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Ben Shitrit said Hitler “Erased the parliament, destroyed the courts and terrorized the judges” and that Netanyahu was acting similarly.
„There are no words to describe you, the revulsion, the disgust and the recoiling we feel towards you. You are the most hatred prime minister here ever. There is no forgiveness for what you have done,” he added.
It was a night that no Israeli old enough to remember it will ever forget. And that’s especially true for those who were there in person.
Many of them would later recall the electricity in the air, the sense of hope, the feeling that Israel was headed to better times. All that ended abruptly when Yigal Amir, a 25-year-old right-wing extremist, fired three shots at Rabin’s back as he descended the stairs of the parking lot near the square and was about to step into his car.
“Rabin’s murder was a perfect murder that paid off,” the late Prof. Moshe Negbi once wrote. This is a serious charge, but an accurate one. Netanyahu owes his political existence to this murder. The roots of his rule are planted in the blood of the slain prime minister. Fanning the violence and then looking away is a strategy that served him both before the murder and after it.
A protester in Ramat Gan was pepper sprayed by someone passing by on a scooter ■ Man at Ramat Hasharon was beaten by two men ■ four youths vandalize booths belonging to Peace Now group in Jerusalem, police arrested two
The last speech of prime minister and minister of defense Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated by right-wing Israeli radical on November 4th 1995 in Tel Aviv.
Twenty-five-thousand memorial candles were lit to commemmorate the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Tel Aviv Thursday.
A large crowd was expected to turn out for protests Thursday evening at locations throughout Israel, as anti-government demonstrations coincide with the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, according to the Hebrew calendar.
Let me be clear, I’m not saying that Netanyahu wants people to get sick or die. He wants the pandemic to not disappear. He does not want a return to normal. He wants the emergency period to continue, for chaos to reign, for businesses to open and close like an accordion, and for the Israeli public to cry out to the heavens: Save us, Bibi. Save us like you saved us from the dreaded nuclear threat from Iran. After all, Bibi, the world expert in sowing fear and anxiety, has no equal when it comes to spurring terrified voters to cast their ballots for Likud.
Following the expiration of movement restrictions, tens of thousands of protesters gathered across Israel Saturday night, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down in light of his criminal indictments, and many faced violence at the hands of both police and right-wing groups.
Some protesters accused Netanyahu of not condemning violence against them and also directed their ire at his coalition partner, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, for not taking a harsher stance against the violence.
„The fact that the Israeli prime minister has not once condemned the violence against the protesters is a green light for violence against citizens of the country,“ they said.
Demonstrators in Holon calling for the resignation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were attacked and sprayed with tear gas by right-wing activists of the “La Familia” soccer fans organization, outlet N12 reported.
A Haaretz photographer, Tomer Appelbaum, was reportedly attacked with fists and kicking when arriving at the scene to document the rally, forcing him to flee.
At least 30 young people identified as members of La Familia, a group of far-right militants associated with the Betar Jerusalem football club, came to confront protesters assembled in a city square. They were wearing black shirts, waving Likud flags and carrying signs that read ‚A good leftist is a dead leftist‘ and ‚Leftists are traitors,‘ and cursing at protesters. According to police officers present at the scene, which were forced to call for reinforcements, they sprayed mace on the protesters.
Gantz called on Public Security Minister Amir Ohana of Likud and acting police commissioner Motti Cohen to bolster police forces at the demonstrations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slated for Saturday evening.
The defense minister told Ohana and Cohen that „the violence toward protesters is evident and there’s a genuine fear for human life.“
As one demonstrator puts it, ‘It seems the police have picked a side in the conflict between the Israeli public and Netanyahu and his supporters’
Dozens of demonstrators took to the streets in Tel Aviv and more in dozens of other cities and towns across Israel, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down and protesting the government’s restrictions on demonstrations during Israel’s coronavirus lockdown.
Following reports of police violence directed at protesters on Saturday night, organizers are expecting a large turnout later on Tuesday evening.
Israeli Lawmaker Ayman Odeh announced on Sunday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a statement released by his office.
Odeh, head of the Arab-majority Joint List faction in the Knesset (Israel Parliament), said he was „feeling fine“ other „than a slight fever.“
Today, none of them would even trust an agreement to buy a bicycle from him. They’ll turn their backs on him when the scent of his weakness strengthens, at which point the Bibi-ists will call them a radical leftist faction financed by the New Israel Fund.
The haters of the old elite and Mapai followed Netanyahu because he promised to destroy these groups – and indeed in this realm he has chalked up a few achievements.
Also on Tuesday, the Knesset is debating an amendment to the government’s coronavirus law that would bar protesters from traveling more than a kilometer (0.6 mi) from their homes to attend a demonstration.
Outside, hundreds of protesters gathered to protest the legislation, three of whom were arrested by Israel Police.
Parliamentary voting will resume after the government failed to complete ratification of the legislation on Friday, and so protests were held Saturday night, as they have been for the past several months on Saturday evenings.
The government has sought to limit the distance protesters can protest to within 1 kilometer from their homes, a restriction which the current version of the law, passed in July, specifically prohibits. The government is now seeking to restrict protesters’ movements.
Die Polizei nahm 13 Menschen fest. Zwei Polizisten wurden offiziellen Angaben zufolge verletzt, als Demonstranten eine Absperrung durchbrachen. Netanyahu bezeichnet die Protestierenden als Linke und Anarchisten. Seit Monaten gehen sie gegen den wegen Korruption angeklagten Ministerpräsidenten auf die Straße.
בצעדה לתוך אדנית ברחוב.
צילום: איתי רון
@ha_makom
Thousands of Israelis gathered on Saturday evening outside the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem and at other locations around the country for the 11th consecutive week, calling on the prime minister to resign in light of his ongoing corruption trial
The activists said they had arrived at Paris Square near Netanyahu’s official residence on Balfour Street with two trucks, intending to remove the barriers and return them to the company from which they were rented.
The activists dismantled 35 barriers and loaded them onto one truck before they were arrested.
About 20,000 protesters are gathered outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem Saturday evening for the tenth week in a row, calling for his resignation, as tensions with police run high following documented incidents of police violence at last week’s protest.
Parallel protests were held outside Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea and at over 300 bridges and major intersections nationwide.
