Hadash calls on public to end deadly operation in Gaza

16 november 2012/The Israeli Communist Party http://www. maki.org.il המפלגה הקומוניסטית הישראלית‎  الحزب الشيوعي الاسرائيلي‎ (Israel)

Demonstrations against the Israeli deadly military operation in Gaza were held in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem on Thursday night by Hadash (The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality – Communist Party of Israel). Also, Arab and Jewish students, Hadash members, took part in demonstrations held at Haifa University, Tel-Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon. Activists all over the country chanted slogan such as "Arabs and Jews refuse to be enemies," "in Gaza and Sderot, little girls want to live," and "Bibi [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] and [Defense minister Ehud] Barak, war is not a game." Hadash called on the public to join in demonstrations throughout the country in opposition to Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza. Hadash MK Dov Khenin participated in the Tel-Aviv demonstration, near the Likud headquarters and stated: "Stop the killing, stop the bloodshed immediately." He added: "One bombing leads to another, leading to more and more people being injured in Gaza and Israel." (Hadash activists take part in a protest against the Israeli attack on Gaza, near the Likud headquarters in center Tel Aviv, November 15, 2012. In the hands of the protesters: "In Gaza and in Sderot girls want to live"/Photo: Activestills) "The cycle of violence is not the solution but the problem," he added. Khenin called on the government to reach an immediate cease-fire and announce the opening of genuine negotiations and an agreement with the Palestinians. At the rally in Tel Aviv, Hadash chairman, MK Muhammad Barake said Jews and Arabs together were calling for an end to the violence. "We came here to say that wars do not solve the conflict, only serve to add more bloodshed. We hope to hear the nation cry out against the right-wing government," Barake said. Hundreds attended the antiwar protest on King George Street in Tel Aviv, which was interrupted when an air raid siren was sounded in the city for the first time since 1991 during the First Gulf War. Two explosions were heard following the siren, an hour after a rocket from the Gaza Strip exploded in an open area outside Rishon Lezion. There were no reports of injuries in either strike. In Jerusalem police arrested five activists in the demonstration held near the Prime Minister's house. The Arab Higher Monitoring Committee said in a statement published on Thursday, "We oppose the attack on Gaza and the assassination of Palestinian people and leaders. Palestinian blood is more precious than the bloodshed the fascists are taking advantage of for publicity ahead of the Knesset elections. If the Israeli government thinks that this is the way to provide the settlers in the south with security, they are wrong. The Israeli government must take full responsibility for the people being killed on both sides – the Palestinian and the Israeli. The ongoing occupation of Palestinian territories is the main reason for everything that is happening here today." Related: MK Barakeh and MK Khenin during the Tel-Aviv demonstration (3.41 min. in Hebrew): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T32wQjPLA7A&feature=player_embedded

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מחאות בערים הגדולות נגד המבצע בעזה; בשבת הפגנה בנצרת שישי, 16 נובמבר 2012

נמשכות המחאות נגד המבצע הצבאי בעזה. אמש נערכו הפגנות בתל-אביב, ירושלים וחיפה. כמו כן, אירועי מחאה נוספים התקיימו באוניברסיטאות ובכפרים רבים בגליל. מחר (שבת) מתוכננות שתי הפגנות ביוזמת חד"ש. הפגנה ארצית בנצרת, בשעה 14:00 ליד כיכר המעיין, ובשעה 20:00 במרכז הכרמל, שבחיפה, שדרות הנשיא פנית דרך הים. יצוין שהיום (ששי) בצהריים הפגינו כמאה פעילים בכיכר פאריס ובידיהם שלטים בהם נאמר "די לכיבוש". ההפגנה הגדולה נערכה אתמול בשעות הערב מול מטה הליכוד, מצודת זהב, במרכז תל-אביב. מאות הגיעו כדי למחות נגד המבצע ומולם התייצבו קומץ אנשי ימין שניסו לחבל במחאה. יו"ר חד"ש, ח"כ מוחמד ברכה, נאם בהפגנה ואמר: "אנחנו כאן יהודים וערבים, באנו לזעוק די להרג, די לשפיכות הדמים. נתניהו וממשלתו רוצים לייצב את שלטונם במחיר דמם של פלסטינים ועל חשבון קורבנות משני העמים. אנחנו כאן באנו לומר שהמלחמות לא פותרות את הסכסוך, אלא מוסיפות עוד שפיכות דמים. אנחנו מקווים שתשמע צעקתו של העם פה נגד ממשלת הימין". שלטי חד"ש בהפגנה שנערכה אתמול בתל-אביב: "בעזה ובשדרות ילדות רוצות לחיות" (צילום: אקטיבטסילס) ח"כ דב חנין אמר בהפגנה: "סבב נוסף של מלחמה ומעגל דמים הוא אינו הפיתרון אלא הבעיה. המלחמה הזו לא תביא שקט ושלום לתושבי הדרום ולתושבי עזה. הדרך היחידה לשבור את מעגל הדמים היא באמצעות הידברות. יש לפתוח במשא ומתן מיידי על הפסקת אש עם החמאס, ולאחר מכן להתחיל הידברות עם אש"ף והרשות הפלסטינית על הסדר קבע". ד"ר יעלה רענן, תושבת עוטף עזה, נאמה גם היא בהפגנה בת"א: "שוב ושוב המדינה עושה כל שביכולתה בשביל להפוך את שכנינו לאויבים. בתור תושבת עין הבשור שבעוטף עזה, אני גרה כמה קילומטרים מהאנשים ברצועת עזה. כל מה שקורה עתה נועד ליצור שנאה בינינו". גם בהפגנה שנערכה מול בית הגפן בחיפה התייצבה קבוצה של אנשי ימין, חברי ליכוד וישראל ביתנו. בהפגנה שנערכה אתמול בקרבת בית הראש הממשלה בירושלים נעצרו חמישה פעילים בגין "התקהלות בלתי חוקית". כאמור, מחר יתקיימו שתי הפגנות נוספות בנצרת ובחיפה. סרטון: דברי ח"כ דב חנין בהפגנה שנערכה אמש בתל-אביב (3.41 דקות): http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=T32wQjPLA7A סרטון: דברי ח"כ מוחמד ברכה בהפגנה שנערכה אמש בתל-אביב: http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?sns=fb&v=EX7_Rxei-f8&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DEX7_Rxei-f8%26sns%3Dfb דף ההפגנה בנצרת בפייסבוק: http://www.facebook.com/events/450106541715012 דף ההפגנה בחיפה בפייסבוק: http://www.facebook.com/events/194162494054586 עוד על המחאה נגד המבצע: http://maki.org.il/he/democracy/133-news/14650-2012-11-14-19-13-03

Marcha das Vadias protesta no centro de Jerusalém

7 maio 2012/Vermelho http://www.vermelho.org.br (Brasil)

O movimento SlutWalk ("Marcha das Vadias" como ficou conhecida no Brasil) já ganhou as ruas de diversas capitais mundiais. Em Jerusalém, tomaram as ruas centrais da parte ocidental cantando lemas como "Basta! Culpem o estuprador", "Meu corpo é só meu" ou "Não significa não, que parte do 'não' você não entendeu?".

O "SlutWalk" nasceu em abril do ano passado no Canadá depois que um policial de Toronto sugeriu que, para não sofrerem ataques, as mulheres deveriam "evitar se vestirem como putas".

"Israel não é diferente de outros países ocidentais na hipocrisia social e na maneira de controlar as mentes das mulheres", disse a estudante e assistente social Diana, 22 anos, que liderava sem complexos a manifestação vestindo um top justo.

Para a jovem, nascida em Jerusalém e filha de um venezuelano, trata-se de "um problema de dupla moral".

"A sociedade diz que precisamos ser bonitas e sexy de acordo com as normas, mas ao mesmo tempo nos acusam de sermos provocadoras e de usarmos nossa sexualidade para conseguir muitas coisas".

"Não é um problema só religioso, ou dos haredim (ultra-ortodoxos judeus). Os haredim só expressam o que está dentro da mente da maioria das pessoas na sociedade secular", disse Diana.

Em sua passagem pelo centro da cidade santa, as manifestantes, algumas delas protegendo os seios apenas com cartazes, se depararam com ultra-ortodoxos. Parte deles as observou com perplexidade, outra com irritação e reprovação. Os policiais que acompanharam o protesto tiveram que afastá-los em algumas ocasiões para que não enfrentassem as mulheres.

