This wasn’t just an argument between artists — it was a rupture. Between Jerusalem and the center, Mizrahim and Ashkenazim, reservists and petition-signers. When singer and wounded soldier Idan Amedi responded to a petition signed by dozens of Israeli artists calling to end the war in Gaza, he didn’t just reject it. He cracked open a hidden truth: not all Israelis are fighting the same war — or for the same country
One war. Two languages
Amedi, a Jerusalem-born Kurdish-Israeli who was seriously wounded in Gaza, didn’t hold back. His words hit hard:
“Disconnected and spreading lies. In every house in Gaza there’s antisemitic, anti-Jewish propaganda — from photos of martyrs to stickers saying ‘With blood and fire we’ll reach Jerusalem’. A bunch of privileged people echoing stupidity, ignorance, and falsehoods
Among the petition’s signatories: Hemi Rudner, Gidi Gov, Chava Alberstein, Assaf Amdursky, Yaakov Gilad, Gal Uchovsky, Sivan Talmor, and Tamir Muskat — many of them veteran artists from Israel’s cultural core, largely Ashkenazi and secular
The real clash: not individuals — but identities
The online reaction was immediate. For many, Amedi represents the soldier, the burden-bearer, the reservist, the voice of a city — Jerusalem — that consistently votes right and sends its sons to war. The petitioners? They speak of peace, quote universal values, and rarely enter the mud
This isn’t just policy disagreement — it’s a fight over who belongs
(Western Wall Clash: Women’s Torah Sparks New Divide)
And as the war drags on — the divide only deepens
As footage of Israeli hostages resurfaces and soldiers continue dying underground, Israeli discourse becomes more fractured. Who’s fighting and who’s signing? Who mourns — and who sings protest songs
Each cultural storm uncovers what many try to ignore: we’re no longer one country. Maybe we never were
