Roni Ben Efrat (left) in Messina

A lecture by Roni Ben Efrat in SABIRMaydan, in Messina, September 28th.

Topic: The difference is between those who have rights and those who don’t: United against the system of inequalities, is there any chance to win?

Part 1: The difference is between those who have rights and those who don’t: United against the system of inequalities…

In the summer of 2011 in a series of mass demonstrations, over a million people marched in the streets of Tel Aviv. Thousands of youngsters camped on Rothschild Boulevard occupying “the” city center for three months.

Although Israel is often painted as a monolithic fortress of sweeping national consensus, that summer a new face of Israel appeared on the scene demanding “social justice”. This slogan was no doubt been influenced by the squares of Madrid and Egypt, demanding: “Eish, Hurrira, Adala Ijtima’ia!” (Bread, Freedom and Social Justice!). Yet, a fundamental difference exists between the squares of Egypt and Tel Aviv:  while the Egyptian and Tunisian youngsters called for “Isqat al Nizam” (down with the regime), the Israeli leaders of the social movement demanded that the Israeli government – right wing as it was – should bend to their demands. Their logic was: we elected you and you have to “work” for us! (instead of working for the tycoons).

The background for the huge protest movement was the major inequalities which developed in Israel in the past 25 years, as a result of its economy turning from a welfare economy, with collective responsibility (at least to its Jewish citizens) to an extreme privatized enterprise, geared to benefit a tiny elite of tycoons. This process affected of course the low classes, who reached pauperization, but affected the middle classes too, who saw themselves pushed down the social ladder with no prospects for affordable housing, or job security, now or in old age.

Yet, two issues were absent from the movement: 1. The question of inequality and poverty of the Arab citizens of Israel (over 53% are below the poverty line). 2. The question of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. In the Israeli context, a social movement that does not integrate these two questions will be very limited politically. It sends a clear message to the regime that it does not intend to go all the way to change it. This is in stark contrast to Egypt and Tunisia where the revolutionary forces succeeded in toppling the regimes and opening a new page in the history of the Middle East – for good or for bad. All the upheavals we are witnessing today, in Egypt, Syria and Iraq, are a result of that “big bang” of the Arab spring.

The rationalization of the young protest leaders for NOT putting upfront the issue of the occupation, not adopting the slogan “One Justice for All”, not calling Bibi to “Go Home”,  was that this direction might divide the movement. They said that Social Justice is not divided into “Right” and “Left” – everyone is suffering – and that the political debate should be pushed aside. This position was being advocated by the Labor party behind the scenes, but was adopted by all the leadership, even the more leftist parts.

The movement had a deep impact on the Israeli discourse and psyche. It was an incredible learning process. A deep distrust of the “elite” and the “power” has been scorched into the consciousness of people and is apparent until today in numerous ways. But, the avoidance of challenging the ruling power resulted in a diverted course. The elections that followed that protest in 2013 resulted in the most right wing government ever. Because the movement failed to make the connection between Social Justice and the Occupation, the extreme right-wing settler party “The Jewish Home” headed by Naftali Bennet (12 seats) could adopt the protest discourse and tag it on to its anti-Arab, and pro-settlement agenda. The protest discourse was also hijacked by Yair Lapid, of the “Yesh Atid” party, representing the politically conservative middle classes (19 seats).  The Labor party, which adopted the agenda of social justice with no political agenda, won only 15 seats. Some of the leaders of the Protest movement joined Labor and became members of Knesset. Except for very small social gains, mainly free kindergarten from age 3, the basic demands have been ignored: poverty, insecurity, and lack of housing remain prevalent.

The collapse of the peace talks, and the third war on Gaza, clearly showed that Bibi Netanyahu’s right wing agenda has to be tackled socially and politically.

Part 2: …is there any chance to win?

