Published: 2 January 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Admired for being one of the country's best writers and a Hebrew prose innovator, he is also disparaged for purportedly being the embodiment of an anachronistic, detached and dwindling Ashkenazi (European Jewish) elite.
His opposition to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and early support for a two-state peace compromise with the Palestinians defined him as a reproachful visionary of the Zionist left. But to elements of the hard right that has come to shape the country Oz was a "traitor".
Among the many people stunned and bereaved by Oz's death was Abbass Abbass, director of al-Manarah, the Nazareth-based Association for Arab Persons with Disabilities in Israel.
Over the course of the last decade Abbass, a vivacious lawyer and activist suffering from a worsening congenital eye disease that will deprive him of the little remaining vision he has, had found in the distinguished writer a mentor, supporter and friend.
"I started to cry," Abbass said of the moment last Friday when he heard the bitter tidings. "I said 'I can't express my feeling. I'm so shocked.'"
During an interview with The Jewish Independent on Monday, Abbass recounted aspects of the two men's remarkable friendship and told of how the humanistic writer embraced the efforts of al-Manarah (Arabic for lighthouse) to make literature available to visually impaired people across the Arab world and to advocate on behalf of disabled Arabs in Israel.
"His support was priceless," Abbass said, adding that it enhanced al-Manarah's prestige and helped it to gain more funding from Israel's ministry of culture and foreign donors.
The organisation offers the world's only online library of audio books in the Arabic language. With its slogan, "close your eyes and read" the library, which also has a limited number of offerings in Hebrew, has many tens of thousands of readers located in Israel, Libya, Egypt, Gaza, Saudi Arabia and the US among other places.
In 2016, al-Manarah translated Oz's Hebrew short story collection 'Between Friends' into an Arabic book and recorded it. Oz, keen to cross the cultural divide and reach Arab readers, had bestowed upon al-Manarah the translation rights.
The publication was a fitting act in a relationship that began ten years ago when Abbass introduced himself to Oz at a rotary club event in Nazareth. Oz was impressed by written material Abbass handed him about entrepreneurship and a few weeks later called to compliment him on it
Soon the two held a long meeting in Tel Aviv, during which Abbass told Oz about his searing struggles with disability and about al-Manarah's work. Like blind people across the Arab world, Abbass had been a victim of stigmatisation for his visual impairment. But he overcame it with intelligence, willpower and optimism. "I told him that I have a dream to write a book and he encouraged me. He said that 'to be a real writer you need to have an injury in life. You also have the injury so you can be a good writer'."
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Many of Abbass's conversations with Oz as their friendship deepened and persisted right up until Oz's final months revolved around relations between Arabs and Jews, Abbass recalled. He said the translation of 'Between Friends' was important to both of them "because we agreed together that one of the issues behind the differences is that we don't know each other. "
"I told him we have to create real meetings between Arabs and Jews, to know each other more, to know the culture of the other."Abbass said. In September 2015, Oz visited al-Manarah to lecture about his book Judas, meeting beforehand with a group of Arab writers. "He was very open-minded and said it was a big mistake that the Israeli state doesn't invest more in relations between Jews and Arabs." Abbass said.
Fanaticism was another topic discussed frequently between Abbass and Oz. "He said it is most harmful in bringing Arabs and Jews together that there are fanatics on both sides and that we must argue with them and change their minds."
In 2015, al-Manarah awarded Oz a certificate saying he was "cherished" by the organisation. The affinity was mutual. In a promotional video that Oz made for al-Manarah he called its library "one of the most fascinating projects not only in the Galilee, in Israel, and in the Middle East but perhaps in the world."
The library, he asserted, was making an important contribution to literature. "It is meant to build cultural, literary and emotional bridges not only between Jews and Arabs but also between those who can read fluently a printed book and those who need a different access."
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In 2017, Oz termed as "sacred" the work of al-Manarah in remarks to the Jerusalem Post. Of Abbass, he said: "I consider him a friend and esteem him. He's an idealist, very dedicated, a lover of peace and a lover of culture."
Asked why Oz became so attached to al-Manarah, Abbass replied: "I think there was a personal aspect. He and I became friends, we had chemistry. For me it is not only an issue that I respected him. I perceived him like a guru or a mentor. I really loved him."
Abbass said his feelings towards Oz were influenced by his autobiographical novel, A Tale of Love and Darkness. "I really appreciated his story of how he lost his mother" to suicide when he was twelve, Abbass said.
"I felt a compassion and empathy with his unique story. We had similar issues because I also had suffering in my life because of my disability," Abbass said.
"He was very generous" Abbass said of Oz. "It's something not easily understood how a person from Nazareth, an Arab could just start speaking to him. But he didn't put any barrier between us and we were speaking at the same level despite my being very young in comparison to him and his being famous. He was very, very humble and modest."
Photo: Amos Oz with Al-Manarah director Abbass Abbass (Al-Manarah)
