By Dr Meir Margalit, in Jerusalem
If I had to summarize in one word all this bitter feeling of anguish that fills me in front of so much tragedy, I would choose the word – Enough!
Enough! is a powerful word. When uttered with conviction, it can change the course of history. Not immediately, and it will have us waiting, but when the clamour of thousands repeat it incessantly, it can tear down walls. When said firmly, looking straight into the eyes of those politicians who so easily order the bombing of civilians and we scream in their faces – Enough! no force may hold it back. You’ve already charged a price too dear. Too much blood has already run, too much pain has been sown, and now Enough! It’s time to end this madness, begin to negotiate, to talk, because we can tolerate it no more, because there is no possible comfort or place for tears, and less even so for the pain. And Enough because this makes no sense – by force we will not achieve anything – on the contrary, every day we sink more deeply into a bitter and cruel quagmire.
Enough is the ethical response to the militaristic ideology. By saying ‘Enough’ we create a space for hope, a space that is not governed by the degrading militarist, nationalist fanatic, irrational discourse that dominates today’s Israeli society because through it we can project an alternative space, humanist, ethical, moral, sensible, rational, based on respect for human rights, justice and equality. Enough, because we want a better future for our children, we want to be the architects of a better future, in which we are capable of achieving hopes and dreams. Enough, because we do not want any more victims on either side. Enough, because we do not want to continue killing and oppressing. We do not want to snatch children from any mother or make orphans of any people. We do not want to die or kill for idols of any kind, much less for “territories” that have long ceased to be “sacred”. We want to live, for nothing is more sacred than life and we want to respect the lives of others in the same way we want others to respect ours.
Enough! is the liberating cry, for anyone who refuses to be nothing more than a pawn in a terrifying and pointless game. Therefore, enough is the word that transforms us into human beings, the word that distinguishes us from the beast, that makes the difference between human and criminal. We are not soldiers or combatants, we are above all human, and in this respect Moshe-Yosef- Abraham of Tel Aviv and Musa-Yusuf Ibrahim of Gaza do not differ in any way, each one is a copy of the other, each one reflects their neighbour.
Shouting Enough! is a form of resistance, it is a way of undermining the foundations of the system that allows this atrocity. Enough! is a form of rebellion, and those who fail to rebel in front of such slaughter become complicit in the savagery.
Meir Margalit, 24/07/2014
Center for Advancement of Peace Initiatives and Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.
