Is there a similar debate within artistic and literary circles in Israel?
I think sometimes there is a kind of optical mistake, and people outside of Israel believe that most Israeli writers and artists are political. It is absolutely not the case. Very few of us are voicing our opinions and criticizing openly. When it comes to writers, it’s very few, but of course these are the people that are well known. And by the way, there are wonderful writers who say, “I don’t want to pay the heavy price that it takes to be involved politically, and to be banned by large groups of people within Israel who will never read my books because they think I am too leftist.” Have you always thought of yourself as a political writer? Not at all. To me, the most interesting thing is really to document the inner life of the individual. I was born to a conflict area, I was born to war. And exactly how I would describe my surroundings if I were born in China, this is what I do in Israel. You just try to understand the place of the individual in this really tormented situation, how
