Im Tirzu led scurrilous campaigns against Israeli human rights groups, trying to intimidate and de-fund them. The most infamous case was that of Prof. Naomi Hazan, director of the New Israel Fund, whom they caricatured, threatened and vilified. ACRI was also a target of Im Tirzu’s campaign, which seemed to be well-coordinated with a number of similar organizations.

And so Im Tirzu’s announcement seemed bizarre, to put it mildly. Here was an organization that had for over a year devoted its energies to undermining and attacking the human rights community, announcing its intention to march with them on International Human Rights Day. Was this a joke? How did they feel their human rights had been violated?

In the spirit of its mandate and its ethos, ACRI’s response to Im Tirzu was something along the lines of the great Enlightenment figure Voltaire’s famous saying, “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

And in the end, only a few dozen Im Tirzu supporters showed up at the march, and the police kept them separate, treating them as counter-demonstrators. There was no violence – not even of an exchange of verbal violence.

The fabulous satirical site The Onion once published a piece entitled, ACLU defends Nazis’ rights to burn down ACLU headquarters. Money quote:

Making the case all the more controversial is the neo-Nazis’ demand that the ACLU’s entire 315-person staff be in the building at the time of the blaze. Strongly opposing the request are New York City police commissioner William Bratton, fire chief Ed Holm and mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who said that all 315 will die if trapped in the 47-story building during the blaze. ACLU attorneys responded that they will request a federal appeals hearing if the City of New York attempts to stop them and their fellow ACLU employees from perishing in the Nov. 25 blaze.

The Onion piece is funny because it is a wild exaggeration; if it were closer to the truth, it would not be funny. And if we are going to talk about who is confused, I would direct your attention to the photograph below, taken by photographer Mati Milstein (click here to view more of his amazing photos). I’ve posted Mati’s description of the photo, as well.

Identity Crisis, by Mati Milistein

Mati’s description:

The far-right Im Tirzu movement prepares to participate in the International Human Rights Day march in Tel Aviv. The activist on the right, who wears both a Jewish skullcap and a Palestinian keffiyeh, holds a sign reading “A Jew also has human rights.”

Click here to listen to System Ali; and click here to read more about them.

System Ali performing at Rabin Square on Human Rights Day (photo: Lisa Goldman)

African refugees at the march for human rights (photo: Lisa Goldman)

Many of these refugees, who come from some of the most violent, war-stricken countries in Africa, suffered unspeakable horrors during their flight to Israel. Stories of rape, murder and extortion are very common. They are not hunted or killed in Israel, but they have few rights, live mostly in poverty and often spend months in jail before being granted asylum. Now, the prime minister is proposing that the refugees be rounded up and kept in a big open-air prison in the Negev.

In his post about the refugees at the march, Dimi Reider  writes:

One of the key human rights issues today in Israel is that of the African asylum seekers; even those that make it past Egypt’s shoot-to-kill border patrol policy and avoid detention, are left hanging in limbo for months if not years, as Israel considers their application for official refugee status while entangling them in a hopeless web of bureaucracy and bullying. There has been a massive undertaking in favor of refugees by Israeli citizens honest enough to remember their parents and grandparents often came into Israel just like that – sneaking over the border, fleeing death and destruction in their home countries.

But until yesterday, Israelis have never seen the refugees march together, as a coherent, unapologetic group, not merely speaking their claim not in the slums and the periphery where they have been pushed, but chanting it on one of Israel’s most affluent shopping streets.

The video clip below was filmed by Dimi Reider, as he watched the refugees pass him during the march. Look how many there are!

Sami Michael, just before he ascended the stage to give his speech at the human rights day rally (photo: Lisa Goldman)

At Rabin Square, following the March for Human Rights, he opened the events with a speech that he gave partly in Arabic.The audience included many native Arabic speakers – Bedouin from the Negev who had come to protest the destruction of their homes, Palestinian-Arab-Israelis from the Galilee and MKs Mohammed Barakeh and Ahmed Tibi. As Sami Michael, the Iraqi-Jewish-Israeli, spoke about peace and acceptance in their shared native language, one could feel a surge of emotion – and then hear the warmth of the applause.

