It is not easy to translate the Hebrew word davka. It means something like “despite it all” and “because of”, but with a sense of deliberate precision: I was at home all day, but the delivery man came davka during the half-hour when I was out.
It can connote an intent to irritate: my girlfriend knows we disagree about politics, but she always davka brings it up. In 2003 Ariel Sharon, a pugnacious former prime minister, cited a young American explaining the word to friends back home: “Davka means doing or thinking something both in spite of and because of a given situation.”
Curiously, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has chosen as his slogan for the April 9 election “Davka Netanyahu”.
In December, Israeli police recommended that Netanyahu be indicted for bribery and breach of trust. The Prime Minister says the charges are a witch hunt by lefty prosecutors and journalists.
Many supporters of his hawkish Likud party come from religious or working-class backgrounds, and many are Sephardic Jews, descended from immigrants from the Arab world, rather than Ashkenazi Jews, who trace their roots to Europe and are typically richer.
Netanyahu’s davka is an invitation to his supporters to stick a finger in the eye of the elite: vote for me not just despite the corruption charges, but because of them.
Read the article in The Weekend Australian (from The Times).