“An unprecedented campaign of incitement that includes calls for violence and even my murder and that of my family,” wrote Netanyahu. Unprecedented? After all, he was elected on the bloody back of a prime minister who was murdered, as the result of the savage incitement of which he was one of its main leaders. Incited and inflamed right-wingers stood every Friday, on the eve of the Sabbath, across from the entrance to the Rabins’ home in Ramat Aviv – and wished them that they end up like “Mussolini and his concubine” – meaning hanging upside down, with their feet up. That is less serious than three balloons in the shape of the male sexual organ? Or even a deviant post – that turns out was posted a year and a half ago, whose author was interrogated hours before Netanyahu’s execrable letter was sent.
Coalition whip Miki Zohar, who spoke before Netanyahu, warned that „the right to protest cannot be allowed to become the right to contract the coronavirus.“ He called the left-wing „dangerous“ and attacked the Likud’s senior coalition partner – Benny Gantz’s Kahol Lavan party – for „urgently“ defending the right to protest.
That’s why Netanyahu decided not to submit a one-year budget Sunday. He was afraid Benny Gantz’s Kahol Lavan would oppose it, the government would fall and we’d have another early election. Then the demonstrations would really intensify, the Likud margin would abandon him, he’d lose and go home.
That’s why he’s so nervous. That’s why his words in the cabinet were so crazy and untrue. That’s why he’s sweating.
At Saturday evening’s protest, one person was put in charge of a logistical situation room that handled arrests as well as the photographers, “so we can tell our story rather than what the police and the media are saying,” as one person described it.
Speaking before the demonstration, he said “the situation room will help connect the many groups, but in the end, everyone will do what they want.” He also expressed confidence that there was no need for leadership of the protests, and in fact, opposed such leadership.
Critics routinely lambaste the prime minister’s corruption and incitement, but mostly ignore his compulsive lying and flights of farcical fantasy
The protest and march were approved by the Israel Police, which is present in large forces and says it will allow protest for all but „will not tolerate any disturbances of the public order.”
Labor, Otzma Yehudit, Derech Eretz, Gesher and Bayit Yehudi all part of the right-wing coalition led by Netanyahu would not pass the electoral threshold (3.25%), according to the poll. Consequently, based on this poll, the right-wing bloc, would win a total of 60 seats, one short of a majority in the 120 seat Knesset.
The victimization and persecution that are imprinted and growing inside of him release Netanyahu from guilt feelings, pangs of conscience or even a shred of a feeling of responsibility. He sees himself as fighting a constant war of survival and defense against the stated and clandestine groups who are conspiring to bring him down or eliminate him. This is why he will never understand that he is the person directly and centrally responsible for the violent and bloody street battles that we saw this week, which could deteriorate into murder in seconds.
Members of the far right also assaulted journalists and a Palestinian bus driver
Meanwhile, dozens of the far-right extremist group La Familia, composed of fans of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team, gathered at Jerusalem’s Hatachana outdoor mall complex.
This came after the group said it would hold a counter-protest to support the premier and to show the „leftist wimps“ that the „rules of the game have changed.“
.ברוך השם. כל השאר זה בונוס
“The failure of 2011 was due to their inexperience. They attempted to create a single leadership, which promptly embarked on egotistical internal struggles,” said 65-year-old Avi Ofer, a longtime activist involved in the anti-Netanyahu protests.
Most protesters who spoke to The Times of Israel echoed Elyakim and Ofer. According to 70-year-old Eli Brook, the Jerusalem protests are “more like a network, a web. There is no central organization, central command; there are many different groups.”
We’ve almost forgotten how all this started. When he was indicted, I wrote that to keep his trial from going forward, including the testimony of state witnesses that is expected to spell his political end, he wouldn’t hesitate “to burn down the clubhouse.” Literally.
Now the testimony phase of his case is approaching. In another five months, the first of those three state witnesses will take the stand. What can stop it? A civil war, for example. A siege of the Jerusalem District Court, for example.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Wednesday demanded the arrest of perpetrators of violent attacks on demonstrators calling for the ouster of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
„They must be caught and brought to justice, the protest will not be silenced as long as we are here,“ he said.
According to the demonstrators, police ignored their calls for help and, only later arriving at the scene to break up the clashes. The attackers, whose identity is unknown and who pretended they are part of the anti-government protest, managed to escape the scene.
Here’s another:
Around 1,000 protesters took to the streets of Tel Aviv Tuesday night in an anti-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rally, blocking Ayalon Highway north, Hebrew media reported.
Large forces of Israel Police arrived to disperse the crowd and reopen the highway, in what erupted into clashes between authorities and the demonstrators.
A counter-protest by Netanyahu supporters drew some 200 Likud activists nearby, joined by a few dozen La Familia members. When the right-wing protest dispersed, the La Familia members allegedly split up into a number of groups and began wandering the nearby streets and looking for the left-wing protesters. In at least five cases, according to protesters’ allegations, they physically attacked demonstrators, and in many other cases cursed and insulted activists – focusing mostly on women. They also sang songs denouncing former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated by a right-wing extremist in 1995.
The police are monitoring online social networks like Facebook and Twitter to try to identify activist leaders and the future direction of the protests, according to sources in law enforcement who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Several organizations representing self-employed Israelis have said they will join the protest of the so-called Black Flag movement in Tel Aviv’s Charles Clore Park on Saturday, after police refused to let them demonstrate at a different location, citing coronavirus restrictions.
The Black Flag protests first gained recognition in March, when a motorcade of hundreds of cars made its way to Jerusalem to protest anti-democratic measures to combat the coronavirus, including the approval of civilians’ phone tracking by the Shin Bet security service.
The legislation, titled “Special Powers for Dealing with the Novel Coronavirus,” would essentially give the government the power to decide whether to let people living in restricted areas attend mass demonstrations, such as those that took place this week in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square and outside the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem.
“Under the proposed wording, the government won’t have an obligation to let people leave a restricted area to attend demonstrations,” a source familiar with the bill explained.
In letters to senior EU officials, including foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the 15 Joint List MKs wrote that “the traditional approach based on providing incentives to Israel has thus far failed to achieve our shared legitimate positions.” According to Hadash MK Youssef Jabareen, “We requested that top EU officials act to prevent annexation including re-evaluating the EU-Israel partnership agreement, recognizing a Palestinian state according to the ’67 borders and labeling goods from the occupied Palestinian territories. Palestinians deserve independence and freedom.”
(25.06.2020)
So far, the party has only verbally denounced Israel’s plans. The campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has categorically ruled out setting conditions on US aid to Israel.
