How do you find words in the face of horror, inhumanity and terrorism?
Can art help us better understand what happened at the end of the week, when babies were slaughtered, women raped, grandmothers kidnapped and young festival-goers slaughtered like savages?
Can the reign of beauty help us resist barbarian invasions?
That’s all I’ve thought about since Hamas’ unspeakable terrorist attacks on Israeli soil.
FROM 1973 TO 2023
At the end of the week, I insisted on watching the movie Golda with my 15-year-old son. The fabulous actress Helen Mirren brilliantly plays Golda Meir, the former Prime Minister of Israel.
I thought it was important for my teenager to know who Golda Meir was and what happened in 1973, during the 19 days of the Yom Kippur War. A surprise attack against Israel by its Arab neighbors, in the middle of a religious holiday. An exact parallel to the situation on October 7th.
- Listen to the Rioux-Durocher meeting with journalist Christian Rioux QUB radio :
Except in 1973… soldiers faced soldiers.
The film is not a masterpiece, but one image haunted me. At that time, Golda Meir was suffering from lymph node cancer and was secretly being treated in the hospital. To gain access to the treatment room, she is led through the hospital morgue. Each time the body count gets higher and higher.
“We still have problems with our neighbors,” Golda Meir tells US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger when she calls him to ask the US for help. Fifty years later, history repeats itself.
At that time, Meir successfully thwarted those who sought the complete annihilation of Israel. There are certain commentators who should see this film (which is still only playing in one theater in Montreal) before spewing nonsense about the events of the last few days.
As I watched the news from Israel, I thought of a groundbreaking book, a masterpiece that has haunted me since I read it in 2011.
This is Israeli author David Grossman’s book A Woman Fleeing the Announcement (a book that won him the Medici Foreign Prize).
Photo provided Bleecker Street
The woman of the title is Ora, who goes to the desert for 28 days because she is convinced that if she is not home, she will be the “announcement” of the death of her son (who is involved in a military operation in Palestinian territory is) will be experienced. , his son will not die.
But while he was writing this book, Grossman lost his son Uri, who was killed during his military service (which is mandatory for everyone in Israel). In this deeply moving book, Grossman describes the horrors of war and the pain of daily life in Israel.
But Grossman is not just an extraordinary writer. He is also a peace activist. This man, whose books have been translated into around thirty languages, is now the best-known Israeli writer and a fierce critic of the Netanyahu government…Find me another country in the region where artists can also be harsh critics of the government!
THE WORDS TO SAY IT
In his book, Grossman speaks of the “barbarism of reality.” These are the words that come to mind when talking about the events of the weekend.
