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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Author's View from the Hilltop

On Thursday, Oct. 9 at the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, Asaaf Gavron, an Israeli author, came to speak about his recently published book The Hilltop. Considered one of the most accomplished young Israeli authors of our time, Asaaf Gavron aims to capture all aspects of Israeli experiences.

Winner of the prestigious Bernstein Prize, and described as “The Great Israeli Novel” by Time Out Tel Aviv, The Hilltop focuses on a fictional settlement, Maale Chermesh C, in the West Bank in order to reveal the real-life controversies and complexities that come with living in Israel.

From Gavron’s perspective, the reader learns that hilltop settlements are full of contradictions. While the Israeli government claims that such settlements do not exist, the military firmly believe that such settlements must be defended. In addition, such hilltop outposts are home to both religious, right-wingers and socialists who simply want to live minimally off the land. Illegal yet still practiced, hilltop settlements are, according to Gavron, a “volatile and political issue” that cannot be ignored.

The director of the program in Modern Hebrew, the Program in International and Global Studies, the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs and Professor of Geography Tamar Mayer adds perspective to the dichotomies Gavron highlights.

“These settlement are born not always because of politics and ideology but they survive and flourish because of them,” she said.

In addition, Gavron explores how his fictional settlement is an extension of a traditional kibbutz. Built on socialist and Zionist ideals, a kibbutz is a collective community firmly based in agriculture. Gavron argues, that modern day hilltop settlements are the new frontier of Israel in that they reject the country’s transition to an industrial, privatized economy and instead yearn for the country’s socialist, manual labor roots.

Gavron spent five years researching for this book. In addition to traditional research in the library, Gavron went to various settlements in the West Bank every week for two years. When asked about his extensive research methods, Gavron stressed his belief that “a writer needs to have authority in order to be believable.”

With the mindset of “trying not to judge, but just ask why,” he wanted to add an unbiased perspective to the international conversation about the existence of hilltop settlements in Israel.

In response to Gavron’s research approach, Mayer said, “He is in the unique position to share and illuminate what life on the Hilltop is about.”

Mayer also applauds Gavron’s ability to depict the diverse community that exist in hilltop settlements.

“Gavron populates Maale Chermesh C with characters that well-represent Jewish hilltop settlers in the West Bank,” she said. “He brilliantly weaves their interactions with their Palestinian neighbors, the media, politicians, one another, and with both the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and civil administration — two arms of Israeli government that are charged, on the one hand with evicting the illegal Jewish settlers and, on the other, with supporting their presence on the hill.”

“I wanted to break stereotypes and find the motives behind people’s behavior,” Gavron said.  “I wanted the novel to show the reality, and let readers decide.”

Although the novel has received significant praise from the international community, Israelis have voiced mixed reviews. While leftists accuse the author of wrongfully legitimizing such settlements by bringing it to the spotlight, rightists feel Gavron’s depiction of the characters within the settlement are too stereotypical.

Gavron remains indifferent to the variety of reactions his book has received.

“People warned me not to go near this topic because it’s too sensitive an issue, but I like taking those risks,” Gavron said. “It’s important for me to not only understand these people and their interactions, but also to get it right. I’m ready to take the backlash for that.”

Jeremy Vandenberg ’17 commended the author for his effort to remain impartial.

“I really enjoyed his principle as an author of doing his best at looking at both sides of the issue and remaining unbiased,” he said. “I thought it was very scholarly, even though I haven’t actually read the book to see if it worked out.”

Satirical yet sincere, The Hilltop raises more questions than it provides answers. Through writing fiction based heavily on reality, Gavron refuses to tread lightly and instead embraces some of his country’s toughest, most unspeakable questions.

 


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