In the Senate, a letter warning that annexation would „erode the strong support among the American people for the special relationship and diplomatic partnership with the United States that Israel currently enjoys“ only gained the support of 21 legislators.
Some are veteran protesters, some are newcomers, but all of them agree that the younger generation – that they say takes no interest in politics – must be enlisted to bring about change
Palestinian Authority to lock down all areas with confirmed cases
Hadash MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Joint List), who initiated the letter, said about the appeal to Congress: “The annexation and the occupation are international issues. The US administration constantly intervenes in the region and gives backing to the oppression of Palestinians. The administration can give the green light or put the brakes on annexation. Therefore, we have asked members of the Democratic Party, who might assume power soon, to express their clear objection to Israel’s annexation plans, to denounce the entire Trump plan, and to clarify that, if such plans are implemented, future administrations will not recognize their legitimacy. Annexation is illegal according to international law and is a crime against the Palestinian people. The entire international community must stand against it.”
House Democrats are currently circulating a letter opposing annexation, but its wording is based around concerns for Israel’s security and there’s no mention of holding the country accountable for any of its actions towards Palestinians. A letter developed by Senate Democrats earlier this year implied that the United States/Israel relationship could be threatened by annexation, but any mention of this possibility was quickly removed.
(26.06.2020)
Eyad Hallaq was shot to death in a roofless garbage room. According to the testimony of his caregiver, who was by his side and tried to protect him, he was executed. For long minutes she stood next to him and pleaded for his life, trying to explain to the police officers, in Hebrew and in Arabic, that he suffered from a disability. They shot him three times from close range with a rifle, directly into the center of his body, as he lay on his back, wounded and terrified, on the floor of the room.
Even if you say “Jewish left” instead of “Israeli left” because it sounds more patriotic, they’ll always have another loyalty test on the way. Because groveling, stammering and apologizing for what you believe in won’t spare you.
The right is ready to go on television, on radio, online, wherever necessary, to defend an apartheid plan, to defend billions being spent at a time of deep recession and to defend a corrupt prime minister. They’re ready to defend the most galling things, and you’re not ready to defend the truth? Try it sometime. Believe me, it’s easier.
Odeh and Sanders first met in February 2017, when the Odeh visited Washington to attend that year’s J Street conference.
One can argue about whether the disparate 100-year history of confrontation and occupation between Israelis and Palestinians totally negates parallels to white America’s 400 years of African American subjugation and discrimination. But one glaring gap is undeniable: The majority of U.S. public opinion now acknowledges the legitimacy of black grievances, while the majority of Israelis ‒ including most of the Jewish center-left ‒ continues to view Palestinians, at least those beyond the former Green Line, as a mortal enemy bent on their country’s destruction
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders addressed the rally via video conference, expressing his support for the protesters and condemnation of Israel’s annexation plans. The senator said that he was “heartened” to see Arabs and Jews demonstrating together.
They founded anti-occupation movements and fought for the soul of Israeli society, but ultimately decided to emigrate. The new exiles tell Haaretz how they were harassed and silenced, until they had almost no choice but to leave
The left put former generals at its helm and failed (they joined the right), as well as civilian personalities, who also failed to deliver the goods. It tried a decentralized model, with Labor and Meretz running separately, and hit a wall. It learned its lesson and ran as a united front of multiple parties (Labor and Meretz, Kahol Lavan), also meeting no success. It flirted with a post-Zionist concept and a state of all its citizens (Meretz) or, alternatively, highlighting its Zionist image (the Zionist Union), failing both times in garnering public support. …
Thousands of workers, unemployed, self-employed and small business owners took part in demonstrations throughout the country Saturday night, May 2, against the economic and social policy of the far-right government, while demanding support in the wake of the economic crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
Saturday night, rallies were held in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Beersheba, Eilat, Kiryat Shmone and Kufr Qassim, with demonstrators condemning as woefully inadequate the government’s limited economic support by means of unemployment stipends and grants.
Owen Alterman reports from a ‚Black Flag‘ protest in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square, where Israelis are protesting against Benjamin Netanyahu.
(16.04.2020)
Some thousands of Israelis participated on Thursday night in a Tel Aviv demonstration against the interim government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the “loss of democracy.”
Peretz’s decision to join the government does not dramatically alter the political balance, as there are only three Labor lawmakers in the new Knesset, and one of them, Merav Michaeli, might decide to defect to Meretz, which sits further left on the political specturm, if Labor joins Netanyahu.
Joint List MK and Balad Chairman Mtanes Shehadeh said Saturday following Gantz and Netenyahu’s statements that „the arab community has spoken, they want a change in their position and aim for an end to discrimination and racism. Netanyahu would die to disqualify them but could not, and Gantz would have liked to ignore them but he couldn’t.“
Meital, 31, also from Tel Aviv, had been a lifelong Likud voter. But this week, she voted for the Joint List. “I voted Likud thinking that [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is a leader with experience who can be relied on. I didn’t see anyone who could replace him,” she says. “But recently I started thinking about it differently – not to vote according to the question of who would be prime minister, but who would best reflect my values and my desire for a more tolerant society.”
Will the Blue and White opposition abandon this racist logic of a “Jewish majority”, and form an alliance with the Joint List in order to oust Netanyahu? This remains to be seen. The stakes could not be higher, not only for Netanyahu personally, but for Israel’s future: whether it will continue its slide towards a “democracy” for Jews only, or instead choose a path that could lead to meaningful equal citizenship and democracy.
Two women occupy the 14th and 15th spots: Sundus Saleh and Iman Khatib, from the Ta’al and Ra’am factions respectively.
Ravid and Yavin are among a growing number of Israeli Jews, longtime supporters of Zionist parties such as Labor and Meretz, who plan to break rank and, for the first time in their lives, vote for an Arab or mainly Arab list in the next election. In the past, Arab parties could count on Jewish voters to hand them the equivalent of a single Knesset seat. According to various internal polls that were shared with Haaretz, on March 2 the Joint List could win as many as two seats thanks to disillusioned and angry left-wing Jewish voters.
Only a major and impressive show of force by Israel’s Arabs will persuade Israel’s Jews that they have no choice but to partner with you. Only a show of force in the election will overcome Zionism. Only a show of force will stop racism. The ball is in your court, Arabs of Israel, at the polling stations between Tarshiha and Hura.
