Humor can save Bridges

Motek from Space, one of the first time volunteers to start Building Bridges, has found this wonderful Israeli initiative. There, I saw this really funny anti-Semitic cartoon today. And I felt free to laugh. So I did and it felt good.

Because, yes sometimes it does feel that the media of the world accept more things from the Israeli government than they would from any other country in the world. However, this is hard to bring under words without running the risk of being anti-Semitic immediately. I'll give it a shot anway.

The Great Wall of Israel that is being build right now -fear turned into concrete- ravages homes, communities, economies and farms. I believe that even South Africa would not have been able to get away with a project like this when this country was passing through it’s darkest period. A structure up to 5 meters high and made out of reinforced concrete and steel, is described as a 'Fence’.

This is a major spin-achievement, whichever way you look at it.

Yet, somehow, whenever someone tries to lend a voice to the protests against this Great Wall, he or she is almost immediately branded an anti-Semite. Ask Gretta Duisenberg.

So yeah, sometimes it does look like the media choose the side of the Israeli Government, if only by so easily adapting the euphemisms presented by the spin-doctors. As well as the damaging labels. This effectively ends a very valid discussion. And where discussion leaves, violence enters. The mere fact that someone wants to lend his or her voice in the public debate to speak against actions of the Israeli government should not brand him or her an anti-Semite. A point now finally and effectively proven by the Israeli Anti Semite Cartoon Contest. Being offended by recent Iranian outburst of Holocaust Cartoons, these Israeli’s decided to NOT take to the streets and NOT set fire to the nearest Iranian Restaurant they could find. No, they decided that the best response to a badly disguised provocation by a small group of extremists would be indeed to laugh it off. And not take it too seriously. These guys took it one step further still. They set out to prove that if anyone could poke fun at the Israeli's, no one would be better at it then the Israeli's themselves. Not only have they come up with a great initiative to Build Bridges in Cyberspace, they also have opened the debate on some issues usually deemed to dangerous to handle.

Dear Amitai and Eyal, ... Furtermore, in this blog we try to bring about a cross-cultural discussion by asking each other questions that we (assumed) we could never ask a muslim or a christian, never thought to ask or never dared to ask. We can now ask these questions to people who volunteer to add to the discussion in a calm and respectful manner. I would love it if you could come up with either a question to a Muslim, a Christian, a European or an American, or maybe an Israeli?

Kind regards,

Nico Moenens
Bridgethegapinblogspace.blogspot.com

This article is cross-posted at: http://www.volkskrantblog.nl/pub/blogs/entry.php?id=33296. Any comments will also be cross-posted.