About the peace movement in Israel

About the peace movement in Israel

Since the beginning of massive bombing and murderous Israeli army on Gaza, many events, gatherings and various initiatives are organized in the main cities of Israel against war and racism. In our opinion, these are the initiatives and actions in the context of killing, destruction and racist hatred, are forward-looking in this region.

In the peace movement, there are political organizations whose primary is the Israel Communist Party and the left-wing anarchist or Marxist, labor unions like the WAC (Workers Advice Center) which, unlike the bureaucratic and nationalist Histadrut, organizes both Jewish and Arab workers employed in both Israel and the West Bank, one can also find initiatives coming artists, relatives or neighbors without political affiliations defined simply want remember that Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies. We can cite the Parents Circle – Families Forum (CFPP), which is a common organization of more than 600 Palestinian and Israeli all who have lost a close relative in the conflict families. In Jaffa, Jerusalem and Wadi Ara, the “Hand in Hand” (hand in hand) Association, Center for Jewish-Arab Education organizes weekly marches or rallies Jewish and Arab families to oppose racism and war. You can also add mere human, important links in wartime, as between families of Sderot and Gaza mutually concerned about their health, exchange news and messages of support. On social networks, initiatives also appear to spread a message against war and racism. There are also movements of reservists who publicly announced that they refuse to fight in the Palestinian territories, conscientious objectors, etc..

In the current context of ambient confusion, a point needs to be raised and clarified. In the peace movement in Israel, there are also religious, rabbis, priests or imams or religious people who rely on sacred to denounce war and racism texts. To be understood quickly and French readers, it is comparable to our “cathos left” current or Protestants Cimade with whom we may find ourselves in protests and demonstrations for the rights of undocumented for example. This current has nothing to do with the “Neturei Karta” sect, yet regularly praised by some “progressive” in the name of “anti-Zionism”. Neturei Karta is not only Jewish bond to antisemitic as Dieudonné or Soral and dictatorships like the Iranian regime, but it is an ultra-orthodox and ultra-reactionary movement. The entry of women dressed in “non-modest way” is prohibited in the area of ​​Mea Shearim (Jerusalem neighborhood they control), riots and calls for murder have already taken place during the Gay Pride, brief it is an extremely misogynistic religious sect, homophobic and reactionary circles closest ideologically fundamentalist evangelists U.S. or Wahhabism as friendly pacifist believers!

Where, in the press, the peace movement in Israel is mentioned, it is usually to say right after that is a minority movement. It is also often the same type of comments in publications western extreme left. And finally, part of the western extreme left, this movement is highlighted as an “exception” in Israeli society. However, if this movement is actually a minority today, there is just nothing in an Israeli specificity. Except in periods of revolutionary crisis, the dominant ideology is always that of the ruling class, and this is true for Israel as for France. Recall that Israel is a small country of 7 million people, in short there are fewer people in all Israel in the Paris region alone. On July 26, for example, there are several thousands of people who demonstrated against the war in Tel Aviv. Between 3,000 and 7,000 according to the press people of Israel according to the Communist Party. In short, if you wanted to compare the demonstration in Tel Aviv with demonstrations in France, it would increase the number of protesters by ten. And point out that these events take place in a very different context: Hamas rockets fall on Israeli soil effectively. The event of 26 July had even initially canceled for this reason then confirmed only an hour before beginning. In addition, commandos of the far-right Kach terrorist organization physically threaten supporters of peace. Compare despite the different context: taking the lowest, the figure of the press, 3,000 people, this would be equivalent to 30,000 protesters in France. But when was the last manifestation of 30,000 protesters in Paris against military intervention launched by the French government? There has been, to our knowledge, no demonstration against French interventions in Mali and the Central African Republic. Note that in Russia and Ukraine, we have not seen either of mass mobilization against the military escalation and nationalism … and, unfortunately, much less mobilization to prevent the bombing of Donetsk and the end of conflict .

All this to say that the mobilization of the peace movement in Israel, albeit minority, are far from being ridiculous. As in all countries of the world, Israel is a country divided into classes, between exploited and exploiters, and everywhere in the world if there are racist and fascist extreme right, there are also anti-racist, labor activists and even revolutionary and internationalist. In this sense it is necessary to denounce militarism Netanyahu-Lieberman government, bombings and killings in Gaza, we can not under any circumstances accuse the entire Israeli population.

This is because we in solidarity with our sisters and brothers class Tel Aviv and Haifa that we are opposed to Israeli militarism as it is because we stand in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in Gaza class or Ramallah we are against Hamas. To maintain their domination, to prevent workers mobilizations and struggles against poverty and austerity, Israeli nationalists and Islamists of Hamas leaders have an interest in maintaining an ongoing conflict. In this sense, the IDF shelling of the Gaza Strip are a real gift to Hamas, the party increasingly discredited in the Palestinian territories. Similarly, the rockets Hamas government Netayahou strengthen both its militaristic policy in its attacks against the Israeli working class.

In this context of militarist barbarism, while religious and / or nationalist extremists increasing calls to racist hatred including thousands of kilometers of Gaza and Tel Aviv, the hope is precisely the existence of a movement for peace in the fact that Israeli labor activists, such as the WAC, spoke in support of workers’ struggles in the West Bank, in peace demonstrations, but also the cries of the heart of all those and all those who refuse bloody gear in which the lead warmongers. For “Bolsheviks iron” Western, calls and slogans from the heart of people of Sderot and Gaza, Tel Aviv or Ramallah, Haifa and Hebron will always appear “not enough policies.” But who cares! This is the real movement which abolishes the existing order of things, and not statements drafted for the sole leftist movement.

Camille Boudjak