תוכנית הממשל האמריקאי הממותגת כ“דיל המאה“ היא גבינה שוויצרית במסגרתה מציע הנשיא טראמפ להעניק לישראלים את הגבינה ולפלסטינים את החורים. ישנן דרכים רבות לסיים את הכיבוש, אבל האפשרויות הלגיטימיות היחידות הן אלו המבוססות על שוויון וזכויות אדם לכולם. לכן, התוכנית הנוכחית – שמכשירה, מקבעת ואף מרחיבה את היקף הפרות זכויות האדם שביצעה ישראל ב-52 השנים האחרונות – אינה חלופה מתקבלת על הדעת.
The American administration’s plan branded as the “Deal of the Century” is more like Swiss cheese, with the cheese being offered to the Israelis and the holes to the Palestinians. There are many ways to end the occupation, but the only legitimate options are those based on equality and human rights for all. This is why the current plan which legitimizes, entrenches and even expands the scope of Israel’s human rights abuses, perpetuated now for over 52 years, is utterly unacceptable.
The CPI observed that “The true ‘Deal of the Century’ is a prime minister accused of corruption and a president under an impeachment trial attempting to save each other through a dangerous political maneuver that will set military rule over the Palestinian people in the occupied territories for generations.” The CPI reiterated its consistent and well-known position that “Only recognition of a Palestinian state, its people and its borders, and the end of the occupation is a long-overdue international obligation and a positive step towards peace. All states must now formally recognize a sustainable Palestinian state being established contiguous with the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, demanding the end of the settlements policy and a just resolution of the Palestinian refugee question.”
“The disappearance of Labor and Meretz would mean the elimination of the only alternative on the left side of the political map,” writes my contemporary Uzi Baram (“Don’t be so quick to toss out the Zionist left,” Haaretz, January 20). And I ask him: Where were you and your friends during all those years when your camp held power in the country and paved the way for the extreme right that holds power today? They are only continuing the path you began, and doing so openly and also openly saying: “Truly the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands; and moreover all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of us.” But you did and you lied, you did and you deceived.
Now that Meretz and Labor have banded together and don’t face any real danger, Odeh wants to take a small bite out of its electorate, not to swallow them, just a little bite to complete a 15-seat slate and carry out his vision to define the Joint List as the real social-political left.
And he’s doing so the same way left-wing leaders have worked through the generations, using the right quote and the right moment, and from the right poem.
In contrast, the Joint List of Arab-majority parties did not conceal its satisfaction over the move. They sent their blessing to Meretz and Labor over the union, taking into account Israel’s larger political context, but also for probably boosting participation in the Arab electorate. “Members of the Zionist left who believe in Jewish-Arab partnership and in social justice are welcome to join the Joint List,” said Hadash MK Aida Touma-Sliman.
Former Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Sunday welcomed the expected union between the Labor and Meretz parties, but expressed concern over the fact that Green Movement chairwoman Stav Shaffir was left out of the alliance.
Leaders of the Labor-Gesher and Meretz parties, Amir Peretz and Nitzan Horowitz, stood alongside each other as they announced their merger at a press conference held in Beit Sokolov in Tel Aviv on Monday evening.
“If you want to vote Right you can vote for Likud or Blue and White,” Horowitz said in a tongue-in-cheek manner, placing Benny Gantz’s alliance together with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing base.
It seems as if our leftist politicians have simply given up all hope, or pretense, of getting their act together.
Now they are looking to Kahol Lavan leader Benny Gantz, hoping he will be so kind as to stick his hand into the wading pool in which they are drowning, pull them out and sit them down nicely one next to the other.
Israeli Labor and Meretz parties are expected to discuss the possibility of running together in the upcoming Knesset election, say sources familiar with talks between the two parties.
Negotiating teams on their behalf – or the two leaders themselves – are expected to meet in the next few days, in advance of the deadline for formal submission of party slates to the Central Elections Committee, in nine days‘ time.
The killing of Ayyash enraged Palestinians and pushed Hamas to carry out four suicide bombings within eight days, in which 59 Israelis were killed. The shock and fear that gripped Israeli public opinion turned Peres from valiant hero to impotent loser paved the way for Benjamin Netanyahu’s sensational victory in the May 1996 elections – and changed Israel forever.
Meretz is even more vulnerable in the polls and is liable to pay the price. That’s why Peretz has allowed himself to stand on the sidelines and insist on realizing his dream. And therefore, he is the one who must pay the price for this reckless gamble.
The danger is clear and present. If either Labor or Meretz (in its present wrapping as the Democratic Union) do not make it into the next Knesset, the right will enjoy a crushing victory, with Netanyahu forming a coalition that will grant him immunity from facing trial while destroying the judicial system and annexing the West Bank.
The results of the last two elections, as well as recent opinion polls, show that these two parties, especially Meretz, face the risk of collapsing.
The leader, who has been indicted for bribery, is hysterically yet soberly and determinedly pulling out all the stops to save himself from having to face justice. In so doing, he continues endlessly to incite, to divide, to threaten to take credit for others’ achievements and to lie. He and his family are prepared to burn down the house, and with it the norms of public life in Israel. A century ago, the Irish poet W. B. Yeats bewailed the blindness of leaders who brought on the apocalypse of World War I:
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
Sounds familiar?
Israel has done everything to reach The Hague. That’s what happens when the prosecution is a cemetery for war crimes, the High Court whitewashes them and the media hides them and covers for them. That’s the way it is when international law is disparaged for decades. There’s probably no other country that thumbs its nose at international law this way and pays no price for it. Perhaps now the moment of truth is approaching, the moment of penalty. It will be very good for Israel. It might clean out its stables, stained with blood and stolen land. Every Israeli patriot and seeker of justice should now look to The Hague with hope.
Joint List chairman, MK Odeh (Hadash) said that the four parties comprising the list will remain united in the upcoming March 2020 election. “We played an important role in preventing Netanyahu from forming a government and in averting his receiving immunity. We have made it half way there. Now we have another election. We promise our public to stay united as the Joint List,” Odeh says in a statement.
“The upcoming election will be the swan song of the indicted resident of Balfour Street,” added Odeh on Twitter, referring to the prime minister, whose residence is on Balfour Street in Jerusalem. “We will conclude them with an historic achievement of 15 seats,” he said.
“Politicians who continue to behave like politicos who try all day long to disband camps and to make deals in closed rooms won’t receive a mandate from the public. That’s the reason why the left was weakened in the past and those are the people who threaten to finish it off.” She went on to say, “Our public deserves to decide in a quick and open primary who will represent it in the Knesset. We established the Democratic Camp and we deserve a democratic leadership like that all over the world.”