"É preciso se vestir com modéstia. Não me ofende a título pessoal que andem assim pelo centro da cidade, mas cada um tem que atuar de uma determinada forma para conseguir a salvação", afirmou Dov, um ultra-ortodoxo que incentivava as pessoas a rezar enquanto a manifestação passava pela repleta rua Ben Yehuda.

No entanto, para a israelense para Rebeca Huge, 24, que participava do protesto com um cartaz com a inscrição: "Um sorriso não é igual a um convite ao estupro", "a solução não é se vestir mais recatada, mas educar as pessoas que não importa a maneira de se vestir".

A estudante de Haifa disse acreditar que o problema "não é apenas religioso", e considera que "a sociedade é muito patriarcal e que as mulheres são menos do que os homens".

A "SlutWalk" foi realizada em Jerusalém, na sexta-feira (4), após ter passado em outras cidades israelenses de estilo de vida mais laico, como Haifa e Tel Aviv.

Na cidade santa, onde a religião e a comunidade ultra-ortodoxa estão muito mais presentes do que no resto do país, é preciso uma grande ousadia para participar de uma manifestação como esta. Uma de suas principais organizadoras foi Sarit, uma estudante que conseguiu reunir centenas de pessoas em um grupo, em redes sociais.

"Não existe desculpa ou razão alguma para assediar as mulheres, não importa como se vestem ou se comportam. Simplesmente queremos os mesmos direitos de qualquer homem", afirmou.

ETHIOPIAN ISRAELIS FACE INCREASING DISCRIMINATION

9 February 2012, Alternative Information Center (AIC) http://www.alternativenews.org (Israel)

Racism is on the rise in Israel and it is sometimes directed towards Ethiopian Jews, citizens of the state who face discrimination and rejection on the basis of their skin color.

An Ethiopian Jewish boy at an absorption center in Israel (photo: flickr/Vadim Lavrusik)

1500 Israelis of Ethiopian origin demonstrated recently against Israeli racism and discrimination outside the parliament in Jerusalem. The protest took place after some landlords in Kiryat Malachi, which is home to a large Ethiopian Israeli population, refused to rent to Ethiopian Jews.

“Israelis don’t want to have Ethiopians around,” says Shoko, an Israeli woman who provides counselling to Ethiopian youths in Haifa. “Their excuse to not rent flats to Ethiopians is that they are noisy...and they eat injera, which is a ‘stinky’ bread, and its strong smell spreads all over the neighbouring area. In reality, Israelis don’t like Ethiopians because they are black...”

Chava Weiss, fundraiser for the Israeli Association of the Ethiopian Jewish (IAEJ), states that, “this is a case of pure unfortunate discrimination and stereotyping,..”
There are approximately 130,000 Ethiopian Jews living in Israel. Citizens of the state, they entered the country during two covert Israeli military operations – in 1984 and 1991 – aimed to bring Ethiopians to Israel to bolster the Jewish majority

“But even if the largest part of Ethiopians living here is Jewish, some rabbis and ordinary Israeli residents discriminate them because their Jewish roots are not alike the ones of the Eastern European Jews,” Muju, a young Ethiopian man who lives in Jerusalem, explains. Ethiopians observe some different holy festivities and don’t observe the Talmud. Muju adds that, “some Jewish people even claim that we Ethiopians made up our Jewry just to enter Israel.”

Many of the Ethiopians who immigrated to Israel came from small and neglected villages and were not equipped for life in Israel. Back in the 1980s, when the first wave of Ethiopian immigrants arrived, the Jewish Agency became responsible for their absorption into the country and it stated that the process of integration would last five years.
In reality, Shoko says that “people can stay in the absorption centres – where they learn Hebrew, the ‘proper’ mainstream Judaism, some tips about the modern world – for two years after their arrival in Israel but than they are left completely on their own...”

He adds that many Ethiopians have a hard time integrating into Israeli society.

The discrimination towards Ethiopians affects all areas of their lives: from housing, to education, to job employment. As the IAEJ says, “their collective standard of living continues to fall behind the mainstream Israeli population and the Ethiopian community is at risk of becoming a permanent underclass in Israeli society.”

Many Ethiopian men have difficulties finding work in Israel – in part because they are African – and so they end up staying at home. Some fall into alcoholism. Women have a few more opportunities to enter the job market, especially as housekeepers or cleaners, and, as they do, they become more financially influential than their husbands, hence turning upside down the traditional Ethiopian patriarchal system and creating problems within the family harmony. The children are often disrespectful towards their ‘useless’ fathers and rebellious towards their Ethiopian roots.

As an Ethiopian 23-year-old boy who asks to not be named says, “I have so many friends that are trying to cancel their real identity... There are those who want to be more and more like 2Pac [African-American rapper] and those that are absorbing the Iraqi and Moroccan culture...”

Although in the past the Jewish Agency had explicitly opposed the establishment of any formal “Ethiopian ghettos,” places like Rehovot, Beer Sheva, Kiryat Malachi and Haifa have neighbourhoods that are “Ethiopian only.”

There are programs meant to integrate Ethiopian people into the Israeli society but there is no program to make Israelis more familiar with the Ethiopian culture. “Israeli people don’t care at all about the long Ethiopian tradition,” Shoko states. “They believe in what Ben Gurion stated a long time ago, which [was something] like ‘leave your culture behind and build up a new common culture here in Israel.’”

The past ten years have seen some modest improvements. Ethiopian employment rates have gone up a bit as have the number of teenagers going on for higher education – but these percentages are still much below the Israeli average.

And there is growing awareness of the trouble Ethiopian Jews face in Israel. The international media has started to be dealing with the Ethiopian Jews as “a minority facing big problems of discrimination in Israel,” Shoko says, “and not anymore as a bunch of cute exotic African people.”

More importantly, Weiss says, “Ethiopians are not hiding anymore but are coming out to protest against the injustice they face [on a daily basis].”

Next Friday: HUMAN RIGHTS MARCH IN TEL-AVIV AND HAIFA

3 December 2011, Communist Party of Israel המפלגה הקומוניסטית הישראלית http://maki.org.il
The March המצעד http://themarch.org.il (Israel)

Next Friday, December 9, will be at Tel-Aviv and Haifa the annual Human Rights March, organized by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), an one important event of the Israeli human rights and social change community. Hundreds of organizations, communities, and activists – all come together to say: "It’s our right, to all human rights, for all human beings." Among them: Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality), the Communist Party of Israel, TANDI (the Democratic Women's Movement in Israel) and Hagada Hasmalit (Progressive Culture Center in Tel-Aviv and radical website).

According to ACRI "the March has room for all the different flags, for all the groups and initiatives that view human rights as the moral and social foundation for change. Many voices that are not frequently heard, or even not heard at all – thousands of activists for freedom of expression, protest, and movement, for the right to privacy, for human dignity; activists for migrant workers, asylum seekers, homeless persons, the unemployed, Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, and Palestinian citizens of Israel; for the adequate housing, health, and education that we all deserve. Once a year, just before International Human Rights Day, we join forces: all of the rights, all the activists, all the groups and organizations, all the believers come together".

And more: "Anti-democratic winds are sweeping through Israel, but last year’s Human Rights March proved that Israeli civil society is wide awake, working and struggling to protect human rights and democracy. The winds are blowing and anti-democratic legislation continues to be promoted, as though the people never flooded the streets in a demand for social justice. And yet the Israeli society has now changed – we are more united, we know how to protest, we know how to demand. So join us in the Human Rights March – this is your stage!"

Meeting point in Tel-Aviv at Habima Square,10:00 am. Rally in Rabin Square, 12:00 pm.

Read more in the March Blog in English: http://themarch.org.il/?cat=38
Attend and share the Facebook event: http://on.fb.me/tpFL55


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SPREAD THE RUMOR – MARCHING IN HAIFA!
The March המצעד http://themarch.org.il (Israel)

ehud בקטגוריה English 1/12/2011

Two weeks ago, on the phone, Matan was dead-serious: "After what we did this summer, it is obvious we will hold the Human Rights March in Haifa as well".

We couldn't resist the committed volunteers – and we are proud to hold the March in haifa, for the first time!

For the Haifa march on FB - http://j.mp/sSymCV
For the Tel Aviv march on FB - http://j.mp/vlqXDO

Haifa is a binational and multicultural city. More than 250,000 residents of the city are regularly creating endless affinit/identity groups, and most of them are keenly aware of their common interest in establishing an equal environment , based on human rights and mutual respect.

A multitude of people in haifa's neighborhoods demonstrated over the summer, demanding fulfillment of basic rights in education, housing and welfare- the goals of a just society.

