10 Established 1961 Analysis Sunday, January 7, 2018

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Washington Watch Why I accused Israel of cultural genocide

By Dr James J Zogby

etween Christmas and New Year’s Day, I became embroiled in what The Jerusalem Post termed a B“Twitter war” which they claimed “raised eye- brows on both sides of the Atlantic”. What started the heated exchange was my response to a tweet by celebrity chef Rachael Ray in which she called “Israeli” - “meze, stuffed grape leaves, hummus, beet dip, eggplant and sun-dried tomato dip, walnut and red pepper dip, and tabouli”. I hadn’t intended a war, but my blood boiled when I saw Ray’s tweet and so I tweeted a response - “Damn it! This is cultural genocide. It’s not Israeli food. It’s Arab (Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian, Jordanian, etc). First, the Israelis take the land and ethni- cally cleanse it of Arabs. Now they take their food and culture and claim it’s theirs too! Shame.” (I should note that this wasn’t the first time that Ray 40 years since began became embroiled in a situation that involved a negation of Palestinian/Arab culture. Back in 2008, she appeared s a child 40 years ago, Mohammad Hassan in a TV ad for Dunkin’ Donuts sporting what appeared Sharifzadeh saw the opening salvos of the Islamic to be a keffiyeh. After a barrage of attacks by rightwing revolution in , starting with a particularly strange Islamophobes who said the scarf was a symbol of “mur- A scene in a mosque in the holy city of . Mohammad was derous Palestinian jihad”, Dunkin’ Donuts cancelled the eight years old on January 8, 1978 and visiting the mosque ad. Because that entire affair evolved so rapidly and the with his father in front of the - one company reacted so quickly, we were unable to offer a of the holiest sites in Iran. rejoinder. The recent flap, however, “cut to the quick”. I Then something shocking happened: A senior cleric took had to reply. And so I did. The responses to my tweet off his turban and threw it on the ground in disgust. The rea- were immediate involving attacks by prominent son behind this symbolic gesture - one reserved for display- American and Israeli columnists and the head of an ing only the most grievous offence - was the publication of American Jewish organization. Most criticisms were an article the day before against Ayatollah Ruhollah downright silly, some were threatening (demanding that I Khomeini, who would soon lead the country into an Islamic be expelled from the Democratic Party), while others revolution. “He was angry that they had insulted our source were just crude insults (“ludicrous”,”anti-Semitic bigot”). of emulation,” says Mohammad, now a sweet seller. All of them missed the point. Each Shiite Muslim must choose an ayatollah as his The silly ones either wanted to reduce the entire “source of emulation” - and many in Iran had chosen the brouhaha to “who invented hummus” or confused cultur- politically radical Khomeini, who by then had spent 13 years al exchange and sharing with outright appropriation. in exile for his scathing attacks on Shah Mohammad Reza No, I noted, making pizza or spaghetti in the US is not Pahlavi and the United States. The article in government cultural genocide, unless the US were to occupy Italy newspaper Ettelaat had accused Khomeini of being a British and then claim these foods as “American”. And, I agent, in league with communists, and insinuated that he was responded to the foolish tweet by New York Times not really Iranian and that his religious credentials were This file photo taken on Feb 01, 1979 at Tehran airport shows Iran’s Ayatollah leaving columnist, Bret Stephens, that if I used Instant questionable. It is often seen as the moment that sparked the Messaging or Waze (both of which were invented in revolution 40 years ago. Iran’s Islamic rulers have many the Air France Boeing 747 jumbo that flew him back from exile in France to Tehran. — AFP Israel) I would not be engaging in cultural appropriation, commemorations planned for the anniversary as they flaunt unless I used them, then claimed these tools as my own, the unlikely survival of a regime that has often been written and started referring to them as Lebanese inventions. