The Shalitean movement

Doron Rosenblum
Haaretz
01 July '10

(While not my normal first choice of articles to read, Doron hits a number of points in this piece, about what amounts to a media created circus. Take your choice of whichever seem to best characterize the scene.)

I just have a question. I too am in favor of returning Gilad Shalit at-about-any-price, and I too want to join the mass movement supporting this. But before that, I wanted to find out what it's actually all about. Is this a protest against the government - or in favor of the Hamas position in the negotiations? Is this a support group for the soldier's parents - or just a way of tying on yellow ribbons supplied by the yellow press? Is this ad hoc organizing for something specific - or a form of mass psychosis which effectively undermines its primary purpose? Is it a cult, a religion or what? Or, given the style of the protest, is this some sort of group therapy? Is it defeatist or patriotic - or both?

I would be happy to have this clarified before I pack, tie, cut or whatever.

Joe Naive, Tel Aviv

Hi Joe,

Your questions partly contain the answers. We could easily reply "all of the above," but that would do an injustice to all the well-intentioned folks, who organized from the outset to support this tormented family and to urge (which of the sides? ) to move ahead with a reasonable deal. However, being familiar with the history of religion, we know it often happens that a human activity that derives from particular circumstances loses its original context and takes on new dynamics whose only relation to the original intentions is purely coincidental - and sometimes the opposite. This phenomenon is nicely summed up in the Monty Python film "Life of Brian," which shows how a single torn sandal can give rise to a whole religion.

This should not be construed to mean that a religion has already formed around the cause of one soldier. However, as in the narratives of the established religions, it appears that some of the movement's rituals have already assumed a life of their own and have become the goal, while the fate of the captive is only a pretext. But a pretext for what? For the warm feeling generated by gathering around an illusory common denominator, albeit one that is temporary and prosthetic, during a period of political polarization? For the feeling of collective self-victimization, in which the cause of one soldier becomes a kind of national definer of identity, in the absence of true political leadership? Such questions are perhaps best left to the theologians.

In any event, if you join the movement, it's important to see the forest for the trees. And also - indeed, above all - to remember that in the holiest religious places, you always find beggars, brokers, pickpockets and charlatans hanging out.

(Read full article)

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