I Hope You All Ignore My Knee-Jerk Accusation Of Arson As I Ridicule Yours

By Zehava Gal-On, Chairwoman, Meretz

One of the most irresponsible things to do in response to the wave of wildfires raging throughout the country right now is to reflexively point fingers and blame Arabs for starting the fires. I’m going to repeat that point enough in the hopes that I succeed in drowning out the fact that I reflexively accused rightists of arson when the Btselem offices in Jerusalem caught fire in January this year, a fire that turned out to be caused by an electrical malfunction.

Rhetorical responsibility and restraint is crucial at a time such as this. Populist declarations that one knows whom to hold responsible for the fires can only fan the flames of a different, similarly destructive kind: the flames of bigotry. Demonization of an entire group for the actions of a few – a few whose involvement is not proven – cannot be the modus operandi in our treatment of this crisis. We must come together to fight the fires both of the physical kind and the demagogic, and simply forget that just ten months ago I rushed to denounce the government and the entire right wing by assuming the Btselem fire was arson.

This principle applies far beyond our Israeli milieu; it applies similarly to American politics, for example, where hack analysts and so-called pundits want to paint the entire Democratic Party and its supporters with the crude brush of left-wing antisemitism because some hate crimes or harassment against Jews was committed by people who also happened to oppose Donald Trump or support Hillary Clinton. One must distinguish between individuals and a political party or demographic, unless one is looking at the right side of the political map, in which case damning all Trump supporters for the discriminatory rhetoric and actions of a few is fine, because really they’re all like that. Please forget I said that.

As we move forward beyond this crisis, I hope you join me in praying for, and working toward, a society with a less polemic bent, an acceptance that one’s opponents, political or otherwise, live an existence as nuanced and variegated as our own, and that characterizing them as monolithic can only harm us all. Please disregard my remarks back in January, because they do not provide a true reflection of my views, as opposed to those extremist Price Tag hooligans who form the very heart and soul of Likud, Jewish Home, and anyone else with whom I disagree.

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