“Unwanted by 10 Million Tunisians.” Tunisian PM Zinedine Ben Ali.
“Stop Palestinian Judeophobia,”* “Hamas + Hezbollah = Nazis.”
*Palestinisme suggests nationalism (i.e. Zionism) and Palestinian.
Marais district, Paris, 12/08. Click for greater detail.
I came late in my parents’ lives. By the time I was born, they were already well into their forties. Adults during WWII, I grew up around veterans of the conflict, many of whom were Jews who fought in the resistance, in Europe, or had been drafted into Commonwealth armies, like my 89-year-old Israeli father.
A person who reminds me much of my dad’s peers is 93-year-old French politician Stéphane Hessel. Imprisoned at Buchenwald for resisting the Nazis, Hessel is the author of a controversial best seller, urging a revival of liberalism. My profile of Hessel was published in Monday’s edition of The Forward.
“France is the most anti-Semitic country in Europe,” an American acquaintance recently informed me over dinner. “You wouldn’t believe how bad it’s gotten there. Everyone is buying apartments in Israel!”
The cover of last week’s Le Monde books supplement features a review of a new Israeli novel in translation. A photograph of two young IDF conscripts is placed on the left, making out on Tel Aviv’s waterfront.
Inside, there’s a review of a new edition of the correspondence of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem. See the reference, above the photograph.
Shopping malls are heated. Forum des Halles, 1/8.
With a view of the Eiffel Tower. Les Invalides, 1/7.
The precarious situation Christians face in the Middle East has become a cause célèbre for religious conservatives. Irrespective of this magazine‘s position on the subject, it is a striking cover image, guaranteed to solicit sympathy. With the right lighting, it’s even more powerful at night.
Place de la Opera, Paris, Thursday.
The AMX-13 was one of the Israeli army’s first tanks. Supplied by France during the 1950s, the light MBT bloodied itself in the Sinai campaign, in 1956. Eventually it was phased out in favor of better, more heavily armored combat vehicles, such as upgraded M4 Shermans, British-supplied Centurions, and American M48 Pattons following 1967′s Six Day War.
Driving across northeastern France in late November, across the epic battlefields of the First World War, I passed the tank memorial at Berry-Au-Bac. Sitting to my right, on a hill overlooking the highway, was this AMX-13. I immediately turned around, parked the car, and started snapping pictures. The last time I’d seen one was in Israel, a decade prior.
It was the second time I’d seen a tank that month. Several weeks earlier, en route to Berlin from Stuttgart, Jennifer and I pulled over to get gas. Right across from our VW stood two trailers, one bearing a more recent Leopard 2 tank, belonging to the German military. The second was a turretless Leopard recovery vehicle. Both were being towed somewhere north.
One of my earliest childhood memories is sitting outside a tank factory, near La Spezia. I’m eight years old. It’s November, and the air is freezing cold. As a uniformed Italian army officer speaks to us in broken English, an early model Leopard 1 goes through it’s paces in front of us. Smashing through walls, raising and lowering its gun, rotating its enormous turret.
The image of Gilad Shalit is a familiar one at European shuls. Last winter, a large poster of the soldier hung in front of the Great Synagogue in Rome. Accompanying Shalit was an image of Ron Arad, an Israeli aviator missing since 1986.
French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt is the surprise personality here. “I didn’t know she was Jewish,” remarked my father, as I called him in Israel to tell him of the banner. “Besides, wasn’t she freed from captivity already?”
Synagogue de la Paix, Strasbourg, early September.
I only discovered her last year, at the Tower outlet in kibbutz Gan Shmuel, while running errands. It was a classic Cairophone/Digital Hellas anthology, filed in between obscure Mizrahi fusion titles.
I’d heard of Leila Mourad before, but only as an actress, as credited in this vintage Egyptian film poster. Even though she was better known as a singer, because of her relationship with Om Koulthoum.
Clignancourt flea market, Paris, June.
Claude Chabrol was here. Well, not really, but you get the idea. It was a great film, and money played a starring role.
Anti-fascist sticker, Neukolln, late November.
When context is everything. Pro-asylum seeker, “Droits humains?” (trans: human rights?), with garbage can.
Additional tagging by Dick Pryze, (or Pryze Dicke), a frequent English-language signature in central Calais.
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