Belonging to the left means holding a wide-ranging worldview, based on the belief that all humans are born equal, worthy of equal and fair treatment. This is why the left fights for weaker segments of society, for laborers and for migrants. This is why a true left must fight for people who are living under an occupation that deprives them of the most fundamental rights while preventing them from fulfilling their national aspirations of living in a state of their own, alongside Israel.
The Joint List, the Arab alliance of four parties, emerged as the third-largest party after the September election. It remains optimistic ahead of the March 2 ballot, and its members hope to gain somewhere between 15 to 16 seats in the Knesset – three more than they had garnered in the previous election. Part of their strategy to achieve this increase in votes is to turn directly to potential Jewish voters.
According to the poll, if elections were held today, Blue & White would lead the field winning 34 seats in the 120 Knesset, with the Likud just behind it with 33 seats. These poll results gives each of the two large parties one more seat than they respectively won in the September election. According to the poll, the Joint List will remain the third largest parliamentary faction in the Knesset with 13 seats (its current representation), while Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu will also retains its present strength, 8 seats.
Jabareen added that if that is the case, Gantz and his faction will not be able to count on the support of the Joint List — an option seriously discussed following the September elections. “There was talk all along the way of our external support to enable the formation of a different kind of government, but this will not happen given the annexation intention and masquerading as Likud II,” Jabareen said.
He reminded us that the Joint List — the Knesset’s third-largest faction — wields significant power both in the domestic political arena and in the international one.
Like an obstinate commander who refuses to internalize his terminal condition, he manufactures in his feverish mind divisions and squadrons and sends them to the front. The force commanders surrounding him, whether for fear of his wrath or out of empathy and pity, play along with him. They come and go, pretending to be doing things, pretending that as long as he’s there, there’s hope. He looks at their faces and wonders what’s going through their heads. Who will defect, who will betray. Who will rise against him. …
Protesters chanted „Bibi go home,“ and waved signs reading: „Netanyahu, let go already,“ „Netanyahu, you should quit“, and „The corrupt should go home“. MK Stav Shapir of the Democratic Camp, who was one of the organizers, said that protests will continue throughout the week in other cities as well, such as Be’er Sheva and Jerusalem.
The survey, commissioned by Army Radio, showed 49% of Israeli-Arab citizens supporting the Joint List, made up of four separate Arab parties, backing Gantz from outside a coalition government even if it includes secular right-wing politician Avigdor Liberman, head of the Yisrael Beiteinu party.
The head of the Joint List, the political alliance made up of four separate Arab parties, responded to Netanyahu’s speech, saying “All of us, Arabs and our Jewish partners, will breathe a sigh of relief the day he goes.”
Ayman Odeh further attacked the premier by stating that „This evening he sealed his legacy as a bitter criminal who doesn’t know how to lose, only to harm and incite against those he was supposed to serve.”
“Ordinarily, it’s difficult for a non-Jewish politician to break through in Israeli politics,” Time wrote. “Arab Israelis may account for every fifth resident of the country, but in its parliament, the Knesset, they are routinely relegated to a corner. All of which makes Ayman Odeh, the head of Israel’s Arab parliamentarians, all the more extraordinary. As the contest for leadership of the self-declared Jewish state teetered between right-wing and centrist factions, Odeh emerged not only as a possible kingmaker but also as a stirring new voice for equality and inclusion.”
The Rabin assassination will always be like a stab in the heart. I know every frame of the footage that was shot in the days before the murder and remember who was there and what they said, who went up on the balcony at Jerusalem’s Zion Square and who left it, who shouted and who remained silent.
MK Ofer Shelah of Kahol Lavan, who was interviewed after Tibi, said he did not rule out such a proposal.
Less than six months ago Netanyahu was given the opportunity to form a government and failed to do so. He even refused to return the mandate to the president and allow another candidate to try to form a government. Nevertheless, he has been given another opportunity now. Hopefully he will fail again. To that end, the left-wing bloc must close ranks and persist in its refusal to be part of a government led by a criminal defendant (subject to a hearing), even if the price is another election. It’s time for Netanyahu to leave the stage.
Yes, this initiative of yours, Mr. President, is very grave indeed! You are dividing the country on an ethnic basis, you are placing one people above another, one public above another, one group above another, when your job is to say loud and clear: They are all my sons. And for this you do not have a mandate. You do not have a mandate to divide the country between Jews and Arabs. You do not have a mandate to exclude a fifth of the population.
The Israeli government has done everything in its power to reject those of us who are Arab Palestinian citizens, but our influence has only grown. We will be the cornerstone of democracy.
Rare move by Joint List in bid to ‚end the Netanyahu era‘ could give Kahol Lavan leader first chance at forming coalition ■ Lieberman: ‚Joint List members are enemies‘
The survey, conducted by the Guttman Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Jerusalem-based Israel Democracy Institute, found that more than three out of every four Arab citizens were in favor of Arab parties joining the ruling coalition and their members serving as ministers in the government, but that nearly half of all Jewish citizens (49 percent) were resistant to the idea.
All eyes are on Yisrael Beiteinu’s Avigdor Lieberman and the Joint List, comprised of four Arab-majority parties, in order to gauge Kahol Lavan leader Benny Gantz’s chances at unseating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Neither parties have announced officially whether they would recommend Gantz to the president, and are expected to make their decisions public later Sunday.
In 1992, Knesset members from Hadash and the United Arab List backed Yitzhak Rabin, who wasn’t their cup of tea, as prime minister. This eventually led to the allocation of significant funds for the benefit of the Arab community – without mentioning the mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO, and the Oslo Accords.
Parliamentarian Aymen Odeh told Army Radio Wednesday morning he would consider supporting Netanyahu’s chief political rival as official results trickling in continued to solidify a strong showing for the coalition of Arab parties.
The chairman of the Joint List of Arab parties, Ayman Odeh, said Wednesday that he may recommend Blue and White leader Benny Gantz as the next prime minister when he meets with President Reuven Rivlin.
Gantz has already reached out to him, Odeh said, adding that “on Wednesday afternoon, we will decide which path to take.”
It could have ended far worse. If Netanyahu had won a few more Knesset seats, he would have secured immunity from prosecution, set up the most extreme government in Israeli history and finished his demolition derby of the country’s democracy. A rare convergence of favorable circumstances – chiefly the uptick in Arab voter participation, the failure of Kahanist Otzma Yehudit and the indifference of Likud voters – combined to spare Israel from a disaster that would have changed the country forever.
