Saar Szekely has guts. Lots of them. Being a left-wing Israeli, apparently the only reason he went into Big Brother was to talk about the occupation of Palestine.
Sitting by a pool, contestants in the Israeli version of Big Brother start discussing politics. One of the female contestants boasts about how proud she feels when IDF people salute their flag on independence day and how moved she is by the memory of Israeli fallen soldiers.
Saar Szekely then replies to her that the IDF haven’t defended anything in a long time and that it doesn’t take 100 soldiers to guard 3 children with no facial hair on a hill that was stolen from the Palestinians. You can check out the rest of the heated conversation here.
“You need to wake up and realize that the only way to save this country is to remove it from this conflict and the only way to remove it from this conflict is to stop coveting more and more land, more and more power, and to realize that real power means stopping the fighting not prolonging it indefinitely.”
This is an Israeli man criticizing his country, the lands being stolen, the people being killed. To a non-Israeli point of view, this man is a pioneer – taking his point of view for his whole country to hear. And you know it will resonate with many who are watching. He has apparently reached the finals, against all odds. To many Israelis, on the other hand, he’s a traitor of everything they’ve done so far.
What’s fascinating, at least to me, is that a similar discussion can take place in Lebanon today, with a few minor adjustments and it would still resonate true. Saar Szekely is accused of calling the IDF murderers and of turning on “his own people.” If we, as Lebanese, had had a conversation about similar themes on national television, wouldn’t some deem others as traitors?
If we, as Lebanese, truly want to see change in Israel, we need to hope for more people like him to get to power and not to wipe the country off the face of the Earth. And I hope such a man can be the stepping stone into lessening the blinded hate towards Jews in Lebanon.
