Was the Pope's apology enough for us? Did his words suffice for atonement?
And why did he not request more explicit forgiveness for the Catholic Church'sinvolvement
in the Holocaust?.A whole country held its breath on Friday in anticipation
ofthe speech Pope John Paul II would deliver at the Yad Vashem Holocaust
Memorial. For a moment, it seemed that the entire fate of the visit hinged
on the scope of theforgiveness he would ask of us. Israel demanded that
he ask for such forgiveness.
This Israeli passion for forgiveness is related to our greed for love:
The whole world, "from Damascus to Kush," always has to love
us, unconditionally; the most pro-Jewish Pope ever has to go down on his
knees and solicit our forgiveness, as though he were responsible for the
sins of the Nazis. Of course, the Jewish people deserve to be asked for
forgiveness by the Church, too, but Israel should be a good deal less demanding.
There is no forgiveness for the Holocaust.
At the same time, there is great significance to gestures of asking
forgiveness, such as the unforgettable bending of the knee of Germany's
Willy Brandt, or the veryfact of the Pope's moving visit to Yad Vashem.
Even in a cynical reality, symbols arefraught with meaning.
Israel's demands for more and more acts of forgiveness would be far
moreunderstandable and justified if it, too, was capable of acceeding itself
to suchrequests. If Israel were a little more generous in asking forgiveness
from its victims, its own demands in this regard would be not only more
understandable but would bear greater moral validity as well. But the term
"forgiveness" is absent from the Israeli lexicon.
It has to be emphasized that there was no other event like the Holocaust
and that it is absolutely not amenable to comparisons. But that is not
to say that it is only for events of the magnitude of the Holocaust that
forgiveness should be requested. Thereare also far smaller injustices that
merit this.
Israel accidentally kills about 100 Lebanese civilians at Kafr Kana
in Operation Grapes of Wrath. Its official spokesmen are quick to say that
Israel is "sorry" but "is not apologizing."
Why not, actually? Because for Israel, an apology is equivalent to weakness.
What would have happened if the prime minister of Israel at the time had
stood upand asked forgiveness, without ifs or buts, even offering compensation
to the victims? Would a hair have fallen off our heads if we had asked
a simple pardon from the victims and their families? Recall how generous
and captivating was the journey of apology undertaken by King Hussein after
a Jordanian soldier murdered schoolgirls from Beit Shemesh.
As far as can be recalled, Israel has never apologized for anything,
as though it were a state that has never done anything that merits an apology.
Not the "small" injustices of the occupation and not the great
historic injustice done to thePalestinians. Not one family from the Palestinian
"family of bereavement" has received an official apology from
Israel. Not the families of the children who were killed, most of them
innocent of any wrongdoing, not the families of the children who will remain
crippled for life because of the light trigger fingers of soldiers. Not
the torture victims, some of them also innocent of wrongdoing, whose lives
were utterly changed, and not those who were shot dead at army roadblocks.
Not the pregnant women who lost their infants because of the insensitivity
of soldiers at roadblocks and not the emergency cases who did not make
it to a hospital on time because of a curfew.
Not those who were humiliated during needless searches of their homes
and not thethousands who experienced false arrest. An Israeli apology?
Forget it. Arequest forforgiveness? Don't make us laugh.
Is there anyone in Israel who seriously thinks that the Palestinians
do not deserve anapology? Israel will one day have to set up its own truth
andreconciliation commission, like the one in South Africa - particularly
for what it has wrought in thelast 10 years - as part of a process of internal
conciliation and purification. This will be even more necessary with regard
to the great historical injustice. We may have been righteous victims in
1948, but on the road to realizing our claim to justice we perpetrated
a terrible wrong on another people who had absolutely no connection with
our calamity. That wrong continues to bleed in the refugee camps, in the
occupied territories and in the Palestinian diaspora, and it will continue
to haunt us and prevent the achievement of a genuine settlement. For the
most part it isirrevocable; no reparations will atone for it. But Israel
is unwilling, to this day, to even acknowledge its existence, not to speak
of taking responsibility for it.
An Israeli request for forgiveness from the people who paid a steep
price for the injustice that was done to the Jews could generate a turning
point in the relationsbetween the two peoples.
Unfortunately, no one in Israel is even thinking along these lines.
The Palestinian people - 600,000 of whom were expelled or forced to flee
from their homes andvillages which were then wiped off the face of the
earth, whose social and cultural fabric was torn apart almost overnight,
who continue to live in refugee camps like the one visited by the Pope
- deserve some recognition of the wrong that was inflicted upon them. That
has to be followed by an admission of responsibility and a request for
forgiveness, just as we demand such acts for ourselves. There is an important
moral aspect to this, but also a practical aspect: No true settlement will
be achieved without it
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