?Reconciling Two Great Loves? The First Jewish-Arab Literary Encounter in Israel

Abstract

matters.3 According to Tammuz, atmosphere was electrified by another incident: twice in the course of the evening, one of the Arab writers had stood up, and then another, and excused themselves for having to leave 'before the curfew takes effect'. Absolute silence. An embarrassed This content downloaded from 207.46.13.13 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 04:47:56 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 12 * ISRAEL STUDIES, VOLUME 4, NUMBER I smile while our eyes remained glued to the wall-that was our response.24 In this way, the Jewish participants began to feel the oppression wrought upon the Arab residents of the country caught in the pincers of a military government. This was precisely the topic of Rashid Hussayn's poem The Locked Door. Distraught, Haim Gouri summed up his feelings during the meeting: At first, the encounter seemed to me a capricious adventure, a dream. Afterwards it seemed there was nothing more humane, elementary, or heart touching than a meeting of this sort. Why did we have to wait ten years?2s