In October 2006
, a year after the disengagement, Yair Lapid wrote a column titled "Things that could not be said during the disengagement".
Lapid explained that the settlers learned a lesson about the limitations of their own power, and claimed that the disengagement from Gaza was not a political move at all, but an internal move: "No one wanted to disengage from them, but only to teach them a lesson in modesty and perhaps also in democracy."
Indeed, we learned a lesson then: the State of Israel in 2005 was not a democracy, and it is doubtful if it is a democracy today.
The same selective persecution, the same hypocritical legal bureaucracy, the same injustice.
I was in Kfar Maimon, and on that hot and humid night when the heart rusted from tears and sweat, a parking night before what could have been the opening shot for a civil war, the left on its branches never ceased to express the longing for its opening.
Democracy during the secession period was at best a pseudo-democracy.
The state, the establishment, the media hoped that we would explode, that it would be violent, that it would slide and stain the stove.
They hoped to activate the holy cannon again, but the right, as usual from Altlana until the secession, did not fight the brothers.
A historic decision was then made.
again.
We are the real mother.
One can debate the geopolitical logic of the disengagement, but one cannot ignore the fact that Israeli democracy has been suspended.
was frozen
Sharon and his partners in the political, legal and media system took democracy on vacation.
Civil rights were disabled, freedom of speech was banned, demonstration and movement were stopped.
According to a report to the Knesset by Shai Nitzan, today rector and then the executor of the neutralization of democracy, 6,000 opponents of secession were arrested within nine months.
There were thousands more detained, the youngest among them ten years old.
In the democracy of 2005, the welfare authorities looked into the possibility of removing children from their homes and handing them over to foster families, minors were arrested because they dared to protest and were brought to court in droves.
The Shin Bet prepared lists of wanted Jews without an intelligence basis, but solely as a result of political and media incitement.
In real time I wrote in the old "Maariv": "Young girls have been locked up in the Maasiah prison for over two weeks, and no one is shouting hams. I have despaired of the etrog press, their morality rests on internal hypocrisy.
"The Prime Minister and the protracted media have turned the disengagement plan into a mechanism of discrimination and hatred. Instead of understanding, respect and support, embracing gestures of compassion and kindness, to those who in two months will pay a terrible price for all of us, we are alienated, separated and denied, often with undisguised mockery."
Those were dark days.
I was mostly amazed then by the hatred
.
The first appearance of the "Balfour" phenomenon.
In one of the columns before the disengagement, I published a correspondence between me and a kibbutznik from Sassa named Nir, who wanted to establish an association that would collect donations to increase compensation for the evacuees with the aim of raising public awareness of the settlers' suffering.
"Unfortunately, in every direction we turned we were met with refusal at best, and the same endless stream of curses at worst."
Nir sent an email to the "Shovi" movement, which was established with the aim of helping disengagement and in the process also facilitate the return of the settlers.
And this is the correspondence between Nir and Belha Ilon from the leadership of "Shovi" and Ami Ilon's wife.
"Hello, I am interested in engaging in an activity that raises awareness in the public, awareness of the suffering of the evacuees and the problematic nature of the evacuation. I of course support the disengagement plan, but am aware of the many problems associated with it. Now more than ever is the time to show our settler brothers that we empathize with their pain and I would love to support their hands. Help in any way possible. Thanks in advance, Nir"
And the answer he received: "Peace to Nir. We are aware of the difficulties the settlers face with the evacuation, but we would like to deal with the difficulties that the IDF soldiers and their families will face in the month of battle before the evacuation if there is violence in the evacuation.
Does this line of thought suit you?
Only if you can identify with this approach can we help you.
Thank you, Belha Elon."
As mentioned in 2005 we learned the power of the system.
of the whale.
For the first time I was struck by the recognition as an adult, that the DNA of the State of Israel is one of selective enforcement.
In symbolism befitting the biblical strengths
of the reality in which we live, the journalist Eli Tzipori was interrogated this week in Lahab 433. A long six-hour investigation, at the end of which software was leaked to one of the shofars. In my opinion, Tzipori and his friends at the Open Studio are doing a noble civic act. They are fighting for the truth.
Even if you don't share his views, even if you, like me, disapprove of his style - yes, it's hard for me too that he is attacking people, some of them my friends - if he didn't exist, he would have to be invented.
When weighing the style and aesthetics of his tweets against his contribution to the existence of the democratic principle: justice not only needs to be done but also seen - I think the scale is tipped in favor of the Sipa.
The judicial system chose not to broadcast the most important trial of our time.
She sought to do justice in her usual perverted procedure, which is to provide the public with context-free trial excerpts from witnesses, through her army of court speakers, court transcripts.
Eli Tzipori together with Kinneret Brashi, Avi Weiss and the Open Studio team disrupted the program.
Instead of continuing the circus of selective coverage that began during the investigations, they bring the happenings in court in real time.
Anyone who reads the minutes that are published two weeks after the hearing, immediately notices that Tzipori is more accurate in his reports than the known court records.
This is the reason, in my opinion, that the ombudsman woke up. The decision to open an investigation into the harassment of a witness, due to the publication of the photo of Hadas Klein's house from Google, brings us closer to the Jordanization of the judicial system.
And the obvious must be said - Tzipori is a journalist.
The publication of the photo was a journalistic action designed to confront the witness with a claim she made herself in court, and to report to the public about contradictions arising from it.
Tzipori did not threaten the congregation.
The prosecutor's office, on the other hand, threatened Hefetz and Filber in a manner reminiscent of dark regimes.
And here, as in 2005, as in Etherog Sharon, the media's shame is revealed in its shame.
Freedom of speech is a dead letter for them.
Were we wrong?
We will fix it!
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