The article “Should a Hated Word be Banned?” by Jodi Rudoren is about how it has been proposed to the Israeli government by lawmakers to ban calling people Nazis or other words relating to the Holocaust. Parliament in Israel gave preliminary approval of this new bill. The article quotes Rabbi Dov Lipman saying that, “every country has to establish value-based limits.” I disagree with his belief because countries limits may go to extremes.
Banning or limiting peoples freedom of speech is unjust. If Israel banned these words, it would be opposing their democratic belief of freedom of speech. It would also go against their country’s religion, Judaism. Also, Israel is still recovering from the Holocaust taking place. Banning these words would not only take away citizens freedom of speech, but also is trying to cover up the past. Overall, the ban would be a violation of Israeli citizen’s freedom of speech which is a very important idea to have.
The limits countries could set for their people’s freedom of speech could get out of hand. The proposal already is extreme. An Israeli citizen calling another person a Nazi or any other one of these words wouldn’t be considered unethical, but it would be considered a crime. The penalty for this crime would be a fine for up to $29,000 and up to six months in jail. This seems a little bit extreme, especially for the use of a word. Some Israeli government officials use Holocaust related words freely. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is one of these people. Some lawmakers believe he should be arrested. When a country takes power away from its people, they gain more control over them. People have less of a voice and this power can be abused.
Even though banning people’s freedom of speech is a unjust, the tragedies Jewish people faced during the Holocaust were even worse. Nazi Germany planed to kill every one of the 9.5 million Jewish people living in Europe. When World War II ended in 1945, around 6 million Jewish people had been killed. In present day Israel, newer generations are beginning to use words linked to awful and cruel parts of history causally. Such powerful and meaningful words shouldn’t be used in this way.
Even though words that have had such an impact on Israeli and Jewish history are being used in inappropriate ways, limiting people’s freedom of speech is also not right. Once words are banned, it opens up a whole new world. This power can either be used correctly or abused. However important the cause is, nothing is more important than freedom of speech.
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