TITLE: Call on Jewish Activists to Join Arab Boycott of Israeli Elections

AUTHOR: Yoav Bar

PUB: Abnaa elBalad

DATE: January 12, 2001

The Israeli left prepares for its political irrelevance on February 6, 2001, in order to complement its absence from the streets in October 2000. As the call for boycott of the Israeli elections is gaining pace in the Arab population, we are still looking for partners in the Jewish side to support that call... Active, straight and proud boycott of the elections, with the majority of the Arab population taking part, is a political 'Intifada', that will show that there is no return to the semi-acceptance of the Apartheid situation as before October. Like any act of the masses, we will be united in action, though anybody will have its special interpretation of events. In the pro-boycott demo in Kfar Manda on Thursday 11/1, relatives of the October Shuhada elAqsa explained that supporting Barak will be betrayal to the memory of his victims. More practically, not voting to Barak now is the only way to make the Zionist racists hesitate before they massacre "their Arab voters" in future events. Abnaa elBalad, the hard core of the boycott movement, is explaining that any participation in the Israeli election means giving legitimacy and democratic semblance to the racist regime, and strengthening its hand and international backing in its hostile and criminal acts. It regards the 'Blank Vote' a shy participation, that does not support the candidates but still gives legitimacy to the Israeli Apartheid, where Jewish citizens are called to decide "democratically" the fate of occupied and expelled Arab subjects. Others, like leaders of the United Arab List, the biggest Arab fraction in the Knesset, stress the boycott as the most effective protest at the continuing massacre. They also point to the practical elements of the boycott, that can easily be seen and felt, not opening the door for vote traders and riggers to work under any disguise. The calls for boycott are adding by the day, as they express the popular feeling after the October confrontations and the identification with the continuing Intifada. The newly established "initiating committee for the boycott of the elections" is working to create the widest possible public front, as well as to build up the grass root organization necessary in order to carry the message everywhere. With all this, there is no partner to this movement within the Jewish public, not even a small committee or group of the hard left. Still hoping, I wanted to examine some of the arguments that came up in the discussion. Some people on the left still wants to vote for Barak (not you and me, but lets assume there are such people...) They bring the theory of choosing the lesser evil to the extreme. If Barak kills 4 Arabs every day, Sharon may kill 10 - so we will be crazy and irresponsible not to support Barak. To them we simply say that a killer is a killer and a racist is a racist and supporting them is supporting killing and racism. Our more sophisticated 'peaceniks' do not support the current Barak, but try to support the imaginary Barak that they dream up in their minds. See the Gush Shalom Ads that still calls on Barak to be the peace hero that he should have been. Hadash is still praying for a fake 'agreement' that will enable them to cheat themselves again and retain their historic subordination to the Zionist faked "Labour party". Outside the old established left (with its material interests and links and commitments to the system) there are today in the Jewish society several radical groups and movements, either advocating direct democratic action in response to the occupation, concentrating on special social struggle or gathering around ideology. Together, confronting the deepest crisis of the Israeli regime in front of the Intifada, and united with the movement of the Arab masses, they could come out today as the voice of the real alternative to the dead end of the racist regime. But there are important political obstacles that should be surmounted. The walls of the Israeli apartheid are not only made of barbed wire and tanks, they are in the heart and mind of any one of us, that got used to live in racially segregated society. So we hear so many Jewish activists saying "you can't convince anybody to boycott the elections", while there are hundreds of thousands preparing for an active boycott, including many thousand voters in Haifa, Tel-Aviv (Jaffa) and El-Quds. But, is it the role of Jewish activists to organize the boycott of the Arab masses? Should not they do better by organizing the Jewish protest for what it can be organized, like a blank vote? The presence of Jewish activists with the Arab masses in all struggles is an important step toward breaking the Apartheid walls. It is mostly symbolic for both sides: It tells the Arabs that not all Jews are part of the racist establishment. It helps to convince some Jews and international pubic opinion that the Palestinian liberation struggle is a principled one. It shows the way to common struggle against Zionist crimes, which is a necessary precondition for living together in a future unsegregated society. All this is