If the Protest movement enjoyed an over 85% consensus among Jewish Israelis the July war on Gaza, too, enjoyed an overwhelming consensus, including those parties who are supposedly for the peace process.  It was as if Israelis ignored the fact that Netanyahu had de facto killed the talks with Abu Mazen and created a deep political vacuum. It was as if all the wise pundits forgot that they themselves had forecast a new round of violence as a result of the void in the political venue.

We can conclude the discussion after the war between Right and Left in Israel like this: The Right says that the war proved that Israel has to continue the blockade on Gaza, hence also prevent the West Bank from falling] into the hands of Hamas or even more extreme forces. That’s not new of course. The new part is in the argumentation of the Left: Labor and Merez say that after the war “a window of opportunity” has opened (partly as reaction to the Arab spring) which includes Sisi and his generals in Egypt, Saudia Arabia, Jordan and Abu Mazen. So, the same Left that talked about social justice and was reluctant to stand up to the Right wing and to racism, today welcomes all those forces of darkness, which are trying to defeat the forces of democracy in their own countries.

Today the Arab world is divided between two reactionary forces: Saudia Arabia, supporting Sisi, and other Salafist radical forces in Syria and Iraq, while the Qataris support the Moslem Brotherhood and Hamas as a more moderate version of Islam. The argument between these two axes is how better to crush any democratic process in the Arab world. The same division of action appears between Fatah and Hamas, the first working with Saudi Arabia and Sisi’s Egypt, the second with Qatar.

The progressive forces in Israel are completely alienated from this discussion. The lack of a strong Arab Spring today – which could and should be an alternative to regimes such as Sisi, Assad and the other kingdoms and princedoms makes it more difficult for us to point toward a potential alternative.

Unfortunately the Arab Spring skipped over Palestine, and the most progressive demand was a call to unite Fatah and Hamas. But, what we see today is that as the war revealed the weakness of the Israeli left, it also revealed the weakness of the Palestinian side. It remains to see what remains of the current conciliation between Hamas and the PA, negotiated in Cairo.

For us, as a political force in Israel, the major obstacle to peace is the settlers and the settlements. Their existence prevents any political solution and the focus of any struggle should put that in the center.

Going back to the Arab Spring, for us it was an opening of hope because it presented a third alternative, other than the secular dictatorships (Egypt, Syria) or the fundamentalist forces of political Islam. The call for Freedom, Democracy and Social Change could be a common bridge between Arabs, Israelis and international progressive forces united by a vision of a new society, where everyone has the same rights and opportunities to live a meaningful life. This alternative is still open and waiting for forces to pick up the glove.

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Over 60 activists, supporters and members of Daam—Jews, Arabs, and representatives from the occupied territories—participated in the 3rd annual Daam ideological seminar, which took place at St. Gabriel Hotel in Nazareth on the 5th and 6th of July. The military coup that took place at the same time in Egypt demonstrated the relevance of the seminar topic, as well as the gravity with which Daam regards the revolutions in the Arab world. In a region where the only voice that was heard belonged to military and police-backed dictatorships on the one hand, and political Islam on the other, there has been a new voice in the past two years—the voice of the people. This voice has joined others from outside the Arab world—Spain, Israel, US, Greece, Turkey and Brazil, all sharing a yearning for a new economic and civil order, as coined by Daam in its campaign slogan: Equal justice for all.

The seminar reflected the political, social and economic processes that are confronting the existing order. These processes are at times very exciting and at other times horrifically cruel, but the genie of aspiration for justice cannot be returned to the bottle. This is why we are obligated to examine these revolutions and study their successes and mistakes, in order to promote agendas and programs that fulfill their potential.

In his opening remarks, Daam General Secretary Yaacov Ben Efrat said, “Egypt has been a source of inspiration for Daam, as well as a source for learning and understanding the ways in which to conduct social protest and offer a political alternative. From Egypt’s revolution we have learned that from the city square it is possible to pose demands, argue and protest, but not to run a state. One must work hard for revolution. The notion that politicians (or in Egypt’s case, the army) will work for us, and all we need do is to hand them our list of demands on the street or on Facebook, is misguided.

