“It’s just like I know what we’re up against. This idea that we’re the good guys, we’re the nice ones, beleaguered, long suffering, misunderstood – its ingrained. We’re the ones who are advanced, brining light where we go. And for a while there was at least something to hold on to, some good intentions, some sort of real struggle. And whatever didn’t fit into that view of ourselves, we ignored. We focused on the good things and believe we were better than everyone else, Good guys surrounded by bad guys. Well, the occupation finally leaves us without a way out. It proves we’re exactly the same as everyone else. Capable of everything and anything. But no one wants to give up the illusion. So they hang on, even when things stare them in the face. It’s a huge conspiracy of blindness. Well, the occupation won’t last for ever, and one day we’ll have to account for everything. We’ll have to look back and face it all. And we’re going to see then, looking back , that we didn’t do it for security, or out of fear, or despair, we did it because we were corrupt and sadistic and out of control. We made people stand with their arms up all night, we made them crawl in mud, we piss on them, we spat on them, we threw them against walls, we put our cigarettes on their skin. And we all pretended it was not happening.”
From “Ten Thousand Lovers” by Edeet Ravel
What is happening in Palestine and Israel is so mammoth, dark and intricate that I won’t even try to make sense of it here.
People often ask whose side I’m on. I don’t see it as sides. I see it as people trying to live, exist and elevate themselves. Everyone has an opinion and idea of whose to blame, and whose innocent. Everyone has an opinion of the ‘best’ solution.
I don’t have a solution. I am fascinated by the Jewish experience. I spent two hours today reading about ‘kibbutz life.’ I feel deeply for the plight of the Palestinians; for what seems like their never ending constant sorrow.
It is my strong opinion that life is built on a million shades of grey.
Reading “Ten Thousand Lovers” will help you find a few.
2 comments:
I really love the above quote. Reminds me of other times in history when other people held on to images of themselves as righteous in the face of atrocities being committed against others all around them.
Re: shaded of grey, the problem is that sometimes those shades of grey are so dark they look black and sometimes so light they look white and confront us with a choice. Like Camus, I believe that "in a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners."
This is indeed a very complicated subject. I will have to study it more to come up with a solid opinion. However, I do sympathize with the Palestinian more, but I don't like to see killing done on any side no matter who is doing more.
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