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On the Border
Michel Warschawski
Pages: 240ISBN: 0-89608-731-X
Format: paper
Release Date: 2005-02-15
This book is also available in cloth
Available for the first time in English, this award-winning memoir chronicles a radical political education in a time and place charged with idealism and danger. One of the most renowned figures of the Israeli Left, Michel is known commonly by his nom de guerre Mikado. A Polish Frenchman and a rabbi’s son, he went to Jerusalem as a young man to study the Talmud. Warschawski recounts how he became radicalized, and muses on the vibrancy of border cultures that welcome and engage with strangers—where languages exchange phrases and people trade foods.
Warschawski’s involvement in radical politics led to inspiring alliances with Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Marxists. Yet as the border lines hardened and Mikado became a movement leader, he became targeted by the Shin Bet, Israel’s notorious intelligence agents, who eventually arrested him. Incarcerated and interrogated for 20 days, Mikado gives his readers an insider’s view of the psychological and political pressures that Shin Bet brought to bear, even on Jews, and never lets you forget the severity of treatment that his Palestinian colleagues faced.
Throughout his story, Warschawski remains something of a scholar, a philosopher schooled in Talmudic reasoning, ready to argue, always searching for the larger meaning of justice and decency. The lessons he draws from his experience on the border between Israel and Palestine should be instructive for all the places where cultures rub against each other for better and worse. Warschawski’s perspective offers hope for the rich cultural and political exchange that these places offer their inhabitants, and hope indeed for his adopted land.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Part 1 The Desert Interlude: The Discourse About the Border
1 Border Cities
2 David Becomes Goliath
3 Preaching in the Wilderness
4 Socialism Without Borders
5 Against the Current
6 Smugglers
7 Encounters
8 Prisoners and Banished
Part 2 Openings Interlude: The Two Rabbis
9 Earthquake
10 "There is a Limit!"
11 Together
12 No-Man's Land
13 The Trial
14 The Settler of the Left
Part 3 The Internal Borders Interlude: M. Danker and M. Shemesh
15 Separation at Last?
16 Jews and Israelis
17 The Periphery Becomes the Center
18 Hallel's Prayer
19 Beyond Judea and Israel
20 Homecomings
21 Border Identities
Michel Warschawski
Click here to view Michel Warschawski's full Author PageMichel Warschawski is a veteran journalist and peace activist. He founded the Alternative Information Center in Jerusalem, a Palestinian-Israeli news organization that disseminates information, research, and political analysis on Palestinian and Israeli societies as well as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while promoting cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis.
A Polish Frenchman and a rabbi’s son, Michel Warschawski left for Israel at the age of sixteen to study the Talmud and eventually became one of the most renowned figures of the Israeli left.
Warschawski’s involvement in radical politics led to inspiring alliances with Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Marxists. Yet as the border lines hardened, he became targeted by the Shin Bet, Israel’s notorious intelligence agents. Finally arrested, incarcerated, and interrogated for 20 days, Michel gives his readers an insider’s view of the psychological and political pressures that Shin Bet brought to bear, even on Jews, and never lets you forget the severity of treatment that his Palestinian colleagues faced.