A holiday of freedom in the land of captivity

These days, Jews are celebrating the holiday of freedom. They read the Haggadah, speak of liberation from bondage, of the cry of the oppressed, of the exodus from Egypt. But one need not look far in order to grasp the depth of the gap between that story and the reality in Israel. A glance out the window is enough. Because while Jews in Israel celebrate freedom, another people lives under occupation.

Millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are subject to Israeli rule, to the denial of basic rights, to military control, to checkpoints, to arrests, to home demolitions, to restrictions on movement. In the West Bank, it’s overcrowded refugee camps, and life beneath the shadow of constant arrests and nightly raids. In Gaza, it’s an ongoing ethnic cleansing, relentless bombings, and infrastructure destruction.

What is freedom if it does not include the right of others to be free? But the harsh and unspoken truth is that even Israeli Jews are not free. Israeli society as a whole is not free. It is held captive, not only to the occupation, but to those leading it.

The Religious Zionism party, and especially its elected representatives from the West Bank settlements, have become the country’s center of power. The faction controls budgets, influences the judicial system, shapes the public agenda, and sets political red lines that even the center-left hesitates to cross. The settler representatives have become a coercive force, not only over Palestinians, but also over the Jewish public in Israel.

This is a process that began on the fringes and has become politically mainstream. It’s a process in which a messianic-ideological minority dictates national identity, security policy and basic laws. It is a reality in which freedom becomes a privilege reserved only for those who fall in line.

And so, even the liberals among them – those who still believe in human rights and democracy – are themselves captive. Slaves to political fear. Slaves to silence. Slaves to alliances with an extreme right that is so far removed from the values of freedom that the word itself sounds like a joke.

Those who don’t dare call the occupation by its name, who are unwilling to confront the moral and legal implications of apartheid, are not truly celebrating freedom. They are celebrating the normalization of oppression. The Passover Haggadah demands that we identify with the oppressed. But that identification becomes hollow when it exists alongside the silencing, repression, and denial of present-day oppression.

It is time to say it plainly: There is no such thing as partial freedom. You cannot celebrate the holiday of freedom while simultaneously upholding a regime of control and oppression. There is no true freedom as long as it belongs only to some people.

And in simple terms: Freedom that exists while denying another’s freedom is not freedom. It is a mask. An empty shell doomed to fall and crumble.

Because, as the American civil rights crusader Fannie Lou Hamer said, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”