Agi Mishol: I'm sorry to say that there are still no encounters of this kind. From my experience as artistic director of the Jerusalem International Poetry Festival at Mishkenot Sha'ananim [in 2006], no Arab poet who was invited would agree to participate and read his or her poetry in Israel.Most of them politely refused.
Israeli and Arab poets do meet at international festivals in different places in the world. Sometimes the atmosphere is an unpleasant one of mutual distrust and an aversion to the "other," but enlightened poets haven't got any problem sitting, talking and being seen together.
Inside Israel, writers of Hebrew and Arabic do meet with each other; there is cooperation in workshops, poetry readings and festivals.
Ghassan Zaqtan: Prior to the establishment of the state of Israel, Jews whom we call Arab Jews were part of Arab culture. I personally studied classical Jewish Arab poets (for example, Al Samoual).
Such a conference you are proposing is not alien to Arab culture and not a new idea. It has existed for hundreds of years, and its climax was during the Arab rule of Andalusia.
It is impossible to demand Palestinians to stress unity with the occupier (Israel). It is impossible under the circumstances to form an equal equation between a culture that fosters military occupation (Israel) and a culture that bases its project on resisting occupation and putting an end to it. The problem here is occupation, which is the source of the tragedies that both Palestinians and Israelis suffer.
I suggest a conference that is attended by Israeli, Palestinian and international poets that calls for ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land in order to formulate an equation that allows for the establishment of a conference like the one you suggest, one that calls stresses unity on the basis on parity.
Forum Introduction
