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10 Established 1961 Analysis Sunday, January 7, 2018 Established 1961 THE LEADING INDEPENDENT DAILY IN THE ARABIAN GULF ESTABLISHED 1961 Founder and Publisher YOUSUF S. AL-ALYAN Editor-in-Chief ABD AL-RAHMAN AL-ALYAN EDITORIAL : 24833199-24833358-24833432 ADVERTISING : 24835616/7 FAX : 24835620/1 CIRCULATION : 24833199 Extn. 163 ACCOUNTS : 24835619 COMMERCIAL : 24835618 P.O.Box 1301 Safat,13014 Kuwait. E MAIL :[email protected] Website: www.kuwaittimes.net 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 Iranian Revolution 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 Iran, 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 Qom. 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 Fatima Masumeh shrine - 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 Ruhollah Khomeini 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, Iraq, ‘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.

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