One of the hallmarks of liberal thinking is the denial of evil. However, in the wake of the October 7 massacre, many liberal Israelis finally did acknowledge the evil nature of their Gazan neighbors. Others held on to their liberal dogma or reverted to it as the months passed. Last week, 18 months after the massacre, an Israeli mayor publicly compared the IDF’s actions in Gaza to Nazi atrocities. Other leftists attend protests against the war, carrying photos of Gazan children killed during the conflict, placing the blame for their deaths on Israel instead of Hamas.

Avida Bachar of Kibbutz Be’eri, who lost his wife, his 15-year-old son, and one of his legs on October 7, is a “betrayed leftist” who experienced a permanent turnabout in his views, even saying that it was fortunate the massacre occurred in the Gaza border area rather than in Yehudah and Shomron because of the lessons he learned from it, saying that if it had happened in the Shomron, he would have blamed the Jews who lived there instead of the Arabs.

His fellow kibbutznik, Sigal, the almanah of Arie Kraunik, H’yd, the head of Kibbutz Be’eri’s security squad who was killed in the massacre after single-handedly killing eight Hamas terrorists, was invited to speak at the Hartman high schools for girls in Jerusalem, one of the institutions associated with the liberal Hartman Institute in  Jerusalem.

During Sigal’s speech on Monday, she quoted Bachar about feeling fortunate that she finally understood the true nature of Israel’s Arab neighbors. However, the principal of the school was not pleased by her words and sent a student to “silence” her.

Following the speech, Sigal wrote a post about her experience on social media: “When there were about 400 students in the hall, I began my speech that I’ve already delivered about 250 times. In the middle, the student who invited me approached me and signaled me to stop for a moment and whispered something in my ear: ‘The principal says that this isn’t the school’s message, and if it’s possible, skip ahead and go directly to your personal story.'”

I said to her: ‘This is the speech, this is my truth, and if it doesn’t suit the principal, I can leave and go home.’ I hadn’t even finished the sentence when suddenly there was thunderous applause in the hall. The students were applauding loudly.”

“That’s how a victory of the spirit is born!” she asserted. “Education should allow students the power of choice. A democracy holds space for every opinion and free choice. I continued my speech only for those pure faces and hands that expressed what their hearts wanted,” she concluded.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)