Below is a scan of the text Sami Michael read, written in his own hand, and underneath that is a translation.

The section of Sami Michael's speech in Arabic, in his own handwriting.

Translation:

And to the Palestinian people and I say that our future is inevitably a shared future. Despite the voices that call for enmity, there is a wide public that wishes to live in peaceful coexistence.

Sadly the moderate majority has been stricken by the ailment of silence. We are here to say that our voice is shared, as our path is shared.

Either we die together or we live together. We are here to announce that we have chosen life.

Click here to view the album.

There was a feeling of warmth and goodwill at that march; Yuval Ben-Ami compares it to a Friday afternoon family gathering – complete with ‘annoying relatives’ (a few dozen right-wing protesters who somehow managed to make the Israeli flag look like a weapon and classic Israeli folk songs sound violent). Friends greeted one another with hugs and kisses as demonstrators chanted lustily and passing drivers honked their horns in support. Human rights, after all, is such a broad, inclusive term that it’s easy to express support.

But then, while listening to the Palestinian-Israeli hip-hop group System Ali perform at Rabin Square in Hebrew and Arabic, I read on Twitter, via Joseph Dana, that the IDF was laying siege to the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh. Soldiers were shooting long range tear gas canisters directly at unarmed demonstrators, at a dangerously close range. They were using live ammunition to quell peaceful villagers who only wanted the land confiscated by settlers returned to them. All of this was happening just a few minutes’ drive from Rabin Square, in the West Bank. In Israel the police protect peaceful demonstrators that are organized by large organizations; but in the West Bank, just a short drive away, the police beat, shoot and arrest peaceful demonstrators.

Einat Weitzman, an actress and left-wing activist, read aloud a speech written by Abdullah Abu Rahmeh, a 39 year-old Palestinian schoolteacher who has been jailed for more than one year. He has been charged with incitement because he organized the residents of his West Bank village, Bil’in, to protest peacefully the army’s refusal to obey the Israeli Supreme Court’s order to reroute the separation barrier in order so that it does not separate the villagers from their farmland. For marching and waving flags in support of the Israeli Supreme Court, Abdullah Abu Rahmeh has been in jail for more than one year. Below is an excerpt from his speech; click here to read the full text.

In the year that I have spent in prison, my son Laith has taken his first steps and said his first words, and Luma and Layan have been growing from children to beautiful young girls. I have not been able to be with them, to walk holding their hands, to take them to school as they and I are used to. Laith does not know me now. And my wife Majida has had to care for our family alone.

In 2010 children in Bil’in and throughout the West bank are still being awakened in the middle of the night to find guns pointed at their heads. In the year that I have spent in prison, the military has carried out dozens of night raids in Bil’in with the purpose of removing those involved in the popular struggle against the occupation. (click here to read the full speech).

Below is ACRI’s press release about the march, followed by three photos taken by Meged Gozani. You can see more photos here and here.

Ten Thousand at Israel’s Human Rights March:

Together We Stand to Fight Racism, Demand Justice

In a show of force of Israel’s human rights community, ten thousands people gathered today in Tel Aviv for Human Rights March, calling on the Israeli authorities to protect all those living under its authority and promote justice and equality, and protesting against the rising tides of racism

Bringing together demonstrators from across the country, both Jews and Arabs, as well as approximately one thousand refugees and migrant workers, mostly from Sudan, Eritrea, and other African countries, the march processed along Ibn Gavirol St. and concluded with a closing rally in Rabin Square.

Standing side-by-side in a unique moment of solidarity, demonstrators carried signs saying: “Democracy: The Slippery Slope is Already Here”, “Jews and Arabs Refuse to be Enemies”, “Climate Change is Here – Let’s Stop It”, “We are All Refugees”, “Love Thy Neighbor – Putting a Stop to Racism”, “When a Woman Says No She Means No”, “It is my Right to be Different”,  “100% Democracy to 100% of the Citizens”.

