Should a Hated Word Be Banned?

“Should a Hated Word Be Banned?”

The article “Should a Hated Word Be Banned” by Jodi Rudoren is about a new controversy in Israel laws.  Certain lawmakers in Israel think that the word Nazi should be banned at that the punishment should be either a fine up to $29,000 or 6 months in prison.  Although in some countries such as Brazil and others in Europe have banned Nazi symbols and flags, Israel is the first to propose banning the word entirely.  This means that for even saying it as a joke to a friend, or anything, is a criminal action and punishable.  The banning of the word Nazi has already been brought up as a law in 2012 but didn’t get enough votes, so this year they are trying again.  The two sides of the debate of whether this law should be passes or not are people who want it to be passed because of people using the word to lightly/trash talking, the fact that it’s unnecessary, and the other side is that it shouldn’t be passed because it is a violation of freedom of speech (which isn’t actually written in Israeli laws).  My position on this debate is with the latter, that Israel should not band the word Nazi.

Although Nazi’s have hurt Jewish people (and many other groups of people they didn’t like) I think saying the word should be illegal.  Some people I think this law could be applied to in extreme situations of maybe boosting Nazi’s offensively to others, but when it’s just a little comment not intended for harm, it isn’t worth being punished in this severity.  I also think it shouldn’t be bad because letting one word be banned sets an example, and quickly many more words in many more countries can be banned.  Yes they could be hurtful when said in a way to some people, and that isn’t okay but it becomes a personal issue, not a government issue.  If one doesn’t like how another is speaking of this topic it’s completely their decision to remove themselves from that situation.  On the other hand when people display symbols and flags that’s idolizing a horrific event in history and makes more sense to be banned.

Some may say that banning this word is to “establish certain value-based limits” (Dov Lipman) but by making the word Nazi illegal isn’t establishing it’s enforcing.  Rather then wanting people to live by these values it would be more effective to implicate not using Nazi’s as trash talk or to be hateful, is by teaching children that from a young age.  This way they can grow up being more considerate about the situation and sensitive to peoples emotions towards to Holocaust.

In conclusion, when it comes to the new law that may be passes in Israel about banning the word Nazi, it should not be made illegal and punished so harshly, but rather influence during childhood.