Gideon Levy, a columnist at Haartez, an Israeli newspaper, spoke about Israeli society and the occupation of the West Bank in a public lecture at the LSE last Monday, 7th March. The lecture was hosted by the School’s Middle East Centre.
Levy writes a weekly column for Haartez, focusing on the Israeli occupation. A recipient of various journalism awards, most recently the Euro-Med Journalist Prize, Levy also published a new book, The Punishment of Gaza, this year.
At the LSE, Levy said his “modest mission” as a journalist was to “re-humanise the Palestinians” in Israeli society. Addressing an audience of approximately 100 people, Levy spoke of the lack of public discussion in Israel about the occupation, saying the dehumanisation of the conflict is the main problem in Israeli society.
Levy emphasised the deeply moral aspects of Israelis as “people with values”. He contrasted this with what he said was the dehumanisation of the current conflict and the “self censorship” of Israeli media. He claimed Israeli media tailors itself to “please our readers” and that this contributes to the “coma” in Israeli society.
Levy warned Israel must understand that the Arab world and the international community are watching the occupation and “cannot remain indifferent”. As a self-described “patriotic Israeli”, he said anyone who wants to be a friend of Israel must “raise his voice against the occupation”. He said he did not expect any change to come from within Israeli society, claiming the left wing in Israel is a small minority. Instead, Levy said, the United States needs to play a more assertive role in the country.
In a question-and-answer session following his lecture, Levy was questioned about the current Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. He said while he understands the “motivation for wanting to punish Israelis”, he does not think BDS will be effective because it will make Israeli society more nationalistic. An academic boycott, he said, would be directed in the wrong place. He also said within Israel, BDS is perceived as another method of attempting to delegitimise the state and has not been effective.
When asked if he supported a “one state” solution, Levy said he would like to live side-by-side with Palestinians in one state, if it were to be equal and democratic. He said he was sceptical as to whether this would be the case, and therefore said he supported a two state solution.
Levy was generally well-received by the audience. Jay Stoll, a first-year history and international relations student, told the Beaver Levy was “typical of the overly pessimistic left wing in Israel, but spoke straight from the heart”.
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