Residents of haifa and its environs understood that they have human rights that can neither be denied, undermined or repealed.

Basic, human, elemental rights- it doesn't matter how you name them, and therefore, it is only natural that for the 1st time , the international day of human rights will be celebrated in haifa too.

This past summer, people went out into the streets, not for a higher standard of living, but for a better quality of life. The difference between these to goals may seem slight and insignificant, but it is really meaningful and important. People did not ask for free cable t.v. , for a bigger car, of for a more advanced air conditioner. They demanded that their rights be honored, that the be related to as human beings, that the authorities change their agenda, and place the human element in front of their eyes, instead of the economy and intellectual paradigms.
This protest began and continues by the people: people of different viewpoints and groupings, but with shared rights for all – the residents of b'nai david, wadi nisnas, halissa, hadar, neve yosef and carmel.

The International Day of Human Rights and the march of organizations for social change reflect a direct continuation of the events of the summer.

We are looking forward to a reality of citizens that work for social change, reject injustice and acceptance of indignity, who will struggle for equality, friendship and freedom against he anti democratic legislation currently before the knesset and for assuming a shared responsibility for our future.

COME TO MARCH – HAIFA OR TEL-AVIV!
הוספת תגובה »

Wake up. Rise up. Struggle. Demonstrate. Come to the Human Rights March in Tel Aviv on December 9, 2011.

מאת ehud | בקטגוריה English 2011 |‏ 23/11/2011
מתוך: הקונספירלה; גיא בר נבון

If this past summer proves something, it is this: we are a part of the world. Israel's tent protest did not begin in Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard, it started in Tunisia and in Tahrir Square; and it didn't end with the demonstration in Rabin Square, it still echoes here and on Wall Street, in Puerta del Sol in Madrid, and on the steps of St Paul Cathedral in London. Human rights – and within them the right to the most basic elements of a dignified life: health, housing, education, and welfare – these rights have always been universal. In recent months, people from more and more nations have taken to the streets to struggle for these very rights, demanding that their elected officials act to fulfill their responsibilities and stop betraying their trust. What us currently happening in so many cities expresses our shared humanity; and in this, we too are a part of this world.

If this past summer proves something, it is this: we are not a part of this world. It would be senseless to try and lead a protest for human rights in Israel that is somehow limited only to the space west of the Separation Fence. In addition, even in this limited space – the protests that took place in the summer sometimes preferred to ignore institutionalized aspects created by social gaps based on national identity, which are the foundation for other forms of discrimination. Affordable housing is affordable housing, but if you're an Arab citizen ofIsrael, for over 60 years the state has preferred to thwart your ability to build legally. Dealing with these issues without recognizing their origins, as though they carried the same weight of the struggle for regulation of apartments for rent in Tel Aviv (an important struggle in and of itself) – doing so is not part of the solution, it is part of the problem. This kind of approach, which separates justice from the social justice storm, is what separates us from the rest of the world.

And if so, then just where are we living?

On December 9th, one day before International Human Rights Day, the Human Rights March will be carried out, for the third consecutive year . The march will pass through familiar streets – the same streets that witnessed unprecedented protests this past summer. And perhaps, after this summer, these streets are no longer the same as they were? Part of the world or not part of it, time will tell.. In any event, the reality here, in certain ways, has already changed.

The hundreds of thousands of Israelis, who demonstrated over the summer, set an international record for nonviolent, popular protest. Could there be anything more democratic than that? The fact that a middle class protest for affordable housing grew into a widespread social protest was an exceptional display of human solidarity, which is at the basis of every society aspiring for equality. The fact that after two years of raging racism against the Arab citizens of Israel, which has been led by the government and is intensifying in the Knesset– the fact that after all that, the biggest demonstrations in Israel's history placed universal, social principles at the front, rather than nationalist principles, Is not something to be ignored.

This summer was a beginning. Social justice and civil protest are a powerful beginning. In this past summer, hundreds of thousands of Israelis together did something great, and we have additional, great challenges ahead of us. Some of these challenges might seem unsurmountable at times, but who would have imagined only several months ago that the people would have enough of privatization, corporations, and a neoliberal economy? Or that from protesting the price of cottage cheese we would go to demanding a welfare state and direct employment?

In the Human Rights March, we will express all of these challenges: social justice and an end to the occupation, complete civil equality and freedom of expression, a substantive democracy and human rights for all – for refugees and for migrant workers, for women and for men, for Palestinians and for Israelis, all the 100 percent of human rights for all human beings. Nothing less. This, precisely, is the essence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This, precisely, is the essence of International Human Rights Day. And precisely for all this we are holding the Human Rights March.

Several weeks ago, during the last (for now) social justice demonstration at Rabin Squarein Tel Aviv, a young man stood on the stage and said that for him, the summer has not ended. He said: “This summer we shouted together 'no more'.” He said: “Our joint struggle is the struggle for a different future, one future, a better future for all those who live here.” He said: “Wake up, rise up, struggle, demonstrate. We will have a new society, more democratic, more just, more equal.”

These words – spoken by Rabea Fahoum, a sociology student atTelAvivUniversity– could be wishful thinking or a passing illusion; or they could be our future, a future for all of us. In order for this to happen, we must wake up, struggle, demonstrate; not for specific rights to specific people, not each group for its own interests, but together, with enough room for each of the many problems that we must confront and with a unified and universal voice, the voice of all of us for the shared vision that we shape with our actions.

So wake up. Rise up. Struggle. Demonstrate. Yes, there will be a new society here, more democratic, more just, more equal. And precisely for that, come to the Human Rights March on December 9th.

Hagai El-Ad, Executive Director, ACRI

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About the Human Rights March, Tel-Aviv 2011
מאת ehud | בקטגוריה English 2011 |‏ 14/11/2011

Once again, we will take to the streets to call out: It's our right!

On Friday, 9 December 2011, we will walk together in the annual Human Rights March.

Join the event on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/tpFL55
Meeting point at Habima Square, Rothschild st. Tel-Aviv at 10:00.

Rally at the Rabin Square at 12:00.

The March has room for all the different flags, for all the groups and initiatives that view human rights as the moral and social foundation for change. Many voices that are not frequently heard, or even not heard at all – thousands of activists for freedom of expression, protest, and movement, for the right to privacy, for human dignity; activists for migrant workers, asylum seekers, homeless persons, the unemployed, Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, and Palestinian citizens of Israel; for the adequate housing, health, and education that we all deserve. Once a year, just before International Human Rights Day, we join forces: all of the rights, all the activists, all the groups and organizations, all the believers come together.

This past summer, the streets of Israelwere filled with believers. A belief that we can change things, that we should and we must – bring about a new policy, a new culture regarding the state's treatment of its citizens, a new approach regarding the state's obligation to promote the rights of all of us.

This belief has empowered many, who thought they were a few and alone and suddenly discovered that we are a mass. This past summer, the flag of social justice has been raised, but this is only the beginning of change, of raising consciousness to the fact that all human rights must be afforded to every human being.

Anti-democratic winds are sweeping throughIsrael, but last year's Human Rights March proved that Israeli civil society is wide awake, working and struggling to protect human rights and democracy.

The winds are blowing and anti-democratic legislation continues to be promoted, as though the people never flooded the streets in a demand for social justice. And yet the Israeli society has now changed – we are more united, we know how to protest, we know how to demand. So join us in the Human Rights March – this is your stage!

The March, organized by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), is the flagship event of the Israeli human rights and social change community. Hundreds of organizations, communities, and activists – all come together to say: It's our right, to all human rights, for all human beings!

Some 450,000 Israelis march at massive 'March of the Million' rallies across country

3 September 2011, Haaretz הארץ (Israel)

Protests held in major cities across Israel represent biggest rallies in country's history; protest leader says 'we have chosen to see instead of walking blindly toward the abyss.'

By Oz Rosenberg, Ilan Lior and Gili Cohen

Over 450,000 protesters attended rallies across the country last night calling for social justice in what was the largest demonstration in Israeli history.

The main protest took place in Tel Aviv's Kikar Hamedina, where some 300,000 people gathered after marching from Habima Square about two kilometers away. Protest leader Yonatan Levy said the atmosphere was like "a second Independence Day."

Protest leaders Daphni Leef and National Student Union Chairman Itzik Shmuli both addressed the Tel Aviv crowd. "Mr. Prime Minister, the new Israelis have a dream and it is simple: to weave the story of our lives into Israel. We expect you to let us live in this country. The new Israelis will not give up. They demand change and will not stop until real solutions come," Shmuli said.