Marking International Human Rights Day, Israel’s second Human Rights March, organized by The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, brought together 130 organizations from a broad spectrum of fields: Workers’ rights, empowerment of women, the environment, against the Occupation, for equal citizenry, LGBT community, animal rights, social justice, migrant workers rights, and more. Following the tradition of the great civil liberties marches in Washington and elsewhere, the march is the only event ever to take place in Israel, in which all these groups and individuals march together, each carrying a unique message but all united by the call: Human Rights is Everyone’s Rights.

During the past year, democracy and human rights in Israel have suffered severe blows – but were met with a resilient civil society determined to counter the worrying tides. Just this past week, a letter signed by prominent rabbis called on Jews not to rent out or sell apartments to Arabs, and was met with wide condemnation, including by many of the organizations and individuals participating in the march.

Below are excerpts of some of the speeches made during the closing rally in Rabin Square:

·        ‪Renowned author Sami Michael‬, president of ACRI and a resident of Haifa, spoke of the devastating fire that raged in the Carmel last week: “We look at what once were evergreen forests, and now are barren terrace, and greave. We don’t know yet whether the disaster was caused accidently or maliciously, but we do know that the heads of State failed in carrying out their duty to safeguard lives, livelihood, and wildlife.

The majority of the Israeli public believes that human rights are sacred. We have gathered here today to voice our call for the rights of all humans; to cry out against the curse of racism; to combat the socioeconomic gaps, violence against women, violence in our public discourse, and any other form of violence.
And to the Palestinian people I say: Ours is a shared fait. We shell die together or live together. We have gathered here now to declare: We have chosen life.

·        ‪Prof. Naomi Hazzan‬, Chairperson of the New Israel Fund in Israel and former member of Knesset, said:

In the face of so many who choose the path of hatred, incitement, and violence, the heroes of Israel’s civil society stand out by choosing not to give up on the vision of a better Israel. They are the ones who give us the strength to continue the battle, and remind us that when we see discrimination and injustice the most important thing is not to stand idle but rather to call out and ensure our voices are heard. We will not stop until Israel is a true democracy, which respects the ‘other’ and cares for all those who are weakened.

·        ‪Amel A-Sana Al-Hajuj‬ co-director of Ajik – The Negev Institute, a long-time activist for the rights of the Bedouin in Israel, stated:

The rabbis who signed the letter want to separate us. But we are here, and jointly we declare: We are together, we want a shared future. The march is a celebration of our victory, it is our answer to racism and to all the challenges we are forced to face daily.

Four letters were written specially for the march by individuals who this past year dared to demand human rights and justice for themselves and others:

·        ‪Eli Zvieli‬ from Safed rented out his home to Arab students and did not succumb to pressures and intimidation, including by Safed’s Chief Rabbi:

I am 89-years old, I’ve survived the Holocaust and captivity. I’ve been through a lot but I feel strong, I feel great. I believed then as I still believe today, that I must safeguard my rights, that all people should safeguard their rights.

·        ‪Abdallah Abu Rahma‬ from Bili’in in the West Bank, a leader of the non-violent popular struggle against the Separation Barrier, sent a letter from his prison cell:

In the face of oppression and injustice, we have chosen a message of hope and true partnership between Israelis and Palestinians. We will continue fighting for a just future. This is the message I wish to bring to you today, carried across fences and walls and laws that separate us from one another.

·        ‪Mary Vansovski‬, chairperson of the cleaners’ Workers Union a Ben Gurion University, shared the humiliation workers suffer daily as employees and human being:

Being a contract worker makes people think of you as inferior, as someone who doesn’t belong here. We have made much progress since the first elections of the Workers Union, and our work is still cut out for us – but the sky is the limit!

·        ‪T.A.W‬ from Eretria, who entered Israel through the Sinai desert and is today held at the Saharonim detention center:

When I arrived in Sudan I was kidnapped by strangers. They held me hostage for five months, during which I was raped and forced to prepare meals for my kidnappers and clean after them. Eventually I was released and sent with a group of refugees to cross the border to Israel.

***

I learned most of all about the meaning of my protest – being a young, Sephardi, Jewish Israeli woman – when I encountered he unbelievable policy that this state, the Sate of the Jews, employs vis-à-vis refugees and asylum seekers. I feel that my protest is not a solely individual one but rather follows from great compassion which, so I feel, should be a most basic thing for any man and woman who live freely anywhere. Apart from the fact that most of our mothers and fathers were refugees, and that one of Israel’s most advanced industries exports weapons that are used in conflicts in African countries [from where some refugees now here originate], there is the basic, shining premise that the strong must help the weak. This is the foundation of it all. I do not wish to compel anyone, but I do feel that is our moral obligation.

