Israel is ignoring a real national emergency
One of the greatest sins of the builders of the Tower of Babel was indifference to human life, a sin that lives on today as we ignore dozens of construction workers falling to their deaths to build our homes
But the country will be silent, despite these 58 futile deaths. The streets will not fill with protesters, the prime minister will not call for an emergency cabinet meeting. The spilled blood will shock us, but we'll get right back to whatever distraction is on the menu nowadays.
Who wants to thoroughly look into these tragedies? The majority of construction workers are Arabs, new immigrants, or just the kind of people that have very difficult realities. There's no one to scream out about their suffering.
On Saturday, the whole country was on its feet to give Europe a Eurovision production it's never seen before. An unforgettable event in which everything worked according to plan, to the highest standards.
But this massive production came with a silent price: the death of Fuldi Schwartz, a worker who died at the Expo venue, where the compeition was held.
We've chosen to repress his kind eyes, and not to listen to his children's harsh questions. Can we even accommodate this horrible disaster, alongside the most magnificent festival Israel has ever produced?
We can't. No one wanted to remember Fuldi's death and have it overshadow the joys of Eurovision.
We know very well how to pull off an international event in the best way possible when we want to. And when we don't want to try hard, we also know very well how to repress and ignore another silent death in the backstage of a construction site.
In our culture of neglect and shortcuts, this is just a daily routine in which human life is worthless, and there's no judge to lock up the culprits.
According to our Jewish scriptures, one of the greatest sins of the builders of the Tower of Babel was indifference to human life. "If a man fell and died, they didn't notice. But if a single brick fell, they would sit and weep over it…"
It describes a corrupt reality where the goal, the material achievement is mightier than the most precious thing in the world — human life. And here, we can see this happening right in front of our eyes, corrupting us. When a man is only a tool, his life is worthless. He is the means for the contactors to build more building for less money.
Our brothers are dying in silence, since for us they are nothing but toiling hands. This is a national emergency. We mustn't look away from this wrong or back horrible failings in our race for more and more real estate. Any family who lost a loved one must know that this death has a price, a high price.
They must know that the ones behind the wrong-doing will not get away without punishment, even if the sole comfort it brings is that it might prevent the next disaster.
