If I’m Only for Myself, What Am I?
So what is Israel today, according to Hillel? How is firing live ammunition on a crowd of protesters who were mainly endangering a fence, respecting of values of human rights?
This is so unreal, I have a hard time grappling with it. What I don’t have a hard time addressing, though, are the worn-out apologists like Ben-Dror Yemini who called this situation ‘self-inflicted’ and blamed it on a Palestinian ethos of victimhood.
I’m addressing this to Ben-Dror, so normal folks may find things patently obvious. Not killing people because of some group judgement, for instance.
Ben-Dror, there is no justice if there is no justice for each person, for each individual. Even if there is this ethos of rejectionism as you say, even if the Palestinians are being used as pawns by some who want to destroy Israel and kill Jews, a human being, an individual, a life, is precious and sacred. And if I am a woman, a Palestinian woman in Gaza who as an individual wants justice and peace and positive action in my heart, what exactly am I supposed to do to prevent these people from being shot?
You wrote in this article, that ‘ The whole world needs to know that Israel is willing to give Gaza residents a chance for a bettler[sic] life.’ and put forward some concrete suggestions, such as a seaport. Those are good ideas. But then how are you being quoted as defending the shooting into the crowd? How can Palestinians trust that there is a possibility for improvement and that Israel wants them to have a better life if you are justifying this mass shooting? If you want the ‘shockwaves directed towards the horrific Hamas regime’ then we have to show, to demonstrate that we respect life, and to respect the efforts that are made by individuals in Gaza, not put everyone down in a group and justify violence.
There is a girls tech hub in Gaza made up of women who do want to improve things for themselves, its called GazaSkyGeeks.com. Its not easy being in a tiny country with borders blockaded on both sides, and yes with a government that is not always helping the situation. But if I am a human, a person, an individual living in Gaza, how does that make me not worthy of respect and life? Do the people in Gaza not have the right to protest, to speak out in their frustration, to approach the fence and say they need to be able to go out of it, to look for jobs, to enter the rest of the world and do what normal people do in their lives?
Ben-Dror are you expecting everyone in Gaza to only be trying to control their government to change in order to make Israel open the fence? What if they cannot do that, what if I am a man so intensely sad and frustrated with the opportunities for my children, seeing so much opportunity right across this fence, are you telling me that instead of trying to find a way to earn money or raise my voice that my son and daughter should be able to cross this fence, that I as a man in Gaza have to shut up and obey every rule that is squeezing the life out of my family?
Protesting, raising voices is a way people have to express the truth of their situation, to express what is real. The truth is that an individual man, a woman, a girl, a boy in Gaza do not have the power to cause Hamas to change and to make Israel happy with them. In fact I don’t think based on his actions that Netanyahu wants a result of peace and prosperity, but that is another story. As an individual, I only know how hard things are, and how frustrated I am, and in addition to taking positive steps like creating a tech hub, I would also want to raise my voice, and to show up to protests.
I myself, not the theoretical I but the real I, went to several protests here in Tucson. Teachers protested low wages, they may not be able to control everything the local school board does but they can raise their voices and be seen. I was there. Immigrant families protested the injustice of the DACA suspension, that was in fact found to be illegal — not DACA but the suspension of it, was in fact illegal, according to a judge — and I was there with them.
I was not shot.
If I were a Palestinian woman, I would have been at that fence. And maybe I would have been shot.
And Yaakov Amidror, maybe you are more in that air-conditioned office drinking coffee than the women and men of Gaza are, and maybe you should be the one to experience things a little differently before you make remote judgements of what those in Gaza should or should not do. You might have served in the Israeli army but have you lived under Hamas in Gaza and thought about what would be possible to you as an individual? Are you giving a path forward with the power that you have, for individuals who want something better? Because I guarantee you that among those protesters, among those who were shot, some of them wanted genuinely to to improve the situation for all. You shot seventy different people in a crowd. They were not all terrorists. One of those people could have been me.