marginal. What is most important is the role of the Jewish activists to break the racist hegemony over the Jewish masses. It can't be done by leaving the Jewish street and working in the Arab street. It can't be done by working in the Jewish street as if there are no Arabs, or as if the problems of expulsion, occupation and racism against the majority of the people of this land is a marginal problem that will be solved as part of our bright socialist future or international unification of all nations or any other magic. (Raising humanitarian or socialist agenda is not a contradiction to supporting the struggle for national liberation - it could provide the best framework for a solution of all national problems. But the general worldly agenda is many time used to escape harsh reality. How nice it is to live in Tel Aviv and feel like being in Paris or London or Seatle. But without confronting the fact of life about Jaffa and Gaza, without direct struggle to eliminate occupation and racism, all those highly regarded slogans are ate best cowardly escapism, at worst comouflage for taking side with the racist system.) Some Jewish activists may feel that if they work with 'their' public on specific interests, like organizing trade unionist struggle or Oriental Jewish or feminist activity, they can build the grass root organization that will enable their public to understand the Palestinian problem later. It can work as short time tactic in specific places, but as a strategy it is self-defeating. The Arab masses may be conceived by those oppressed Jews either as a powerful ally or as a threat, but they cannot be ignored. If those 'leftist' Jewish activists try to work for long on particular interests, they will find that 'their' public is supporting this or that racist government against the "Arab threat", betraying its own libertarian agenda in the way. Some Jewish activist seem to build dogmatic frames to put new balance between Jews and Arabs, in a way that they can seem to handle both sides even handed', as: " The Israeli racist regime is cooperating with a reactionary and collaborationist Palestinian Authority. The Intifada has no perspective as all Palestinian leaderships are either subdued by the Palestinian Authority, or are religious fundamentalists. The Arabs inside the Green Line are speaking of boycott, but we have already read in Ha'Aretz that their leaders are going to sell them again"..... So, from the height of revolutionary purity, they can preach revolutionary dogma to everybody and ignore the revolutionary movement just over the street. (Once again, my harsh words here does not intend to prevent from any of the comrades in struggle the right to criticize the PA or any other organization or leadership. The credibility and effectiveness of such criticizm is directly dependant on the readiness and ability to take part in the struggle.) Some, Jews as Arabs, are afraid that confronting Jewish public opinion with reality will lead to intensification of the oppression. "If we will tell the Jews that the refugees do not really want to return, they may agree to a Palestinian state. If we will tell those Jews that Arabs inside the green line just love to be second-class Israeli citizens, they might allow some refugees from Lebanon to return".... But then, when some refugees fight for their right to return, when some Galilee Palestinians raise the Palestinian flag, those Jews that heard this propaganda feel freer to oppress the Palestinians even more. Do not those extremists disturb the peaceful arrangements that were agreed upon even by our peaceniks? All this political discussion is important and will not be over before the regime that distorts all our lives will be well gone. But time is running, the Palestinian masses are uprising against the occupation and pay awful price, the regime is in total crisis and now is the time to pose the alternative. We need the Jewish activists to join their voices to the clear voice of the boycott movement in order to tell to the Jewish public: A racist regime is not a democracy, it is not legitimate, it can bring neither peace nor security, it should be resisted by all means. Even more importantly, we urgently need the Jewish activists in order to convert the Arab rejection of Apartheid from threat to hope. Do not let the Arab masses stand alone in this test also, join the call for boycott of the Israeli Apartheid elections. Petition for Israeli Voters For Israeli voters: to sign this petition, go to http://www.PetitionOnline.com/countbbs/petition.html. If you encounter technical difficulties with the site, contact iritka@zahav.net.il The letter of the petition will be in Hebrew, this is a translation: To head of the general elections comittee, Judge Michael Cheshin We, the undersigned, declare that our choice of a blank ballot in the elections for prime minister, is a purely democratic act, and our exercizing of our right to make our voice heard and say that WE ARE NOT REPRESENTED! For this reason, we choose a blank ballot and request that THE BLANK BALLOTS WILL BE COUNTED. Don't let the voice of conscience be pushed aside - a blank ballot is not a disqualified choice but a conscious decision. END top