"My generation always felt as though we were alone in this world, but now we feel the solidarity," said Leef. "They tried to dismiss us as stupid children, and as extreme leftists," but last night's countrywide protest proved otherwise, she said.

Dr. Shiri Tannenbaum, a medical resident leading the young doctors' protest against the recent collective wage agreement signed between the government and the Israel Medical Association, also spoke at the Tel Aviv rally.

In Jerusalem, an unprecedented 50,000 people filled Paris Square and the surrounding streets, almost twice the number that attended previous protests this summer.

Actress and comedienne Orna Banai told the crowd in the capital: "I am not amused that there are hungry children here; that we have a soldier rotting in captivity for five years; that Israel is one of the poorest examples there are of human rights."

The chairman of the Hebrew University Student Union, Itai Gotler, said: "We changed this summer. The voice of the mother, the teacher, the student, have been heard...The fire of protest was lit in Tel Aviv, but the tent city in Jerusalem shows that the protest belongs to all of us."

Gotler said the Jerusalem tent city was closing down, but pledged to continue the struggle.

Yehuda Alush, 52, from Be'er Sheva, among a group of protesters from the Negev who marched to the capital, said: "This protest must not stop or we'll lose." In Haifa, the protest drew 40,000 people, many of whom waved red flags.

The Haifa protest focused on the issue of discrimination against Arabs. Shahin Nasser, representative of the Wadi Nisnas protest tent in Haifa said: "Today we are changing the rules of the game. No more coexistence based on hummus and fava beans. What is happening here is true coexistence, when Arabs and Jews march together shoulder to shoulder calling for social justice and peace. We've had it. Bibi, go home. Steinitz, go and don't come back, Atias, good-bye and good riddance," he said, referring to the prime minister, the finance minister and the housing minister, respectively.

The chairman of the University of Haifa's student union, Yossi Shalom, told the crowd, gathered at the foot of the Bahai Gardens in the city's German Colony, "There is no more beautiful sight than social solidarity. As a student, this is the most important lesson I have learned in recent months." At the protest in Afula the numbers reached 12,000; in Rosh Pina, 7,000 and in Kiryat Shemona, 7,000.

Meanwhile, in the south, a total of more than 1,000 people took part in rallies in Mitzpe Ramon and Arad. Ya'akov Laksi, an organizer of the protest in Arad, told the crowd: "Social justice means Arad will no longer be called an outlying town. We need to bring people work."

Laksi said organizers had expected only 100 protesters.

"We want the government to increase funding, not take from someone else," Eyal Adler, an organizer of the protest in Mitzpe Ramon said.

A protester who gave her name as Ruthie, said: "We are far from the eye of the media, but we deserve no less funding and a change in the funding map of Israel."

Concerns over possible rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip led the Home Front Command to issue a directive prohibiting demonstrations in Be'er Sheva, Ashdod and Ashkelon.

Eli Ashkenazi and Yanir Yagna contributed to this report.

More on this topic
• What’s next for Israel after the ‘March of the Million’
• Netanyahu: Israel government has duty 'to correct social disparities'
• Ahead of the March of the Million, Israel’s social protest leaders are put to the test
• In Israel, the future can come down to just one night

IN FINAL PUSH, J14 TO HOLD ‘MILLION-PERSON’ MARCH

31 August 2011, + 972 http://972mag.com (Israel)

Mairav Zonszein*

Protest organizers are running against the ticking September clock to get the turnout this Saturday night to be the largest the country has seen – however difficult questions remain about the future of social justice reforms

With September quickly upon us and reports coming out that the army is training settlers in the West Bank for “Operation Summer Seeds” (the name given to the army’s plan to respond to potential “mass disorder” during Palestinian demonstrations in September), the tent protest movement, almost two months old, is making one final push for a large demonstration this Saturday night before the country’s media becomes entirely consumed by the September events.

What is being called the “million-person march” is expected to take place in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Beer Sheva, and is being heavily marketed on Facebook and through other social media. The J14 organizers have set up a “situation room” in an apartment next to the tent encampment on Rothschild Boulevard to encourage people to get involved. It is manned 24-hours a day by volunteers and although leaders continue to claim that the show of large numbers is not what matters, they are pushing every person to bring 5 friends to the protest on Saturday night.

There have also been promotional videos going around online, one especially dramatic one which asks viewers to imagine a scenario in which the protest movement dies out (Hebrew). In the video, there are hypothetical headlines in major newspapers portraying a sort of social justice armageddon, starting with the forceful evacuation of all tents on September 4th, moving on to the privatization of healthcare and annulment of minimum wage, and ending with the social gaps in Israel surpassing those in the US next summer 2012.

Even if the turnout this Saturday exceeds the largest of the tent protests that saw 300,000 people in the streets across the country, critical questions remain:

1) What will happen to the tent cities themselves?

2) Will the leaders of this movement form a national entity that will continue to function and will a political party come out of it?

3)Most importantly, (if and) how will the protests translate into policy changes?

None of these answers are clear, although there have been reports the tent cities will be taken down following Saturday’s march and efforts at establishing a nation-wide leadership have so far been mired in disputes regarding leadership and the decision-making process, and the question of disproportionate power held by original tent organizers. As for reforms, the Trajtenberg Committee appointed by the prime minister, which many tent protestors have disqualified as partisan, has been taking suggestions from the public and promises to produce recommendations before the holidays (end of September).

I actually overheard a J14 activist today telling someone that the first phase of the protest – taking tents into the street to wake up the public and get media attention – was very successful but is now over. Now is the time to do the hard work of sitting on your computer and in meetings in order to make sure that the protests translate into changes in policy.

*Mairav Zonszein is an Israeli-American journalist, translator, editor and academic. Her research focuses on contemporary Jewish identity politics, which she has been grappling with since attending private Jewish schools as a child in New York City.

Mairav’s work has appeared in Haaretz, Ynet, The Forward, The Nation and Dissent, among others.

Mairav has been living in Israel for over a decade and is active with Ta'ayush, a direct-action Arab-Jewish group whose activism focuses on the impoverished Palestinian communities of the South Hebron Hills.

¿El movimiento J14 podrá salirse de su narrativa y abrirse a una transformación del espacio palestino (e israeli)?

Rompiendo Muros pone a disposición de sus lectores la traducción de un texto del activista, periodista y político Haggai Matar y su visión desde dentro del movimiento J14. Una visión que sin dejar de ser realista, como no puede ser de otra manera en un experimentado y conocido activista contra la ocupación, el apartheid sionista y contra el muro en los territorios ocupados, sin embargo vive y observa unas dinámicas que dejan las puertas abiertas a una positiva evolución dentro del movimiento y a la posibilidad de un cambio histórico, por lo menos en parte de la sociedad israelí.

17 agosto 2011/Rompiendo Muros http://rompiendo-muros.blogspot.com (España)

Haggai Matar*

Traducción: Fernando Casares
¿El J14 podrá realizar un giro sobre la causa progresista dentro de Israel?

La lucha social revolucionaria que tiene lugar en Israel hoy en día se acerca a una coyuntura crítica: o se desmorona bajo la bota de "necesidades de seguridad" y segregación racial, o se libera de todos los dogmas anteriores y reinicia nuestro sistema político.

Tal vez sea el momento oportuno para decir esas palabras en voz alta: amigos, compañeros, compañeras - en la izquierda hemos estado luchando por una causa perdida. Desde hace tiempo hemos estado luchando contra la ocupación, el apartheid, el racismo sionista y de todos los gustos, con muy poco que mostrar.

En las últimas décadas, el Estado de Israel en los territorios palestinos ocupados se ha convertido cada vez más sofisticado, más brutal, más profundo y arraigado. La discriminación a gran escala contra los ciudadanos palestinos de Israel sigue siendo la política oficial del Estado, dando lugar en los últimos años a una ola de legislación anti democrática y racista. Y, por supuesto, ni a un solo refugiado palestino se le permitió volver a Israel o recibir una compensación por más de 63 años de exilio.

No es fácil admitir el fracaso después de 12 años de trabajo con compañeros palestinos, israelíes e internacionalistas para la liberación de Palestina. Hemos manifestado, marchado, protestado, y construimos puentes de solidaridad y esperanza, además de ser golpeados, baleados y arrestados.

