For ten months we’ve been telling you that the whole point is occupation. We’ve explained that this is the source of the avalanche, not the whim of some whacko, but an ideology that has borne a plan and the commitment of brainwashed individuals to carry it out. That anyone breathing since birth Jewish supremacy and male supremacy and ethnic separation is an opponent, not a brother, even if you shared an army mess-tin and are descendants of the same great-grandfather. That Leibowitz was right. That there is no middle way. That evil must be fought, and not to think that this is only a government procedure. That there is a logical system in the madness. And the logic is to occupy your lives.
So, what made the penny drop is – of all things – the male-female partitions on Dizengoff square. Okay, let it be. The fact that the same partition-builders are harassing Palestinians every week has not made you move from Kaplan to [the Palestinian village of] Turmus Aya, that they have taken over the Joseph’s Tomb Defense Force – this did not wake you out of your dogmatic slumber. The fact that they burn Huwara, praise murderers and release rats has made you – at most – shake your heads on Saturday night, wave your blue-and-white flags and yell “Shame!” and “De-moc-ra-cy!” and go home to another routine week.
Okay, you made the partitions fall, what next? Here are some possibilities:
Demand of Shikma [one of the protest’s leaders, a science professor] and her buddies to bring to the Kaplan stage someone who will at long last speak of OCCUPATION. And yell “Down with occupation!” and not just “Shame!” for the shame is all ours. All of us.
Demand of politicians in your area to re-enter occupation into mainstream discourse and explain what they are going to do about it. Explain to Lapid and Gantz and Eisencott (where have you disappeared to, Gadi?) that this is the point, even if it forces them to have a tough talk with Sa’ar and Elkin.
Tell your sons and grandsons not to serve as soldiers in the Occupied Territories, as Gil Regev sort of said at the end of the series about the Israeli Air Force that you all watched and wept. And when you are called up for military reserves duty - say you won’t go there.
Demand of your Brothers in Arms, Hertzi and Fox and Ronen Bar and whoever else still wears a uniform and has remained normative to do his duty and stop this shame. Be the army and secret services of a democratic state, not a terrorist-supporting militia. They should not wait for a tearful taking-stock after being discharged. Let them act now, when they are in a position to do so. Even if they need to pay a personal price.
Stop praying for a soft, moderate, liberal right-wing to come along. “Are you for us or against us?” There’s no middle way.
Come with us to the Occupied Territories. Cross the Green Line that is very much present, and confront them. Don’t let them perpetrate this horrid, everyday injustice.
A partition between women and men on Dizengoff Street is irritating. But what they are doing over there in our name is unforgivable and destroys both our present and our future.
Whoever does not join us – better begin to prepare the explanation to their grandkids.
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