Maybe you have witnessed here lately some arguments I had with family members, mainly my brother Lior Naiweld, who decided to react rather aggressively to some of my posts with regard to the war between Israel and Hamas. Family issues are not supposed to be discussed in public, but since those we’re dealing with here were conducted on Facebook, I allow myself to talk about them openly. The question is why those who get irritated by my posts don’t use the “hide” option proposed by Facebook, and find it necessary to give me lessons and straighten me out. I think that when I give an alternative point of view it may look as if I pull the rug from under their feet and scorn what they experience as a basic existential truth. It is particularly unbearable since I’m a member of their family - I grew up in the same environment, with the same parents, went to the same synagogue, had more or less the same basic education... This is much more threatening and scary than in the case of a stranger, and that is why the spontaneous family intervention which you have witnessed these past weeks was organized. Its aim was to make my critique of Israel’s policy meaningless, to try to mute it after it was pronounced and to encourage me to stop questioning openly what is held to be the worldview of the average Israeli. Cousins, uncles and aunts with whom I haven’t spoken in ages resurface now on my Facebook page in order to fight the dangerous threats posed by my posts. As for the problems with my family members - I will take care of it personally. The reason for which I am writing all this here, is to indicate how radical the shrinkage of the public discourse in Israeli culture has become. For many Israelis today, the order to think inside the consensus, that is to spontaneously agree with the official Israel/Zionist narrative of the conflict, has become so strong, that it is considered as superior to all other types of social orders. In other words, the ordinary solidarity relations that compose society – amicable, professional and even familial, have to exist inside the common worldview. The price of stepping out of the ever-narrowing consensus becomes less and less acceptable: renouncing on the most basic social ties.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 10:13:11 +0000
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