by admin

No Brainwashing

If I were writing about this now for children, I would first of all tell the truth, but avoid heightening it too sensationally the way the media does for adults. I would try to raise the point of view of the other, the one who attacks us and kills us, to clarify a little, to myself and the young reader, what could motivate someone who attacks us to do these terrible deeds. To check if our side was not, God forbid, committing similar acts. In short, I would not be satisfied with one narrative in which there are only the good (us) and the bad (them.) I would emphasize universal values that apply to all people. I would write with imagination and playfully, and never as brainwashing.

Yehudit Kafri, born on Kibbutz Ein HaHoresh in 1935, has written 15 books, eight of them poetry, and has worked as a translator and book editor.