Etgar Keret interview about “parallel worlds” in Israel.

What’s next for the country’s “parallel worlds”? In the week that the Jewish state celebrates its great jubilee. Etgar Keret interview about the paradoxes that characterize life in Israel.

“Israel is a country that will send a transgender woman to represent it in the Eurovision Song Contest. However, it is so religious that it will not allow public transport to operate on Shabbat.”

Few people can better describe the coexistence of parallel worlds in Israel than Etgar Keret. He is one of the most celebrated writers from this Middle Eastern country.

He used Dana International 1998 Eurovision triumph as an example of contrast in a country. Israel is a country where liberal attitudes and religious conservatism go hand in hand. However, they are doing so with uncertain steps.

The interview is on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the country. Keret warned that such a balance is unstable. It has led to enormous cultural wealth.

“Israel is like pizza with pineapple and ‘pepperoni’ sausage,” Keret says.

“It’s not a very normal combination, but when it works, there’s something beautiful and very generous about it.”

“However, at this moment, that gap has actually turned into the struggle of Israeli society for a decision. The decision is whether the country will first be liberal and only then Jewish, or first Jewish and then liberal,” he adds.

Etgar Keret interview ‘Bad Science Fiction’

It is a conflict that has existed since the birth of Israel as a country in 1948. It has now been intensified by the entry into the government of a coalition of ultra-right and ultra-Orthodox parties last November.

Keret took part in mass protests that took place across the country. The protests are a reaction to the government’s controversial judicial reform proposal. Opposition politicians claim it is a step towards theocratic rule.

The writer, known worldwide for story collections such as Suddenly, a Knock on the Door and graphic novels such as Pizzeria Kamikaze, believes that the political crisis has turned into a struggle for the country’s identity.

“When someone writes a good science fiction book, then a movie is made about it. But with Israel, there was a bad science fiction book that they built the country on,” says Keret. Alludes to The Old New Land, a 1902 novel that helped popularize the idea of ​​a Jewish state.

Keret says he is on the side that “wants freedom before religion.” He warns deep divisions exist even within a single family.

The writer, for example, has a brother who leans towards ultra-leftist ideas and an ultra-orthodox sister.

He claims that they all live in harmony.

“The problem is not that people have different ideas, but that we live in an age of factions,” he explains.

“When intolerance of any ambiguity meets the complexity of this country, I think it ends in destruction.”

Etgar Keret interview The Palestinian issue

In one of Keret’s short stories, the taxi driver says he feels nostalgic for the days when Israel fought “real” wars. Now it is in the internal conflicts that it is going through today – including the Palestinian conflict.

“I grew up in a country that was surrounded by hostile countries. Specifically, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon. They attacked or threatened us from all sides,” the writer recalls.

“Israel is now, any way you look at it, the biggest and strongest power in the Middle East. Most of the time we’re dealing with Palestinians armed with knives and improvised pistols.”

“We used to be David. Now we are a kind of Goliath,” he adds.

In a 2015 interview, Keret said his son Lev had “never met a Palestinian.”

The writer recalls his own childhood, full of regular contacts with Arab neighbors. He claims that all that changed after the Oslo Accords. It is an agreement on the mutual recognition of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed in the nineties.

“When I was a child, Palestinians were here all the time because there was no separation. We all lived together. Everything was very natural. Now everything is very separated. It’s the same for Palestinians who come to Israel to work,” he says.

“To add to the irony, it was the Oslo Accords that stopped the meetings between Israelis and Palestinians, because the movement between them became less carefree.”

Social networks, according to Keret, only make matters worse.

“In the age of Facebook, I think the average Israeli is much more afraid of the Palestinians. I would say the average Palestinian is much more filled with hate.”

Etgar Keret interview Disco lights vs. candles – or Tel Aviv vs. Bnei Brak

According to Keret, today’s Israelis are united by one idea. It’s survival in what he says is a “very hostile environment.”

“None of us want to be conquered and die. We don’t want to be bombed by the Iranians.”

But even that is divisive.

“The government we have now is very right-wing, and aggressive, it wants to clash with everyone. But most of those who vote for it are orthodox or ultra-orthodox people who do not serve in the army. The reason is the law that allows them to avoid conscription,” he explains. .

“They are aggressive, but they want my son and I to be the ones to fight for them.”

The writer also cites a 2022 Ministry of Finance report, according to which secular Israelis pay six times more total taxes than ultra-Orthodox citizens.

How does Keret see Israel’s future?

Will it be the secular ambience of Tel Aviv (the “financial capital” of Israel)? There, on Friday evenings, young people get ready for an all-night party at the discotheques on Rothschild Boulevard.

Or will it be more like Bnei Brak, a town about four kilometers away? In it, the ultra-Orthodox regularly light candles before Shabbat. That is the period between Friday night and Saturday night during which orthodox Judaism discourages the use of electricity?

The writer’s greatest fear is that one side will prevail.

“This means that then half of the people will be oppressed. It doesn’t matter in which combination,” he concludes.