Urgent: To build a Jewish-Arab leftwing alternative!

it, even as a future electoral alternative. Our contribution to such a framework would have been to encourage a connection with the new discourse in the Arab world, and to work toward ending the occupation, as a basic condition for building a democratic society which respects human rights and ensures social justice. But since this process did not take shape, we will continue to forge local alliances for joint campaigns or activities, and we will put ourselves forward in the coming elections independently.

As a Jewish-Arab party, we work in every possible sphere to break the wall between Arabs and Jews. Among Arab youth, especially in the universities, joint Arab-Jewish activities are seen in a negative light. This attitude has developed out of the despair felt by these young people, who don’t see any willingness or desire among Jews to work against racism or the occupation. Even if this attitude is understandable, it is fundamentally flawed, because it fails to see that even in Jewish society there are organizations and forces which seek change. Instead of working with these groups, the Arab youth closes itself off and thus contributes to perpetuating the situation.

The problems besetting Arab society result directly from the lack of a worthy leadership. The Arab intellectuals leading Arab society today take little interest in their people. The local Arab authorities are elected according to family ties, and corruption abounds. The Islamic faction is tolerant of male violence and the suppression of women; it sees progress, science and openness to the world as heresy. We assert that the struggle against state discrimination starts with internal change to strengthen the society. This is exactly the insight that forms the basis of the Arab Spring. Enough with blaming the entire world for our sorrows! We must start by understanding what is not in order with us, and act to change this.

Da’am works to nurture a new discourse, open and critical towards both the Arab and the Jewish side. Thus, for example, we are continuing, for the third year, a program of meetings between Arab and Jewish high school students. This program is based on the understanding that both societies have shortcomings but that we are all suffering under Israel’s economic regime. If each group learns to act against the flaws in its own society, the desire for social change can become a platform uniting Arab and Jewish youth.

On the same basis, Da’am works to organize Jewish and Arab workers into a common trade union platform.

The dedication of our activists, as well as our political clarity, together with our daily work on the ground, attract the interest of new activists who join the party. Economic developments around the world, the changes in the Middle East, the new understanding in Israel that privatization and the rule of capital are impoverishing society – all these are enabling new ideas to gain a footing, ideas whose task is to organize society and humankind upon the basis of justice, equality and welfare for all.

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