Mis amigos me suelen ver como una persona optimista: a pesar de todo lo que ha sucedido, y a pesar de la complicidad de la mayor parte de los judíos israelíes sobre la ocupación, nunca me di por vencido por la esperanza de cambio, y pondré mi tiempo y energía en proyectos educativos, conferencias, folletos y escritos, y hablando con la gente en las calles. He hablado con los soldados enviados para dispersar nuestras manifestaciones conjuntas sin armas contra el Muro del Apartheid, tratando de hacerles entender nuestra lucha también. Todavía creo en esta estrategia, junto con la presión exterior, tales como las Resoluciones de la ONU y las campañas de BDS.

Sin embargo, entiendo perfectamente a mis amigos palestinos e israelíes que han renunciado al público judío israelí. Dentro de Israel, casi nadie parece estar preocupado por la supresión del régimen militar en los Territorios Palestinos Ocupados (TPO). La material y psicológica combinación de privilegios, ventajas económicas, sentimientos racistas de superioridad y el temor existencial profundamente arraigado de un "segundo Holocausto" - alimentado a través de las escuelas, los medios de comunicación y los políticos - parece haber forjado una barrera inquebrantable sobre la protección de los dogmas colectivos nacionales. Sumemos a esto el evidente cheque en blanco de ayuda concedida por los EE.UU. y la UE, y uno está obligado a hundirse en algún tipo de depresión pesimista: nada parecía generar ningún tipo de cambio. Hasta ahora.

La edad de los sueños
Todavía es demasiado pronto para predecir exactamente a dónde se dirige el movimiento de protesta "J14". Pero por primera vez en décadas, tal vez, estamos siendo testigos de que lo imposible puede volverse posible. Lo que parecía ser una mera fantasía hace medio año, mientras veíamos a la gente en Egipto luchando por sus sueños en las calles, se ha convertido en una realidad viva.

Por ejemplo, el primer día después de que la acampada en Rothschild fue instalada, me encontré con un joven amigo de Tel Aviv sin experiencia en el activismo político, que decidió protestar por su alto alquiler. En una discusión acerca de la lucha, él era muy firme sobre la necesidad de evitar cualquier tema que no estaba directamente relacionado con el problema de la vivienda. Una semana más tarde, me encontré con él otra vez, dando una conferencia con pasión a sus amigos acerca de por qué esto debe ser una lucha por cambiar todo el sistema económico, no sólo los alquileres. Me enteré de que entre nuestras dos reuniones ha participado en varios talleres sobre economía, que tuvo lugar en el campamento, y vio las películas críticas sobre la privatización. Esto le ha radicalizado de tal manera que nunca antes fue posible en el discurso militarista de seguridad impulsado por la cultura política que gobernó Israel desde antes de 1948.

Al día siguiente fuimos testigos de la primera manifestación masiva en las calles de Tel Aviv y fue aquí donde sentí por primera vez que el "pueblo" con el lema "el pueblo exige justicia social" podría referirse en realidad a todo el pueblo de Israel y ciudadanos, no sólo a judíos. Este simple concepto republicano, con su potencial radical sobre la inclusión de judíos y palestinos en la corriente principal del movimiento contra el mismo capitalismo neo-liberal, no tardaría en demostrar su valía. La manifestación de la semana siguiente, probablemente la mayor manifestación en la historia de Israel, presentó un altavoz palestino en el escenario, un ciudadano israelí (Dimi Reider escribió sobre esto aquí).

Tan sólo siete días después, más de diez campamentos palestinos fueron establecidos dentro de las fronteras de Israel. Los ciudadanos palestinos se han unido a la "asamblea de campamentos" - la dirección nacional de la lucha. Sus demandas de reconocimiento de los pueblos "no reconocidos" y de los permisos de construcción en sus propias tierras se están integrando en la agenda de la lucha oficial. La protesta de la noche del pasado sábado, que se centró en la periferia en lugar de Tel Aviv, no vio a los ciudadanos palestinos como socios principales, si no abiertamente iniciadores. Esto fue cierto no sólo en el frente bi-nacional en Jaffa y Haifa, sino también en Beer Sheva y Afula, donde las poblaciones son casi totalmente judías. En las etapas intermedias de todas estas manifestaciones, los altavoces repetían la noción de asociación entre judíos y árabes. Raja Za'atry, miembro del Comité Superior Árabe de Seguimiento en Israel, dio la bienvenida a los manifestantes a la "Red de Haifa", y dijo que "el hambre y la humillación, al igual que el capital, no tienen patria ni lenguaje ... Esta lucha es de todos!" Entonces en la mañana del lunes, un comité oficial de académicos formó el liderazgo de la lucha, como oposición a la formada por el gobierno. En la conferencia de prensa al presentar el comité, uno de los cuatro oradores, una mujer palestina, ha destacado cómo el gobierno deja al margen a los ciudadanos árabes y cómo una demanda de justicia social debe incluir el fin de la discriminación racial.

El iraquí judío autor y director de la Asociación Israelí para los Derechos Civiles, Sami Michael, promovió la misma idea en árabe y en hebreo, cuando habló en la manifestación de Haifa.

En la semana que viene, los manifestantes estarán cada vez más programados para realizar las visitas de solidaridad a los campamentos árabes organizados, se formarán nuevos vínculos y adquirirán nuevos conocimientos.

Los sueños no tienen fronteras
Sin embargo, la pregunta sigue siendo: ¿De qué sirve una lucha por la justicia social, que guarda silencio sobre el crimen más grande de todos - la ocupación, y el robo de tierras palestinas dentro de Israel? Este es un punto legítimo y fundamental. A la larga, si esta lucha no puede convocar a la democracia, la igualdad y la justicia para todos - definitivamente habrá fracasado.

Sin embargo, creo que esta acusación se produjo muy rápidamente, por aquellos que han dejado de lado el potencial de la sociedad israelí para un cambio. La izquierda radical ya no es un extraño, sino que forma una parte importante de la corriente principal. Activistas de izquierda están en todas partes: en solidaridad con los sindicatos de trabajadores que se van uniendo, en los barrios pobres que luchan por la vivienda pública, y reúne a las comunidades palestinas y judías que comparten esta necesidad, en el campamento principal de Rothschild y en la "asamblea de las acampadas". Todo está cambiando, y tenemos un papel que jugar también.

El camino para hacer frente a la ocupación aún es largo. El mismo discurso republicano, que abarca a los ciudadanos palestinos podría alienar a los palestinos en los Territorios Ocupados. Algunos dicen que podría poner en peligro la demanda de derechos colectivos, en lugar de sólo los derechos individuales, ya que la lucha debe "borrar" las identidades particulares a fin de promover el llamado "pueblo unido". Se podría caer en manos de los "patriotas", que desearían conseguir la sociedad judía para una nueva guerra de opresión contra los palestinos, cuando llegue septiembre. Podría romper el movimiento.

Y tal vez no. Es posible que cientos de miles de personas dejen legítimamente a un lado los intereses militaristas y empiecen a luchar por un nuevo tipo de seguridad, la seguridad social. Esta radicalización aún podría dificultar la retórica del "deber patriótico". A pesar de la proximidad de la declaración de la condición de Estado Palestino en Septiembre, los rumores de un desalojo planificado de las tiendas de campaña hacen que todo el mundo esté hablando de una lucha contra las autoridades para mantenerlos.

Mientras tanto, la ocupación como un tema a tratar ya ha comenzado a hacer su camino en la lucha. En la Carpa 1948 en Tel Aviv, los palestinos y los judíos están hablando con los transeúntes acerca de la ocupación, y la distribución de panfletos que implica la necesidad de rechazar un posible llamado a servicio de reserva de emergencia en septiembre. El viernes, la manifestación semanal en Nabi Saleh presentó una carpa cubierta con lemas como "asentamientos = injusticia" y "no se puede tener justicia social bajo el apartheid". El día anterior, el cine central al aire libre de Rothschild pasó su primera película contra la ocupación, relativa al sistema de los tribunales militares en los territorios ocupados ("La Ley en estas Partes") "No podemos dejar de sentir que la justicia social es algo que no puede detenerse en la Línea Verde ", dijeron los organizadores. En Beer Sheva, el portavoz de los beduinos Hannan Al-Sana habló de las identidades colectivas y culturas para ser respetado y el popular cantante Ahinoam Nini dijo que no va a confiar en la actual administración, si nos lleva a la guerra. En Haifa, Za'atary advirtió que es un interés de la capital iniciar una guerra para silenciar la protesta, pero insistió en una lucha conjunta por la "justicia, paz, igualdad, y un futuro mejor y justo para ambos pueblos".