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamedani. “It was decided to since questioned the original death toll of 20-30, with British off by analysts and opponents, but which once again saw off stop classes the next day as a sign of protest,” he said - a historian Michael Axworthy saying “there were no more than Of course, I recognize that a significant number of a major bout of unrest in recent days. Israelis come from Arab countries and I realize that they rare move in a place that prized education so highly. five” in his book “Revolutionary Iran”. The strike by students on Jan 8 saw minor clashes with Either way, news of the shootings in Qom swept across brought their cuisine with them from Yemen, , ‘Provocation’ Morocco, Egypt, etc. But that doesn’t make Yemeni, police. It grew the following day and gathered support from the country and set in train a cycle of unrest that would Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Mousavi Tabrizi, a former chief merchants in the bazaar who joined the shutdown. Soon the ultimately lead to the downfall of the shah little more than a Iraqi, Moroccan, or Egyptian dishes “Israeli”, any more prosecutor and two-time parliamentarian, was a teacher in than pizza, tacos, sushi and fried rice can be called protests were widespread, with people chanting slogans year later. Conforming with Shiite tradition, mourning cere- one of Qom’s many seminaries - “hawzats” - when he first against the monarchy and the government. The spark had monies were held for the dead 40 days later - on Feb 18 - “American” simply because Italians, Mexicans, Japanese, heard about the article. “It was around 7:00 pm when two or and Chinese brought them to the US. been thrown into the tinder box of grievances that had been providing a pretext for fresh protests against the shah in three of my students came to me, very angry, with a copy of building for years over growing social inequality, hatred of several cities. Ettelaat and told me to read the article,” he told AFP in Qom, Appropriation the brutish security services and an increasing In Tabriz in northwestern Iran, those protests quickly where he has gone back to teaching. “It was the last straw. Westernisation that had scandalised the country’s religious degenerated, with police firing on the crowd and killing And no, my argument is not anti-Semitic, nor does it Insulting Khomeini like that, saying he was a pawn of the imply a rejection of the existence of Israel. In fact, what conservatives. some 30 people. And so 40 days later came further cere- British and other offences - it was an insult to the whole cler- monies that turned angry, in turn sparking more protests 40 prompted my reaction was Israel’s denial of a Palestinian gy. It was a provocation.” people, appropriation of their land and now of their cul- ‘Several dead’ days after that. The authorities managed to calm things down Although Iran’s Islamic rulers focus most of their ire on Abolfazl Soleimani, a white-turbaned cleric in Qom, was by June, but the ball was already rolling, and the second half ture. With the creation of the state of Israel, hundreds of the United States these days, many Iranians still reserve a thousands of Palestinians were expelled and denied the 24 at the time and remembers the scene at Eram Square, of 1978 saw escalating unrest. “All repressive regimes dig particular suspicion for the British in memory of their colo- now called Shohada (Martyrs’) Square. “The police opened their own graves,” said Ayatollah Tabrizi. On Jan 16, 1979, the right to return to their homes and properties. The new nial machinations in the early 20th century. Qom’s clerics state then confiscated their businesses and lands and fire, first in the air I think, and then into the crowd, at the reli- shah left Iran, never to return. Ayatollah Khomeini made a quickly organized a response. That same night, a dozen sen- gious, the non-religious, the bazaaris (merchants). There triumphant return to Iran the following month and the last demolished 385 Palestinian villages. As Yousef ior clerics gathered at the home of Tabrizi’s father-in-law, Munayyer noted, it was Israel that sought to systemati- were several dead and injured,” he told AFP. Historians have government of imperial Iran was soon at an end. — AFP cally erase Palestinian history - “Place names, street names, historical markers were changed. Forests have lit- erally been planted above the ruins of our villages, are expelled. A call for throw the monarchy. obfuscating the very remnants of our history and the a general strike is sent grave of our ancestors”. Jan 1978: First out, notably by the Students hit out So this “Twitter war” was never about the denial of Shiite hierarchy, and On Nov 5, tens of thousands of young people take to Israel’s existence. It was about Israel’s denial of sparks of the followed in Qom, Tabriz the streets of Tehran, attacking symbols of the regime. Palestinian existence - a process that continues today and Isfahan. On June 18 More than 100 banks are destroyed, cinemas and the within Israel and, in an increasingly aggressive way, in Khomeini calls for the headquarters of the secret police are set on fire, shops the occupied West Bank. For example, Bethlehem’s Jabal Iranian revolution overthrow of