After some months participating in this community it has been astonishing to realize how dysfunctional can intelligent, progressive and informed individuals be when discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To the point where one of the issues that has most urgency of tolerant and profound debate is avoided by most Kossaks in order to stay away from the argumentative pandemonium.
This is completely unacceptable. I discuss the I-P conflict almost every day with Christian Palestinians, Muslim Palestinians, Jews and other pro-Palestinians and pro-Israelis and it is always extremely difficult to maintain a respectful and open debate between the parts. But it is always possible. There is NO justification whatsoever for allowing intolerants to intimidate the majority of the people into avoiding the subject, there is no justification for the values of liberalism and intolerance to be blended forcefully. There is no justification for us to give up fair-minded civility because of some tyrannical adolescents.
Although I am a supporter of considering and debating every argument with no restrictions at all, because as mature people we should be able to stomach opinions we disagree with and respond to them rationally, there are certain principles that can help us identify which elements in the discussion are being constructive and which are simply disseminating hatred. I recommend the principles created by the Israeli Journalist Bradley Burston, who writes frequently in Haaretz and has an online talkback section. He actually uses these standards to limit the debate and applies censorship to those who do not comply. These are:
http://www.haaretz.com/...
The guiding principles of the talkback forum for this article will be mutual respect and openness to dialogue. Participants, even if they rule out, dismiss or oppose coexistence, must, within the confines of this forum, practice it.
Censorship will be unapologetic.
Political orientation will have absolutely no bearing on whether a comment is posted or rejected.
The following will be grounds for deletion:
- Racist remarks, as well as slurs on the basis of religion, ethnicity and gender.
- Use of the terms Nazi, Hitler, to describe the actions and policies of Israelis, Palestinians or other parties to the Israel-Arab conflict.
- Disparaging remarks, personal attacks, vulgarities and profanities directed at other participants in the forum.
- Advocacy of violence against individuals or religious, ethnic or racial groups, including statements which may be construed as urging attacks on leaders, officials, security forces or civilians.
Of course, I do not suggest censorship be applied to I-P diaries, but many times I have seen discussions on whether a comment was trollish or not and inflammatory or not. These guidelines could make that discussion easier to settle. Following these principles could help us create a less ridiculously hostile environment for discussing this important issue and aid us in identifying which comments and members of the community are truly engaging in honest, positive debate and which are simply destroying any possibility of dialogue.
This is a conflict that has been fueled and maintained largely thanks to the persistence of myths, prejudices and narrow-mindedness. Only through honest and tolerant dialogue can we help conquer these foes and create the common ground and mutual understanding that will some day end the bloodshed. I know, I'm not 8 years old; I know we won't bring peace to the Middle East. But honestly, between helping a little bit through dialogue and exacerbating hatred through hostility, we should all choose the former or stop calling ourselves progressives.
Salam
Shalom
Yoel