Maree Makom

Silence
Daylight was almost gone when the three began
the trip back from Tel Aviv to the refugee camp,
silent now, and in them still churning the warmth
of the first embrace and of the hand damp with
sweat; stirring also with the memory of the bitternauseating
taste of a baked fish in a rocking
boat-restaurant on the water of the small reeking
bay behind the walls of old Jaffa, and with the
residue of insult from the impatience of the visitors
who remained back there, in G.’s gallery, buried,
guilty, under the weight of the refugee camp’s
pictures that gazed at them in the dark room,
within the enchanted-pulsating, the lit city that is
receding again from a cherished here and now to
the foreign and my thical. M. sat in front and L. was
driving. M’s brother was quiet in the back seat,
recalling the stone shelves loaded with books in
the first Jewish apar tment he walked into without
construction-work clothes. When they reached
the road-block M. pulled out his glasses and put
them on, embarrassed, blinking at the soldier who
was inspecting the blue Peugeot with weary
indifference.
Recalled Location
The road leading from Tel Aviv to Deheishe, a
refugee camp near Bethlehem
G.’s gallery, a non-profit art center located in
the south of Tel Aviv
Recalled Time
1999. The opening screening night of a video
piece by L. and R. In the piece, dream-texts
written by R. are used as scripts for scenes
shot in Palestine/Israel. The project is made
under the auspices of G., the owner of the
gallery, and on its completion is screened
there nightly for a month.
Characters
M. - A Palestinian man living in Deheishe who
is aiding the two women in the making of their
piece, and who is present at the gallery’s
opening night
S. - M’s brother
L. - An Israeli videographer residing in Tel Aviv