One name sticks out from the list of winners in the prestigious El Hizjra poetry competition intended for Dutch Arabs, which was announced last week - 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 (She did it in order to CHEAT, that is what they do, CHEAT)
"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.
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. from haaretz
4 years ago