From the conversation on my Facebook page and in honor of the memory of Henning Mankell, writer, theater director and social justice activist. From Inna Michaeli:

"As a Jewish Israeli I would like to point out that in Israel/Palestine, Jews aren't the victim anymore. Unfortunately, we are the perpetrators. Victim is the weaker side of power relations, and in the region, it is Israel that concentrates military, political and economic power. There is nothing "safe" about being on the privileged side of an ethnically segregated system of violence and discrimination. Israel is the only place in the world where I am ashamed to be a Jew. Check out the website of Adalah for legal rights of Arab minority in Israel - they list *dozens* of laws in Israel discriminating against non-Jews. And that's even before entering the terrible everyday racism and the "truths" I heard upon immigrating as a child to Israel, like "a good Arab is a dead Arab". There is nothing safe in having your soul and the souls if your loved ones poisoned by hatred, racism and active complicity in violence, mass-killings and de-humanization of people. I also personally knew people who died - but I don't think my life worth more than that of a Palestinian woman in Gaza. But their deaths are not a big deal, the Israeli society feels it's natural that entire families are murdered. They are used to entire families dying and the israeli "we" will never remember their names. Of course some people will feel sorry from a human perspective. But there will always be justification and it will always be their fault anyways. Because we can do terrible things and victimise people for generations and still somehow claim to be the victim. But the fact that an abusive person was abused in childhood doesn't make the abuse alright."