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Khirbet Khizeh

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This writer was already reknowned when he wrote this book - his novel "The Days of Ziklag" was greeted as a masterpiece when it came out. This book is a small vignette in sparkling language both Biblical and demotic. The author voices his doubts and foreboding, not about the lofty notions of Zionism but how the taking of the land actually was carried out. He also speaks lyrically of the beauty of the land. He makes it clear that the soldiers look down on the people they are displacing, but otherwise it would be unbearable to carry out their orders. They disdain the Palestinian villagers for not fighting back; ironically this same disdain was displayed toward those who survived the concentration camps who came to replace those villagers.
It is interesting to note that this book, very popular when it came out, was high school reading in Israel beginning in 1964. However, this history seems less familiar to many Americans.

This is a trgaic story, beautifully written and translated. It would be easy to confine this book to the history of tradgedy, but David Shulman's Afterword draws a direct parallel to the present day and Israel's current occupations.

With few words Yizhar paints a vivid picture of the Palestinian landscape and the figures within it. He is able to contrast the beauty with the hatefulness of the soldiers, often in the very same sentence. He brings to life that which has been buried and covered up. Perhaps it is no surprise that Yizhar wrote this in 1949 immediatly following the events, or similar events, that the story describes. The story prophetically anticipates the future also, yet it has an immediacy and a finality. A brilliant story and a great partner to Kressmann Taylor's Address Unknown.

This novella written in 1949 and set during Israel's War of Independence deserves to be read much more widely than it is. The author, who had served in the war, based this book on his own observations of forced relocations of Palestinians from Israel proper. Although this book was part of the regular school curriculum in Israel for 20 years, it has faded into the background. The book is set on an afternoon in a fictional Arab village of Khirbet Khizeh. The narrator's unit has been sent there to forcibly evacuate the old men, women and children who have remained. S. Yizhar paints the scene vividly. The narrator's anguished feelings over their mission, which seems to have little to do with fighting a war, is superimposed with the future he imagines for the village that will be erased from knowledge. As he agonizes over the villagers' subdued but anguished responses, he is met by indifference from his fellow squad members who want to get their mission over as quickly as possible are happy that they do not have to deal with the transporting of the villagers somewhere else. The afterword by David Shulman serves 2 complimentary roles. It helps explain some of the Biblical references that infuse the original Hebrew text. Shulman also talks about his own experiences in the West Bank of today, trying with other Isrealis to protect Palestinian's rights while begin attacked by the right wing settlers, and how that relates to Yizhar's story.

This is a really important book for Israeli-Palestinian history. So much of what happened in 1948 is contested and really unknown. This book sheds light on a lot of what for the most part was ignored in Israeli cultural texts from the 40s and 50s.

A touching account of the Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the 1948 war by an Israeli soldier whose conscience was at odds with what he had to do. Also, a contemporary account of Israeli peace advocates protecting Palestinians from Israeli settlers trying to force them of their land. One can only hope that this appeal to humanity and justice will one day guide Israeli policy.

Khirbet Khizeh was hailed as a masterwork when it was first published, and is considered the grandfather of many counter-Zionist works and narratives. No doubt a story in Hebrew about the expulsion of Palestinians from their village in 1949, and published shortly thereafter, caused a great stir.

Unfortunately, this novella reads too much like protest fiction: message is sacrificed for story. We should get the message from the flow of the story; from the dynamic interplay of language, plot and character. But this novella puts the cart before the horse. We know we are reading a critique, and it makes for less than stellar fiction.