Todo esto no quiere decir que vamos a ver una ola de nuevos campamentos en Cisjordania y Gaza, pidiendo enviar representantes a la "asamblea de las acampadas", y una cohesión simple de la lucha del pueblo palestino en la lucha social. No, en absoluto. La segregación y la opresión militar usada contra los activistas políticos en los Territorios Ocupados está probablemente demasiado arraigada para permitir tal cosa, y ambas partes probablemente sospecharían los unos de los otros si se pusiese adelante esta iniciativa. Pero sí significa que las cosas están cambiando. Lo que significa es que nosotros, los palestinos y los judíos por igual, los socios en la lucha por la libertad, la paz, la democracia y la igualdad, por primera vez podemos soñar con tener un efecto duradero en la política convencional - y tratar de hacer realidad ese sueño.

*Activista israelí, periodista y político, centrándose principalmente en la lucha contra la ocupación. Actualmente está trabajando en Zman Tel Aviv , el suplemento local de Maariv periódico, y en el sitio web independiente hebreo MySay.

ANTI-ARAB SENTIMENT IN ISRAEL

18 August 2011, The Electronic Intifada http://electronicintifada.net (USA)

Video survey: Racism rampant among Israeli youth

Eli Ungar-Sargon

Over the past three years, my wife Pennie and I have been working on a documentary film about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. During our second production trip to the region, one of the many remarkable people we encountered was Uri Davis. He is one of a handful of Israelis who has built a life for himself among the Palestinians of the West Bank. This made him a very interesting subject for our film, which examines the practical and moral failings of the two-state solution.

During our interview with Davis, one of the questions we asked was whether he had encountered any anti-Semitism in the West Bank. The question was motivated by a desire on our part to address a narrative — prevalent among American and Israeli Jews — which claims that anti-Semitism is an obvious feature of Palestinian culture.

As these two groups are an important part of our target audience, we felt that it was our responsibility to address this perception. Who better to ask about the veracity of this narrative than a Jew living among Palestinians? Davis answered by saying that although Palestinian anti-Semitism does exist, it is a marginal phenomenon, while anti-Arab sentiment among Israelis is a mainstream phenomenon. Shortly after the interview, it occurred to us that we could either substantiate or disprove Davis’s provocative statement with our cameras.

We began our survey in February 2011 and completed it in early March. On the Israeli side, we interviewed a total of 250 Jewish Israelis in Haifa, Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Jerusalem and Beersheba. For this part of the survey I conducted the interviews myself from behind the camera in Hebrew. On the Palestinian side, we interviewed a total of 250 Palestinians in Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron. (Despite multiple attempts, we were unable to procure permission to enter the Gaza Strip.) Here, we collaborated with local journalist Mohammad Jaradat who, using my questions, conducted the interviews in Arabic.

The questions we asked pertained to a number of sensitive political topics and the idea was to get people to talk long enough to detect if there was any racism at play in their answers. In sociological terms, we were engaged in qualitative analysis, but unlike typical qualitative interviews, we spent minutes, not hours with our subjects. Our survey is not exhaustive and our method was very simple. We went to public places and asked people to talk to us on camera. In designing the questions, I set out to distinguish actual racism from conflict-based animosity. That is, to allow for the possibility that Israelis might exhibit animosity towards Palestinians without being racist and to allow the same on the Palestinian side in reverse.

The very first question we asked of Jewish Israelis was the extremely broad “What do you think about Arabs?” It is only reasonable to expect that people who harbor anti-Arab sentiment would mask their feelings when answering such a direct question on camera. Most people responded to this question with some variation of “They are people,” although we were surprised that a sizable minority used the opportunity to launch into anti-Arab diatribes.

One of the most disturbing trends that we noticed was the strong correlation between age and anti-Arab sentiment. The majority of Israeli teenagers that we spoke to expressed unabashed and open racism towards Arabs. Statements like “I hate them,” or “they should all be killed” were common in this age group.

When looking over the data, we divided the respondents into three groups: those who were neutral about Arabs; those who were positive about them; and those who expressed negative attitudes. Amongst the responses, 60 percent were neutral, 25 percent negative and 15 percent positive.

Rights misunderstood
Interestingly, some of the same people who answered the first question by saying that Arabs are people, went on to say that they wouldn’t be willing to live next door to them. Internal inconsistencies of this nature cropped up in many of the interviews and it is for this reason that we reserved our overall judgment on the prevalence of anti-Arab sentiment until all of the answers were tabulated. Our results show that 71 percent were willing to live next door to Arab neighbors, while 24 percent were unwilling. Five percent failed to answer this question with either a “yes” or a “no.”

It should be noted that the Israel Democracy Institute received dramatically different numbers in response to the above question. In its 2010 survey, it found that 46 percent of Jewish Israelis were unwilling to live next door to an Arab. The implication of this discrepancy is that our survey sample was much less anti-Arab than the population at large.

When it came to equal rights, a clear majority of our respondents answered that they felt it was important for Arab citizens of the state of Israel to enjoy equal rights. Upon review of the data, one of the significant trends that emerged in these answers was the recurrent use of the phrase “rights and responsibilities.” Many people openly resented the fact that most Arab citizens of the state don’t perform military service and argued that Arabs should only have equal rights if they are held to the same responsibilities as Jews. This response demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of the very concept of rights, but it was prevalent enough that we felt it justified its own category. We called this category “conditional.” Of these responses, 64 percent were in favor of equal rights, 16 percent were opposed and 20 percent were in favor of conditional rights.

Once again, we saw a clear discrepancy from the Israel Democracy Institute numbers, which showed that 46 percent of Israelis were opposed to full and equal rights for Arab citizens of the state.

Democracy for Jews only?
Israel defines itself as a “Jewish democracy” but we were interested in discovering which part of that definition is more important to Jewish Israelis. We went about doing this by asking: “What’s more important: that Israel be a Jewish state or a democratic state?” What we discovered was that a clear majority of the people we spoke to felt that the Jewish character of the state was at least equally if not more important than the democratic character. There was, however, an impressive minority who were clear about the fact that it was more important to them that Israel be a democratic state. This last category represents, by a slim margin, the single largest group of our respondents: 37 percent felt that a democratic character was more important, 36 percent felt that a Jewish character was more important and 27 percent felt that both were equally important.

On the subject of the settlers, we asked a more leading question: “What do you think about the settlers? Are they an impediment to peace?” We broke the responses down into three groups: those who were neutral about the settlers; those who were positive about them; and those who expressed negativity. In this instance, answering “yes” was taken as evidence of negative feelings towards the settlers, answering “no” without qualification was taken as a neutral stance and answering “no” followed by something like “they are the heroes of the Jewish people” — a phrase that we heard a number of times — was taken as evidence of positive feelings. What we discovered was that more than 70 percent of the people we spoke to were either neutral or positive towards the settlers. Of the responses, 45 percent were neutral, 28 percent were positive and 27 percent were negative about the settlers.

Many of the people we spoke to exhibited a deep suspicion and mistrust of the Palestinian people. When asked whether it was possible to make peace with the Palestinians, less than half of our respondents answered “yes.” This is a sobering statistic for anyone invested in the peace process. It would seem that most of the people we spoke to have given up on the prospect of peace. Even among the Israelis who believed that peace is possible, a recurrent theme was “not in this generation.” Another important trend in this part of the survey was blaming the Palestinian leadership for the lack of progress in the peace process. Many of the people who answered “yes” stated that peace was possible with the Palestinian people but not with their leaders. Of the responses, 48 percent believed that peace with the Palestinians is possible, while 40 percent felt that peace is not possible. Thirteen percent failed to answer this question with either a “yes” or a “no.”

Little knowledge of one-state solution
Given the subject of our film, we were very interested in exploring people’s preferences for potential solutions to the conflict. What we noticed almost immediately was that it was very important to clarify to our respondents exactly what we meant by one state or two states. For the purposes of our survey, we defined the one-state solution as a secular democracy with equal rights on all of historic Palestine, while we defined the two-state solution as two states more or less along the lines of the 1967 boundaries, with East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state. It was important that we were able to explain exactly what we meant, because many Israelis answered one way but meant something entirely different.

