We Are the Pirate: A Call for Responsibility An appeal to the public on behalf of the “Silence is a Crime” forum
Thich Nhat Hanh wrote in his poem, “Please Call Me by My True Names”: “I am the 12-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat, who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate — and I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving.” This poem was written from a deep recognition that as long as we disconnect ourselves from evil, we will continue to perpetuate it.
We, mental health and welfare professionals, are writing to you not from the outside but from the inside, from the same boat. We recognize the need to maintain a protected piece of goodness and to locate evil on the outside, in the “other,” in the margins, in the hilltop youth, or in the leadership. We too feel the need to point an accusing finger, to distance ourselves, and to declare, “not in my name.”
As professionals dealing with the human psyche, we are intimately familiar with the price of this psychological splitting: the wall meant to protect the good hardens, the hardening turns into indifference, and indifference enables horrific acts.
Throughout these years, we have all experienced a moment of painful disillusionment. The moment we realized that the perpetrators and wrongdoers are not the “other.” They are an inseparable part of us. They are our children, our neighbors, the people passing us by on the street. They are us. Therefore, this letter does not appeal to the Chief of Staff or the Minister of Defense, it does not appeal to the Police Commissioner or the settler public, but rather, it appeals to the entire Israeli public.
Since the beginning of the war with Iran, at least 19 Palestinians have been murdered in the West Bank by settlers or security forces; hundreds of others have lost their homes, and many more have been attacked and injured. These acts are not committed by a handful of people or “marginalized youth,” but by ever-growing groups, some of whom are part of the security forces, and all of whom represent a mainstream mindset in today’s Israeli public sphere.
Therefore, we turn to you, the public, not to the leadership and not to the “other.” Instead of pointing an accusing finger outward, we must begin with an inward look. It is important to remember that taking responsibility does not mean we are all equally guilty, but only that not a single one of us can stand idly by.
Silence is not neutrality. Silence is an action. We must stop being silent.