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The Surreptitious History of Raphael Levy the Rise of the Arab Jewish Notables

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The Surreptitious History of Raphael Levy the Rise of the Arab Jewish Notables The Surreptitious History of Raphael Levy The rise of the Arab Jewish Notables By Natan Odenheimer Advisor: Professor Naghmeh Sohrabi Seniors Honors Thesis Department of Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies Brandeis University 2014-2015 ! 2 Acknowledgements Said Rabbi: A man can learn [well] only that part of the Torah which is his heart's desire, for it is said, But whose desire is in the law of the Lord. Talmud - Mas. Avodah Zarah 19a I fell in love with studying science at the age of sixteen learning physics with great peers and an incredible teacher. Since then I secretly I hoped that one day, I would, too, reveal something new about this world. I carried this wish throughout my years in the army but slowly, as I transitioned into university and divorced from my romantic ideas of studying both physics, mathematics and the humanities, I came to realize how deeply and systematically one should think in order to reveal anything new, even a little piece of a mighty puzzle. Interesting thoughts and a curious mind are simply not enough. I never meant to give up, but working on this honors thesis I was willing to forget about my ambitions to write something great. But Professor Naghmeh Sohrabi had different plans for me. Prof. Sohrabi was attentive enough to hear my heart’s desires. She knew that one’s heart’s desire is the most fruitful ground for learning. From the moment I came up with the idea for this work she mentored me through crossroads, obstacles, frustrations and confusions that are the bread and butter of deeply engaging in an intellectual enterprise, even as modest as mine. This scholarly adventure would have not been as exciting and rewarding without Professor Sohrabi as my guide and for that I am thankful. Another person instrumental to this work is its protagonist, Former District Commissioner Raphael Levy. Levy graced me with his attention many long and enjoyable hours of conversations and interviews and I am immensely grateful for his willingness to speak with me. My father, Micha Odenheimer, was never too tired or busy to read my incomplete drafts and pretended to happily edit my work even when his schedule was tight and he was traveling between various continents; this work would not be complete without his insights, edits and encouragements. Luckily for my father, I had the help of few more people. I’m in debt to Alix de Zitter who read, commented and encouraged me to continue improving my work; and to Molly Holt who time and again invested her enthusiastic energy to read my late night written nearly incomprehensible sentences; to Erica Hope Shaps who insisted that I keep my tenses consistent and structure intact; Alexa Arena who read, commented, and edited a long premature chapter. I am endlessly thankful to my sister Ayala Odenheimer and cousin Oliver Kamerman who made insightful and engaged comments and suggestions. My mother, Na’ama Cifrony, contributed her unsolicited and very much appreciated opinion over dishwashing, onion chopping, and potato peeling; she taught me that cooking and cleaning are sometimes the best ways to begin a stubborn new paragraph. Professor Kanan Makiya who served as my second thesis advisor, helped me find the right shape and form for the ideas I presented to him and challenged me to make stronger claims and then write them in an aesthetically pleasing manner. I greatly appreciate Professor Jonatahn Decter who gladly agreed to meet me, discuss my work and read thesis entirely as my third advisor. Last, I want to thank Uri Levy. This thesis is about him as it is about me. The Surreptitious History of Raphael Levy is dedicated to our continuous work together towards figuring out how we belong to this story. ! 3 Table of Content First Chapter: The Jewish Mutasarrifate.……………………………….……….….5 Second Chapter: The Arabists……………………….……………………..……24 Third Chapter: The Levy Bridge.………………………..……………………….53 Forth Chapter: The Governor of Jerusalem. …….………………………………85 Fifth Chapter: The Notables of the Israeli Empire ………………………..…….118 Work Cited………………………………………………………………..……..133 ! 4 First Chapter: The Jewish Mutasarrifate On November 6th, 1986, police officers stormed into Raphael Levy’s apartment. The men searched the rooms for evidence of fraud then arrested the 62-year-old District Commissioner of Jerusalem, bringing an end to his long and successful career in the Israeli administration. Levy was accused of overusing his powers, corruption, and taking bribes.1 He was convicted and shortly after appealed. In the verdict to Levy’s appeal, Israeli supreme court judge Dov Levin expressed his astonishment of the irregular “honored, even admired, status” Levy assumed in his administrative position; not only did Levy’s employees and colleagues had enormous respect for him, but: …in the eyes of the other [non-Jewish] religious communities, the inhabitants of East Jerusalem and the cities