While I agree you can draw links between literature, art, politics and the humanities, you must not overdo the parallel because in the end, it is reality that counts. Hence, the plight of the Palestinians, as a humanised community, is not to be equated with fiction, and fantasy fiction at that. It surely must stop before reaching the surreal and the phantasmal. That’s why I take issue with J.K. Rowling, the character novelist of the Harry Potter series and her pontification on the Palestinian-Israeli intractable. In a way, I don’t think intellectuals, authors and writers, myself included, should allow themselves to mix fiction with reality, or worse still, fantasy-writing, no matter how noble the ideas one wants to convey to readers are.
Rowling’s ideas of Palestinian-Israeli engagement through dialogue, and worse still, between intellectuals and artists from both sides of the divide, is a good thing normally if it leads anywhere. But the problem is, and this especially goes for Israeli writers, except for isolated cases, this has always been a non-starter. In some quaint curiosity, Israelis have always felt as if they are living in a “closed” country and have preferred not to think about what their government and soldiers are doing 10, 20, 30 kilometres away from Palestinian villages and towns.
It has been the Israeli politician and military man who has always been in the driving seat and dictating what needs to be done and how it needs to be done. These two elements have posed themselves as the monopolistic pillars of the establishment. Civil society has always been on the margin of things but integrated as well, into a larger conspiracy. Also, the Israeli intellectuals have been on a complicated margin, which says a lot about the feebleness of the intellectual, artistic and academic establishments left to toe the government lines, and whose “knowledge closure” institutions have been, and are, in cahoots with the short and long-term nationalistic objectives, of building the “superman, “superhuman” mentality, advance military and security developments as well as beefing up its soldiers to further the power of Israel. The odd intellectual and academic has been shunned.
So the need to keep the door open for dialogue with the very small minority, as Rowling claims needs to be done, is negligible and has no impact on Israeli politics or government. It is sad to say, but the ideas she is talking about, the “cultural agreement”, “building bridges” and “nurturing freedom”, all noble in themselves, are nowhere to be seen on the ground, with Palestinians being dealt with an iron fist. And all this is happening under a supposed peace process, that started in the early 1990s but has been in a limbo ever since — thanks to the policies of Israeli right-wing and extremist politicians.
These are the stark realities. It’s no good using flowery terms, hoping everything will be all right. Liberal intellectuals, the world over, and in the West, need to stand up once and for all and see for themselves what is really happening, how the occupied are being treated and how their rights are being trampled by behind-the-scenes Knesset politicians and young Israeli occupation forces.
When Rowling spoke and became committed to Israel, something broke inside a good proportion of her readers, those who believe in justice and fairness. The famous writer said she felt Harry Potter would, in the end, forgive her, but would he? Why alienate so many of her fans that include readers in the West, Arabs, Palestinians and yes, Jews, for talking about a deep political issue that should not be reduced to the level of trivia and fanciful imagination.
Marwan Asmar is a commentator based in Amman. He has long worked in journalism and has a Phd in Political Science from Leeds University in the UK.