This was the question I posted on facebook yesturday
in the face of the rockets being fired sporadically at Tel Aviv. The irony of
the question was not lost on me. Here we are in the middle of war situation
with over 120 people having died in Gaza, 40 000 Israeli soldiers being
mobilised and numerous humans on both sides suffering from anxiety and shock,
and my biggest dilemma was whether or not I should go to the beach...
This dilemma pretty much typifies my summer and life in
Israel in general. On a personal level it couldn’t be better; the beach,
parties, weekend trips, great friends, a job I love and a life where my
greatest concerns are which social events I should go to tonight or whether the guy
I met last night will call. Yet at the same time anyone with any sense of a
national or social consciousness can’t be completely unaffected by the broader
situation and the events that caste a somewhat more sombre light on “the good
life” in Tel Aviv.
I feel myself constantly being torn between this desire to
just enjoy the summer and the beauty of life here in Israel and the pangs of guilt
I feel being aware of some of the real dilemmas taking place on a national
level. The night before the murdered teenagers bodies where found I was at the
beach with a friend for a late night swim. On the way there I heard the news
that protesting refugees in Holot had been violently arrested and sent to Saharonim
Prison, including friends and people I know personally. Two weeks later they
are still there, many of them taking part in an on-going hunger strike that has
done very little to serve their aim given the current political situation. The next night I again found myself on the beach watching one of the
world cup games, when the news came that the kidnapped boys’ bodies had been
found and the screens quickly changed to news footage. Very different types of
news (and incomparable for all those who will read this entire article and take
away only that I am making comparisons which I am not) but still the same
feelings of utter sadness and incomprehension at the suffering people are going
through as I enjoy my Tel Aviv summer.
Since then we had the shocking news of the Palestinian youth
that was murdered by Israeli extremists and the situation has escalated to a
war or “operation”. In the last half an hour we have had 2 sirens that sent us
running to the stairway for shelter and no doubt there are more on the way. Yet has this affected
my daily life? To be honest not really, sure there is a certain tension that
can be felt in the streets, I refresh the news constantly, think twice about
what pajamas I wear and take shorter showers just in case a siren is sounded,
but other that and the fact conversations tend to regularly circle back to “the
situation”, little has changed and life goes on as always.
So what can I do? Should I feel guilty? Does my ability to
go to the beach come at the expense of the people of Gaza? Even if there was no
occupation would Hamas and its supporters be ok with me going to the beach in Tel
Aviv? Does thinking and talking about it make any difference? Is there anything I
can do about the broader situation?
Unfortunately I think the answer to most of these questions
is no. I do think that as Israelis/Jews there is a clear need to address the
racism that has made itself so apparent in the last few weeks. If I were in
Government or a major Jewish Organisation I would choose to shift the millions spent
on defending Jewish and Israeli interests to finding ways to re-educate our
children against racism and the dangers of hatred and revenge. The damage this
incident and the 36 000 ‘likes’ and selfies on facebook calling for revenge and
bloodshed must have done to Israeli’s image abroad has surely undone millions
of dollars in spending on improving it. More than anything it has brought me to
question the very essence of what the Jewish state has become. I chose to make
Aliyah to Israel not for the Tel Aviv beach, but for Idealistic reasons and I
choose to continue living here for the same Zionistic reasons despite all the
rockets, problems and moral dilemmas they present. Yet I do sometimes question
what is the point, what can I do and how do we build a society that is worth fighting
for? Honestly I don’t know...
P.s I did go to the Beach..:)
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