Local Municipal Elections, Here and There

The headquarters of the civil resistance against the regime coup in Israel focused their weekly protest on August 28th on the rampant violence within the Arab community. During the demonstration, participants shouldered 150 symbolic coffins to represent the tragic toll of violence in Arab society. One coffin, however, was missing – the coffin of Sarit Ahmed Shakur, who was murdered by her brother solely because she was a lesbian.

The media highlighted the words of Tira Mayor Mamon AbdelHai, who delivered the main speech at the rally that evening, and MK Ayman Odeh (from Hadash) was honored to carry a coffin all the way to Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv. By the way, as we wrote in 2015, this same Ma’mon Abdel- Hai capitulated in the face of pressure from religious elements in Tira and canceled a women’s marathon event. Neither of them, however, condemned or even mentioned the murder of Sharit Ahmed, and none of them would defend the rights of the LGBTQ community. Equality seems to be a very relative concept.

In an article published in Yedioth Ahronoth on August 28, Einav Schiff sharply criticizes Arab society and its leaders, pointing out that “liberal” Ayman Odeh “did not even know how to say Sarit’s name, and referred to her on Twitter as “the girl from Yarka.” “And if this is the behavior of Odeh,” continues Schiff, “the humanist with the tormented look, what can be said about religious public leaders such as MKs Mansur Abbas and Ahmed Tibi? Yesterday’s Ynet interviews with the mayors of Sakhnin and Tira demonstrate that it’s better to bang your head against the wall than to expect them to come out with a strong message which could save countless girls and boys.” Let’s tell the truth. Tira Mayor Mamon AbdelHai emphasized the identity of the culprit in the tragedy of Arab society murders: the racist Minister of national security Itamar Ben Gvir, although he did complain that “whoever instated Ben Gvir to protect us, a minister who hates Arabs, does not want to protect us.”

How good to have Itamar Ben Gvir. He is an easy target and all the troubles occurring in Jewish and Arab society can be blamed on him. After all, Ben Gvir hates both Arabs and left wing “traitors” , so it’s easy to unite against him. Yet this is where the agreement between Arab leadership and the protest movement begins and ends. Democracy, equality, separation of religion and state and education for liberal values are not the bread and butter of the Arab leaders. Values on which the Arab leadership relies are the polar opposite: sanctification of “clanship,” institutionalized discrimination against women, and religion as a social pillar that determines the way of life. Tolerance and liberalism are seen as Western, materialistic values that spoil society and disintegrate it from within. To cover this dark conservatism, they throw around nationalist slogans, the Palestinian flag and point an accusing finger at the “Jews,” wherever they are.

The protest movement is currently focusing its activities on two primary issues: defending the High Court and the October 2023 municipal elections. The goal is to get as many liberal representatives into local government as possible, to encourage supporters of this camp to vote for a liberal and clean local government and not to abandon this vital arena to the ultra-Orthodox, messianic and dark right that has taken over the public space. This content that the protest movement brings to the municipal elections is, however, completely absent on the Arab street, where the elections are nothing more than a source of power and jobs for wider family members.

First and foremost are the Arab MKs, who demand democracy and accuse the protest of solely focusing on the justice system that is in any event intended only for Jews. At home, however, in the Arab villages and cities, “democracy,” the idea of individual freedom within the framework of rights and obligations, is considered heresy and is completely absent.

Democracy there is something in and of itself. “Primaries” are held within the clan. The clan council meets (only men are allowed to participate in the discussions). A doctor of one family declares his candidacy as does an attorney from another, and the clan council decides who will be elected. After each clan has “democratically” chosen its representative, negotiations begin between the clans, with the largest clan joining forces with smaller ones, and elections are held between the big clans and their smaller allies. There is no need for an election platform because there is no difference in the platform between competing clans. It doesn’t matter who wins because the situation will remain as it is.

After the elections, the wild distribution of spoils begins. The winning clan must keep its promises to its voters, and each family within it will receive the promised quota of jobs: cleaners, gardeners, social workers, teachers, school administrators and those responsible for tenders will be appointed not based on qualifications but on clan affiliation. On election night gunshots will be heard from all sides, as those who won celebrate and those who lost protest. The battle between the clans is full of fury. The losers will have to wait reluctantly for five long years in opposition. The citizens can now return to their routine, the village will continue to dis-function as usual, without leadership, without planning and with tremendous corruption.

While the protest movement is boycotting the “government destroying the third Temple”, Arab leadership is content with boycotting Itamar Ben Gvir while conducting ongoing intense negotiations with the criminal defendant Netanyahu and his affiliated group of messianic leaders, led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The Arab leadership does not differentiate between liberal Jews and racist Jews. Far-right MK Avi Maoz with mediaeval positions about women threatens this leadership less than a protest leader who sanctifies LGBTQ rights and advocates for gender equality. What is important to the Arab mayor is budgets. He must fulfill his duty “to his constituents” and without a budget there are no jobs. The protest, on the other hand, has no budgets to distribute, only values. It has a vision and a commitment to society. This is not what Arab leadership wants or expects.

If we connect the murder of Sarit Ahmed with the complete absence of democracy in Arab society; intolerance towards “the other”; disdain for the right of the individual to freely lead his/her life and the rampant corruption everywhere, we can perhaps begin to understand the phenomenon of violence in Arab society. The term crime families instead of crime organizations indicates the family manner in which Arab society is run. Make no mistake, the long arms of the crime families have penetrated into almost each and every family.

Murders have therefore become mass and occur daily. Crime is not limited to one family but has spread throughout society. There is no family that does not have a “soldier” within family mafias, and this is how the cancer spreads through the entire body. Arab society’s immune system has weakened to such an extent that its leaders have given up. The louder they shout, “where is the police,” the more the criminal organizations, which exploit this weakness, become influential.

The protest movement longs for participation of Arab members of society in the protest, because how can you fight against the phenomena of racism and Jewish supremacy without Arab participation? How is it possible to champion liberalism, human rights and equality when the demonstrators are all Jewish? The truth must be told: Currently Arab society believes that Bibi will rule forever and that even if the protest wins, it will continue to act in the racist and divisive way of Israel’s founders, such as Ben Gurion and Golda Meir. The best way to reach Arab society, therefore, is through the protest’s success in overthrowing the government and the writing of a constitution that will chisel in writing participatory democracy that includes all of its citizens.

It appears the new protest generation has learned the lessons of the first War of Independence, and is conducting the second War of Independence. A new understanding is developing that the previous holy alliance with the ultra-Orthodox and the casting of a blind eye vis-à-vis the messianic settlers, all under the name of Jewish “brotherhood”, are what brought Israeli society to the abyss. We must understand it is not about two separate struggles but one struggle! Religious extremism is not the lot of Jews only, it also exists in Arab society. The oppression of women is shared by Jewish and Arab society alike, the struggle for LGBTQ should be common, the struggle for liberal education should be common too.

Democracy has no flag and no borders; it is a value that unites humanity as a whole. The guarantee for change in Arab society is the victory of the protest movement. Such a victory is the tectonic shift that could change the face of both Israeli and Palestinian society. It can create a completely new reality, when the values of democracy, equality, peace, and social justice unite all the inhabitants of this land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

About Yacov Ben Efrat