the shah. are burned to the ground and airline companies are van- Abul Ghneim, a once green hill to the north of the town, Over July and August dalized. has been confiscated by Israel and walled off from there is rioting, includ- Bethlehem’s residents. It is now the site of the illegally orty years ago protests in Iran’s holy city of Qom ing an arson attack on Massive demonstrations built Jewish-only colony of Har Homa (that houses were the first sparks of an Islamic revolution that a cinema that kills On Dec 10 and 11 the army leaves the center of almost 20,000 Israeli settlers), and has been incorporat- toppled the monarchy a year later. Here is a sum- F 400-500 people. Tehran because of religious festivities, making way for ed into what Israel refers to “Greater Jerusalem”. mary of what happened: Neither the govern- daily crowds of protesters of more than 1.5 million. It was, therefore, not “who invented hummus” that Mohammed Reza Pahlavi ment nor the opposi- Processions build across the city. Women in black veils caused me to react. Rather, it was Israel’s appropriation It all starts in Qom tion take responsibility. gather in large number alongside children with fists of Palestinian land, eradication of their presence, and On January 7, 1978 the government’s daily newspaper At the end of August raised. “Death to the shah,” protesters chant; “Khomeini now the effort to be the sole claimants of their culture Ettelaat publishes a defamatory article on Iran’s spiritual the regime makes its first concessions to the clerics, is our leader”, “US Go Home”. that prompted my response to Ray’s “Israeli food” tweet. leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The opponent of closing casinos and banning gambling. This fails to stop This was cultural appropriation by conquest. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi has been in exile for the movement. Economy paralyzed I have long connected this Palestinian reality to my nearly 13 years in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf. On Jan 8 and On Dec 24 a strike paralyses the holy city of experience growing up in Central New York State. Once 9 theology students in Qom come out in support of ‘Black Friday’ . Days later oil exports are interrupted and the home of the tribes of the Iroquois Nation, traces of Khomeini. Sixty people are killed by security forces, On Sept 4 between 200,000 and 500,000 people more than 4,000 workers from the industry resign in their history and culture were always with us. Some according to the opposition. The official count is six. take part in marches organized by the Shiite hierarchy in protest against government threats of trials for striking. towns bore Indian names. Families would vacation at the Tehran to demand the return of Khomeini. On On Dec 28 the key sectors of oil, customs, banking and fashionable Mohawk resort. As children, we would dress Riots in Tabriz September 8, “Black Friday in Tehran”, the government civil aviation also grind to a halt. up as “Indians” at Halloween. And as Boy Scouts we On Feb 18 a ceremony in memory of the victims of declares martial law in 12 cities including the capital and learned “Indian dances” and competed to achieve the Qom degenerates into riots in the northwestern city of describes a “plot financed and led by foreign powers”. ‘The shah has gone’ status of the “Order of the Arrow”. All the while, the Tabriz. The army intervenes and some 100 people are Several thousands of protesters gather in Tehran, clash- On Jan 16, 1979, under pressure from the protests remnants of that once powerful people were locked in killed, the opposition says. The official count is nine ing with the army. More than 1,000 die, according to an and US demands, the shah goes into exile. This signals poverty on a nearby reservation. Their children were dead and nearly 200 injured. On May 9 and 10 riots AFP estimate. the end of the imperial regime and sets the stage for the taught to deny their heritage and customs and learned erupt in Qom and elsewhere after a call from religious coming of an Islamic Republic. “The shah has gone”, the lesson that when they asserted their rights, they leaders for a national day of mourning. Khomeini near Paris headline Iran’s daily newspapers. Hundreds of thou- were reviled with epithets like “damn Redskins”. On Oct 6, Khomeini, expelled from Iraq, moves into a sands of people pour into the streets. For the first time NOTE: Dr James J Zogby is the President of the Arab ‘Overthrow the shah’ Paris suburb. From here he carries out the last phase of for several months, the army’s vehicles disappear from American Institute In early June 800 students at the University of Tehran his battle against the shah, calling on Iranians to over- the capital. — AFP