About Da’am

Daam, which in Arabic means the Organization for Democratic Action, was established as a political party in 1995 to run in the Israeli general elections. Its founders criticized the Oslo Accords as detrimental to the Palestinians.  They wanted to make their voices heard before the Israeli Jewish and Arab publics, who were all too ready to believe that Oslo would bring peace.

In the March 2021 election campaign, Daam proposed an Israeli/Palestinian Green New Deal, both as a response to the current political-economic crisis and to create a basis for true cooperation between the two peoples. It is a plan that can end the conflict, abolishing the apartheid regime that Israel has imposed since 1967. It can replace the Occupation with a partnership based on civil justice, which will grant full civil rights to Palestinians equally with Israelis in the framework of a single state.

Daam joins international forces that prioritize the transition to a green and cooperative economy. This will be based on green infrastructures for employment, housing, public transport, water and urban agriculture. Such an economy requires moving to renewable energy and leaving fossil fuels in the ground.

This green and cooperative economy will be based on advancing the infrastructures of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: renewable energies, autonomous transportation, democratization of Internet platforms, online education, robotics and more. Such a revolution will have it in its power to close the great social gaps, to transfer the economy to producers organized in cooperative frameworks, to end the current concentration of wealth in the hands of a rich minority whose chief product is the poverty of others, and to support those who have fallen out of the labor market.

The technological revolution leaves no room for walls that separate countries and peoples. It unites humanity in one economy, in a common struggle to save the planet from extinction, and in international partnership. On such an economic infrastructure, it is possible to build a cooperative Palestinian-Israeli society, which will serve as an engine for both the modernization of Arab society and the democratization of Israeli society. That way we can move to a sustainable future.

The struggle to change economic and social priorities, and to stop climate change, is not “Zionist” or “Palestinian” but universal. Just as the US cannot implement a Green New Deal without confronting racism, so it is impossible to implement green policies in our region without liquidating the apartheid regime against Palestinians and discrimination against the Arabs in Israel.

The Israeli Right has buried the two-state solution. The Occupation has gone on for more than 54 years, and, practically speaking, the West Bank is under Israeli sovereignty. The Palestinian Authority has autonomy without independence. All infrastructures, including soil, water, and airspace, are in the hands of Israel. The shekel is the currency from the Jordan to the Sea. The Israeli customs authority determines the shape of the Palestinian economy.

The consensus in the Israeli Left, which advocates “two states for two peoples,” legitimates the preservation of the Jewish majority in Israel, while the Palestinian Authority, lacking real power or status, continues to regulate the lives of its rightless subjects in the West Bank. The elites in Israel and the Palestinian Authority want to perpetuate this situation. The “separate Palestinian autonomy” is ideal camouflage for apartheid. Likewise, the separation between the West Bank and Gaza enables Fatah to rule in the former and Hamas in the latter. Both are eager to keep the status quo.

Against the concept of Palestinian autonomy as the most that can be had, Daam calls for a one-state solution including both peoples, based on social equality, a modern economy, and a single constitution. For Israelis and Palestinians who aspire to a democratic, modern, open society, no power can stop them from uniting in a life of peace and coexistence.

Despite the attempts of nationalists to build walls and deny global unity, the technological revolution is shattering separation and distance, uniting humanity in a common struggle to save the planet and in a common economic future. Daam welcomes you to join this future.

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