I was 8 years old when Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated. I couldnt even begin to understand what it mean in that age. Politics and death are such vague concepts to an eight year old. I just remember the year after, when my teacher taught us about tolerance, and listening to others. I remember 8 years after, in what we call in Israel Civil Classes (which are actually politics classes), that we discussed what democracy means, and why brutal actions such as a murder of a leader are brutal acts for democracy. It changes is forever. For those of you who are sceptic about my education, thinking it was not leaning towards one side of the map or another, my politics teacher in High school was right wing (yet he never show it), and he knew how low and awful this act of taking someone elses life is. You dont need to be left or right to know how bad this act is, only crazy. Looking back on those 19 years, actually, looking back only 3 months ago, when this horrible war in Gaza was happening, I think that we as an Israeli society, learned a lot, yet learned nothing. We have more pain, more frustration, more violence (yet different than what it used to be). We should not stop remembering what does it mean to be a democracy, what is freedom of speech, what is the right to dream and to fulfil that dream, what is the right of every human to live. So for one day only, instead of crying that democracy has ended that day, let celebrate democracy. Remind ourself that we can build a better future. This is my way to remember, to be optimistic, or at least to try. (oh, and do play the video...)
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 11:23:47 +0000
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