Jewish schools targeted by gunfire in Montreal, swastikas, vandalized synagogues, threatening graffiti near an Islamic center, calls for violence against Jews from a self-proclaimed imam, calls for violence against Gazans from a renowned cardiologist, slip-ups at university, hateful invectives from both sides…
One month after the October 7 massacre in Israel, in the wake of the deadly escalation in the Middle East, Quebec is unfortunately not immune from the terrible outbreak of hatred fueled by the Israeli-Israeli conflict. Palestinian. He is not immune to the worrying rise of “us versus them.”
“I am deeply troubled by the rise of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim bigotry,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres wrote this week on X. “The images of suffering in the Middle East are heartbreaking and upsetting. But the hateful rhetoric and provocative actions must stop. We must find a way to hold on to our common humanity. »
António Guterres is right. Clinging to our common humanity is indeed the only way out. The hardest to find too, when tensions and wounds are high and injunctions to choose one’s side are rife, according to a binary warlike rhetoric which ultimately invites us to choose between two hatreds.
Between two hatreds, there is not one that is less or more acceptable, that goes without saying. Both should be equally repugnant to us. Because in truth, whether we are talking about anti-Semitism or anti-Arab racism, we are talking about the same hatred that nothing justifies.
Everyone has the right to their opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But no one has the right to their own hatred. Acts of violence like those witnessed in recent days in Montreal are unacceptable. Hate speech is just as bad. Only words? No. Because it is first of all with words that we create hatred. It is first of all with words that we construct scapegoats. It is first of all with words that we divide society into “us against them”, in contempt of our common humanity.
“Whether we are Israelis or Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, Jews or Muslims, Christians or atheists, French or Americans, we will never be wary enough of the use of “us against them”, which inevitably signals the beginning of obscurantism and blindness,” wrote recently in The world the writer and essayist Dominique Eddé. However, she added, the use of these three words is currently recording terrifying records, from one side of the planet to the other.
“The barbaric carnage of Hamas on October 7 not only caused thousands of Israeli civilian deaths and injuries, it threw a bomb into minds and hearts, it stopped thought. He authorized the unleashing of passions against the reasons and proofs of history1. »
Nothing seems more dangerous to me than this resurgence of “us versus them”. As if, between two human beings hostage to this conflict, we should choose by checking their identity papers which of the two deserves to be part of the human “we” with the right to life and dignity.
There should be nothing contradictory in demanding both the release of Israeli hostages and a humanitarian ceasefire.
There is nothing contradictory in condemning both the atrocious massacre by Hamas and the atrocious bombings by the IDF.
There is nothing contradictory in having compassion both for the Israelis, who mourn their dead and face a terrible rise in anti-Semitism, and for the Palestinians, who also mourn theirs, are suffering an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and are faced with a terrible enterprise of dehumanization.
There is nothing contradictory about being wholeheartedly with Israeli children killed or kidnapped by Hamas while being wholeheartedly with Palestinian children who die under Israeli bombs. Whether Jewish or Palestinian, a child is always a child, never a soldier or collateral damage. Whether Jewish or Palestinian, an innocent civilian is an innocent civilian and his death is always a tragedy.
What is contradictory, however, is to think that by sowing hatred, we will reap peace.
I quote again Dominique Eddé, whose masterful text is a must-read: “Let us remember that life, death, day, night, pain, orphan, earth and peace are said the same in Arabic and in Hebrew. It is time for each of us to make an immense effort if we do not want barbarism to triumph at our doors, or worse: inside each of us. »
To meditate.