Born in 1948 in post-war Munich to concentration camp survivors, Savyon Liebrecht was always haunted by her parent’s ‘conspiracy of silence’ whereby they never talked about their experience in the camps, even after they emigrated to Israel when she was three. The result: her entire oeuvre is informed by the Holocaust. At the invitation of the Embassy of Israel to attend the first ever conference on Holocaust literature in India at Mysore University, and later the Kovalam Literary Festival, the award-winning author talks to Deputy Copy Editor Bodhisattwa Maity about her work, and many things else.
Describe your literary journey so far.
I first realised I wanted to write during my mandatory stint with the Israeli Army between the ages of 16 and 18. I spent half the time in a kibbutz, teaching kids and telling them stories. Thus, after conscription, I left for London to pursue a course in playwriting. However, upon my return to Israel, I got married, had kids, and settled into family life. It was only at the age of 33, that I again got time to sit down and write. My first few stories, published in newspapers and literary magazines, prompted a publisher to approach me to write a book of short stories. When it eventually got published in 1986, Apples from the Desert immediately won the Alterman Prize in 1987, and my literary career took off.
Your literary idols?
Perhaps Nadine Gordimer and Doris Lessing, both of whom are women and were born and brought up in Africa.
How do the badges of ‘feminist’ and ‘leftist’ sit on you?
In Israel, I am known as a leftist. Recently, I was in the news there along with others, for having written a letter in support of Abu Mazen (Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas), for his UN resolution. As for being a feminist, if writing about women makes me one, so be it. I’d like to point out that many characters in my stories are men, and I’ve never shied from violence.
Do you think men and women write differently?
No. In fact, I feel male writers are in touch with their feminine side, while women exercise the masculine side of their psyche while writing.
There is however, a political and ideological difference between the psyches of men and women, but not in writers.
Why and how does the Holocaust inform your writing?
Although I grew up in Israel, the silence of my parents regarding their experience never left me. Even when I’m not writing about the Holocaust, there is always a fingerprint of it left somewhere. Maybe a character who was born to survivors.
Your stories are populated by many Arab characters. Why and how?
I’ve grown up amongst Arabs and Jews, and after a point in time, realised that from being external to me, they had become internal. Besides, as neighbours, how could I not write about them?
So what’s your position on the Israel-Palestine conflict?
Like a majority of my Jewish countrymen, I hope for a two-state solution to this conflict that can lead to lasting peace. Unfortunately, I don’t have much hope on Bibi Netanyahu on the Israeli side, though Abu Mazen on the Palestinian side is much better than his predecessors.
Why not a democratic, one-state solution? After all, two states will divide Palestine into Gaza and West Bank.
There already are 20 per cent Arabs living in Israel as citizens. A single state will be the end of the Jewish state, because Arabs will overrun the population. So I prefer two states, without the right to return for Arab Palestinians displaced during the Naqba.
So right to return only for Jews?
Unfortunately, there are consequences of war that have to be borne by people. In this case, right to return for Arabs will threaten our survival. But really, I admit, I don’t have an answer to your question.