“Real democracy has a price. In Egypt it was necessary to allow the Muslim Brothers to exhaust their political power, when on the one hand they adopted a neoliberal economy and on the other preached Islam as the solution. A political parliamentary alternative should have been created to beat them at the ballot box. The coup that brought down the Muslim Brotherhood has set back the democratic process. How can the liberal and leftist powers speak in the name of democracy when it has been used so selectively?”

Assaf Adiv and oudeh basharat

In another discussion, co-led by Assaf Adiv, National Coordinator of WAC-MAAN, and writer Oudeh Basharat, a member of Hadash, the crisis in Egypt was compared to the revolution in Tunisia, where civil and religious powers are currently attempting to divide control over the country. Where Egypt is concerned, Basharat was in favor of military intervention in cooperation with the liberal forces for three main reasons: (1) the Muslim Brotherhood tried to use democracy only in order to annul it when the time was right; (2) the Egyptian army is a popular army and cannot be compared to other armies (the remark was made before the Egyptian military’s massacre of protesters); (3) knowing the organizational weakness of the liberal forces, it does not make sense to wait until they accumulate enough political power to defeat the Brotherhood.

Dr. (MD) Ali Abu Awad arrived at the seminar as part of a delegation from the Golan Heights to discuss the Syrian question. Abu Awad identifies with the National Syrian Council, the official Syrian opposition calling for the immediate ousting of Assad. A couple of days before the seminar his car was blown up near his house, an attack from which he and his family emerged unharmed. According to Abu Awad, this is not the first case of violence against Assad opponents in the Golan. He described with great pain the complete devastation of Syria, with 100,000 civilians dead, 200,000 injured, 2 million refugees fleeing the country and many more displaced within Syria. Abu Awad expressed lack of faith in US Secretary of State John Kerry’s initiative as a political solution. He also claimed that Israel is interested in the continuation of Assad’s regime, referring to the permission Israel gave Syrian tanks to go through the Quneitra pass to continue the slaughter of civilians.

Two discussions were dedicated to questions of nationality and class from the perspective of the protests in Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Dani Ben Simchon, a WAC activist, addressed the contradictory situation of poor workers in Israel and the fear of the protest movements to deal with this contradiction:

“The Mizrahi worker class is in a state of inner contradiction. On the one hand, it has built its identity on turning away from its Arab heritage and adopting Israeli patriotism. On the other hand, its traditional party, the Likud, has abandoned its social values, leading a neoliberal economic agenda. They are in deep crisis, facing a dead end.

“The Jewish workers have not yet changed their voting patterns and have not internalized the fact that voting for Netanyahu (or any other right wing party) does not result only in strengthening a political right-wing agenda, but also in the reinforcement of a right-leaning economic policy, which in turn harms them as workers.”

“Our acquaintance with the forces active today on the ground—the Ma’abara, Lo Nechmadim, Daphni Leef—shows us that they share a common position: (1) that the political-national questions are to be separated from the social-economic questions, and (2) that they oppose partisan involvement. Despite the fact that these activists are leading important struggles, they continue to ignore the political and class-related aspects of the conflict.

“But the political question has become critical and significant today. In the new conditions, the Jewish worker cannot enjoy social justice without dealing with the class-based aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She must confront the connection between social justice, ending the occupation, and ending the discrimination against Arab citizens within Israel.”

Asma Agbarieh-Zahalka compared the approaches of the various Arab parties with that of Daam: “Whereas the nationalistic and Islamic parties see Israel and Arab society as unchanging entities, to which the rules of history do not pertain, Daam claims that the nationalistic Zionist ideology comes with an economic basis, and as such it follows the same social and historical rules that affect other societies. The occupation is yet another burden that deepens the inner contradictions. Israel has two problems: a political-security problem on one hand, and a social-economic one on the other. One cannot view Israel only through the prism of Zionist ideology.”