(03.04.2019)
Lyrics & performance: Tamer Nafar
Script: Tamer Nafar & Udi Aloni
Special Guest Appearance: Lamis Ammar
Producers: Reut Mor, Udi Aloni, Tamer Nafar
Director and Editor: Eliav Lilti
Line Producer: Ruty Klein
During the campaign before the last general elections in April, billboards went up throughout Arab communities and towns in the Galilee urging voters to boycott the vote. Many residents assumed the ads, which did not identify their sponsors, were an initiative of political forces in the Arab community such the Islamic Movement’s Northern Branch, which traditionally boycotts Israel’s national elections.
However, a Channel 12 news inquiry broadcast on Friday, September 6, revealed that the campaign was very likely commissioned and financed by right-wing Jewish settlers who hoped to significantly decrease Arab turnout at the polls.
Netanyahu’s unbridled and untethered election campaign outlined the shape of things to come if he wins: The slow and agonizing death of Israeli democracy
In the process, Netanyahu has successfully relegated what was supposed to be the central issue of this election – his alleged corruption and prospects of indictment – to the sidelines. He has deftly shifted the focus of the campaign to his fortes in national security and foreign affairs. Come what may, he has proven once again that he is the undisputed heavyweight champion of Israeli election campaigns, making his rivals look like clueless amateurs in comparison.
(11.11.2014)
Max Blumenthal, an US-American writer of Jewish origin, and the son of Sidney Blumenthal, the former advisor of President Bill Clinton and now a close adviser to potential Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, says in this video that he wants to sit down with German parliament member Gregor Gysi (The Left) in order to see if Gysi can explain the allegations against Blumenthal and if Gysi can explain why Blumenthal and Sheen should be silenced.
The injunction came after the Likud party submitted a petition arguing that Zazim, which is heavily funded by the US-based New Israel Fund, an organization that has butted heads with the Likud party before, was violating election laws with its initiative.
In 2017 the V15 law was passed in order to prevent foreign funded non-party political organizations from interfering with the elections.
(12.09.2019)
Two days before the last Israeli election in April, Israel’s ruling Likud Party petitioned the Central Elections Committee to shut down a get out the vote operation by an Israeli campaigning organization called Zazim — an organization that Online Progressive Engagement Network (OPEN) and I co-founded with activist Raluca Ganea four years ago, which functions very much like an Israeli version of MoveOn.org. The government’s efforts were unsuccessful, and Zazim’s campaign went ahead as planned, bringing thousands of Arab Bedouin voters from unrecognized villages in southern Israel to their polling places.
Last week, the Likud Party once again petitioned the Central Elections Committee to prevent Zazim from helping citizens exercise their right to vote. Today, Israel’s Attorney General confirmed that Zazim’s activity is fully legal. Zazim’s organizers plan to help some 15,000 Arab voters cast their ballots next Tuesday.
As a young Israeli studying abroad, I recently came home for a visit eager to discuss the upcoming elections with family and friends – but found an atmosphere of utter apathy. So I decided to go find people who were actually getting involved, and that’s how I ended up meeting Elisheva and her fellow protestors.
Many of the burning issues that are facing Israel barely got a look-in during the election campaign that’s mercifully drawing to a close: the ballooning deficit, the rising housing prices, the climbing cost of living, the burning need to integrate the ultra-Orthodox and Arab communities into the job market, to name just a few. And then of course, the lack of any prospect for a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an end to the occupation got nary a mention, but you knew that already because you’ve been paying attention and that has become a cliché.
(11.09.2019)
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein had Joint List leader MK Ayman Odeh (Hadash) forcibly removed from the Knesset chamber on Wednesday, September 11, during the debate before a vote on the contentious bill that would have allowed cameras to be deployed in polling stations during the general elections on Tuesday, September 17.
The importance and value of the Joint List at the present political-historical junction are greater than the sum of all the human traits, mistakes and flaws of its representatives.
Casting a ballot does not mean recognition of the state that was forced on you, but just the opposite: By voting you are forcing it and its institutions to acknowledge you, as natives of this country.
The last speech of prime minister and minister of defense Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated by right-wing Israeli radical on November 4th 1995 in Tel Aviv.
“Rabin broke the law by delivering lectures in America while he was a public servant, earning a fortune,” and then “framed his wife,” Yair claimed, adding that “Rabin murdered Holocaust survivors on the Altalena” — a weapons ship of the pre-state, right-wing Irgun militia that the Israeli military shelled shortly after Israel announced its independence.
The young Netanyahu also accused Rabin of bringing PLO leader Yasser Arafat and tens of thousands of terrorists back to the West Bank, from Tunisia, causing “the deaths of 2,000 Israelis.”
After a firestorm of criticism, the tweets were deleted.
Hadash MK Ofer Cassif placed responsibility for the escalation of violence between Israel and Hezbollah on Sunday, September 1, at the doorstep of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling him “the serial criminal from Balfour Street.”
Cassif said “Netanyahu and his servants are responsible” for the recent clash, adding they mean to “occupy the seat of power with blood and to ensure the criminal [Netanyahu] will escape prison.”
Joint List leader, MK Ayman Odeh (Hadash) agreed saying, “We will not be silent when the cannons roar” and warned that a further war “will not bring security, only death, destruction and victims on both sides.”
A large majority (76%) of those surveyed supported Hadash MK Ayman Odeh’s declaration last Friday, August 23, that he would join a moderate-center government; 65% of those asked expressed their full support for the Joint List joining a coalition headed by Kahol-Lavan (Blue & White); and 20% responded they neither support nor oppose the such a move.
Youssef Makladeh, the CEO of Statnet, told Maariv: “This isn’t new; past surveys have indicated that the Arab community in Israel is more interested in more pragmatic leadership that will work towards solving more acute issues, such as curbing the spread of violence, [achieving] building permits [for Arab towns], [developing local] infrastructure and sewage management [for their places of residence].” Makladeh added, “For the first time in a decade, an Arab leader has thrown the ball into the court of the Jewish parties.”
Hunting gender-segregated events robs time and energy from the left’s two fundamental raisons d’etre. The first is the struggle against the occupation and racism and the second – safeguarding citizens’ welfare and survival with dignity. As long as the Democratic Union is preoccupied with smoking out religious coercion and fires in the Amazon, it will remain solely within the esoteric borders of its current sector.
