of battlefields or national monuments. At Rosh Hanikra, it seemed like a rude distraction.
No end to the guilt feelings. Jewish guilt. Everything encountered is a reason for Jewish guilt. I went to the Stalagtite Cave near Beit Shemesh. Some of them have interesting shapes. One of them they call “Moshe Rabbenu”. What is the Arab visitor to think? How particularistic of us to call it Moshe Rabbenu! Maybe we should put up a sign saying “if you are offended by Jewish parochialism, maybe we can call it Muhammed or Salah ed-Din for you” (but what about the Buddhists? They don’t relate to any of those mentioned).
What is odd is that the verse you referred says Avraham came into Eretz Israel not at Rosh HaNiqra, but at Elon Moreh, near Shechem. There is a Jewish yishuv there commerorating the event, called Elon Moreh…..but wait….that is a “settlement” in Judea/Samaria….ILLEGAL….Jews have no business living there…..(even though Jews lived in Shechem before the Arab riots of the British Mandate period)…..more reason for Jewish guilt. No end to it. Pardon us for living, in a national sense. (Wait, didn’t the Arabs/Muslims plop down a religious shrine right on top of the ruins of our Beit HaMikdash-Holy Temple in Jerusalem in order to show their triumphalism, and today they even deny that there ever was a Temple on the site-maybe we can learn from them!)
Arab nationaism is OK, though. We must honor and respect the Arab and Muslim narrative, mythology, demonization of Jews and Israel and honor the Arab and Muslim offense to anything Jewish – be it the Hatikvah or knish…… but I do not want a peep of pride from Jews – unless it is pride in Jeiwsh concessions….
While we read here about how the Jews are not “sensitive” enough to the “narratives” of the “other” , read this by Seth Freedman who is a “progressive” about his visit to Nazareth and how the Muslims there show their “tolerance” and “sensitivity” for the Christians in that city which has a famous basilica. This gives a taste of what would be in store for us if Jerusalem is handed over to the Arabs as the “progressives” the want, and the “respect” they would show for the Jewish and Christian holy sites there:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/26/israel-arabs-division-tourism
Y. Ben David: Even in Jewish teachings there is a command to respect the ‘stranger’ in your midst. It’s not particularly respectful to selectively quote a verse that implies there’s not much room for him and his ilk. (They could also quote verses about how Israel’s right to the land is conditioned on moral behavior — but that isn’t nationalistic.
This piece is about keeping things above a certain level. If I went to the Rocky mountains, I’d be annoyed to see a native American/Christian/Jewish/Budhist/anything patriotic– related quote as I reach the top of a mountain. Some things speak for themselves. If I can’t escape the daily b****** there, where can I escape it? And if you have to quote something, keeping it as neutral as possible is the best way.
Excellent piece. Mystery is mystery. Nature is nature. Not for sale.
Very true. It’s sad to see the ways that patriotism trumps nature and god worldwide.
You havent mention how zionists have defiled Palestine. Jerusalem has been built into a tawdry Disneyland replete with kosher Mcdonalds. Ugly red roofed settlements dot the pastoral landscape like metastasis of deadly cancer
A good place to start on any conflict resolution is when one side voluntarily restrains itself from doing minor things that are nothing but irritating to the other party.
The key word in Gershom’s piece is gratuitous. That those behind the scenes are looking for ways to put the needle in when there is nothing to be gained by it tells me how deeply the antipathy goes
In the US this sort of misplaced enthusiasm for the tribe is called “Boosterism”. It can be charming when it’s for a small town. Or it can be intrusive and tasteless.
When people all over the world feel they have the right to redesign the country and it’s fundamental ideas, it’s kind of understandable that the response is some over-explaining.
Last time I read the bible it said that Abraham was the father of both Isaac and Ishmael, so what is the problem with including the local mythology in the introductory film? I would expect the same at any tourist site anywhere in the world.
Aryeh-
If you read my earlier comment, you would note that, although you are correct that Avraham is the father of both Yitzhak and Ishmael, non-Jewish Israelis of Russian-Christian background (and there are a couple of hundred thousand of these) would still be left out and they, according to Gershom, would be grossly offended as well, so your suggestion does not solve the problem.