Khader Shama gave a lecture on the principles of Arabic music and improvisation using the Oud

Dr. Iris Meir, a lecturer at Sapir college, and Nir Nader, an activist at WAC and Daam, dedicated their lectures to the neoliberal realities in Israel and the US. Meir started her lecture with a quote from Democracy in America (1835) by Alexis de Tocqueville, who defined the unique characteristic of American democracy as “equality in social conditions.” Meir then questioned this statement, referring to Hedrick Smith’s present-day book, Who Stole the American Dream? Relying on Smith, Meir surveyed the monstrous social gaps in American society today and the connections between capital and government, which perpetuate these gaps and make social mobility nearly impossible:

“America has seen the rise of a new class—the new poor. These are members of the middle-class who have sunk into poverty, millions of people who have become victims of the long freeze in living conditions since the 1970s. Their numbers are huge. Apart from 6 million people who are perennially unemployed, it was reported in 2010 that 2.6 million more Americans had fallen into poverty. Altogether there are 46.2 million Americans in poverty, the highest number in 52 years.”

Nir Nader and Iris Meyer

“The figures show that America is becoming a caste society. Increasingly, the privileged classes are maintaining their privileges, while the poor remain in the same place. The social mobility that characterized the American dream is long gone. America is classified nowadays as a country with low social mobility. Being born into a low socio-economic class is more of a limitation in America than in any other country.”

Meir also criticizes Smith’s approach: “His call to demand the government to stop working for capital and start working for the people is, in my view, a liberal approach that requires the current system to continue, while asking to implement certain changes to make it function in way that seems more just. In Israel too we have witnessed this kind of approach, which dissolved the 2011 protests and turned them into dust in terms of their political impact.”

“One cannot expect those who serve capital to start serving the working person. In order for work, rather than capital, to have power and representation, these must be built. The protests on the street have to be translated into real, effective, political-party power. This holds for Israel as it does for the US. The Israel of 2013—Bibi’s, Bennet’s and Lapid’s Israel—is almost a carbon copy of the situation I have been describing. The breaking of organized labor, the eroding of the middle-class, employment insecurity, rising poverty—all this in favor of the big capital that has been buying up the country and its politics.”

Michal Schwartz and Orna Akad

The seminar concluded with lectures by Michal Schwartz, Women’s Work Coordinator in WAC, and Orna Akkad, playwright and author. Schwartz described the unfortunate state of Arab women in Israel today.

“The majority of Arab women in Israel live in a rigid, conservative patriarchal system, whose grip on the women has increased in recent years, despite a rise in the level of education and and the decrease in birth rates. The influence of the family is more prevalent among uneducated women who live in the villages, women with a large number of children, but the major group is the most significant one.

“There is no doubt that in terms of living standards and legal rights, the situation of Arab women in Israel is better than that of their Egyptian counterparts. But in terms of activism and leading social and political change, the women in Israel are far behind. In Egypt and Tunisia, women’s participation in the popular struggles has brought them to the front stage of history.”

In contrast with the Arab woman in Israel who is not part of the social struggles, Orna Akkad characterized the Egyptian women as highly active in the ousting of Mubarak. Nevertheless, the situation in Egypt is far from perfect: “For eighteen days, until the fall of Mubarak’s regime, the protesters of Tahrir square, men and women, were united, without attention to differences of gender, religion etc. All came out in solidarity, and with one goal—the overthrowing of Mubarak’s regime and changing the status quo. However, a few weeks after Mubarak’s fall, women protesters that stayed in the square became a target for sexual harassment by men, as well as violence and rape, especially by the military. Many of those women are now active in organizations protecting women from harassment. They do not plan to give up and return to their homes. The revolution allowed them to go on the street and they are not going to let the men take that away from them.”

Translated to English by: Itamar Manoff

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