Israeli arts high school cuts Palestinians from David Grossman’s call for peace

Israeli novelist David Grossman lost his son in the Lebanon war in 2006 and later that year gave a speech marking the 11th anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination. Last week a Tel Aviv high school for the arts marked Israel’s memorial day with a reading from that speech. But it altered two lines so as not to hurt the feelings of bereaved families.

In one instance, Grossman’s appeal for a two state solution lost its claim that “thinking” Palestinians support that solution. Evidently a reference to Palestine would upset Israelis.

One student refused to read the edited lines, but another student agreed to do so. Haaretz reports:

According to the student, the school censored a few words from the original text, on grounds it might offend bereaved families.

From the paragraph that read, “The death of young people is a horrible, outrageous waste. But no less horrible is the feeling that the State of Israel has, for many years now, criminally wasted not only the lives of its children, but also the miracle that occurred here − the great and rare opportunity it was granted by history, the opportunity to create an enlightened, properly functioning democratic state,” the word “criminally” was removed.

And in the sentence, “Every thinking person in Israel − and, I will add, in Palestine − today knows the precise outline of a possible solution to the conflict between the two peoples,” the reference to the Palestinians was removed.

The student, who refused to be interviewed, added on Facebook, “I see this censorship as a serious undermining of David Grossman’s right of free speech and his freedom as an artist, and I’m bothered by the fact that the censors are educators.”

Noting that the author’s original words had been heard by tens of thousands of people, the student added, “I believe that no one has the right to decide that Grossman’s words aren’t legitimate, and they have absolutely no right to change them.”

The high school where this happened has some history re the occupation:

Until two years ago, the principal of the Aleph High School was Ram Cohen, who was reprimanded by the Education Ministry for frequently expressing his opposition to the occupation of the West Bank.    

P.S. We are often told in the U.S. that Israelis are critical of the occupation, so why can’t we be? The point that Israelis are generally more critical than us is well taken; but why should we ever base our speech parameters on their standards? Israel also suffers from a censored discourse.