# taz.de -- Avraham Burg on Israel s Left: The Land of Silence | |
> The political left of Israel collapsed. The fight against the occupation | |
> now wholly depends on the country's civil society. | |
Bild: Staff members of Breaking the Silence at work | |
The outburst between the German Foreign Minister and the Prime Minister of | |
Israel is a rare opportunity to peek into the bowels of Israeli politics | |
and the mechanics of the Israeli soul. Breaking the Silence and B'Tselem | |
are the true gatekeepers of the triad of democratic values, western | |
culture, and Jewish heritage. This triad has come under severe political | |
attacks for several years. Long before Brexit and Trump, before Len Pen, | |
AFD, and the remaining populists. | |
At our helm, for some time, has been Prime Minister Netanyahu, who built | |
his longstanding leadership on constant contrarianism, incitement, and a | |
culture of hatred. At times Palestinians, and sometimes Iranians, | |
Europeans, President Obama or Democrats – whomever they are and wherever | |
they may be. Recently, once all previous opponents were exhausted, he | |
returned to his favorite field – the Israeli Left. Sigmar Gabriel made no | |
mistake, and is guilty of nothing – he was simply hurled onto a roller | |
coaster unintended for him, and was injured on duty by Israel's fading | |
democracy. | |
The process of erosion of Israel, in transforming from a young and | |
admirable country to a state on the brink of leprosy, will celebrate its | |
fiftieth birthday next month. In order to preserve the Jewish monopoly on | |
privilege, we were compelled to become cruel and hard-hearted. Palestinian | |
suffering has been effectively silenced, trauma and the Holocaust have | |
become a national strategy to justify all, and endless efforts have been | |
made to muffle any murmur of an alternative, any revelation of truth. An | |
entire generation was raised this way, hardly informed and unaware of the | |
existence of an immense humane humanitarian crisis right across the street. | |
These organizations were established to expose the true reality of the | |
Israeli occupier and oppressor, which violates its own nation’s rights and | |
those of its neighbors, and bring it to an end. From the outset they did | |
not intend to serve as the political opposition, they were human rights | |
organizations that wished to inform the average Israeli of what was being | |
concealed by leading representatives. They wanted to urge Israel, at the | |
time, to act according to the values that it set for itself. Over the | |
years, the left-wing Israeli political system collapsed. Prime Minister | |
Rabin was assassinated, the Oslo accords failed, the streets grew | |
increasingly right-wing and our politicians panicked. Political parties | |
weakened, ideas expired, and the occupation was orphaned. Civil society | |
organizations were sucked into this vacuum, and left to fend for themselves | |
at the forefront of the struggle against the occupation. | |
## No ethical occupation | |
What happened to the Israeli political Left? Maybe it never was… in Israel, | |
the sole distinction between Left and Right lies in one matter alone: a | |
political settlement with the Palestinians. This dissonance lies in | |
inherent discrimination, which completely eroded principles of equality | |
among all citizens, enabling imperviousness to oppression of freedoms and | |
rights of the other nation, the Palestinian nation. | |
Israel is the sole democracy in the Western world that completely controls | |
the lives of another nation, against its will. This control is terrible for | |
the occupied and corrupted the occupier. In spite of our historical | |
experience, we refuse to internalize that there is no ethical occupation, | |
there can be no moral discrimination, and kosher oppression has not yet | |
come into being. In many senses, the Israeli consciousness is that of a | |
battered child who became a violent parent. Everything that has been done | |
to us throughout our long history, has not served as a preventative barrier | |
for evil, but rather a mode of justification to authorize the condemnable | |
and unacceptable. | |
When my son, who served as a combat soldier in Hebron, told me that he is | |
one of Breaking the Silence's testifiers, I hugged him tight and kissed his | |
sad and teary eyes. Why? I asked him quietly, „Because it's not right, | |
because Hebron is evil and the occupation is terrible.“ He answered. | |
Through his words, he told me something much greater than the both of us | |
together. These wonderful organizations are my Israel and my pride. They | |
are the patriots of humane Israel, who strive for truth and do not flee in | |
the face of it. They are committed to ending the occupation and providing | |
great hope for both nations and all our children. For all of that and more: | |
Thank you Breaking the Silence and B'Tselem, and thank you Sigmar Gabriel | |
for your firm moral spine, which embodies a more just lesson from our | |
shared tragic history. | |
*Avraham Burg is a former speaker of the Knesset and chairman of the World | |
Zionist Agency. | |
8 May 2017 | |
## AUTOREN | |
Avraham Burg | |
## TAGS | |
Israel | |
Schwerpunkt Nahost-Konflikt | |
taz international | |
Schwerpunkt Nahost-Konflikt | |
Israel | |
Benjamin Netanjahu | |
Israel | |
## ARTIKEL ZUM THEMA | |
Nach Eklat bei Israel-Besuch: Gabriel kritisiert Netanjahu | |
Der deutsche Außenminister verteidigt Treffen mit regierungskritischen | |
Gruppen. Israelische Intellektuelle danken Gabriel in einem Brief. | |
Druck auf Opposition in Israel: Kulturministerin mit rechter Mission | |
In Israel geraten oppositionelle Künstler, Organisationen wie Breaking the | |
Silence und andere kritische Stimmen immer mehr in Bedrängnis. | |
Kolumne German Angst: Die vielen Opfer des Holocausts | |
Benjamin Netanjahu hat Sigmar Gabriel nicht empfangen. Das kann der | |
deutsche Außenminister so nicht auf sich sitzen lassen. | |
Kommentar Gabriels Besuch in Israel: Das Ende der Leisetreterei | |
Zu lange hat sich Deutschland – bei aller Verantwortung für das Wohlergehen | |
Israels – gegenüber Netanjahu zurückgehalten. |