Who Pays for Conviction

Photo by Igordoon Primus on Unsplash

I watched Broken Glass at The Young Vic last week. The way the auditorium is set up makes you a part of the play, not merely an observer. Case in point: in the climax when Phillip collapses and the rest are standing around laughing, I had a strong urge to run over and help him up. It makes us feel compassionate towards someone who isn’t easy to feel compassionate towards. Then we get to go home feeling like heroes. We totally would have helped, even if we didn’t like this person.

In May 1992, a Haredi Jewish woman, Bella Freund, protected a Palestinian terrorist from an angry mob. He had just stabbed two Israeli boys. She saved his life with her body, lying on top of him for twenty minutes until the police came. She embodied this urge to help another human, regardless of that human’s atrocious crimes. She also embodied the cost of having such a belief. Not only was Bella beaten severely, she probably traumatised her children who witnessed the incident. I can only imagine how it feels to be a child and watch your mum being beaten up by a mob.

I think about this when I post something that might reflect on my children. When I stand up publicly for human rights, for the rights of Palestinians, for a reconciliation between our two peoples—something that many people in Israeli society think of as traitorous behaviour. When I published my book last summer, I was thinking of the Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham. His film, No Other Land, co-directed with Basel Adra and documenting Israeli settler violence, won awards at the Berlinale. While he was receiving awards in Berlin, right-wing activists were trying to break into his parents’ home in Israel. My book cover alone can get us in trouble in Israel.

My beliefs didn’t get stronger with time. It’s the world that shifted. And Israeli society has shifted even further since I left Israel twenty years ago. But the reason doesn’t matter. What matters is the question. Do I have the right to ask my family to pay for my beliefs?