Haruki Murakami 村上春樹コミュのMurakami delivered the brave speech in Israel

Murakami delivered the brave speech in Israel.

Many pro-Palestinian groups have insisted that Haruki Murakami must withdraw from the Jerysalem Prize from Mayor Nir Bakat.

Their points are that the purpose of the 'Jerusalem Prize', being to praise one's contribution to "individuals' freedom in society". This concept is in total contradiction of Israel's criminal acts such as massacre, collective punishment, blockade policy, construction of settlements and building of the 'separation wall' in East Jerusalem that are effectively eliminating Palestinians' freedom.

However, Murakami dared to take the step going to Israel and received the prize.

Murakami made the brave speech there.

He introduced a kind of metaphor at the speech in return for the prize-winning at the ceremony.
He said that there were a wall rising in front of us, and the egg deliberately crash onto it.
Murakami said he would always take up the the position for the egg.
Murakami implied he criticized both of Izrael and Hamas with the metaphor.　

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[1] mixiユーザー 02月17日 15:44

As long as Murakami criticized both Israel and Hamas I agree with him and support his being there. At first when I heard that he was accepting the prize it made me a little afraid, because Israel has killed so many innocent people and engages in wars of aggression, etc. On the other hand, Israel is also victim of a lot of hatred, horrible acts, and the bombs and missiles fired by Hamas guerillas for a long time. His pointing out of BOTH sides of the argument as deserving criticism make me love him even more -- both sides are wrong, and I'm happy he made that point during the acceptance instead of simply accepting Israel's side of things.

[2] mixiユーザー 08月25日 00:47

Hi, I have only now noticed this topic - in fact I seem to have caused some 'stir' in some of the Murakami fan communities in Japanese, by raising a question (not necessarily to criticise the acceptance, I just wanted to discuss the matter), so ... since I was away and couldn't access the Internet around mid-February anyway, I've stayed away from Murakami communities since.

Anyway. I thought the speech was wonderful. Yes it was metaphoric but, personally, I think he was critical of Israel. Yes he is critical of violence in general, but it's been so disproportionate, and I think we need to remember that he was speaking to an Israeli audience. I think he was brave in this sense. I especially like the part 'The System did not make us: We made The System', which I understand to be a criticism of us all, not only the governments.

If you read Japanese, there are some good articles in 文藝春秋/Bungei Shunju (April issue) and 週刊朝日/Shukan Asahi (6 March issue) ;-)

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