Despite the political fascism in Israel, the daily abuses and ethnic cleansing on the West Bank, the genocide in Gaza and forever wars on Iran and Lebanon, there are those in Israel – both Jewish and Palestinian – who organise resistance. In fact, Standing Together recently launched a new Jewish-Arab political party.
Standing Together describes itself as a force for equal rights, peace and justice. It is worth mentioning here, though, that Israeli human rights organisations like Standing Together, B’Tselem, Yesh Din and Breaking The Silence do not, in any way, represent the majority of Israelis. Not even close. In fact, Israelis opinion polls consistently show that a large majority of Jewish Israelis believe that the war in Gaza is justified, many even calling for a military escalation. Polling also shows widespread support among Israeli Jews for Netanyahu’s wars in Iran and Lebanon, as well as for the occupation of the West Bank.
Despite this fact, however, Standing Together has actually grown in numbers since the 7th of October. So there are parallel processes at play – one Israeli reality is the fascist one, where the government reinstates the death penalty but only for Palestinians, where settler thugs shoot Palestinian children on the West Bank with impunity, where systematic rape is employed in Israeli prisons. Another reality consists of Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Arabs uniting around the most basic of objectives: End the wars, end the occupation, equal rights for all. The problem is that the fascist reality seems to be taking over. However, that does not mean you stop resisting.
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