(February 2003)

Since the launch of this website I have received many supportive and warm messages from people all around the world including Israel. Unfortunately, I have also been receiving my share of what I consider hate mail. Thankfully the supportive mail far outweighs the nasty stuff. I have observed several characteristics that all writers of hate mail have in common:

  1. They are excessive. Those who send hate mail seem to have no boundaries and tend to flood me with their unsolicited information. Only last night I received 21(!) pages on my fax machine and today another 6 pages. When hate mail arrives by email it always contains very long pieces of writing copied from various sources. Usually the same person sends many messages, often with the same content repeated several times. Once or twice does not seem to be enough.

  2. People who send hate mail also include a lot of personal abuse. I have been called an antisemite although I am myself a Jew. I have been called a traitor, a supporter of terrorism, evil, hater of Israel, sick, Nazi, Hitler. I have also been threatened with violence.

  3. Those who write hate mail tend to conceal their identity and I find this particularly interesting. While I am quite open about who I am and am open for people to contact me and engage in respectful dialogue, those who write hate mail tend to hide. I don’t know what the motivation for hiding is. Is it cowardice? Is it fear? And if it is fear then what of? If those writing hate mail are so certain of their rightness then surely they can be open about who they are. So far it seems to me that such people deliberately wish to avoid any possibility of dialogue and are more interested in something of a ‘hit and run’ technique. Naturally I cannot take them seriously and all of their material goes directly to the trash. I am annoyed that they waste so much paper on my fax machine…

  4. These people accuse me of inciting violence, of being filled with hatred and of dumping. What I am noticing is that in their communication with me these writers of hate mail seem to display the very same characteristics of which they accuse me.

  5. The writers of hate mail seem to be very angry people who lack mature and appropriate ways to express their anger. They seem to think that it is OK to dump their anger on others in the form of threats and other types of verbal violence. What they don’t realise is that this is the exact behaviour used by terrorists: “I am pissed off with … so I am going to do something to hurt them.” Senders of hate mail may not be blowing up explosives but in their excessiveness, furtiveness, abuse and threats they are terrorists just the same. Their aim is to silence others by intimidation simply because they do not like what they have to say. I think even they will agree that negotiating with terrorists, pleading with them, justifying oneself, or complying with them are not viable options. I suppose they will therefore understand that I too will not negotiate, plead, justify myself or be intimidated by hate mail terrorists. (Two years in the Israeli army have taught me one or two things…)

Page content last modified: 27 Apr 2003