As we celebrate Sukkot, we spite UNESCO

1.

Mixing current affairs and the celebration of a holiday is as problematic as it is common. But the temptation is hard to resist: on the one hand, the Jewish State that is battling a decision by UNESCO that ignores the ties of Jews to Temple Mount and the Kotel – on the other hand, the celebration of Sukkot, the time in which Jews are reminded that everything is ephemeral. So while we insist on the Jews' ancient and eternal ties to the holy sites in Jerusalem, we move to the Sukkah, a symbol of our provisional state of existence.

Of course, things are never that simple: The Sukkah is temporary, but it is built to remind us “that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 23, 43). So the temporary is also a reminder of the eternal Jewish recall of the exodus. The Sukkah, as short lived as it is every year, reminds us of an event and a journey even more ancient than the Jewish connection to Jerusalem.

2.

There is no point in dwelling for too long on the decision by UNESCO. It was ridiculous by design, as even UNESCO officials have admitted. It was an attempt to annoy Israel and to deny its legitimacy. And to some degree it was a success: Israel was indeed annoyed. But as for denying its legitimacy, the decision ignores one most important feature of Jewish culture: the Jews are a people with a long memory. In fact, my new book about the Jews, which just came out in Israel (in Hebrew – we are still working on the English version), begins with the following statement: “This is a very short book about a very ancient people – a short book about an ancient people who have been blessed with a long memory.”

So counting on a decision by UNESCO to erode the connection of Jews to Jerusalem would be foolish. Our memories are better than UNESCO’s. Our memories are so good that they remember even a temporary Sukkah in the desert thousands of years ago.

3.

For most Jews – at least I hope it is most Jews, and know for sure it is most Israeli Jews – the ridiculousness of the decision by UNESCO is not something to argue about. Politics is politics, so we don’t all agree on what needs to be done in Jerusalem and with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the UNESCO decision transcends politics: it is an attempt to deny the Jews their historical claim, an attempt to portray the Jews as a foreign invader and a colonialist offense. Thus, most (Israeli) Jews did not try to score political points utilizing the UNESCO decision. They all condemned the decision, and found it preposterous.

Yet some find it hard to resist the temptation to use even this kind decision to make a political point. These people had two main arguments – that is, two main ways in which they were trying to prove that UNESCO’s ridiculousness is Israel’s fault.

A. They said that the passing of the decision is a diplomatic failure of the Netanyahu government. Had it been a better government, a peace-seeking government, such a decision would not have been on the table. “It is the Netanyahu’s monumental failure on the international front,” said former Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Maybe so, but it is hard to forget than when Barak was Prime Minister and went to Camp David, he found Yasser Arafat as resistant as the current Palestinian leadership to acknowledge the ties of the Jewish people to Temple Mount.

B. They say that the decision is not as bad as Israel says it is and that decisions like these are inevitable as long as Israel is an occupier. Nir Hasson made that argument in Haaretz with reasonable moderateness: “Ultimately, the UNESCO motion isn't unusual in the face of the international dialogue on Jerusalem and the holy sites. Even if most Israelis and the government refuse to accept it, Jerusalem's Old City and its holy sites, just like Hebron and Nablus, are considered to be occupied territory by international law, all international organizations and each member of the UN.” A simple answer to this argument: even UNESCO officials agree that the decision is one sided and helps to prevent UNESCO “from carrying out our mission,” as the director-general of UNESCO said.

4.

Two years ago, I mixed current affairs and the holiday of Sukkot in a similar fashion. The occasion back then was much different – less tense, more amused: Israel at the time was engaged in a debate about the decision of some young Israelis to immigrate to live in Berlin, of all places. And the connection to Sukkot was natural.

Sukkot, I wrote back then, is the Holiday that makes Israelis confront their greatest fear. It is the Holiday that forces them to encounter the transient way of living – to be a Jew with no permanent residence. Many commentaries on the meaning of the sukkah compare it to Egypt's pyramids. As the people of Israel were leaving Egypt, they also had to shed away Egyptian symbols. The pyramids are stone, the Sukkah, built in the desert, during the long journey to the promised land, is all wood and fabric. The pyramids are forever, the Sukkah is temporary and is dismantled and carried to the next destination. 

Sukkot – I wrote – conjures Israel's fear of the temporary. It forces Israelis to not escape from it – and even to celebrate it. How fitting it is this year. How fitting it is that even as UNESCO denies our connection to the stones of the Western Wall we the Jews move into our temporary home in the Sukkah. How fitting it is that even as UNESCO tries to erase our ties to the eternal Jewish Jerusalem we dwell in a house made of fabric and branches. They spite us – we spite them right back. They say: this is not your home. We say: we have such confidence that this is our home that we are not afraid to spend a whole week in a makeshift home.