Major sectors of Israeli
society have been in upheaval since July 14 due to mass protests and
boycotts on economic issues, most prominently opposing the astronomic
rents that often take 50 percent of people’s income. A movement that
started with half a dozen tents pitched in Tel Aviv on Rothschild
Boulevard, named after an incredibly wealthy family who helped
bankroll the Zionist movement, has grown to include over 40 other
tent cities in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Jaffa and elsewhere.
The
latest protest included heavy participation from more rural areas as
well. Weekly Saturday protests are bringing out an ever-increasing
number of protesters. Aug. 13 saw over 300,000 protesters take to the
streets, and organizers are calling for a 1 million person march on
Sept. 3. More
recently, protest demands have expanded to include lowering the cost
of other commodities like food and gas, as well as calling for free,
quality education and health care.
In some ways, the protests in Israel seem similar to those that have
recently rocked many European cities. As in Europe, working-class
people in Israel have been driven to struggle by the crisis of
capitalism.
However,
there is also a key difference between Israel and the European
countries experiencing civil upheaval. This is also the fundamental
issue underlying the protests. Israel is not only capitalist but a
highly militarized, colonial-style settler state. In addition to more
than $3 billion in U.S. military aid, billions more are spent
annually to maintain and upgrade the nuclear-armed Israeli military,
one of the world’s most powerful.
The protest leaders have said little thus far about the plight of the Palestinian people.
Yet, the Palestinian struggle for self-determination and freedom is the central social issue facing the region today.
Social
injustice for Palestinians
Recently, 42 of the 120 Knesset (parliament) members sent a letter
to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to respond to the
grievances of the Israeli protesters with a massive build-up of
subsidized housing by expanding illegal West Bank settlements. This is a
blatant attempt to derail just demands for affordable housing with
racism, by responding with affordable housing, but for Jews only.
But
it also exposes the Achillies heel of the protest movement. The
movement has been unable and unwilling to expose such racist
“solutions,” instead mainly worrying about rights for Jewish people.
This
is a dead end for any true movement of workers. Until Israeli workers
can break free of Zionism, until they demand justice and freedom for the
Palestinian people, their movement will represent the interests of Jewish workers exclusively. Such a narrow focus is not enough. No Israeli
movement will ever defeat the exploitation inherent in capitalism
without first recognizing and overcoming the colonial nature of the
Israeli state, which is rooted in the oppression of Palestinians. This means
standing in complete solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for
self-determination.
No matter how bad it is economically for Jews in Israel, the level of oppression is many times worse for Palestinians. Israel’s
policy in the West Bank of demolishing Palestinian homes that do not
have permission to be built (permits are hardly ever granted), has
artificially driven up rents for Palestinians.
Palestinians
living inside the 1948 borders (the Green Line), which excludes
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, make up over 20 percent of
Israel’s population. While the imperialist world touts Israel
as a democracy, Palestinians living within the Green Line face
blatant discrimination. Hundreds of Palestinian villages were wiped out
upon Israel’s founding. And there have been zero Palestinian
municipalities built in the 63 years that Israel has been recognized
as a state by Western governments. In that same time, over
600 Jewish municipalities have been constructed inside the Green
Line.
Over
700 Israeli municipalities have “admission committees” that have
the legal right to refuse housing to Arabs. Israel uses the
designation of “National Priority Areas” to designate funding and
allocate resources in these communities. Right now 553 Jewish-Israeli
areas are on the priority list as opposed to only four Palestinian
communities.
In
order to maintain a system that uses the Jewish working class as the
trigger-pullers for a colonialist settler state, the occupied people
must be seen as inferior by the occupier. This strategy has been
incredibly effective at engendering widespread racism against the
Palestinian population. Because of this fundamental
truth, anti-Arab racism and national chauvanism remain the biggest break
on any true working-class movement.
The scheduled protests on Saturday, Aug. 20, were called off by the
protest organizers, Israel’s student union, in response to an attack
near
Eilat by gunmen who entered Israel from Egypt. Israel used the attack
to justify vicious airstrikes on Gaza that killed several Palestinian
leaders
of the Popular Resistance Committees and two children. The PRC denied
responsibility for the attack.
The Israeli protest leaders released a statement that included an
expression of support “for the government and for the security forces in
the fight against the terror that endangers the lives of us all.” Itzhak Shmueli, head of the student union, also stated that while this
coming weekend’s protests were canceled, the protest movement would
continue.
Like the protest leaders, mainstream
media outlets have focused on the purely economic aspect of the protests, and
not the root causes of the crisis: colonialism, militarism, settlements, rampant racism and the
capitalist system itself. To do this would be unthinkable to many because it would mean challenging the very
core of the Zionist project. But challenging Zionism is exactly what is necessary to achieve any
lasting, progressive movement inside the 1948 borders.
Media outlets have paid little attention, for example, to the sentiments on the sign
on the edge of the Jaffa tent city: “Jaffa says no to
gentrification,” or the Aug. 4 “Letter from Tel Aviv” written
by the occupants of “Tent No. 1948” (a reference to the year of the Nakba, or
Catastrophe, in which the Zionists drove over 750,000 Palestinians from
their homes and land). Tent No. 1948 is a joint Palestinian/Jewish protest tent. The content of the Aug. 4 letter by Tent No. 1948 is a sign that anti-Zionist protesters are part of this movement.
Aug. 4 ‘Letter
from Tel Aviv’
“We
are a group of Palestinian Arab and Jew citizens that believe in
shared sovereignty in the state of all its citizens. Instead of
thinking about separation and constrains [sic], we think of the
possibility of joint existence.
“Since
foundation of the state—Israeli policy of divide and rule, prevents
real change and produces boundaries for deep social demands. If we
work together we can only benefit.
“What
do we want?
“We
want this struggle to deal with housing shortage among Arabs and
Mizrachi Jews in Israel, both in large cities and in the villages.
“We
want to end Judaization of Arab neighborhoods and stop the
“development” of neighborhoods by building luxury complexes.
“We
want to stop the eviction of Palestinian families as it happens
almost every day in Jaffa, Lod, Ramla and elsewhere in Israel and the
Occupied Territories.
“We
want to end the discrimination of the Palestinian Arabs in the rental
and purchase of real estate, which became “legitimate” in the
Israeli- Jewish society, as the “Letter of Rabbis” showed us.
“We
want to change the land policy in Israel, so it will address the
historical justice to Palestinian population. No more land
confiscation, no more house demolitions. We live here together, it’s
time we start to internalize it.
“We
want to talk about discrimination in state institutions, education,
health, culture.
“We
require recognizing the basic right of the Palestinians in Israel and
in the Occupied Territories to set their own lifestyles.
“We
want to emphasize, there can be no social justice while this state
occupies and oppresses Palestinians, and justice should be to all. In
addition, many of the state resources are allocated to the
occupation: by establishing walls and barriers, that embitter the
life of the Palestinian people, or by securing and supporting
settlements. Occupation takes a lot of money, which can be used to
improve the life of the Jewish and Arab population in Israel and the
Occupied Territories.”
In this sentiment lies a grave threat to the Zionist, capitalist entity oppressing the Palestinian people and holding back Jewish Israelis from being part of a just society. A mass struggle, like the protest movement gripping portions of Israel now, could help
shift the dialogue and bring forth ideas that challenge the status quo of Zionism. But for this to happen, the class-conscious elements of Israeli society who despise colonialism and racism, and who want to see these ills defeated once and for all, will need to raise their voices even louder in solidarity with the heroic Palestinian struggle.
