The Israeli Left must realize it is at war
When will the Jewish Left wake up and come to terms with the fact that the rules of the game have changed?
A
Palestinian human rights activist is led to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s
Court in handcuffs following his arrest Tuesday morning, January 20,
2016. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
It
seems that even the most skeptical of radical left-wing activists in
Israel were taken by surprise by the aggressive, relentless, and
increasing attacks that we have witnessed over these past few days
against left-wing activists.
This madness refuses to die down. Day after day we hear aboutarrests of left-wing activists, who disappear into their cells without ever being informed of what they are being accused of. The policeslaps a gag order on the entire story, preventing us from even publishing their names.
The public has almost completely consented to the gag orders, leaving the police room to frame the discussion. Thus, while not a single person can actually publish the name of the first activist who was arrested last Sunday, and despite the fact that nearly everyone knows his identity, the police managed to convince the public that they captured him as he tried to flee the country. Were we able to talk about the man and the reason for his arrest, we could debunk this absurd claim. But we cannot, so we remain silent.We know these people from years of working together. We go, time after time, to stand outside the courthouse in order to make sure they hear our cries of support and solidarity. We see them being lead in handcuffs, disappear into closed-door court hearings, wait for the results — which are generally known from the get-go — and return to the silence that surrounds these organized kidnappings. Because the gag orders are so sweeping, we cannot speak of the political context of these arrests, on the connection between one arrest and the other, about what is happening before our eyes, yet we are prevented from speaking about openly.
We
remain silent when another Israeli activist, a dear friend to many of
us, is arrested — even when many of us suspected that this would be the
next step. Anyone who was aware of the circumstances surrounding the
first arrest won’t be surprised. So we know, and we remain silent. We
return to the courthouse and wait outside during the hearing, return
home and continue to remain silence. Then we guess who will be next in
line.
We
are silent even when the police continues to request extending the
activists’ remands, without ever presenting even a shred of evidence to
the public to back up the allegations against them. The only thing the
public needs to know is that three very dangerous people were arrested —
so dangerous, in fact, that they cannot even meet with their lawyers.
Why? Because. They are leftists. In such a poisoned public atmosphere,
nourished by the Prime Minister’s Office and the country’s
highest-ranking officials, not much more is needed. The public has
already bought in to the story.
Time to break the silence
Some
of us believed, and perhaps still believe, that there is something
positive in seeing the masks come off, forcing the public to decide
where Israel is “Jewish” or “democratic” — a decision it has avoided for
years. There is something to this argument. Perhaps the world will also
wake up and understand. But it seems that so few of us foresaw how
quickly things would deteriorate.
An Israeli left-wing activist is led into the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, January 12, 2016. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
Palestinian
friends remind me over and over that the reality with which the Jewish
Left must deal with today has been the reality for Palestinian activist
for decades. They are right, of course; Palestinians are still far more
vulnerable than Israeli activists. But we must not ignore the fact that
the unprecedented persecution on the Israeli Left, its constant
delegitimization, its orchestrated criminalization, is a new stage that
will have far-reaching consequences on Palestinian citizens of Israel
themselves. The fact is that we are facing political persecution from
the political establishment, but also from private organizations that
are joining the fray.
The
time has come to say it openly: we are at war, and we must think long
and hard about how to prepare ourselves. It is unthinkable that we will
play by the rules of the game while our friends are being hunted. It is
unthinkable that we will play according to the “rules of democracy” as
fascism becomes the new state religion. Our silence today will only
serve as the basis upon which our friends will be arrested tomorrow. Now is the time to break that silence.
This article was first published in Hebrew on Local Call. Read it here.
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