For example, when asked whether they preferred the one-state solution or the two-state solution, many respondents answered that they preferred the two-state solution. But when we followed up and asked what territorial concessions they would be willing to make, these same people said that they wouldn’t agree to any concessions.
Furthermore, almost no one that we spoke to was familiar with the concept of the one-state solution. Many people even took this to mean one state for Jews only, until we clarified our meaning. When we reviewed the data from this section of the survey, we decided to break down the responses into seven different categories: one state; one state (i.e. a state for Jews only); two states; two states (i.e. without territorial concessions); either one or two states; neither one nor two states; and other. What is really fascinating about our results is that over two thirds of the people we spoke to were actively opposed to the classic two-state solution on the 1967 borders. Furthermore, there were almost as many true one-state solution supporters as there were classic two-state supporters. Amongst those we surveyed, 27 percent were true two-state supporters, 23 percent were true one state supporters, 22 percent supported neither, 16 percent were in favor of two states without territorial concessions, 6 percent were okay with either one or two states, 4 percent were in favor of one state for Jews only, and 2 percent didn’t fit into any of these categories.

Racism highest in Jerusalem
In trying to answer the question of whether anti-Arab sentiment is a mainstream phenomenon among Israelis, we looked at all of the answers and divided the data into three categories: not anti-Arab; mildly anti-Arab; and strongly anti-Arab. Once again, we allowed for the possibility that a person might exhibit animosity towards Palestinians without being anti-Arab and we did not put people into one of the anti-Arab columns simply because he or she expressed right-wing political views. So, for example, if the only evidence in an interview of anti-Arab sentiment was that the respondent said that equal rights for Arabs are conditional upon equal responsibilities, we did not put them in an anti-Arab column. However, if a respondent stated that they wouldn’t live next door to an Arab, this was sufficient to push him or her into the mildly anti-Arab column. To qualify for the strongly anti-Arab category, a respondent needed to exhibit anti-Arab sentiment in two or more answers.

Our results showed that 46 percent of our respondents were either mildly or strongly anti-Arab. When we broke these numbers down according to city, there were obvious regional differences. Jerusalem was by far the most anti-Arab of the five cities we visited, with 58 percent exhibiting some level of anti-Arab sentiment, while Haifa was the least with 32 percent. Interestingly, after Jerusalem, Tel Aviv was the city with the most anti-Arab sentiment (49 percent).

The data we gathered substantiates the idea that anti-Arab sentiment is a mainstream phenomenon in Israel. Almost half of all the Jewish Israelis we spoke to exhibited some level of anti-Arab sentiment. The single most disturbing trend that emerged was the correlation between youth and strong anti-Arab sentiment. We also learned that support for the classic two-state solution along the 1967 lines was very low among the people we spoke to. This data point was reinforced by the strong support that we saw for the settlers. Given our leading question, the fact that less than a third of respondents were willing to characterize the settlers as an impediment to peace, is further evidence that the two-state solution, as it is currently being proposed by the international community, is decidedly unpopular in Israel.

Despite the lack of knowledge about the one-state solution idea, some respondents appeared willing to consider it. Once this solution was explained to them, 22 percent preferred it and around 6 percent did not object to it. Finally, when we asked Jewish Israelis to choose between the Jewish character of the state and the democratic character, 36 percent opted for the latter. All of these results must be taken with a grain of salt.

We can report anecdotally that many of the people who refused to be interviewed told us that they wouldn’t participate, because they felt that we were part of the “leftist media.” For these reasons, we feel that it is likely, if anything, that our data underestimates the actual amount of anti-Arab sentiment in Israel.

Eli Ungar-Sargon is a documentary filmmaker based in Los Angeles. He and his wife Pennie are currently looking for translators to facilitate the data analysis on the Palestinian side of this survey. Anyone interested should email withoutaland A T gmail D O T com. To learn more about the film and see a visual representation of the data discussed in this article, please visit www.withoutaland.com

Over 80,000 protest in Israel's periphery

14 August 2011, Communist Party of Israel המפלגה הקומוניסטית הישראלית http://maki.org.il

More than 80,000 people on Saturday evening attended protests against the cost of living and soaring housing prices in the southern city of Beersheba, northern cities of Haifa and Afula and many other cities across the country. The rallies' participants included the leaders of the Tel Aviv protest city, youth movement members, leading members of Hadash, social activists, worker committees' representatives and famous artists.

The huge rally in Haifa (Photo: Al Ittihad)

The largest was in Haifa, more than 30,000 Jews and Arabs marched from the Kiryat Eliezer neighborhood to the German Colony, chanting: "We want social justice" and "The government is responsible for the crisis." Hundreds of red flags were carried by activists all over the country. Some 12,000 protestors gathered in Beersheba and 15,000 in Afula.

Thousands of people staged smaller rallies in Rosh Pina, Beit Shean, Nazareth, Nahariya, Netanya, Hod Hasharon, Ramat Hasharon, Natanya, Rishon Lezion, Petah Tikva, Modiin, Beit Shemesh, Ashkelon, Dimona and Eilat. Thousands of Arabs joined the social protest for the first time since it began with rallies in the cities of Sakhnin, Tayibe and Umm al-Fahem. The National Student Union sent some 50 buses carrying students from academic institutions in central Israel to the different rallies in the southern and northern cities.

More Israelis join forces in protest events taking place in cities around country

12 August 2011, Communist Party of Israel המפלגה הקומוניסטית הישראלית http://maki.org.il

Nearly a month into the social issues protests that have swept the country, movement organizers have decided to cancel the weekly mass rallies in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and hold in their place a series of mass rallies in the periphery. The message, organizers said, is that the movement isn’t only in the big cities in the center of the country, and the government must see it has become a nationwide struggle.

As of Thursday night, the cities that are planning to hold rallies include Haifa Afula, Beit She’an, Beersheba, Modi’in, Ramat Hasharon, Netanya, Eilat, Hod Hasharon, Dimona and Petah Tikva.

Strollers march, yesterday at Kikar HaMedina, Tel Aviv (Photo: Activestills)

Yesterday (Thursday) hundreds of young parents were joined by housing protesters and doctors in a nationwide march for better living. Some 600 parents, students and even lifeguards demanding better employment terms marched in the northern town of Kiryat Motzkin. In Tel Aviv, tent dwellers protesting against the high costs of housing marched from the Ichilov Medical Center towards Kikar HaMedina, the city's most upscale shopping district. They were joined by medical interns demanding reforms to the healthcare system and by young parents - accompanied by their children - demonstrating against the high prices of raising children. Some carried signs with the slogan "We don't have sushi in kindergarten" and chanted "Let's show Bibi who is pushing the stroller." Meanwhile, roughly 100 parents marched with strollers from the corner of Allenby and Begin streets towards the tent city set up in Levinsky Park. Some 200 artists broke into the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in protest against the facility's managing board, which they claim consists only of businessmen, and not representatives of the art field. According to the activists, they gathered outside the facility but decided to break in when no official came out to talk to them. The museum's security personnel locked the doors, barricading some of the artists inside.

Similar stroller marches took place in Bat Yam and Rehovot, where 200 people turned up. Another such march is expected to take place in Eilat, near the Red Sea. Approximately 200 people gathered in Jerusalem's Independence Park for a "protest festival," which included performances, lectures, activities for kids and discussion groups. In a similar event that took place in Beersheba, activists explained to the public the demands they intend to present to the government.

Also, yesterday night, 1,000 residents of the Jordan Valley protested at Zemah Junction, north of the Sea of Galilee, against the high costs of living. The protesters marched towards the junction from three directions.

Organizers of the demonstration said that residents of the valley have been part of the national protest movement for nearly a month, but claimed "the voice of the periphery isn't always heard."

Earlier Thursday, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz arrived at the Rothschild Boulevard tent city for the second time this week. Accompanied by a professional staff from his ministry, he intended to present the tent dwellers with his new plan to reform the country's public transportation system.

He was then forced to leave the premises, after tensions flared as displeased protesters shouted: "We demand answers", "Bibi, go home" and "The people will not give up."

Marches held across Israel as social protests enter fourth week

10 August 2011, Haaretz הארץ (Israel)

Homeless protesters in Holon burn tires and block roads after being ordered to dismantle tents; first Arab protest held in Haifa.

By Ilan Lior, Gili Cohen, Yanir Yagna, Asaf Shtull-Trauring and Revital Hovel

Protests against the rising costs of living marched on Wednesday in several cities across Israel. In Holon, protesters in the Jesse Cohen neighborhood burned tires and blocked roads after city inspectors ordered them to dismantle their tent compound within 24 hours. Most of the people occupying the tents are homeless.

The residents' representative, Nissan Zacharia, criticized the municipality's decision to clear the encampment. "A small match can ignite everything here," he said, adding that if the tents are dismantled "[Holon] will become like London, and it will be the mayor's responsibility."

