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Sayed Kashua, Arab-Israeli writer
"[Sayed Kashua, Arab Israeli author, in his book Dancing Arabs] takes us on an eye-opening tour of the Arab village of today (especially in the Triangle) in search of what was, and is no more. "He writes about flirting ('Modest girls are supposed to walk straight ahead, not even responding to a loud honk'); hospitality ('Offering a hot drink is mandatory, no matter how brief the visit. You never let someone leave without saying: `What, you're going already? You haven't had tea yet.''); crime ('You ask kids in school what they want to be when they grow up and without batting an eyelash, half the class says they want to belong to a gang'); religion ('Hey, what mosque do you pray at? `I pray at home,' I mutter'); schools ('kids probably have no idea who the pioneers are ... I was sure they were glorious, brainy heroes who deserved to be venerated because they invented important things like screens for doors and windows, keeping out the poisonous mosquitoes that bit babies and made them die.' "One of the most disturbing issues in the book is the relationship between Palestinians living inside the Green Line and those outside it. Arab readers will find it very easy to attack Kashua on this issue, but it is worth reading what he has to say and giving some thought to how this invisible pseudo-border has managed to mercilessly divide an entire people.
"The second focal point of the book is the sudden closure imposed on the village, paralyzing life and leaving the population hungry and thirsty. It sounds like a fantasy - the figment of some politician's wild imagination - but in the end, thanks to Kashua's skillful storytelling, it becomes an entirely credible, even normal, situation.
"The closure gets increasingly tighter, affecting the water supply, electricity, telephone lines and cell phones. [...] 
"The style of Let It Be Morning is sharp, focused, powerful and uncompromising, whether he is dealing with the people of his village, the Jews, his fictional narrator or his family. His descriptions of family relationships can be brutal: 'She [the mother] was waiting for him [the grandfather] to die. I couldn't understand why anyone would want his father to die' and When Grandmother wasn't around, my big brother would take a stick and poke Grandfather with it. Sometimes he would poke the stick into his mouth, sometimes into his nose, and then laugh wildly when Grandfather didn't respond.' [...] "Kashua does not shy away from the harshest, most painful indictments. He describes how the villagers strip the Arabs from the territories and serve them up as a sacrifice to the soldiers encircling the village. [...] "For the narrator, the final straw is when the neighbors attack his home and the home of his older brother to steal food. This scene plumbs the depths of the human tragedy of loss, greed and survival at the expense of others - evil incarnate. This is the moment of climax, when the hero turns into an anti-hero, a helpless creature who collapses in tears on his childhood bed in the face of the insanity all around him. 'How I hate myself now for not being strong and intimidating, for not behaving like a real man.' [...] "The ills of the village take on a new guise at the end of the book, when the final solution rolls around: You wanted to be Palestinians - go head, enjoy. The villagers wake up in the morning and discover that the electricity, the water, the telephones - everything is working again.
Little by little, however, they realize that Israel has annexed them to the Palestinian state established in the context of a permanent peace accord between the two peoples. When the Israeli tanks and soldiers leave, they leave for good (or until the next conflict). The Triangle and most of the Arab towns are now part of the Palestinian state. It is a day of mourning and lamentation in the village: 'Oh, God. What do we do? That's it. It's all over now.' The brother says things are better this way. Now all the criminals who have taken over the village will be put in their place: Who wants to mess with Preventive Security Services?' [...]" Source: Haaretz (Israel), by Ala Hlelhel, February 13, 2004
Posted at: 2008-05-14
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