Julian Resnick
Many years ago, a friend and I were approached by a senior team member of Makom, an innovative education initiative within the Jewish Agency for Israel to put together a unique day for a group of people from the Jewish Federations of North America, people with a strong commitment to Israel. These were people who really cared about Israel, worked on behalf of Israel, raised money for Israel, lobbied for Israel.
They had all been to Israel many times before, had visited all the major sites, and beyond, but this was to be a special day, one I had never imagined putting together before this request came my way, and one never repeated since. The idea was to show them the dark underbelly of Tel Aviv: the things we are not proud of, that have not worked in Israeli society; the folks who got left behind; the underclass. We put together a day, which, I have to admit, I found incredibly challenging to experience, as did the group we took around for the day. This was not the Israel of the Start Up Nation; of those who give their everything in the service of the State; of beautiful works of art; of nobility of spirit; of self-sacrifice for a cause larger than oneself.
This was poverty, illegal immigrants (refugees) who had been smuggled in via the Sinai Peninsula, homeless people, drug addicts and prostitutes; a soup kitchen; a kindergarten adjoining a brothel.
Two moments from that day have stayed with me over the years. One, when an illegal immigrant passed out and I began to call Magen David Adom for help, only to be stopped by another refugee, who told me not to, as the moment an intervention like this happened, the person who had passed out would be in the system and easier to deport. (Deportation meant in effect being sent back to a war zone, to a harsh refugee camp in Southern Sudan or Eritrea, possibly to be sentenced as an opponent of the regime and, therefore, likely not to reach old age.)
The second moment which has stayed with me was when we sat down to have lunch in the soup kitchen with the local folks. To my great embarrassment, I could not bring myself to eat the food. Something very deeply embedded in me made this an impossibility for me.
The discussion we had afterwards came back to me recently. We talked about what one does when the country one loves, that one is committed to, that one would fight for, possibly even die for, has these terrible blemishes, awful imperfections. It came back to me as I watched our Minister of Internal Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, behaving in a way that recalled, in my very South African memory bank, the way I was treated in Caledon Square after having been arrested by the South African Police way back in 1974. And, there were worse associations floating through my mind as well, from before the year I was born – and Jews were on the receiving end in those associations. As we say in Hebrew: המבין יבין
What are we to do when a member of the Government of Israel behaves in the way Itamar Ben Gvir behaved towards the members of the Gaza-bound flotilla on 20 May? For me, the answer is clear: We have to condemn him in the strongest possible terms, as Jews who believe that we have a heritage to be proud of which includes an ethos, a value system, which we never toss aside to wreak revenge. As Jews who care for the safety and security of our People, throughout the world. As Jews who care about the defence of our homeland, of Israel.
We have to say, in unequivocal terms, “Itamar Ben Gvir, you are a disgrace to the Jewish People, a disgrace to the State of Israel. Your behaviour puts our People at risk, both in Israel and in Cape Town. Your behaviour diminishes the careful and totally appropriate way our soldiers of the IDF conducted this interception of the flotilla.”
If you really care about Israel and the Jewish People, when something like this happens, speak up, as proud Zionists and Jews. Do not fall into the trap of ‘closing ranks’. Speaking up is what the Jewish People and Israel need right now.
Itamar Ben Gvir, you disgrace both the memory of our martyrs, and you put our children at risk. Shame on you.
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