Leftist author David Grossman said, Sunday evening, "The annexation of the West Bank will put an end to the chances of a solution to the conflict and will force all of us to continue to live in war." Speaking at a ceremony in which he received an honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Grossman expressed his concern for the democratic future of the state of Israel and said, "In order to preserve all the good and the good that we have created, we have to constantly mention what threatens our future, first and foremost the distortion that harms the very essence of Israel's existence - a democracy that is no longer a democracy, which will soon become the illusion of democracy.
Grossman asked, "Is a country that has been occupying another people for 50 years and denies its freedom, can it really claim to be a democracy?" He also criticized the Israeli leadership and said that in its unwillingness to end the conflict, it is building the conditions for the collapse of democratic civil society in Israel, as he put it.
The writer ended his speech in the hope that even 50 years from now, the man or woman who stands on the stage to receive an honorary doctorate, will be able to say with his head raised: "I am a free man and a free people, in my country, in my home, in my soul."