Remembrance Day

Exactly one week ago Israel marked Holocaust remembrance day. Clare and I were driving to Akko, when a siren marked the start of this remembrance day. Thousands of cars pulled over simultaneously, everyone standing outside their cars for the 2 minute silence. The whole country was standing still in memory of the six million Jewish victims.

Today is the annual remembrance day for Israel's dead soldiers and civilians killed in action and acts of terror. Memorial ceremonies throughout the country give a platform for communal grief. Tonight, at the end of Remembrance day, Israel will start celebrating 60 years of independence. But Israel's one million Palestinian Arab citizens will not be celebrating. They will be marking the 60th anniversary of Nakba day, their day of catastrophe representing defeat in the 1948 war and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

During last night's moving and emotional ceremony commemorating the fallen sons and daughters of Zichron Yaakov I realized something. We are a nation suffering from trauma. Two thousand years of collective memory of discrimination, abuse, murder and expulsion culminating in genocide - the Holocaust. And now, even with the establishment of a Jewish state, we experience wars and further loss. We are still traumatized. But the trauma has created an emotional blind spot. We are unable to see the suffering we have inflicted upon our enemy and feel their pain. We are unable to see that the world has changed. We are not a defenseless persecuted people anymore. Israel is a regional superpower, yet we still feel vulnerable.

The time has come to create a shared remembrance day in Israel. A day that commemorates the dead on both sides. A day when both communities acknowledge their pain and the others'. Maybe then we will be able to move forward and celebrate life in a shared society, a country where all its' citizens feel at home.