 |
| The Deir Yassin memorial at Dar el Tifl - where Hind Husseini first gave shelter to the orphans of Deir Yassin |
But a memorial at Deir Yassin is unlikely in the near or medium future. It would require both huge funding and Israeli permission, neither of which is, at present, available.
Nor might such a memorial be entirely desirable. Amid the present injustice, a memorial now at Deir Yassin could, at best, be a diversion from and, at worst, even a legitimisation of, the injustice. An Israeli government could easily say to us “Sure, go build your memorial!” and then use it to demonstrate to visitors, en route to pay homage to Jewish suffering at Yad Vashem, how wonderfully ethical is their treatment of the Palestinians.
But a truthful memorial at the village, in clear sight of the Holocaust memorial at Yad Vashem, might be, not only a way out of the current horror, but the only way out.
And why Deir Yassin? Because, apart from being an enduring symbol of Palestinian life, history and survival and of the relationship between the suffering of Jews and Palestinians, Deir Yassin is a symbol of exactly who did, and is doing, what and to whom.
Jewish theologian Marc Ellis has written about a ‘revolutionary forgiveness’ – a forgiveness with truth and justice at its centre, and therefore far removed from the realms of fake piety. This is not Jews and Palestinians holding hands in a peace tent. The road to Deir Yassin is a hard one.
Such forgiveness lies well with Arab and Islamic reconciliation traditions and indeed our own common sense, that before reconciliation can take place, both perpetrator and victim must acknowledge the truth.
Ellis proposes that this forgiveness take place in what he calls "the broken middle of Jerusalem". Those of us committed to the memory and meaning of Deir Yassin agree but, rejecting false notions of ‘balance’, we ask that it take place, not quite in the middle, but slightly off-centre at the village of Deir Yassin.
So go here and read about the all-too-few memorials to Deir Yassin, but also, while you're at it, note the sub-heading of the website - "To build a memorial to Deir Yassin". Note the second preposition 'to' as opposed to 'at'. It's an important distinction. Memorials are not always made of granite. Everything, from the holding of commemorations, to standing firm against those who would shut us down, to writing this piece, and yes, to the building of a physical memorial at the site of the village itself - all this is building a memorial to Deir Yassin.
