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A member of a disappearing tribe

At the funeral of Naomi Shemer it was proven once again how strong are the symbols of Israeli identity created by the children of the founders. The members of the disappearing tribe sang the songs and were overcome by the sweet nostalgia of their childhood and young adulthood.
By Meron Benvenisti
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Songwriter Naomi Shemer passed away, and an entire nation mourned her, as befits someone who succeeded in expressing the essence of the Israeli spirit and the feelings of the individual and the community. Despite her desire for a funeral without any trappings of national mourning, she wouldn't have been surprised to see how her final journey turned into a nationalized state ceremony. After all, she composed the national anthems, and the songs played beside her grave, as she stipulated in her will, were no less ceremonial than the funerary blasts of military trumpets. Among the masses who attended her funeral were men and women in their 60s, 70s and 80s, who, had they not been embarrassed to isolate themselves, would have appropriated Naomi Shemer to themselves and mourned her as a member of a disappearing tribe - the tribe of native born Israelis, the sons of the founders. This group of natives - which personally remembers the day when the state of Israel was established, and was at least of kindergarten age at the time - numbers fewer than one percent of all Israeli citizens. Naomi Shemer was the clear representative of this generation, and in her life and her work she expressed its narcissism, its patriotism, its provincialism, and its romance; the attempt to create a homeland in order to be "an image of his homeland's landscape"; the longing - "not the longing for what used to be, but a longing for what could have been here. A longing for what almost was here" - in the words of writer Amos Oz. And had they not been embarrassed, all those who hate the "sabras [native born Israelis], children of the founders" - from the right and the left, social activists, intellectuals, sociologists, "Mizrahim" (Jews of

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This story is by: Meron Benvenisti

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A member of a disappearing tribe - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | I...

North African or Middle this article also read: People who read Eastern origin) and "post-Zionists" - would have attacked Naomi Shemer and her songs, which express what they consider "Ashkenazi (Jews of European origin) dominance," "the Saying yes to Netanyahu is nurturing of military buses in Israel on demolishing the nationalism and Shabbat strategic alliance oppression." (Haaretz with U.S.
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"the members of the founding elites" is long and weighty. It describes how a small group of "Ashkenazi" Jews (a definition that was meant to emphasize the European-Oriental antithesis), dominated the Zionist enterprise by manipulative means. With a sophisticated combination of political daring, innovative ideas and character traits of charismatic leaders, this group succeeded in creating a formative myth of the "halutz" (pioneer). The founders demanded special privileges for themselves and their children, and with the money of the Jewish people, they established and strengthened the political and economic institutions, and grabbed all their key positions. In 1948, they expelled the Palestinians from their homes and took over their lands and their property. When the large "Mizrahi" aliyah (immigration) arrived, they pushed them to the social margins, and because all the means of production were concentrated in the hands of the "veterans," the Mizrahim were forced to serve a comment Add as a non-professional labor force. As a result, Mizrahim populate the lowest percentiles on the income scale.

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Name: "The elites of the children of the founders" monopolized the definition of "Israeli identity" - secular, Western, urban - and forced the Mizrahim to lose their identity, which was considered inferior. The humiliation of the Subject: Mizrahim and the insult they felt at the need to change their identity areComment: of constant interethnic tension, which is joined by the the cause hatred felt by immigrants from the former Soviet Union, who despise the socialist "left," the remainders of the Communist ethos, and Israeli "folk songs," many of which are Russian in origin.

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Many of the "children of the founders" are unaware of the hostility toward them, one reason being that they live in a bubble of members of their group, and therefore, are not exposed to the hatred. They don't read the learned sociological analyses that describe their arrogant superciliousness and condemn the special privileges they have awarded themselves. However, there are also others, who accept the complaints about superciliousness, suffer guilt feelings, and even publicly beg to be forgiven for their "terrible deeds" during the large wave of aliyah from Arab countries in the 1950s. They apologize for being "elites," join the harsh critics, and even turn into the leading condemners, since they, after all, excel in their fluency. At the funeral of Naomi Shemer it was proven once again how strong are the symbols of Israeli identity created by the children of the founders. The members of the disappearing tribe sang the songs and were overcome by the sweet nostalgia of their childhood and young adulthood, but they were also full of pride for belonging to the group for whom the cemetery at Kvutzat Kinneret - with its pioneers, suicides, poets, writers and fighters - is its Pantheon. They didn't feel that they were guilty, inferior or robbers. On the contrary, it's thanks to them that the critics and badmouthers can have their say. What would their fate have been had we not been here to take them in?
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