Israel’s young protestors against the judicial coup
JVL Introduction
We hear a lot of the “hilltop youth” and their violent racism towards the Palestinians in the West Bank.
But radicalisation is not a one-way street. In green-line Israel young protestors are becoming increasingly radicalised by the government’s intransigeance and the police violence they are being subjected to.
Oren Ziv’s interviews with young demonstrators – often in their twenties, with lots of teenagers as well – captures their mood of disillusionment with Israeli society as well as their resilience in resistance. They provides much insight into the fractured nature of Israeli Jewish society today.
17-year-old high school student Lily is clear: “[We don’t want] to go back to the old order of supposed democracy or democracy for Jews only, but for all.”
Ziv’s article is accompanied by some of his stunning photos – for these you have to go the original posting on +972 here.
RK
This article was originally published by +972 Magazine, In partnership with Local Call on Thu 24 Aug 2023. Read the original here.
‘We’re shattered and fed up’: The youth on the frontlines of Israel’s protests
Before this year, many of these teens and twentysomethings had never been to a protest. Now they’re taking to the streets not just to fight the Israeli government, but to change the old order.
Loading article text…
“Rather, they want to see resolutions to much deeper issues in Israeli state and society, including the separation of religion and state, equality for women and LGBTQ people, and even an end to the occupation over Palestinians.”
That ‘and even’ is a telling formulation. The Palestinian struggle is not front and centre for these progressive Israeli youths, who bring plenty of Israel flags to their demonstrations in support of what they think of as democracy. Viewing the situation from the outside, it seems clear that the situation of the Palestinians is at the heart of Israel’s problems, a corrosive injustice at the core of a society that prides itself on its democratic values. Ursula le Guin’s celebrated short story, ‘Those who walk away from Omelos’ dramatizes the nature of the predicament: even in the most flourishing society, the state-sponsored tolerance of oppression makes it impossible for any citizen burdened with a conscience to lead a morally untroubled existence.
Thanks to a rigorous programme of social reinforcement in schools and homes, these truths remain for the moment largely unexamined in Israel society, but cracks are beginning to appear, and one can only hope that the current demonstrations will help advance the process.