Israel – every single act of resistance is crucial
JVL Introduction
Israeli Jewish activist Oren Ziv takes stock and emphasises the need to return to basics: resistance and solidarity, not only against Ben Gvir, but against Jewish supremacy, colonialism, and apartheid, which were here long before the recent legitimisation of the fascist right.
With the new government, says Ziv even the decision to leave the country is a legitimate one, one many Israelis are making with – irony of ironies – Berlin as the most prominent destination.
“But,” he continues, “ anyone who is forced or chooses to remain should think long and hard about how they intend to resist, and what risks they are willing to take.”
Here he is clear: repression is going to be ratcheted up, many fold.
But there is no other way: “every single act of resistance is crucial — and is a reminder for all of us that we’re not alone in the fight.”
This article was originally published by the Landline, +972's newsletter on Sun 20 Nov 2022. Read the original here.
Fighting the Israeli right means relearning the basics of solidarity
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Not only the secular Jewish Israeli public, but US Jewish communities and movements – religious and other – are vital. US active Zionists are mainly Protestant fundamentalists (are all of them beyond reason?) – inertial toleration of Zionism and Zionist apartheid predominates elsewhere in the US, in my (very limited) experience and knowledge. Israel is the prime spearhead of US world hegemony in the Middle East and beyond, and a break with support for US imperialism is vital for many many reasons., At present Britain, expecially the LP establishment, is a hopeless case and is worthless in this regard.
Oren Ziv is a good journalist, and also a terrific photographer, a co-founder of Jewish/Palestinian collective, ActiveStills. He is throwing down the gauntlet to all Israeli Jews who are appalled at the election result and who stay living in Israel: don’t just cry into your beers and share private grief, stand up to be counted. And though he doesn’t say it, it’s a challenge to Diaspora Jews too, to call out Israel’s modern fascism and follow through by campaigning to bring democracy for all residents living in the entire territory between the river and the sea.