Regina Sabin We, They, and Us By now most of you have heard the news that there has been a confession in the murder of Muhammad Abu Khdeir. Interesting to note that while Muhammad is described as a Palestinian youth or a Jerusalem teen.. without reference to his religion, most reports describe the suspect as a Jewish extremist. Almost simultaneously, we have heard of the capture of a suspect in the murder case of Shelly Dadon. Also interesting to note, while Shelly is described as a young Jewish woman, her alleged murderer is described, neutrally, as an Arab taxi driver..no reference to his religion, place of origin, or designation of extremist. How many more compartmentalized designations will appear in the ensuing days to come? How much will our society avoid cognitive dissonance and the anxiety caused by conflicting values? How much spin will we as individuals, our respective governments, our media, produce to alleviate or fan the flames of our discord? Already I have heard an Israeli citizen ask, What have WE the people of Israel become? The non-spin answer, of course is that the Israeli people have not become anything other than what or who they were before these events. I have also heard a Palestinian citizens refrain which stated that if THEY, the Israeli government, had not created an atmosphere of hate after the death of three Israeli teens, there would not have been a murder of a Palestinian youth. But by the same token, was it not also the atmosphere of Palestinian hatred that contributed to the deaths of Gilad, Naftali, Eyel? I suspect there will be an abundance of WE and THEY comments, accusations, weighing of the scales, blame gaming in the days, weeks and months to come. But can we scale the great divide of We and They? Can the realization finally dawn that all that truly exists is an Us?
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 22:55:09 +0000
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