Natalia has just asked me, What is the status of the Israeli anthem, Hatikvah.

The truth is, I never gave it too much thought, regarded it as the weather.
"Hatikvah" means Hope. Read today, it sounds quite naive. Back in 1886 it was written for the stateless Jewish people.

Nowadays the State of Israel has non-Jewish citizens as well, which for sure cannot but feel left out, if not alienated.

So, no less than it is an anthem, it has become a mirror of our weakness and wrong doing.

I assume, or rather hope, that in a future peaceful Middle East and egalitarian Israel, this will also be amended into another, no less naive, poem:

As long as the human spirit is yearning deep in the heart,

With eyes turned toward the world, looking toward Peace,

Then our hope - the humanity-old hope - will not be lost:

To be a free people on our Planet Earth,

The land of all of us here.
.......................

Actually to-night, 18 hours from now, on the eve of Passover, we'll be celebrating this very hope and yearning.

High time to notice the difference. 

Comments: Post a Comment