The wave of identification with ultra-Orthodox journalist Israel Frey is heartwarming, even if it barely extends beyond the left. A journalist arrested by the police because of a tweet is a threatening matter. In the context of the new era in Israel, it is even more threatening. Russia or Turkey – you tell me.
The identification and shock were appropriate of course, but most of the expressions of solidarity with Frey were missing something essential: The agreement and identification with the content for which he was arrested. It’s not enough to say we are fighting for Frey’s right to express himself freely, in the spirit of Voltaire. True democrats also need this time to identify with the content of what he said and not to make do with just lip service in defending his right to say it.
What he said is not only protected by the right to free _expression_, as the Haaretz editorial stated on Wednesday, and it is not enough to adopt it “because tomorrow, it could be any one of us,” as Anat Kamm wrote. Agreement with the essence of what Frey said is obligatory, because of its truth. There is no need for the self-righteousness of “it’s possible to disagree with Frey, and it’s possible to be mad at him.” Anyone who desires peace cannot but agree with him, not to “disagree” and not to be “mad.”
Frey wrote: “Look what a hero is. He made the entire way from Nablus to Tel Aviv and even though all the Israelis around him somehow take part in the oppression, crushing and killing of his own people, he still looked for legitimate targets and avoided harming innocent people. In a normal world he would have received a medal.” In a normal world Frey would have been given a medal. In Israel 2022 he was arrested. There is not a single word in his tweet that is not true.
At the foundation of Frey’s thinking – and that of any democrat – stands the principle of equality. If Israelis are allowed to defend themselves by killing, destroying and bombing the population, through blockades, mass arrests, repression and dispossession – then the Palestinians are entitled to this same right, too. They, too, are allowed to defend themselves, their property, freedom and honor. Anyone who does not accept this determination is an apartheidist.
Israel justifies all its misdeeds by its right to self-defense. The Palestinians also have the right to self-defense. The Palestinians also have the right to oppose the occupation – it is the right of any people. In the case before us, there is one people with the most sophisticated country and army in the world, facing a barefoot army. These barefooted people turn to what in Israel is called terrorism, even though when it comes to the killing of civilians, Israel’s state terrorism is immeasurably more severe and brutal.
If the right to self-defense is reserved for the Palestinians – and it is – how exactly are they supposed to make use of it against the Israeli aggression? In their American planes? With Iron Dome manufactured in Khan Yunis? In submarines produced by Thyssenkrupp? All they have left is the “Carlo” makeshift submachine gun. And with such a weapon the terrorist left for Jaffa, like the Air Force pilots who take off for Jabalya, and tried to make sure in every way possible not to harm civilians, maybe even more than the Air Force pilots try. This terrorist was certainly braver than the Israeli pilots, in his total self-sacrifice. This is why Frey thought he deserved a medal for courage and a commendation for morality, exactly the same way that in Israel they shower praise on pilots who are sometimes careful not to attack civilians.
Every honest person must agree with these words. Only someone who does not see the Palestinians as human beings and their people as a people with equal rights can be outraged by what Frey wrote, and in the same breath be impressed by the most moral army in the world, because it sometimes tries to act like the terrorist from Jaffa. Only those who think that Jews alone are allowed to defend themselves – and therefore only the Jews are allowed to kill as much as their souls desire – can defend Frey’s right to say such things while claiming that what he says is outrageous and makes their blood boil. Much more blood-boiling are those who think they are decent people, and still do not agree with Frey.