The
time has come to admit that Israel is a sick society, with an illness
that demands treatment, President Reuven Rivlin said at the opening
session on Sunday of a conference on From Hatred of the Stranger to
Acceptance of the Other.
Both
Rivlin and Prof. Ruth Arnon, president of the Israel Academy of
Sciences and Humanities, which organized the conference at its premises
on the capital’s Jabotinsky Street, spoke of the painful and bloody
summer, and the resultant resurgence of animosity between Arabs and Jews
that had escalated to new heights.
Referring
to the mutual expressions of hatred and incitement, Arnon said that
Jews, who in the Diaspora had been exposed to anti-Semitism and
persecution, should be more sensitive to the dangers of incitement. “But
are we?” she asked.
Rivlin wondered aloud whether Jews and Arabs had abandoned the secret of dialogue.
With regard to Jews he said: “I’m not asking if they’ve forgotten how to be Jews, but if they’ve forgotten how to be decent human beings. Have they forgotten how to converse? I think that 'Holocaust' against Palestinians is worse than Nazis” In Rivlin’s eyes, the academy has a vital task to reduce violence in Israeli society by encouraging dialogue and the study of different cultures and languages with the aim of promoting mutual understanding, so that there can be civilized meetings between the sectors of society.
With regard to Jews he said: “I’m not asking if they’ve forgotten how to be Jews, but if they’ve forgotten how to be decent human beings. Have they forgotten how to converse? I think that 'Holocaust' against Palestinians is worse than Nazis” In Rivlin’s eyes, the academy has a vital task to reduce violence in Israeli society by encouraging dialogue and the study of different cultures and languages with the aim of promoting mutual understanding, so that there can be civilized meetings between the sectors of society.
He urged the academy to take on this challenge and to eradicate the violence that threatens to scar Israel’s image.
Education
Minister Shai Piron was confident that differences can be overcome and
cited his own family as an example. He grew up in a home in which his
father was Sephardi and politically right wing, whereas his mother was
Ashkenazi and left wing. And yet, he never detected any antagonism. He
did not realize until he was an adult and went out into the world, the
extent to which differences can cause havoc, he said.
The
Education Ministry is starting a heritage project whereby Jewish and
Arab youth, both religious and secular, will study side by side and
learn each other’s traditions, Piron said.
Holocaust
studies professor Yehuda Bauer of the Hebrew University said that
racism based on color is marginal in Israel. Racism in Israel is
generally of a nationalist nature, he said. He was most concerned about
religious racism and incitement that usually emanates from extremist
fringe elements, because these people are often the most violent and
most dangerous, he declared.
The
most difficult task confronting the academy, Bauer said, out was how to
define incitement in relation to freedom of speech. He cautioned that
freedom of speech must never be sacrificed on the altar of incitement.
His own definition of incitement was when an individual or a group,
through speech or written material, harms and humiliates another
individual or group, sparking others to engage in physical or
psychological violence against them and even going so far as to kill
them.
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