Subscribe to Print Edition | Fri., April 18, 2008 Nisan 13, 5768 | | Israel Time: 06:27 (EST+7) web haaretz.com   Back to Homepage Rosner's Domain Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Advertising Books Arts & Leisure Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File

Last update - 23:15 15/04/2008 Right-wing? I call it Zionist By Lily Galili Tags: Israel, David Rabkin We met in order to find out whether an immigrant photographer sees Israel differently from a veteran photographer - its landscapes, its people, the light and the color of the new country. The question is valid, as many of the hundreds of photographs that David Rabkin displays on his Internet site are devoted to this country. However, within a minute, the conversation veered toward politics. In retrospect, this turn was predictable. The first hint could have been found in the very fact that under the heading "Israel," a gallery of photos of cities and places on his English-language website, equal star billing is given to Hebron and Tel Aviv, the Tomb of the Patriarchs and the Herzliya marina. "It really is the same thing," he asserts. "Ben-Gurion thought so, too." Rabkin, 32, in fact did not always think so. Truth to tell, he hadn't thought about this at all before he immigrated to Israel from Moscow, nine years ago. The son of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother, he could barely find Israel on a map. This deficiency has been rectified in an impressive way: Today there isn't an outpost in the territories with which Rabkin is not acquainted or that he hasn't documented in his photography. Ma'aleh Rehavam [in Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem] is, after all, exactly like Rosh Ha'ayin, where he lives, only nobody bothered to document it until now. Rabkin has taken this role upon himself. This mission is new, relatively. The computer programmer's involvement in photography was born out of the disengagement and the struggle to have it cancelled. Rabkin was a part of that struggle. "I started at Orange events," he says, referring to the color that the opponents to the 2005 Gaza withdrawal chose as their emblem. "I am not a photographer who stands off to one side. I don't have it in me to photograph the Oranges today and Peace Now tomorrow. To tell the truth, I don't even want to photograph Peace Now. It doesn't interest me. I am a part of a social group, only with a camera. Thanks to that, I have access to places that other people don't get to. Advertisement 'We don't have horns' "The settlers don't like photographers. Even I have to explain who I am and where I come from, and I still don't belong," adds Rabkin, without resentment. "They too have to learn, that there are Russians who may not observe the Sabbath, but they don't have horns, including those who aren't Jewish in terms of genetics. At one time I thought about converting, but today I don't feel any need. Judaism is not genetics, but rather a definition of a shared fate and goals." Rabkin's goals are identical to those of Moshe Feiglin, the leader of the right-wing Jewish Leadership Movement, now a part of the Likud, with which Rabkin identifies. Feiglin's book was Rabkin's entry ticket into Israeliness and since then he has been there. However, Feiglin's Jewish Leadership is just one circle of belonging. There is also the Ma'of group of Russian-speaking intellectuals from the radical right; there is a group of bloggers that numbers among its members Larissa Trimbobler, Yigal Amir's wife and the mother of his child; there is the Jabotinsky Circle, whose activist members meet monthly at Metzudat Ze'ev (Likud party headquarters, in Tel Aviv). There is also the Altalena group, which is made up of recently arrived Russians and surviving veterans of the Altalena, the Irgun arms ship that was blown up by the newly established Israel Defense Forces in June 1948. Every Memorial Day, the group heads out to sea and floats a wreath. And there is the broader, not necessarily Russian, Orange circle. This multiplicity of circles puts Rabkin, who is not a professional photographer, in a very special place on the map: He documents the "alternative" current events, about which there are those who no doubt fear, and others who hope, it will one day become Israel's true history. Thus, on his Web site one can find a photo of the memorial to Yitzhak Rabin that stands at the site of his assassination, next to Tel Aviv City Hall, and below it the answer that Rabkin wrote to a respondent: "Official sources say that the prime minister was assassinated at Malkhei Yisrael Square; I think that he was murdered in his vehicle, on the way to Ichilov Hospital." One can find a lot of Hebron there, and beneath the photographs an argument with a respondent in which Rabkin asserts that the Muslims in the town want to steal its identity by murdering Jews. There is also a photograph of the Metzudat Ze'ev building taken from an angle that makes it appear to be a hybrid that evokes the power of the World Trade Center and the majesty of the Western Wall. With respect to recent current events, he has already uploaded to the site pictures from the Jewish Leadership rally in memory of the victims of the murder last month at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, which was also a celebration in honor of one of the two men - also a Likud member of the - who killed the terrorist. All of this complexity of the issue of identity was displayed at an exhibition about a year ago entitled "Nashi," which means "Ours." Most of the subjects of his photographs are Russians, some of them are Oranges, and there is also a Druze fellow whose photograph is adorned with the caption "Likudnik." The common denominator is clearly rightist identity. "Let's replace 'right-wing' with 'Zionist,'" proposes Rabkin. "I am not even interested in photographing the left. I don't understand people who occupied the territories in the war and afterwards are serving the aims of the enemy they had fought against. However, we have no intention of changing the country. First I want to improve myself. Only afterwards, maybe the state as well." Bookmark to del.icio.us   A gentleman's word Olmert tells Haaretz he knows Iran won't have nuclear capacity. Farewell to arms B'Tselem says IDF must ban wide-range shell that killed civilians in Gaza.   1.   keep up the good work!! 23:48  |  Jewish State 15/04/08   2.   NonJew`s support of Jewish Leadership 11:05  |  Gil J. Yashar 16/04/08   3.   what an idiot! 17:25  |  zeev 16/04/08   4.   Well done! 22:32  |  Igal 16/04/08   5.   To Zeev 10:33  |  Amir 17/04/08   6.   to Amir #5 - a question 15:04  |  zeev 17/04/08   7.   To Zeev #6 16:07  |  Amir 17/04/08   8.   to Amir #7 22:04  |  zeev 17/04/08   9.   To Zeev 00:47  |  Victor 18/04/08

