Compassion is Illegal in Israel
Can you imagine what it feels like to live in a country where it is illegal to "insult" any government worker - and so many of them are corrupt and corrupt people are very easily "insulted"? Can you imagine Jews coming to live in Israel so that they can be fully-realized Jews and finding that expressions of compassion are illegal here - that corrupt politicians get "insulted" when you tell the truth and that their getting insulted is illegal? Can you imagine having a Jewish Heart and Soul and having compassion being forbidden by law? Is there any more cruel a thing that can be done to Jews but to forbid our having compassion for one another by law? What choice, then, do we have but to be "criminals"?
I am finally letting myself cry about what is going on in Israel. I am letting myself feel the helpless grief of knowing that people are put on trial in this country for feeling compassion. And I am letting others know what they can expect here if they are foolish enough to believe the Israeli gov't that they'll be better off here - either to become hard-hearted and cruel or to be considered inimical by the state.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Can you imagine what it feels like to live in a country where it is illegal to "insult" any government worker - and so many of them are corrupt and corrupt people are very easily "insulted"? Can you imagine Jews coming to live in Israel so that they can be fully-realized Jews and finding that expressions of compassion are illegal here - that corrupt politicians get "insulted" when you tell the truth and that their getting insulted is illegal? Can you imagine having a Jewish Heart and Soul and having compassion being forbidden by law? Is there any more cruel a thing that can be done to Jews but to forbid our having compassion for one another by law? What choice, then, do we have but to be "criminals"?
I am finally letting myself cry about what is going on in Israel. I am letting myself feel the helpless grief of knowing that people are put on trial in this country for feeling compassion. And I am letting others know what they can expect here if they are foolish enough to believe the Israeli gov't that they'll be better off here - either to become hard-hearted and cruel or to be considered inimical by the state.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
