The time was somewhere in the second half of 1974. The place was the then prestigious school “al-Hourrieh” (otherwise known as “Mission Laique Francaise“, or better still, “The Institute of the Martyred Bassel Assad“), a relic of past French sojourn in Syria and a testimony to an often overlooked benevolent aspect of French Colonialism.
I was 15 years old at the time and just started High School. We were attending an Arabic Language class and that day’s assignment was Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice”. The teacher assigned me the role of Shylock and I had to perform in front of an audience almost evenly divided between Christians and Muslims with one notable exception: there was one Jewish student in the mix (yes there were few Jews left in Damascus at the time). Luckily, he was spared the embarrassment of participating in the play.
The inclusion of a translated Shakespearean’s play under the rubric “Arabic Language” was, of course, a pathetic and misguided attempt by the Syrian Government to recruit whatever elements deemed useful to its strategy vis-à-vis the Arab-Israeli Conflict, including religious hatred. Officially, Syria repeatedly stated that its struggle was aimed at Israel and Zionism but practically, its approach was quite schizophrenic as it allowed, if not encouraged, all sorts of anti-Semitic literature to flood the country. Unsurprisingly, the main source of this literature was European and it would be superfluous to name examples.
Here is some of what I had to read aloud, in translation of course, in front of my classmates, including the lonesome and hapless young Jew:
“He hath disgrac'd me and hind'red me half a
million; laugh'd at my losses, mock'd at my gains, scorned my
nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine
enemies.
And what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes?
Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections,
passions, fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons,
subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed
and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is?
If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we
not revenge? “
I know not how this play affected the young students’ assembly as a whole but you need not be Nostradamus to predict the effect on the young Jew, whose ancestry has probably resided in Damascus for centuries. I remember that one Muslim student was kind enough to say something nice to him after the class. Something about universal brotherhood and tolerance. I’m not sure his interlocutor believed him but it was a nice gesture nonetheless.
What Shakespeare intended when he wrote this play is, yet again, beyond my grasp. What was clear however, was the intention of Syria’s Ministry of Education: nothing less than indoctrinating the students against Israel in particular and Jews in general. Least anyone has a doubt about it, not long ago Syria’s Minister of Defense authored a ridiculous book about the Affair of Damascus in 1840. Sadly, there is no shortage of gullible consumers of this trash.
As far as I’m concerned, the strongest and best part of the entire play was the piece I just quoted above. Something inside me did not accept Shylock as the Villain Shakespeare possibly intended him to be, the infamous “pound of flesh” not withstanding. I felt his anger against Antonio understandable and justified. I also felt that the punishment he was to endure at the conclusion of the play, tendentious, unwarranted, and vindictive. There clearly were two different standards for justice, one for Christians and another for Jews (likely for all “others”).
But the title I chose to this essay was not about a Jew, it was about an Arab. Actually you can insert whatever denomination you want, and it would still be valid, provided we are talking about either a minority member or an underdog. What applies to a Jew would, mutatis mutandis, apply to an Arab. You can’t legitimately complain about the mistreatment of Arabs and Muslims (terms often confused in the West) in America and Europe when you tolerate the abuse of minorities at your own home court. Stereotyping Jews is the mirror image of stereotyping Arabs, whence came my choice for this title.
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