Ibn Gvirol St from above. Tel Aviv, August 6 (photo: ActiveStills)
De "14 juli" beweging (J14, #j14) ontstond toen een groep Israëlische jongeren kampeerden in het hart van Tel Aviv. Daarna verschenen er tentenkampen in elke grote stad in Israël. In Tel Aviv zijn minstens vier tentenkampen, de grootste, op Rothschild Avenue, bevat meer dan 400 tenten en is een kilometer lang.
De J14 beweging organiseert het grootste protest in de geschiedenis van Israël: de middenklasse roept op tot sociale rechtvaardigheid en de invoering van een verzorgingsstaat. De grootste van het aantal demonstraties vond plaats in Tel Aviv, met meer dan 200.000 mensen. 30.000 betogers marcheerden naar het huis van premier Netanyahu in Jeruzalem. Kleinere bijeenkomsten werden gehouden in Modi'in, Haifa, Nes Tziona en andere steden. In Kiryat Shmone blokkeerden demonstranten de snelweg naar het noorden.
De Nationale Unie van Israëlische Studenten heeft nu een lijst met eisen aan de regering opgesteld, met o.a. belastingverlaging, meer geld voor huisvesting voor armlastigen, vertraging van de privatisering van de zorg, uitbreiding van gratis onderwijs, en het weren van werkgevers die de vakbonden aantasten.
De Palestijnse Israëli's staan erbij en kijken ernaar. Ze zien vooral zionistisch 'links' opkomen voor exclusief-joodse sociale rechtvaardigheid, en een tweestaten 'oplossing' bepleiten om van hun probleem af te komen. Ondertussen werden zonder een zuchtje protest vijf racistische apartheidswetten en een anti-boycotwet door de Knesset gejaagd.
Leestips (met citaat) via Daniel Shunra:
Mondoweiss: Tent 1948
Social justice can’t be divided or categorized. If it is not justice to all including all Palestinians, then it is a fake justice, elite justice or “Justice for Jews only” exactly as the Israeli democracy functions “for Jews only”. July 14 is a great opportunity for Israelis to refuse to allow their state to continue to drown into an apartheid regime.
Pulse: Tahrir Envy: An Anti-Occupation Activist’s First Thoughts on the Tent Protests in Israel
While the people of our neighboring states are getting shot en-mass in a bold attempt to dismantle their oppressing regimes, the deteriorating Israeli middle class found out they were paying quadruple the cost of Israeli produce in Europe, and they weren’t gonna take it anymore. A law against boycotts was passed, among other fascistic laws [1,2,3,4,5], but the cottage cheese boycott was the one that captured the spotlight. And it wasn’t boycotted for being produced on stolen land.But cottage cheese must have just been a symptom, along with it came protests over the rising gas prices, separate workers’ protests, including underpaid and overworked doctors, dock workers, university cleaning staff and many more. And still, no one would claim that The Only Democracy In The Middle East™ is crumbling from within.
New Statesman: How Israel's left is missing the point
Where is the outrage over a law that was greeted by the right-wing news site Israel National News with the headline: "Cabinet Extends Measure Preventing 'Invasion by Marriage'"? Why, for Avnery and others, is the anti-boycott law -- and not the legally-sanctioned separation of Palestinian spouses -- the final straw? The key difference seems to be that the former will affect Jewish Israelis.
The ban on family unification is just one example, of course -- Israel's "vibrant democracy'"has long meant something rather different for Palestinians. But its renewal at the same time as the anti-boycott law dominated the headlines highlights the problematic politics of a mainstream Israeli left that seems more invigorated by a perceived urgency to "save Zionism" (i.e. through two-state ethnic separation) than by a fight against colonial occupation.
Mondoweiss: Tent protests panic Netanyahu (and just might shake foundations of occupation)
The timing, so close to September and the declaration of statehood in the Bantustans of the West Bank, is fortuitous: it would be fairly easy to preempt that, and declare a single state, with a sharing of resources and power among all its citizens - which would allow the resources to be diverted from military adventurism to the sort of state that the protesters are demanding. It is a possible path from here to there, and the very first such possible path I’ve seen. There are, however, other possibilities: Netanyahu could pull out the war card, to galvanize people behind fear of a perceived enemy; or the Israelis might decide that they actually like living in an apartheid environment, and upon rethinking it, decide to maintain that structure.
Electronic Intifada: The sham solidarity of Israel’s Zionist left
That there is a sweeping tide of blatant extremism among the Israeli ruling elite and wider society does not mean that Palestinians should gratefully cheer soft-core Zionist “compromises.” Solidarity is neither an act of charity nor a festival of boastful speeches and empty rhetoric. It is a moral obligation that should be carried out with full, unwavering and unconditional commitment.
Those who seek appreciation and gratitude had better stay in their cozy chairs in Tel Aviv. Attempts to exploit the Palestinian plight for political purposes and to turn the Palestinian cause from a struggle for human rights, justice, freedom and equality into a parade of fake independence and cliches must be called out and countered.
A Palestinian family huddles around a campfire in a makeshift tent constructed near their home, which was demolished during Israel's attack on Gaza in 2008-2009. (Wissam Nassar, Maan Images)
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