Dutch-Jewish poet masks Israeli roots to win Arab prize

One name sticks out from the list of winners in the prestigious El Hizjra poetry competition intended for Dutch Arabs, which was announced two weeks ago - Tuvit Shlomi, press officer for Holland's largest Zionist group.

For this reason, Shlomi - who works for the Center for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI) - submitted her two winning poems written in Dutch under an Arab pseudonym. "I did it to ensure my work is judged on content, not background," she says, in reference to the often-tense relations between local Jews and Dutch Arabs.

Although the competition is intended for Arabs, it is open to anyone. Past winners include renowned Dutch authors such as Abdelkader Benali, Mohammed Benzakour, and Rashid Novaire. Shlomi and six other winners received the award last Sunday in Amsterdam. She informed the panel of her true identity ahead of time.

The winning poems by Shlomi deal with immigrant identity and search of roots in Holland. She is the daughter of a Jewish-Dutch mother and an Israeli father who immigrated to Holland. Her parents met in Israel after her mother immigrated here. The couple then moved to Holland to study and ended up staying.

"Winning the competition is an opportunity for me to show that I'm rooted in the Middle East just as much as the other applicants. That Israel is for me what Morocco is for them," said Shlomi, who had lived in Israel for a year, frequently visits the country and speaks fluent Hebrew.

One of her poems, "A house of language," begins with the words: "I hate the Netherlands. Take only the language, which is so barren." But near the end of that poem she writes about that same language: "I have made a house of language, where I can live."

Shlomi, whose poetry has received several other awards in the past, says that the fact that her works were selected out of dozens of entries shows how much the immigrant community shares with the substantial Israeli community in Holland, and with the Jewish population as well.

The pseudonym which Shlomi selected was Wallada bint al-Mustaqfi, an opinionated 11th century Arab-Andalucian poetess and proto-feminist who spurned the hijab, kept multiple lovers and embroidered fragments of her poetry onto her clothes. "Her message is something well-worth remembering, especially today," Shlomi said.