Susan Shephard · @Lost4DrJack
29th Mar 2012 from Twitlonger
ENGLISH translation of #Israel/i call to action for people of #Syria: "We can rise above the accepted definitions of who is the enemy, and just be human beings":
A protest march, spontaneously arranged by Israeli citizens in support of the citizens of Syria, will be taking place in Tel Aviv this Saturday. We hope this is one of many events which prove the necessity of the link between Israel's
fate and that of its Neighbors; the necessity for mutual compassion; for mutual concern; for cooperation. Our Middle East still has a long way to go, but we aren't giving up. No way!
Yallllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaa! on March 13, while watching TV, and I saw a documentary film by the angel Itai about the reality in Syria these days. Several days later, my stomach still hurts and my mind was still trembling. This is not the first time I heard what is happening in Syria, a few hundred miles from Tel Aviv. But the terrible photos, uncensored, for the first direct evidence of child murder, rape of women, and, unforgiving man abuse disorderly, and without any reduction of pity - and all these will not let me rest.
I want to be clear: I do not define myself left-wing or right-wing . For years I kept away from politics like the plague. Usually do not watch the news on television or read newspapers. I am a mother 29 years, from sweet child for 18 months. I work in clinical psychology in the first year of training. I am burdened with the
issues I just work-related small and my family. I live in a bubble, and I hope to continue to do so. That would be good for me. But my heart says that I can not. My heart says that I can no longer stand by the right while on the road a young woman like me, with dreams like mine, a woman who only wants to live quietly, and "make love not war", and being raped and brutally in front of her children, young children just like my son, or were forced to watch his execution in front of her child.
***I know, that many of the victims of al-Assad (and his arms from Iran and Hezbollah) are far from being supporters of Israel. Probably because they hate us. I suppose many of them have distorted perceptions of Israel, and around us Jews in Israel - and this is probably due to many years of incitement against
us, or ignorance. I do not know what is better or worse, in terms of the interests of Israel: Government of Bashar al-Assad, or to form a government and its opponents. I said already, I do not know anything about politics do not
pretend. But I feel that what is happening in Syria and the urgent need to do something about it, are the issues that cross political boundaries or interests. I feel that these are the things between a man and a man, or woman and
woman, between any of the mother and the mother, and the creatures of the same God. I also think that if we have any way to change, even slightly, those perceptions distorted that many of the Syrian citizens and citizens of Arab
countries in general have about us, can only be done by showing that we are not silent. We do not agree to be silent.***
***We the Jewish people, who during World War II suffered the horrors incomprehensible, while the world was silent, and we say: No more burying our heads in the sand, is no longer permissible to remain silent. You can also ask: Why are we, little Israel? Where are the voices of all other Arab countries? Why not be the voice against the slaughter of their brothers and sisters in Syria? What about the major countries: USA, China and Russia? We can continue to
request it, but we can also show how we can be humane, and rise above the accepted definitions of who is the enemy, and just be human beings.***
What do we do with this? I do not really know. First of all, if you feel the same I do, I wish you to pass on this message. Maybe this will be only in and of itself generate a kind of echo and produce some change. And, as I call upon all those who wish, the right-wing and left-wing, religious and secular, Jews and Arabs, men and women, come meet me in the "yard HaBima", Tel Aviv, on the night on Saturday, March 31, 2012, at 19:30, a peaceful demonstration against violations and unbridled slaughter of human beings which are underway in Syria. Ingber Shira Cohen