Read & React Report: Assad says Syria preparing for possible war with Israel Responses: 135 Zahar: Gazans can do 'no less' than rise up like Warsaw Ghetto Jews Responses: 154 Elite IDF troops kill Gaza militant, foiling infiltration Responses: 172 Shmuel Rosner: The only goal of Carter's work is to undermine Israel Responses: 215 More Headlines 05:33 Yishai to Carter: Tell Meshal that I want to discuss prisoner swap 02:54 Rice: Syria 'most certainly an issue in nuclear proliferation' 01:18 State Comptroller to summon PM to testify in Pollard inquiry 01:43 Newsweek pubishes annual '50 most influential U.S. rabbis' list 05:32 Mayor to raise funds for E. J'lem Arabs to block Hamas 01:52 IDF troops do nothing as Hebron settlers threaten German MPs 05:37 Relatives and friends refuse to come for seder 05:39 Mother in 'cult abuse' case ordered held until end of trial 18:07 Zahar: Gazans can do 'no less' than rise up like Warsaw Ghetto Jews 20:48 Deputy FM Whbee: Israel racially discriminates against its citizens 18:03 Clinton vows 'massive' U.S. retaliation if Iran attacks Israel Previous Editions Select Day 17 apr 16 apr 15 apr 14 apr 13 apr 11 apr 10 apr 09 apr 08 apr 07 apr 06 apr 04 apr

Special Offers Advertisement Learn Hebrew online with Israel's best teachers Sign up for a trial lesson today Pardes Institute Summer Sessions Study Jewish texts and issues in Jerusalem, Co-ed, All Levels Free the Palestinians from: Corrupt Kleptocracy, Tyrannical Theocracy, Abysmal Anarchy Fattal Hotel Chain Perfectly located hotels on best resorts of Israel. ISRAEL BONDS Build Israel Israel bonds - a multi-purpose way to celebrate Israel's 60th Eldan Rent a Car Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on all online reservations Junkyard Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt

Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Underground | Site rules |

Real Estate in Israel

Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.

© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved