The culture of rape cannot be erased with a brush and paint, and the pretense of doing so is more harmful than beneficial • Parents, teachers, mayors - want to fix? Educate • Opinion

• Deletion of Rami Meiri's work

  Photo: 

  Guy Yehieli

One of the countless responses to the deletion of artist Rami Meiri's nostalgic painting at Metzitzim Beach was written by Arnon Zack in the "History Lovers Group" on Facebook: "This is not a step enough," he claimed. "We must destroy all copies of the film." Some are extreme and angry, others sarcastic, others have noticed that he used a post called "Kings of Israel Square", as MK Osnat Mark recently did, and that, in fact, is the important message that emerges from this post.

• By Huldai: The mythological painting on Metzitzim Beach has been deleted

Photo: Guy Yechieli

Deleting Meiri's nostalgic painting is invalid in two main respects: cultural and historical. Cultural - Because this painting, like many of Meiri's many scattered throughout the first Hebrew city, has long been an integral part of its landscapes, folklore that expresses the identity of a place that, like any other place, has evolved evolutionarily. Just as even if we burn all the copies of the movie "Peeks", it will still be an integral part of our identity, so will the same painting. Preventing social conventions from the early 1970s from remaining accepted even 50 years later - that is our job, that of parents, educators and sensible mayors, and no erasure of any work of art that is part of our culture will do that for us.

This of course is also what connects us to the historical cause. History cannot be changed, but one can learn from it and not repeat it. Just as the ear is unable to hear the phrase "Kings of Israel Square" today, as it expresses contempt and an attempt to erase a piece of history that is a disaster on our heads if we dare to try to erase it, so the sexual harassment culture that is part of our history cannot be erased. True - but it is also the part that makes us today raise our heads and say: "No more!". Deleting Meiri's painting is like a mandatory exit from real treatment of this difficult and terrible phenomenon. A band-aid on an open wound that requires stitches.

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This action looks at first glance like a local branch of the global trend of removing statues of colonialism heroes, who are responsible for massacres, dispossessions and abuses of entire peoples. But the case before us is different. Meiri's painting is not a glorification of rape or a monument to the voyeur. It is a reference to a scene from a Tel Aviv cult film in which the city's residents gave this beach its popular name. By the way, anyone who knows the film and watched it in depth, also knows how critical he himself is of this subculture.

Our culture is ours, even when it is unpleasant to digest or look at. The change towards a better future, what to do, requires more courage, intellect and strength, than can be put in a bucket or two of paint bought at Tambouria.