A Young Girl on Bicycle: Anwar Burqan vs Two Border Police officers

With everything else that’s going on in our part of the world, the incident in Hebron, at the end of July, with the two Border Police officers and the young girl on bicycle, seems like ages ago.

To refresh the reader's memory, here is the story as it appeared in Haaretz on August 2nd: “Two Border Police officers were filmed driving a Palestinian girl, who was riding a bicycle in Hebron, away and then, once she fled, one of the two picked up her bike and threw it into the bushes”

Obviously this incident has serious implications, how is it possible that two adults in their official capacity would scare a little girl to death and chase her away? Focusing on the story one important detail comes to mind: Anwar Burqan was not just another little girl, she was riding a bicycle.

The bicycle has been a feminist symbol, and an icon, of self reliance and freedom since the last part of the 19th century. The development of the safety bicycles, in the late 19th century, was especially crucial to women as they were also produced in a special form for skirted women.

Some feminist writers consider this point a revolution and a beginning of a new order.  Ever since the late 1880s women have started riding bicycles and it has given them a certain degree of independence. All of a sudden, quietly, women and girls gained freedom of movement and were able to come and go as they pleased and on their own.

For a long time, and in most part of the world, bicycling has ceased to be a symbol and became an integral part of life for everyone.

But in more traditional societies girls/women and bicycle just don’t mix. The Saudi Arabian film Wadjda which tells the story of  a bright girl who is determined to win money to buy a bicycle she’s forbidden to ride. She hopes to accomplish this feat by winning a prize in a Koran competition and for that dream she is willing to memorize endless verses of Koran. But when she finally wins the competition honestly and naively admits that she intends to get a bicycle with her money, she is denied the prize.

Apparently, Hebron is not different than Wadjda's world, here too the   bicycle is regarded as a dangerous symbol of independence which threatens the world order. Young Anwar Burqan was not allowed to exercise her right to freedom of movement when she rode by herself around her home town on her bicycle.

I would like to end with a quote about bicycling from the Feminist and leader Susan B Anthony: "Yes, I'll tell you what I think of bicycling, I think it has done more to emancipate woman than any one in the world. I rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on wheel. It gives her a feeling of self-reliance and independence the moment she takes her seat and away she goes.”

Keep riding Anwar Burqan, away you go!

The post a[[eared in the Times Of Israel

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-young-girl-on-bicycle-anwar-burqan-vs-two-border-police-officer/

Enigma Of A Cultural Hero Or Between Arik Einstein And Bibi Netanyahu

NOV.28.2013 -

I am sad today, my favorite Israeli singer Arik Einstein (1939—2013) died suddenly yesterday morning. He wasn’t only loved by me, he was immensely popular. But since he was a highly private person and his family asked for a quiet funeral, I didn’t expect that an official state funeral would close down the streets of Tel Aviv.  Moreover, I couldn’t imagine that our  prime minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu would appear at the funeral and claim Arik Einstein as his own. This was a hit below the belt--please let Arik RIP. I wish my last memory of the beloved singer could remain untarnished by an image of Bibi Netanyahu making yet another speech.

Actually this is a good place to start because everything about Arik Einstein was the exact opposite of Netanyau. Arik Einstein was a very talented man who wanted to be left alone, to maintain his privacy and to do the things that he loved quietly and outside of the limelight. Netanyahu is an intelligent man who cannot survive without constant attention and demands plenty of recognition for everything that he does.

Privacy is not a concept that Netanyahu appreciates; his rise to the top has only been possible thanks to television: like a sunflower he basked and flourished in its light. Since his days as the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations (1984 to 1988) when he “perfected his technique,” he has not missed an opportunity to be seen in public or to speak on television.

In contrast, in the early 80s Arik Einstein, by then already a successful and highly acclaimed singer and actor, stopped appearing in public.  However, he never ceased working and continued to make music and record. He had a special talent to attract and discover quality musicians and to bring out their special qualities. He collaborated with a large number of musicians and sang their songs in a beautiful clear baritone voice.  His clean and unaffected voice has become a symbol to everything which was honest about Israel, a voice of yearning for better and simpler days. 

 Arik Einstein changed the music scene in Israel for the better but never took any credit for it. He  even refused to accept the most prestigious award in Israel, the "Israel Prize.”

In an extrovert and noisy nation like ours, it is incomprehensible how such a private person who has stayed home for more than 30 years could become a national symbol and a cultural hero.  This quality of not tooting one's own horn but just doing the job quietly and professionally, even meticously, is also not a common Israeli trait. At the funeral someone said that every one of us has his/her own Arik.  I feel that this could be part of the answer.  We would like to believe that we are a little better than we really are,  and  that within us we have some of the humility, professionalism and integrity that Arik had.

It helped that Arik was good looking, witty and graceful, and since he withdrew from the public eye so long ago, he never grew old. In our hearts  he remained the Israeli Peter Pan -- forever fresh, handsome and young.

As for Bibi, unlike Dorian Gray, this fine looking man did age publicly in front of our eyes and his faults have become increasingly prominent - one of the unfortunate effects of over exposure.

Still since he took the time to be at the funeral and to speak about Arik, perhaps it could be an opportunity for Netanyahu to learn from this cultural hero a lesson about integrity. If such reflection does take place, I wouldn’t even mind to have my last memory of  Arik Einstein mixed with an image of Bibi.

  

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U58uKBDtZyo