Color Me Orange

By Paula R. Stern
May 2005

Unlike many in Israel, including hundreds of thousands of Jews born in Eastern European or Arab countries, I have always had the honor and luck to live in a democracy. Born in the United States and then having relocated to the only real democracy in the Middle East, I have always been proud of the lengths to which our justice system has gone in order to protect the democratic rights of the inhabitants of Israel.

Having stated without reservation that I am proud to live in a democratic country, one dedicated to honoring the individual while serving the whole, I feel free now to admit my utter amazement at the actions of the police and security forces. I am not surprised that Ariel Sharon’s government is afraid of everything orange. Orange, the color of the sunrise.

Orange is the color of those who oppose Sharon’s plan, but in its own way, orange is becoming the voice of democracy in a country where suddenly irrational fear is replacing freedom and paranoia is rampant. What else is it but paranoia when security guards at the Western Wall spend more effort determining the color of a child’s shirt or bracelet than the contents of a backpack?

What else but irrational fear would cause security guards at the Knesset to confiscate orange scarves from a delegation of Indian visitors simply because of the color? What did they think the Indians were going to do? Did they fear our honorable leaders would be strangled? Was something possibly hidden by or under the scarves? No, the security threat to the nation's leaders came from the simple fact that the scarves were orange. Orange, the color of the sunshine.

Young girls wearing orange t-shirts were refused entry to the Western Wall. A boy wearing an orange t-shirt under other layers of clothing was forced to undress before being allowed to proceed. If you approach the Western Wall wearing an orange bracelet, the new police regulations suggest you will be forced to remove it or surrender your right to pray at Judaism’s second holiest site (the first being the actual Temple Mount itself).

A boy wanting to take part in the national Bible competition was refused the right to participate until he removed or covered his orange t-shirt. Bracelets, orange strips of material, t-shirts, hats. All forbidden because of the color…and more importantly the fact that it represents opposition to the government’s plan. Orange, the color of the sunset.

A Knesset member was ejected from the proceedings because he donned an orange hat. He did not scream, as they are wont to do, nor did he threaten. The simple act of putting on an orange hat was enough. And the more the Sharon government exhibits this incredible reaction to orange, the more powerful the symbol becomes.

Day by day, Israel is turning orange as people realize that Sharon’s plan endangers the security of our country. Top IDF members have expressed their hesitation. The highest officers are warning that Hamas is re-arming and getting ready to thrust yet another, more intense terror battle against us.

According to some dream-related websites, orange can symbolize “generosity, optimism and nobility.” Dreams in orange, says one site, are usually associated with “warmth, sunshine and brightness.” But there is another side to orange, suggests the text. Orange is also “a warning, or a caution.”

Those who chose orange to symbolize the anti-expulsion plan could not have chosen better. As Israel colors itself in orange, we are sending a signal that we believe in the bright future of Israel.

We are committed and optimistic that the sun will shine on us. But we are also issuing a warning that we are not blinded by either the sun or Sharon’s plan. We see what it will do to Israel. We know, as he has forgotten, that the so-called “unilateral disengagement” is anything but true disengagement and anything but a fulfillment of the promise of peace and security Sharon once made to the people of Israel.

As my children go to school with their orange t-shirts and I drive my car draped in the colors of protest, I realize that orange has become the symbol of democracy itself, the right to protest, the right to withhold support, the right to voice opposition. It amazes me that something as simple as a color could come to symbolize not only something we hold so precious, our freedom, but also the lengths to which a corrupt government will go to stop this legitimate expression of our concerns. Out of his blind fear and paranoia has been born the power of orange.

Copyright: Paula Stern 2005. All rights reserved.