The days are dark days in Israel. The so-called progressive Greeks are ruling the country, and their influence is everywhere: people eat Dolmathes, listen to Hadjidakis, and go to Toga parties every Friday.
The year is 167 B.C., exactly 2,176 years and two weeks ago.
Something is missing. The Jews living in Israel call it: Freedom. Simply put, they are not independent.
One of the elderly of Mode'in, a Jewish town, is a simple guy named Mattathias (or Ma-Tit-Ya-Hu). A very respected person, and a man of peace. But even he have had enough:
(apologies for the anachronistic English; a Hebrew version of the story can be found here, ch. 2, 1-26)
"6 He saw the evils being committed in Judah and Jerusalem, and said:7 Alas! Why was I born to see this, the ruin of my people, the ruin of the holy city, and to dwell there when it was given over to the enemy, the sanctuary given over to aliens? 8 Her temple has become like a man without honor" (The First Book of Maccabees, ch. 2).
Seeing this injustice was too much for Mattathias and his sons. The worst happened when "15 ...the king's officers who were enforcing the apostasy came to the city of Mode'in to make them offer sacrifice. 16 Many from Israel came to them; and Mattathias and his sons were assembled."
'Are they crazy?' wondered Mattathias, 'forcing us to work their gods?'. And then, to his greatest astonishment, "23 ...a Jew came forward in the sight of all to offer sacrifice upon the altar in Mode'in, according to the king's command."
Mattethias did not have to think twice. "24 When Mattathias saw it, be burned with zeal and his heart was stirred. He gave vent to righteous anger; he ran and killed him upon the altar. 25 At the same time he killed the king's officer who was forcing them to sacrifice, and he tore down the altar."
So basically, one of the Israelis collaborated with the occupying regime. Mattathias, jealous to the Jewish God, hurried up and killed him, killed the soldier who was merely broadcasting the command, and destroyed what he could have.
Or is it? Does this ring a bell?
Many Palestinians collaborate with Israel. "Collaborators", they are called, or "Mashtapim" in Hebrew. When Palestinians reveal such collaborators, they simply kill them. This phenomena is more common than you may think. During the first Intifada (1987-1993), according to Palestinian resources, about a 1,000 were murdered by other Palestinians in the guilt of collaboration, Mattathias style (just to get some proportions, Israel killed about 1,100 Palestinians during the same period).
Actually, this is one of the main points Israelis use to show how un-democratic the Palestinians are.
What does this parallel to Hanukkah tell us? What is the lesson to be learned?
Does it justify the killing of brothers in the name of God?
Of course not.
For a while, I interpreted this story too literally. I hated Hanukah, just like I hate the killing of Palestinian collaborators. But then Naftali taught me an important lesson, and here it is: What this story comes to tell us is that living under occupation can make people do horrible things. It did it to Mattathias 2,000 years ago, and it does it to Palestinians now. When living under occupation, people learn to use excessive violence to resolve all problems.
Losing morality is only half of the damage that occupation causes. The other half is that it causes the occupier to loose its morality too. But this is for a different post.
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