Debating Founding Myths

S. Yizhar’s novella Khirbet Khizeh describes how an Israeli army unit expelled Arab residents from their village in the War of Independence. Published in 1949 this fictionalized account was met with controversy. Some argued such actions were the cost of a war foisted on us. These painful episodes were part of the necessities of building a state. Others suggested that such openness about Israeli wrongs were fundamental to the nation living up to its self-proclaimed moral vision. Perhaps such debates could pave the way toward reconciliation between Arabs and Jews.

By the 1960’s Yizhar’s novella found its way into Israel’s high school curriculum. Israel’s role in its Palestinian neighbors’ trauma was debated in those years. Such controversial and painful discussions were not censored from textbooks or forbidden from public conversations.

Listen to Khirbet Khizeh’s narrator. Take note of his struggling voice:

There was something in me that wanted to rebel, something destructive, heretical, something that felt like cursing everything. Who could I speak to? Who would listen? They would just laugh at me. I felt a terrifying collapse inside me. I had a single, set idea, like a hammered nail, that I could never be reconciled to anything, so long as the tears of a weeping child still glistened as he walked along with his mother, who furiously fought back her soundless tears, on his way into exile, bearing with him a roar of injustice and such a scream that—it was impossible that no one in the world would gather that scream in when the moment came—and then I said to Moishe: “We have no right, Moishe, to kick them out of here!” I didn’t want my voice to tremble. And Moishe said to me: “You’re starting with that again!” And I realized that nothing would come of it.

In 1978, the novella was made into a TV film. The government was then led by Likud’s Menahem Begin and sought to ban the broadcast. The film was eventually aired. This sparked heated public arguments. The debates continue, although in recent years, most especially after October 7th, such discussions are far from the lips of most Israelis. My thoughts are joined with theirs. Bring the hostages home now.

Here, among American Jews Khirbet Khizeh and the story it recounts is little known. Its author, considered one of the giants of modern Hebrew literature, remains an unfamiliar figure. The book was only translated into English in 2008. It was not part of the story we like to tell about Israel and its founding. We speak only of Israel’s victories and achievements (and there are many!) or its ongoing challenges against its many enemies (again, there are many). We prefer not to discuss its pitfalls or even its wrongdoings. We never mention Israel’s sins. Why do we not think a nation can be great even though it has committed wrongs?

And I suspect people will question the wisdom and judgment of my recalling such things on the day we celebrate Israel’s independence and while Israel, and its soldiers, are engaged in a protracted war. Our soldiers keep dying! But we suppress such controversies to our own detriment. When we ignore these debates, we aid in eroding Israel’s moral character. No matter how justified our cause, not all is justified by our hands. No matter how inhumane and genocidal our enemies, not all is permitted in our response.

My teacher, Rabbi Donniel Hartman writes:

It is understandable that fear has led us to focus principally on our own well-being, setting aside our moral obligations to others. But survival alone has never exhausted our goals as a people. We are not commanded to walk in the ways of God and do that which is just and right only in times of safety and prosperity. We are expected to have moral concerns and aspirations even in this time of existential fear. (“Morality in Times of Fear”)

On this Yom Haatzmaut, my hope and prayer remain the same. I wish for an Israel, and Jewish people, who are once again unafraid to take up challenging moral debates. I can celebrate and I can question. Call me naïve about the threats to our existence (and many most certainly will), call me disloyal (and some most certainly will) but I continue to believe that our very survival depends on living up to lofty moral standards.

God created all human beings in the divine image! There are starving children in Gaza.

The angst in the narrator’s voice haunts me. I hear his words “nothing would come of it” again and again.

How can this be true? It flouts Zionism’s teachings. We are masters of our own story. We have the power to write a new story for our people. We can also write a better story for our neighbors.

May the coming year be the writing of that story.