Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumIsraelis have turned away from compassion
Well’s story forms a useful allegory when considering the kind of society we have built in Israel. Except, of course, that the critical faculty that has been bred out of us is compassion, rather than sight. In a recent piece for Haaretz, Professor Eva Illouz wrote of “the demise of Israeli compassion.” Drawing on her experiences of the death of her father in an Israeli hospital, Illouz illustrates what has led to the relentless militarization of Israeli society. “The permanent colonizing of the land that required making the army central to society, is what shaped the politics of the gaze, who we see and how we see,” Illouz explains.
In turn, Israeli militarism makes us unable to “see” others — that is, unable to recognize them as human, and all that being human entails: vulnerability, sensibility and complexity.
Illouz further states that with militarization comes “the habit of domination” — the hardening of a collective attitude in which exerting power over the weaker elements of society becomes the norm. It unpicks our ability to see others as equal to us and, consequently, as deserving of equal treatment.
----
This is the behavior of a government and society with hardened hearts and unseeing eyes. It is a blindness that has, as in Wells’ story, struck Israeli society from day one. Even Ari Shavit, in his otherwise problematic book ‘My Promised Land,” manages to identify its starting point, when he admits that his great-grandfather — one of the early colonizers of the land — “does not see because he is motivated by the need not to see.” From this beginning, compassion has increasingly withered with each successive generation. We have now, as Illouz puts it, arrived at “a society that overall has become used to not blinking when destroying life.”
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Considering what she describes here, it seems odd that she would "make aliyah" just three years ago.
You'd think she'd be more interested in boycotting the country rather than moving there.
Israeli
(4,151 posts)....send an email and denounce her ASAP oberliner .....do your duty for Zionism and the Motherland ....
shira
(30,109 posts)Aid in Nepal, treating family members of Hamas and PLO leaders, field hospitals at the Gaza border....
Obviously an effort to obfuscate evil zionist intent.
Can't fool 'em all the time. Hell, not even some of the time. Or any time. Ever.
procon
(15,805 posts)If Israel had not bombed existing hospitals, there would be no need to set up field hospitals to treat the civilians they injured. This isn't altruism, it's just another propaganda campaign intent on whitewashing the deadly effects of a military occupation.
shira
(30,109 posts)You think field hospitals at the Gaza border along with Israel treating Hamas and PLO family members in their hospitals is just a cynical propaganda campaign?
Here are IDF reservists taking Palestinian kids with cancer to a ski resort...
http://www.idfblog.com/blog/2011/03/25/palestinian-kids-diagnosed-with-cancer-visit-mt-hermon-with-alpine-unit-reservists/
All this is obviously evil propaganda.
Better in your opinion that Israel does nothing to show goodwill, correct? Show their true colors...? Yes or No?
If you're actually trying to compare a ski trip with the UNICEF report that 500 Palestinian children were killed and another 3000 wounded during the war on the Gaza Strip, just stop. There's no propaganda, no excuse, nothing that will ever mitigate what's been done.
I'm all for goodwill, so let's start with Israel returning land back to the Palestinian people, withdrawing their occupation forces, and ending the embargo.
shira
(30,109 posts)....needed no pretext in order to murder innocent Palestinians. And like UNICEF, you guys couldn't care less that Hamas embeds itself in the civilian population using kids as human shields, as well as child militants. That HAS to be factored in and not wished away unless the motive is either to support/defend Hamas' strategy and tactics or ignore it in order to demonize Israel.
What land needs to be returned? When was this land ever sovereign Palestinian territory?
procon
(15,805 posts)much of a pretext to kill civilians.
And no, it isn't justified to blow up a school or a hospital just to get the bad guys. It would not be allowed here, so why would we accept that kind of scorched earth policy anywhere else. There's plenty of blame to go around, but if there is a fault to be found on the Palestinian side, then there must be, at least, an equal fault laid on Israel.
shira
(30,109 posts)....for using children as human shields and combatants. There's no question it happened. What's preventing you from acknowledging this if you're being sincere in your concern about the senseless loss of innocent life last summer?
procon
(15,805 posts)But here's the thing; as bad as it is victimize innocent people, it's a million times worse to kill them.
shira
(30,109 posts)Hamas rejected them all, including temporary ones. The war crimes committed by Hamas, as well as their refusal to end the war much earlier via a ceasefire (which would have saved nearly 2000 people) puts the vast majority of the blame on Hamas. In addition, they started it all with their rocket attacks against civilians.
Why do you think Israel responded militarily?
procon
(15,805 posts)I know you support Israel without question, so that pretty much strangles any discussion. I'll just say that I simply can't be that one sided. I'm against violence and killing. I'm against injustice, bigotry, unfairness and inequality. I don't care which side is doing it or why. It's all wrong and it must end, and until the senseless, juvenile finger pointing stops, the madness will never end.
