human rights day 2010: the disappointment

i woke up this morning with a hangover, and a million and one things to do - and over all that i chose to go and be heard. i was a bit late for the march, but that wasn't going to stop me from participating! i walked quickly and arrived before the crowd hit ibn gvirol - and was overwhelmed.

it does me good to see so many people standing up for what they believe in. it makes me proud to see that not everyone has lost faith in our system; democracy requires faith in the power of the individual in order to maintain its usefulness and sincerity.

it didn't do me good to see how many of those people brought their extremist banners and how many of those people are pushing and shouting for things that they don't understand, for things that will hurt us as a nation. it didn't do me good to see the guys with the "anti" posters ("terrorists are people too", "some bullshit slogan") because although they're correct in their assessment of a large proportion of those marching, they're (i think) missing the point of the march itself.

that's all okay, though, i was there because i believe in the right to a voice, a right to freedom of opinion. what's not okay is that there were barely any people holding the rest of the country's opinions interested in making their voices heard. i believe in two things - the freedom of thought (and speech) and the freedom to do with my body what i will. those are two freedoms that i *don't* have in this country... most of our progressive western world ignores those rights.

in israel, we have a fantasy of a democracy that you'd have to argue hard to convince yourself is functional. we have a majority that's controlled by a minority, because our political leaders are far more interested in maintaining their positions than they are in protecting their constituents.

unless we march on a day like today, we cannot protect our right to march, to affect, to influence and to participate. unless we march, we cannot express our own opinions. there are a whole bunch of us out there who believe in equality and freedom and aren't fascists, even though our political specifics are very different from the hardcore left-wing self-hating anti-zionist ideals.

"When the Nazis came for the communists,I remained silent;I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,I remained silent;I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,I did not speak out;I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,I remained silent;I wasn't a Jew.
When they came for me,there was no one left to speak out."
martin niemöller

when a few of us students, a couple of weeks ago, marched for the rights of the majority of the country, including the police themselves, we had tear-gas thrown at us and a few of us were arrested or suffered police brutality. what kind of a country are we living in? are we only going to wake up when it's too late? when the last vestiges of our democratic fantasy have fallen away?

next year. human rights day. another group with posters and bullhorns and shirts and loud voices. not anti-rights, but completely and vocally disconnected from all the other groups. pro-rights, pro-freedom of speech. even for those we disagree with.
because that's what democracy is all about. and we need to protect what little we have left.