around it, the appellant was known as governor [emphasized in the original]. It is likely that they treated the appellant by understanding his position in light of their familiarity with the British or Jordanian governments, and as depicted by those who saw the Ottoman public administration as a model and an example.2 Supreme court judge Levin correctly recognized that Levy, a son of a former Ottoman subject from Hebron who grew up in Mandate Palestine, was deeply influenced by the political culture that preceded the state of Israel. He was largely perceived—both by himself, his superiors, and the local population—as continuing a local political tradition. However, Levy’s story reveals much more than a single anomaly of an Arab-Jew in an overwhelmingly Ashkenazi leadership. Following Levy’s life demonstrates a phenomenon: the Zionist movement’s political success enabled the emergence of a special group of Jews of Arab descent who by serving as administrators, advisors, and diplomats became intermediaries !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 Levin, Dov, “Criminal Appeal File 355/88”, Israeli Supreme Court, Verdict, available online 1,2. 2 Ibid. ! 5 between the state and local populations, in a fashion that resembles extant regional political culture. The Zionist movement in Palestine that evolved and prevailed under the British Mandate cultivated the rise of a new social group: a somewhat elite group of Arab-Jewish men who used their Arab background in order to serve the Zionist enterprise. Individual Arab-Jews became part of this social group mostly by using their Arab background as well as their personal skills to contribute to Arab-related security issues for the state. Furthermore, the story of Levy’s life shows that some of these individuals used the abilities they acquired in the armed and intelligence forces before and during the creation of the State of Israel, to position themselves after the state’s formation as administrative and advisory intermediaries between the non-Jewish population and the Israeli government. The people in this social group had a specific understanding of their role in the Zionist enterprise as Jews of Arab lineage. Instead of underlining a return to the land, as the main Zionist narrative insisted, they emphasized a continuous “nativity” to the Land of Israel and to the region, and this “nativity”—knowledge of Arabic and the local populations—as a set of skills critical to the state-building project. Trying to understand Levy’s point of view in light of his Arab-Jewish counterparts’ perspective, reveals a rich and paradoxical web of relationships with Arab and Zionist identities and perceptions of belonging and authenticity. A primary aim of this thesis is to present and analyze the role Levy and others played in the political Zionist-Arab-Jewish tango; yet another ambition of this work is to illustrate these men’s unique characteristics and worldview, and communicate their own special voice: their terminology, treatment of terms such as “native” and “Arab”, and their sense of belonging to different communities—local, Zionist, religious and ethnic. ! 6 I use the word “group” and “social group” to describe the people I write about, even though many of them, including Levy, experienced mixed feelings regarding belonging to this group. While these individuals were working as a group in the 1940’s and early 1950’s in the haganah and the Jewish Agency, after the formation of the state some of them drifted to different directions in administration, security, and foreign services. In this sense, many of them did not work as a group, even if they maintained work relations. Levy, for instance, sustained complicated relationships with other Arab-Jews. He saw people who had similar skills and qualities as possible competitors. Therefore, he developed a strong sense of individuality and emphasized—to himself, the Ashkenazi leadership and later to me—not his belonging to this group but what he calls his “natural skills.” In order to elevate himself in the Israeli, overwhelmingly Ashkenazi, institutions, Levy needed to signal himself as uniquely critical and irreplaceable. At the same time, he did acknowledge—especially in the beginning of his career—that he is part of a larger group of Arab-Jews who serve the Zionist enterprise.3 No less problematic is my choice of the term “Arab-Jew” to describe this group. Even though there are Jews of Arab descent who identified as Arab-Jews, those I address, the ones who joined the Zionist enterprise early on, stay away from calling themselves Arabs. The term Arab-Jew is politically charged, since it usually implies anti-Zionist sentiments. My decision to use the term does not spring from an intention to position this work in an anti, post, or pro Zionist debate; however, since I study Jews of Arab descent who emphasized their Arab background no other term would fit. In addition, as the story of Levy’s father-in-law Eliyahu Sasson demonstrates, the word Arab is itself a term that !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 3 Verta, Yoram and Levy, Raphael.
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