'Hatikva' is simply out of date
Op-ed: The time has come for a new, inclusive national anthem – one that reflects the vision of the modern State of Israel and can be sung by all citizens regardless of their religion, race or sex.
Among them are no less than Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi). With moral outrage, Ya’alon gave the example of non-Jewish soldiers who are given the privilege of serving (and perhaps dying for) their country as long as they stand tall and salute when the anthem is played. Shaked, for her part, asserted that as long as the Arab judges are on their feet she won’t be checking what it is they are muttering under their breath.
Members of the opposition and prominent center-left activists have made the same argument, with Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer declaring that an Arab’s inability to identify with the "Jewish soul" is no measure of his loyalty to the state. The absurdity of this so-called defense of minority rights lies in its failure to recognize the crucial point: No country should have a national anthem that does not speak for all its citizens.
It is not only the Muslims, the Christians, the Copts and members of all other religions who cannot identify with the lyrics. At a election rally in February, Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Shlomo Cohen sparked a furor when he refused to sing what he called "this stupid song." His statement represented the sentiment of many members of the ultra-Orthodox community, who believe that the reference to a "free nation" means one free of adherence to God’s commandments.
Other countries with sizable minorities have grappled with the issue of an anthem that represents all their citizens. Canada, a country that could teach us a thing or two about putting nationalism in its proper place (there it’s primarily expressed in an appetite for maple syrup and adulation of hockey), solved the problem by adopting two different versions, one French and one English. There have been some proponents of this approach in Israel as well, but a modified Arabic version would not address the issue at the heart of the problem: "Hatikva" is simply out of date.
One wonders how it is that this 19th-century poem, which eloquently depicts the Jewish people’s longing for a homeland, was chosen as the anthem of the newly created independent State of Israel. The contradiction should speak for itself, but for those who don’t get it, let me paint the picture of our government and legislators standing in the Israeli Knesset "with eyes turned toward the East," their voices rising as they sing of their "yearning" to be "a free people."
Guess what, folks. To the East lies Mecca; Jerusalem is here. The song that was adopted by the Zionist Congress in 1897 has long lost its relevance. We willed it, and it is no longer a dream.
The time has come for a new, inclusive national anthem – one that reflects the vision of the modern State of Israel. We need an anthem that can be sung by all the citizens of Israel, "irrespective (in the words of the Declaration of Independence) of religion, race or sex."
Until that day comes, I urge all Jews of good conscience to stand in silence alongside their Arab countrymen, not as a rejection of the State but in defense of it and these values on which it was founded.
Susie Becher is a member of the Meretz National Executive.