There are basically two regimes: a democratic regime for Jews and a fascist regime for Arabs; a democratic regime that promises someone like the racist rapper „The Shadow“ unlimited freedom of expression and makes a lawmaker like Hazan into a superstar of incitement.
Nor do we see the public or law enforcement get worked up when some Jews shamelessly permit our killing and literally define us as their slaves. Do I really need to explain how the state treats us?
According to an internal poll commissioned by Coalition 17/9, were the election held today, 56 percent of eligible Arab voters would cast their ballot. That’s a considerable improvement over the last election but still a long way to go.
Swaid believes the reunification of the Joint List is the main factor behind this positive trend.
Joint List Chairman Ayman Odeh is prepared to recommend that Kahol Lavan’s Benny Gantz form a government, and that the united slate of Joint List would be willing to join a center-left coalition, he told in a long interview published by the Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper Friday morning.
MK Odeh’s comments drew ire from across the Zionist political spectrum, ranging from Kahol Lavan to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud. In the interview, Odeh formulated a list of demands with regard to the end of the occupation of the Palestinian territories, welfare issues and Arab public needs. If Kahol Lavan accepts these terms, it would prepare the grounds for Joint List to join the government, for the first time in Israeli history.
The Joint List slammed the other political parties, made up of Jewish lawmakers, for not taking an interest in the opinions of Arab lawmakers. „It’s pretty clear that the Zionist parties that make up governments do not acknowledge our natural right to influence decision-making. This was apparent after Ayman Odeh made his declarations and put the political arena to the test.“
Odeh said in an interview with Israeli daily Yedioth Aharonot that he would be willing to recommend Gantz to President Reuven Rivlin as the candidate for making up the coalition, and that he would also be open to joining a center-left governing coalition.
On Thursday, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily published a preview of an interview with Odeh that will be published in full on Friday, leading with a quote of him saying he was “willing to join a center-left government.”
However, he laid out several conditions for joining such a coalition.
Ayman Odeh says he’s willing to sit in center-left coalition, demands establishing Palestinian state, ending occupation – but other leaders in his party say they were not consulted on this deal, and Kahol Lavan were quick to rebuff
They had come to launch a new campaign to get Jews to vote for the Joint List.
The event was held under the slogan “A joint struggle, a joint future.” In an unusual move, all the speakers were asked to speak in Hebrew.
(13.08.2019)
Ominous pre-election right-wing purges inspired by Trump’s brazenness have been met with apathy and impotence on the center-left
Speaking to the press in Tel Aviv, the three leaders of the Democratic Union – MK Nitzan Horowitz, MK Stav Shaffir and former prime minister Ehud Barak – also took Blue and White to task for what they described as its right-wing policies, arguing that the party would not replace, but instead participate in, a right-wing government.
The Joint List picked up 13 seats in the 2015 elections following its formation, making it the third largest faction in the Knesset. However, the union split ahead of elections in April into the separate Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am-Balad lists, which won 10 seats between them.
The united slate announced Thursday has the far-left Meretz party running with Barak’s new Israel Democratic Party and Stav Shaffir, who left the Labor Party, under the Democratic Camp moniker. It also hopes to bring Tzipi Livni, a former foreign minister, out of political retirement.
What it means: While Democratic Camp won’t overtake Netanyahu’s Likud and his right-wing camp, it could combine with the center-left Blue and White party to ensure that Benny Gantz, a former military chief of staff, is tapped to form the government.
MK Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) called on Saturday for the Democratic Union Party to add an Arab-Israeli to the list during a panel in Baqa al-Gharbiyye.
Zandberg, whose Meretz Party joined forces with the party led by former prime minister Ehud Barak and MK Stav Shaffir, vowed she will do all that is possible to ensure that there is an Arab member at the top of the list.
An enormous and fundamental political battle is breaking out throughout the democratic world, and in Israel, too.
The Joint List won 13 seats in the 120-member Knesset in 2015. Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am-Balad in April separately won a total of 10 seats.
Arab Israeli voters turned out in dramatically lower numbers for April’s vote compared to that of 2015.
Horowitz said the party would be left-wing and proud, and would not join any right-wing government, even one not led by Netanyahu. The top goal of the party in the agreement its leaders signed was reaching a peace agreement.
“The Israeli Left has returned to be large and influential, and the days of kissing up to the Right are over,” he promised.
(25.07.2019)
Horowitz says alliance is ’setting out on a path that will lead to regime change in Israel‘; Barak, placed 10th on slate, vows to ‚give Netanyahu a fight,‘ while Shaffir calls for Israeli Arabs to see union as their allies
(25.07.2019)
The newly formed “Democratic Union” said in a joint statement it would be made up of Barak’s “Democratic Israel” faction, the dovish Meretz party and senior Labor Party official Stav Shaffir.
(12.07.2019)
The results of Israel’s April elections were a wake-up call for both Jewish-Israeli left-wingers and Arab citizens of Israel. More than ever before, they have come to depend on each other. The equation is simple: both want to regain power; and neither can do it alone.
All political strategists say that in order to survive, both the left and Arabs need to create some political structure that can empower both.
internal elections in the Islamic Party placed a woman in 4th. Thank you @emankassem
The formation of the joint ticket has been delayed by disagreements over who should occupy the 11th through 14th slots on the slate (Jack Khoury, Monday). But if they can’t bridge these gaps and reunite as the Joint List, those slots are likely to be irrelevant in any case.
Strengthening Arab representation in the legislature and toppling the government are necessary conditions for fighting the Netanyahu-led coalition that passed the nation-state law. This isn’t the time for unnecessary quarrels or disputes that can be resolved after the election. The Israeli voter rewards political mergers. The Joint List must be promptly reconstituted.
There is only one reason behind all of this: A lack of agreement over who will get the 11th through 14th places on the Knesset slate
The dispute is over how to divide spots 11 through 14 on the joint ticket, the same problem that scotched the four-party framework in the election this past April.
Jurist Raif Zreik, who is holding talks with the parties, has warned in recent days about a massive hemorrhaging of the Arab community’s confidence in the parties.
But yes, it is newsworthy, because we must continue believing that other ordinary people are reading what we write, people who are not yet speaking out. Maybe something about the gradual nature of the violence rings a bell with them: First they came for the socialists, then they came for the Jews, but we weren’t those things, so we remained silent. Then came the turn for the others, and we continued to be silent. And when thugs attacked us, there was no one left to protect us.
