The movement that dare not speak its name in Israel Vocal opposition to the war in Gaza can be hard to express in Israel, where campaigner Gideon Levy says people leave their liberalism at the 1967 border Giles Fraser in Tel Aviv ....Later I go for a drink at a friends flat in Tel Aviv with a group of broadly leftwing activists in their late 20s and early 30s, NGO types that I was expecting would share my exasperation. And I make a mistake, assuming too much common ground. I ask whether their fear of rockets is properly calibrated to reality, given that people are so much more likely to die in a car accident in Israel than at the hands of Hamas. And there is an awkward reaction. The question was insensitive. They have loved ones in uniform in Gaza. And I really do understand that. But suddenly I feel like an outsider. I havent appreciated that this threat is existential, they say. People leave their liberalism at the green line [the 1967 border], Levy had warned me earlier. The young people are the worst. More ignorant. More brainwashed. They have never met a Palestinian in their lives. That is emphatically not true of this group. But even here, the mood for social justice does not seem to connect poverty in Israel with the vast financial cost of occupation, let alone allow empathy with the Palestinian predicament. If Im not with them, Im against them. I am made to feel a little like an apologist for Hamas. A thought dawns in my head: perhaps I too ought to shut up and keep the evening sweet. Of all the things seen on my trip, this was the most depressing conversation of them all. theguardian/world/2014/aug/06/gaza-israel-movement-that-dare-not-speak-its-name Lets hope the ceasefire lasts until a peaceful outcome is negotiated at tables - not by warfare David Forde
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 00:23:49 +0000