Enemy of the State: The Oxymoronic Existence of Being a Palestinian-Israeli in Emile Habiby’s The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist

Enemy of the State: The Oxymoronic Existence of Being a Palestinian-Israeli in Emile Habiby’s The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist

該如何描寫身為巴勒斯坦人但卻又是以色列公民如此矛盾荒謬的組合？處在以色列境內的巴勒斯坦人該與哪個國家結盟？「以巴人」又該對誰效忠？是巴勒斯坦族人？還是對以色列效忠，一個自始自終都認為自己是個猶太人的國度？哈畢比（Emile Habiby）的小說《薩依德的私秘人生：悲樂觀者》（The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist）正是描寫「以巴人」如此複雜糾葛關係。小說的主角薩依德是居住於以色列境內的巴勒斯坦人，徘徊在兩個互為仇敵的族群，薩依德的身份顯得游移破碎，離散不安，幾近「荒謬」本質。小說以一系列反比對照處在以色列境內的巴勒斯坦人：巴勒斯坦人／以色列人，兩個語雅德／兩個薩依德，生／死，表面屈服／私下反抗。哈畢比以「矛盾修辭」法呈現此一反比對照的精神分裂的「以巴人」身分。「以巴人」同時要面對來自宗主國──以色列政府的壓力與要求，對外又要面對巴勒斯坦國族主義的施壓，內外夾殺，足以使人瘋狂。本文以「文化精神分裂」所提出的存在現象解釋法，分析「以巴人」游移破碎的生命／身份難題。本文第一部份建構哈畢比如何以「逆喻」分析薩依德分裂的身份。第二部份探討哈畢比如何運用「文化精神分裂」描寫「以巴人」的心理社會層面。本文要探討，「以巴人」能否成為巴勒斯坦族群的一份子，同時又成為以色列公民？「以巴人」此一新的身份，是否可成為「以巴衝突」的救贖，是衝突之外的第三個選擇？亦或如此荒謬的產物──「以巴人」──終將是生命／身份的困境？

How to portray the paradoxical absurdity of being a Palestinian citizen of Israel? What is the country to which Palestinians inside Israel owe their allegiance? And to whom should Palestinian-Israelis give their loyalty? To the community of Palestinian people? Or to the state of Israel, a state which envisions itself as a Jewish state belonging to the Jewish people worldwide? Emile Habiby’s The Secret Life of Saeed:The Pessoptimist concerns itself with these complex and antagonistic questions regarding the Palestinian-Israeli identity in Israel. Habiby dramatizes the irreconcilable yet interdependent differences between Jewish Israelis and Palestinian- Israelis in the character of Saeed. The absurd situation of Palestinians living in Israel is situated in a series of binary oppositions: Palestinians/Israelis, two Yuaads/Two Saeeds, life/death, public submission/secret resistance. Habiby uses the concept of oxymoron to present the entanglement that characterizes the schizophrenic nature of such binaries. For Palestinian-Israelis to face contradictory pressures and demands internally from the Israeli government and externally from the Palestinian nationalism is enough to make one a schizophrenic. In The Pessoptimist, Habiby largely uses oxymoron to describe the sense of facing such an impasse on the part of the Palestinian citizens of Israel. In the paper, I will apply the existential- phenomenological interpretation of cultural schizophrenia to read the unresolved identity split of the Palestinian-Israelis. The first part of this article seeks to explore how the figure of oxymoron allows Habiby to describe a psychosocial phenomenon of Palestinian-Israeli identity. In the second part, I will argue that Saeed’s claim to have been saved by outer-space creatures evokes madness as a psychic reaction to Israel that treats its Palestinian citizens as enemy of the state. This article asks the following questions: Can Palestinian-Israelis be members of the Palestinian body, and be citizens of the state of Israel at the same time? Will they? Can they? How would they contribute, from their vantage point, to the destiny of the Palestinians and offer a peaceful third choice in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict?