The Ma‘abarah (The Immigrant Transit Camp)

Shimon Ballas

1964

Sensitive Content

This entry portrays racism and xenophobia encountered by Mizrahi Jews in Israel. The text provides insight into history; however, The Posen Library does not condone or promote oppression of any kind.

Pounding, heavy feet climbed the muddy path up the hill that looked out over wild bushes. The walkers’ steps sank in the earth next to each other and on top of each other on the path upward, in the form of a broken arc, up to the entrance to a wooden shed, which stood, wrapped in the last light of day. [ . . . ] When they reached the entrance of…

Please login or register for free access to Posen Library
Register
Already have an account?
Engage with this Source

Creator Bio

Shimon Ballas

1930–2019
Shimon Ballas—author, translator, and editor—was born in Baghdad and immigrated to Israel in 1951 at the age of twenty-one, later earning a doctoral degree from the Sorbonne in Paris. Ballas wrote articles and criticism in Arabic and taught Arabic literature at Haifa University. He published several works of prose and nonfiction and served as editor of the journal Al Karmel. His first Hebrew novel, Ha-Ma‘abarah (The Transit Camp, 1964), is one of the first accounts of the harsh realities and struggles faced by immigrants settling in Israel in the 1950s. Ballas was awarded the President’s Prize in 2006.

You may also like

Outcast

I sit by the desk. Four hours of sleep is enough. The rain beats strongly on the neighboring garage’s tin rooftop. The roar of a bus rises from afar. Early rising workers head for the morning shift…
View Source

Silence, and a Starry Night

Silence, and a starry night Frost crackling, fine as sand. Remember how I taught you To hold a gun in your hand? In fur jacket and beret, Clutching a hand grenade, A girl whose skin is velvet Ambus…
View Source