"If I am the sole and eternal victim, then I create around and within myself and raise my children to an inability to see anyone who is not me. If I and only I occupy the throne of the victim, then no stranger can occupy it. This blindness reaches proportions that distort reality. I am not talking only about right-wing Jewish settlers, professional blind men who never see the residents of the West Bank...If I am the sole and eternal victim, then of course I refuse to accept any information that is liable to ruin my self-image. My receptors simply do pick it up. I have no need of it; I already have a map, with one marker it only: I am a victim, and everyone is against me. I refuse to hear not only about the Arabs, but also about myself. I break the mirror. At the base of this attitude is a dangerous thing: it is as if all of Zionism, if the fact of our living in Israel, is dependent on our not knowing and not wanting to know. Those who hold this attitude do not see the Israeli who gets up in the morning, goes to work, pays taxes, waters plants, raises his children, and does reserve army duty. Rather, they see the eternal victim, alone in the world, who sits upright on his throne with his eyes closed, smothering all other peoples (especially Arabs), and is always, always right, right with the blind, cold righteousness of the victim above whose head flutters the banner, "Vengeance is mine!" How many of us, today, see ourselves in this picture?"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Jews from IsraelNon-fiction authors from IsraelWomen authors from PolandPoets from IsraelEssayists from Israel
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shulamith_Hareven
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Shulamith Hareven
Shulamith Hareven (Hebrew: שולמית הראבן; pen name, Tal Yaeri; February 14, 1930 – November 25, 2003) was a Jewish author and essayist who was born in Warsaw, Poland and later lived many years in Israel.
138 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Shulamith Hareven →
Related Quotes
"The boundaries which will determine our future are not geographic...The true boundary is, rather, the knowledge that …"
"The peace must not be seen as a peace of industrialists and yuppies; it must not be seen as a peace between people in…"
"One essential thing did change: from now on it is not automatically Jew against Arab and Arab against Jew; it is the …"
"To my mind, the whole world is nothing more than an invitation to take part in creation. Literature, at least-or at l…"
"Sara's father, never having met Morality, had perhaps been exempted from it. Even in Jerusalem of the early century, …"
"The sounds of a small city. As small as a man's palm. (chapter 2 p22)"
"Her laugh is like slivers of sunlight. (about Hulda, chapter 3 p40)"
""The first child forces you to define yourself," he said. "When the second comes, you're already defined. Not just as…"
"An ocean of music foams through him in great waves and keeps on going. (about Tony Crowther, chapter 6 p130)"
"The greatest danger to any discipline is the creation of a static model that keeps the same vocabulary for any length…"