Secular People, Gays and Arabs Don't Have Feelings in Israel

[Israeli]

I’m offended to the depths of my soul by what is done here in my name every day, but being neither religious nor right-wing, no one cares about offending my sensibilities.

Gideon Levy
Jul 21, 2016

As with every other human thing in Israel, feelings, too, belong only to Jews. And, in fact, only to religious Jews. The meticulous will also add Holocaust survivors and bereaved families. It’s only their feelings that one is forbidden to offend. Everyone else has no feelings, or at least they needn’t be taken into account.

There’s no such thing as offending the sensibilities of secular people, leftists or just plain people, and certainly not of Arabs.

The Gay Pride Parade, for instance, is liable to offend religious sensibilities and therefore it can’t be allowed to march down the main street of Be’er Sheva. And in Jerusalem, populist mayor Nir Barkat will stay away from today’s Pride Parade so as “not to offend people’s feelings.”

The Jerusalem Day flag parade through that same city seriously offends my feelings every year. It fills me with terrible shame. But the feelings of secular people, liberals or Arabs? There’s no such thing.

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.732361