In Be'er Sheva, protesters marched in swimsuits chanting "the protest is spreading" (also "undresses" in Hebrew). A mass rally is planned for Saturday, with organizers hoping for a turnout of 50,000 people. Uri Keiday, who heads the Ben Gurion University Student Association, said the event will be historic. "There has never before been a protest on this scale in the Negev," he said. "We are here to show those who want this protest to disappear that we are here to stay, and that this is everyone's struggle, from south to north."

In Wadi Nisnas in Haifa 200 protesters marched chanting the usual slogan – "the people want social justice" – but in Arabic. This was the first protests organized by Haifa's Arab community, which constitutes ten percent of the city's population.
Activists in other cities has been discussing whether the protest is political. Among these protesters in Haifa, the answer was clear, as they chanted, "The occupation is a disaster, it serves the tycoons," and "money should be given to neighborhoods, not settlements."

33-year-old Raja Za'atra, who organized Wadi Nisnas's tent city, said the protest is part of the nation-wide movement, but also seeks to highlight the specific problems facing the Arab sector. "The banks won't give mortgages to people who want to buy an apartment," he said. "In the case of the Arab population, the supply is limited and the prices keep rising." He added that there is also a shortage of kindergartens and schools for the Arab population.

In Jerusalem, approximately 250 people marched to protest against the state of public transportation in the city. The activist demanded clearer scheduling information at bus stops and more public involvement in decision making.

Additional protests took place on Wednesday in other parts of the country. Activists in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Kiryat Shmona held rallies against unfair employment conditions, wearing white masks as a symbol of the "invisible" sector in whose name they protested.

On Thursday, "stroller marches" are scheduled to take place across Israel for the third week straight.

WINDOW ON A NEW FUTURE

9 August 2011, Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם http://www.richardsilverstein.com (USA)

David Grossman

Last Saturday night, at the Jerusalem demonstration, I looked around and saw a human tidal wave flowing in the streets. Thousands of people were there, people who for years have not spoken out, having lost all hope for a change. Instead they had cloistered themselves within their own troubles and despair.

It wasn’t easy for them to join the roar of the youngsters with the megaphones. Maybe it was the discomfiture of those who are not used to speaking out, and are afraid to scream out. They were even more reluctant to roar out in unison. At times I felt that we, the marchers, were looking at ourselves in astonishment and a tinge of doubt, not really totally believing in ourselves. We were not quite sure of what was emanating from within us: Are we really that kind of angry mob, waving their fists in the air, as we have seen in similar demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt, Syria and Greece? Do we really want to be such a mob? Do we seriously mean it when we scream out to a drumbeat: “R-e-v-o-l-u-t-i-o-n!?!” What if the bolts that hold this fragile state snap open and crack? What if the protest and fervour is “too successful” and turn into anarchy?

But after we take a few steps something happens, and gets into our bloodstream: The pace, swing, and togetherness. Not the kind of threatening “togetherness” that wipes out individual identity, but a different kind of togetherness: a heterogeneous chaotic, familial medley. It is combined with strong sense of here and now, we are doing the right thing, finally doing the right thing.

And then there’s the shock: where were we until today? How did we let this come about? How did we acquiesce when the governments that we had elected turned our health, and our children’s education, into luxuries? How did it happen that we did not rush to the social workers’ aid when Treasury officials crushed them? And before them, how could we have acquiesced when the same treatment was meted out to the disabled, and Holocaust survivors, and the elderly and the pensioners? How did we forsake the hungry and poor over the years, abandoning them in soup kitchens, and in the care of charity organisations, setting them up for a lifetime of humiliation? How did we abandon foreign workers in the face of their hunters and persecutors, accepting the slave trade and trafficking in women? How do we put up with the ruthless march of privatisation thereby diminishing the value of everything we hold dear – solidarity, and responsibility, and mutual aid, and a sense of belonging to a single people?

We all know that there were many reasons for this indifference. But to me the deep schism over the issue of the Occupation is the most significant factor that devastated our society’s early warning and control systems. The flawed and unhealthy aspects of society were able to float to the surface. And we, perhaps because we feared facing the full reality of our lives, enthusiastically gave in, throwing ourselves into various opiates which dulled the sense of reality. Sometimes we looked at ourselves: some of us really liked a lot what he saw, while others disliked it and flinched. But even those who flinched, accepted it as the way things are, and called it “the situation” as if it was a matter of fate or a decree from heaven. In addition, we have let the commercial TV channels fill in most of the space in our collective consciousness, seeing ourselves in terms of struggles for survival and predation, pitting us against each other, and making us despise all those who are weaker than us, and different from us, and who are not “beautiful” or witty, or rich. And for many years now we have stopped talking to each other, and we have certainly stopped listening. It stands to reason that when the prevailing ambience is that of “grab what you can,” you cannot help but disparage the other and rob each other blind. For that is the way they demonstrate to us and remind us at every opportunity: it’s every person for themselves and their fate.

The more we exhausted ourselves through this non-stop squabbling, the more malleable we became so we could be bewildered, controlled, and manipulated, allowing ourselves to fall victims to an invisible but effective “divide and rule” syndrome. And so, discussion of important questions trickled down from capital to regime to media, steadily getting shallower. It made us bicker about “who loves the country” and who hates it; who is loyal to the country and who betrays it, who is a “good Jew” and who “forgot what it was like to be a Jew”. Every rational discussion was smothered in a melange of sentimental, patriotic, and nationalistic kitsch whipped up with self-righteousness and victimhood. Slowly but surely, the possibility of sober criticism of what has been happening here was stifled. Eventually, Israel found itself acting and behaving towards its own citizens in total contrast to the values and world-views that were once its essence and uniqueness.

But now, suddenly, and against all expectations, something has arisen; people are waking up. They are opening up to something, even though it is not quite clear what it is and where it is heading. There are no words to describe it accurately, or to understand it fully. But that thing is becoming clearer and it crystallises as we read the slogans: The clichés are breaking out of their casings and turning into a living, breathing emotion, “the people demand social justice”! ”The people want Tsedek (justice) and not Tsedaka (charity)!” There are more such words and such slogans that are harking back to different eras. And every so often the air carries with it hints of a possible revitalisation and repair. That forgotten concept of self-respect, both on an individual basis, and for Israel as a whole, has returned.

That awakening has tremendous, albeit intoxicating and deceptive, power. It is tempting to get carried away by the euphoria and the youthful renewal that the new upheaval has created. It is easy to delude oneself that here we are again destroying the old world to the core. But that’s not quite right: the old world was not all bad. It also included some great achievements, which among other things, would actually enable us to bring some of the protest movement’s demands to fruition. The old world has also given us the freedom to express our demands.

Therefore, this struggle has to speak a language different to those of previous struggles. Above all, it must be based on dialogue, which is inclusive rather than exclusive; which is principled, rather than one based on opportunism and sectoral interests. This is no time to be divided into our individual camps. That’s the only way the protest movement can hang on to the tremendous public support it currently enjoys.

It is the very ambiguity of this particular protest movement which allows each group to hold different political opinions and mutually contradictory beliefs, and yet recognise – for the first time in decades – a shared common civil and humanistic platform. It even provides a degree of pride in belonging to this community. Who in Israel can afford to give up such a rare resource as that?

This protest movement and its accompanying pressure waves provide an opportunity for communication between those who for decades have not communicated: between different, and disconnected, social strata; between the religious and secular, and between Arabs and Jews. This process of identifying what is common and attainable can open up dialogue between the Right and the Left, introducing a more realistic and empathetic discourse. For example, it can take up the Left’s indifference to those who were displaced from Gush Katif. This remains a festering wound for the settlers. Inclusive speech here may salvage whatever it is possible to save of the sense of mutual responsibility that a country in our situation can ill-afford to give up. In other words, if the spirit of the movement can indeed be found in the words of Amir Gilboa’s poem quoted everywhere, “Suddenly a man wakes up in the morning. He feels he is a nation and begins to walk”. Then we must continue with the next line: “And to all he meets on his way he calls out ‘Shalom!’”

It is easy to criticise the nascent movement, question its moves and doubt it. Indeed it’s always easier to find reasons why not to do something decisive and courageous. But whoever listens to the groan of the demonstrators, not only at Rothschild Boulevard, but also in Tel Aviv’s southern suburbs and the poorer neighbourhoods of Jerusalem and Ashdod and Haifa and Ma’alot-Tarshiha – would understand that maybe we have opened a window to a different future. The time is ripe for such a move, and surprisingly we also have, at last, the troops. Maybe that’s what the young woman meant who came up to me at a demonstration in Jerusalem and said: “Look, the leadership is still hollow, but the people are not.”