Avraham Burgs address at the Hadash conference (a follow-up to my previous post). Heres my translation of most of the address: “I think this is the first time in my life that I attend a political event on Shabbat. In Judaism there is a concept called saving lives – when there is great danger to life, it overrides the Sabbath. I feel, as many people feel, that we are at a moment of collective danger to life in Israel, and so I’ve come to the Hadash conference on Shabbat. “There is a feeling in this room – & in many more rooms, in the Jewish society & in the Arab society – that something isn’t working. […] The distortions of 1948 & the damages of 1967 can no longer explain anything. […] There are no threatening armies in neighboring countries, & the land in Israel’s hands does not justify – & has never justified – occupation of the territories. Even the Holocaust, the greatest disaster in the history of the Jewish people, has become a cynical tool in the hands of politicians, who use it to justify injustices. “Jewish Israel has concluded its ascent to the mountain-top, and has arrived at the plain. & what’s needed there is a normal society, & we don’t know how to be normal. If we become normal, it will be at an abnormal price – to give up the privileges given only to Jews. “We’re heading for elections that seem to be superfluous, but they’re more deeply meaningful than just electing the next parliament. We’re being offered a disease that is supposed to cure a disease, and there’s a political vacuum into which many bad diseases are bursting. “The main disease is the disease of nationalism. I’m not against the national feeling of any collective, if it’s based on principles of justice and equality. But a national feeling that stems from a patronizing attitude, from a sense of being the ‘chosen people’, of contempt for anyone who is other – that’s no longer national feeling, that’s nationalism, which is the mother of racism, & the sister of discrimination, & the terrible relative of violence. […] “Outside this room there is a society in crisis – of Jews, of Arabs, of people who are waiting for a different vision, […] This is the time to offer them a new way. ‘When the Labor party calls itself ‘the Zionist camp’, it is saying, in effect, ‘only no Arabs’. & when Meretz is silent when there is talk of ‘a coalition from Lieberman to Meretz’, they too fail in the test of equality. So if Hadash gives up its unique historical position, of true Arab-Jewish partnership, who will provide a roof to those who are seeking an alternative to all this evil? “This is the time not to be ashamed but to broaden [the ranks], not to withdraw but to contend. Outside, the new era is already knocking on the door. Friends, this is the time of Hadash.”
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 00:17:01 +0000