On Sunday, he said, he left work and noticed he was being followed. „I assumed they were police who had come to arrest me,“ said Pollak, who is also active in the organization Anarchists against the Wall. „I went into a place where I could avoid them but they got to me and pushed me to the floor,“ he says. He took some blows but after scratching his face with the knife, he says, they seemed to get spooked and fled.
Pollak did not complain to the police because „that is the last entity in the world I would turn to for protection. That’s simply not its job.“
„Netanyahu pressed the button for the Knesset dissolution and there is no turning back,“ Gantz says in a statement to the media from Tel Aviv. „Netanyahu sees (election) polls and invents lies.“
TV survey projects center-left and Arab parties would win more seats than right-wing and Orthodox factions, though path to forming government far from clear
(21.06.2019)
Hadash (The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality – Communist Party of Israel) and three political parties representing the Arab-Palestinian national minority in Israel, Ta’al, Ra’am and Balad, have announced they will reunite for the upcoming Knesset elections.
Sources in the Knesset said that the prime minister could push for a law cancelling the Knesset’s dispersal despite Yinon’s view, however the High Court of Justice would most likely block the move. Sources told Haaretz the chance of passing a law that would annul the dissolvement is practically zero.
Hadash Secretary General Mansour Dehamshe and United Arab List Secretary General Ibrahim Hijazi confirmed the details Thursday morning in an interview with the Israeli Arab A-Shams radio station. Dehamshe added that the parties are expected to reach a final agreement by June 30.
In their joint statement, the parties said that their representatives are „fully committed to running together in a joint list, and start formulating the political agenda and strategic management plan.“
The committee is set to vote on its leader on June 27 and its list on July 11. The two votes will be held within the party committee, which has about 1,000 members.
The faction made the decision after 60 percent of the party voted against motions to hold open primaries or to freeze the current list.
That decision was seen as a failure for Zandberg, and for the current list of candidates, whose posts are now in jeopardy.
Current Meretz chair MK Tamar Zandberg faces at least one challenger in former party MK Nitzan Horowitz who announced he was running for the party chairmanship last week.
The Meretz convention also voted against a proposal to institute two party chairmen, an idea designed to allow a Jewish and an Arab leader of the party.
The four Arab-majority parties in Knesset – Hadash, Ta’al, Balad and United Arab List – are expected to announce a joint run in Israel’s September 17 election within the next couple of weeks, senior Hadash offical told Haaretz Wednesday.
The joint candidacy will require a change to the party’s constitution to allow two people to run together for chairman. The party leadership primary is scheduled for June 27, and two weeks later there will be elections for the party Knesset slate.
“The Israeli left needs hope in the form of a true Jewish-Arab partnership, said Freige. “The Arab public showed confidence in Meretz during the last election and now we must enhance the partnership in the form of a strong and influential Arab-Jewish left.”
The support from Hadash-Ta’al and United Arab List-Balad for the law that dissolved the Knesset – in contrast to the other center-left parties who voted against it – stemmed first and foremost from the internal political considerations of the four parties that make up the two slates. All of them saw new elections as a window of opportunity to correct the errors that resulted in their relatively poor showing in the April 9 elections to the 21st Knesset.
Left-wing party Meretz is in talks with Arab-majority parties over the possibility of running on a joint slate in Israel’s September 17 election.
Hadash chairman Ayman Odeh did not rule out Meretz lawmaker Esawi Freige’s proposal to Hadash and Ta’al, but made it clear that before considering a linkup, Hadash has committed to its supporters to try to reestablish the Joint List, which ran in the 2015 Knesset election.
(21.05.2019)
The demand, put forth by an internal Meretz group known as the Forum for Jewish-Arab Cooperation, calls on the party leadership to either formally join with Hadash-Ta’al — a union of the Arab-Jewish Hadash party and Ahmad Tibi’s Ta’al party — or transition into a fully-fledged Jewish-Arab party with an Arab party chairperson alongside a Jewish one.
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MachsomWatch is a volunteer organization of Israeli women who are peace activists from all sectors of society. We oppose the Israeli occupation in the area known as the West Bank, we oppose the appropriation of Palestinian land and the denial of Palestinian human rights. We support the right of Palestinians to move freely in their land and oppose the checkpoints which severely restrict Palestinian daily life.
In keeping with our values, we work towards a two state solution in the 1967 borders, or any other mutually agreed upon solution that will allow both Israelis and Palestinians to live in freedom,security, democracy and dignity in their homeland.
(22.05.2019)
Mourning is a personal matter. When it comes to mourning victims of war, terror, and state-sponsored suppression, mourning is also a political matter—especially in Israel and Palestine. We, a Palestinian man from the West Bank who served 10 years in an Israeli prison and an Israeli woman who served in the Israeli army, are not supposed to care about each other’s dead. We are taught this constantly. But, out of a commitment that is both concretely political and inherently human, we have decided to reject this logic and fight for a public space in which we can feel pain for the dead on all sides.
The brains and the money of the left are abandoning Israel. That isn’t just a feeling, those are the facts. Benjamin Netanyahu’s supporters, who call leftists “sourpusses,” like to boast of the decline in emigration from Israel in the past several years. But when it comes to leftists, the exit numbers are worse than ever. The leftists are fleeing. It’s called brain drain. In Israel, brains and leftists are one and the same.
The three were released without being questioned and without being informed whether they were suspected of anything. Israeli soldiers are not authorized to arrest Israeli civilians in the West Bank, but are entitled to detain them until the police arrive. The three said they never came in contact with the police.
The activists were members of the left-wing organizations Combatants for Peace and the Jordan Valley Coalition.
In the April 9 election, voter turnout in the Arab community fell to less than 50 percent, and United Arab List-Balad received only 3.3 percent of all the votes cast, just 0.05 percent above the minimum vote threshold to enter the Knesset. The Arab parties won 10 seats in the present Knesset, compared to 13 in the previous one when they ran together as the Joint List. Moreover, 27 percent of the voters opted for Zionist parties, and Meretz in particular.
But diplomatic “achievements” like the Bundestag decision are not just a distraction from Israel’s real problems that the Netanyahu government continues to ignore. They also remove a nonviolent Palestinian method of protest, and as a result are likely to cause damage to the future relations between the two peoples and to the security of Israeli citizens. Even those who are not convinced of the purity of the political motivations of the BDS movement must understand that the delegitimization of nonviolent Palestinian protest pushes the Palestinians, who are fighting for their national liberation, toward violence.