This is small overlooked story related to the diplomatic storm of last week. FM Jimenez' approach signaled an important tempering of the implicit and explicit demonization of Israel let loose by the Palestinian bid for statehood at the UN. She signals the explosive nature of the right of return of Palestinian refugees for the viability of a democratic and Jewish Israel, while empathizing with the plight of Palestinians and arguing for their acceptance into the UN. She then links this approach back to her country's long, intertwined relationship both with Judaism and islam:
“Spain’s identity cannot be understood without her Arab and Jewish heritage,”
The trope of convivencia-- or at least the allusion to the semitic past in Spain plays out in inumerable ways in Iberian culture and this recent instance points to its political utility.
It evokes a time of multi-cultural interaction as well as the enduring impact of the past on the present. Somehow because of its semitic past, and the ways that past became incorporated into the Spanish soul- into its culture, language and geo-political history, the Spanish can offer soemthing unique to this political conflict between Jews and Arabs.
Often when medieval Spain is brought into a contemporary political or cultural discussion the violence and hate that came along with the intimacy and interaction of mevieval convivencia is generally elided. I am not sure if it is willfully overlooked or simply not accounted for, or the trafficker in these "uses of history" is unable to square their rhetorical goal with the record as they know it- or they simply do not know the record. That said, I think that the convivencia imples and reflects conflict as much as it implies harmony-- it is living with- not living with in harmony and peace.these tensions, the sharp and jagged divisions of difference, along with the proximity to the other account for much of what was rich and enlightening about medieval Spanish culture. I am not saying that FM Jimenez engaged in this sort of whitewashing here, however I believe that by appreciating the underbelly of convivencia we can actually argue more strongly for its relevance to our fractured and combustible world.
