Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Flags, Part II


Earlier this week, I made a comment about the absence of flags this Yom Ha'atzmaut. Reading the Haaretz website, there has been a passionate polemic about whether to fly the flag over Yom Ha'atzmaut!


Gidon Levy refuses to fly "the national flag became the flag of extreme nationalism." Furthermore, he laments how : "The extreme nationalistic right stole the flag from me and with it the pride in being Israeli. This act of theft is unforgivable."


Avirama Golan - a strident left-winger herself - objects to Gidon Levy's stand. She hangs a flag this year: "As ever more Israelis threaten to refrain from raising the flag, its importance grows stronger in my eyes and becomes endeared to me anew."


Nadav Shragai equates flying the flag with Jewish Zionist identity, he also involves himself in the question of Israel's Arab minority, and the discussion over Hatikva as a Jewish or Israeli anthem. In the course of all this, he takes a courageous jab at his publisher (and boss) Amos Shocken (See Shocken's article here) accusing his opponents of Postzionist cultural relativism. " No one will respect our Jewish roots and our unique position here if we ourselves do not respect them. "

This is the type of Zionist discussion that I value.

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