"If my only identity is that of the victim, the world's deterministic and doomed victim, I may (or so it seems) commit any atrocity, including exiling Arabs from their homes (excuse me, dear hawks, "relocating" them) and taking possession of their land, because I am the victim and they are not; because this is the only way I define myself and my identity-forever. But if I also define myself as the son, or daughter, of a people with a splendid four-thousand-year history of responsibility, of conscience, of repairing and improving, of appealing for social order and justice, of a legal system nearly unparalleled in the world, and of the protection of these traditions; if I have indeed learned and internalized all these, so that they define my identity; then even if often in history I have been the victim of others, I will never oppress those weaker than myself and never abuse my power to exile them (excuse me, dear hawks, "bus them out"). I will not have to define my uniqueness in terms of the past alone."
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Jews from IsraelNon-fiction authors from IsraelWomen authors from PolandPoets from IsraelEssayists from Israel
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Shulamith Hareven
Shulamith Hareven (Hebrew: ืฉืืืืืช ืืจืืื; pen name, Tal Yaeri; February 14, 1930 โ 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 โ
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