Come march with us, asylum seeking men and women, alongside activists from the entire spectrum. Join the cycle of compassion in which we open our arms to receive more and more people, and to give too, until we succeed in making Israel (which sometimes makes it hard and makes us despair) an equal and containing state. Because, after all, ours are the arms that uphold it and its leaders.

Meital Russo, activist with ASSAF – The Aid Organization for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel

***

The right to a healthy environment means that every individual has the right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and build their home on uncontaminated land. That right also means that every individual has the right to fight for a healthy environment: To struggle against a plant that would not install filters because they are costly; fight for promoting public instead of private means of transportation; and encourage the exposure of documents that attest to failed environmental planning.

I can see that the causes we are fighting for may differ but are nonetheless similar in many ways. Whether it be the environment, the occupied territories, the refugees, or the protection of children – our country avoids making decisions, issuing policies, or enforcing the law.

This is why I will be marching next Friday. I wish to call on my state to realize that public life needs organization and policy; and that in many, too many issues the state decides not to decide for irrelevant reasons, and because each ministry strongly defends its own share, and because the State of Israel is privatizing itself to death and surrendering to the wishes of the wealthy and affluent.
I will march also because we don’t take to the streets often enough, since it is easier to expect others to do it for us.

Ronit Piso, Public Health Coalition in Israel

***
Clearly, it is easier to refer to children of Philippine origin as a “demographic threat” than to deal with the policy that brought their parents here in the first place; and it is easier to instigate against Africans or Arabs when a woman from their community is murdered than to admit that misogyny and violence against women is a national plague that requires thorough treatment and major budgets. And when the “nation” rolls its eyes when the man or woman on the street – at least those shown on TV – say they hate the Arab and fear the refugees. The cynics at the top are pleased, knowing that what they are doing works.

This is why we will join the Human Rights March: To show politicians, journalists, and spin-masters who try and tell everyone else what to say, that we may be cynical too, but we are no suckers. We will be silent no more and demand that everyone be accorded that which we all deserve: A life in an orderly democracy, with transparency and freedom of expression, in a tolerant environment, with an economic safety net.

We must show them that we can be as big and loud as other pressure groups. It is time for us to stand up and be counted – blacks or whites, headcovered or not, men and women, straight and queer, Jews and Arabs – demanding human rights for all.

Nirit Moscowitz, ACRI spokeswoman

***

While the term “gender separation” sounds rather neutral, we must not ignore the fact that the demands to introduce such separation means in all actuality that women are pushed back both on as a physical measure as well as an abstract or conceptual level. Every separation demand is based on identifying women with the private sphere and with their duty to stay away from public scenes, and that is motivated by the desire to maintain the existing gender hierarchy.

While the government is impotent on the issue, failing to devise a clear policy and red-lines, while ultra-orthodox currents pressure politicians and decision makers, and in the absence of secular pressure to the contrary – gender separation is now an expanding phenomenon.

For us, the Human Rights March on December 10 will serve as an excellent opportunity to remind ourselves of that which we too often tend to forget – that the public sphere belongs to everyone, men and women alike.

Attorney Einat Horowitz,
Legal & Public Policy Department Director
Israel Religious Action Center

***

Over the past few years we have been experiencing  an increase in violations of the rights of Israeli citizens.  I will come to march because the majority of the population in Israel is apathetic.  Apathetic to the suffering of African refugee children, apathetic to the continued occupation of the West Bank, apathetic to the hours that Palestinians from the occupied territories are made to wait each day at checkpoints, apathetic to the fate of women who are sold like merchandise to panderers in South Tel Aviv, apathetic to crowds of migrant workers, whose rights are trampled upon day after day.

I will come to the march because in the twentieth century many democracies collapsed, and it is clear that in these cases, the collapse began with violations of minority rights, of foreigners or those resisting the structure of power, and with the perpetual exhaustion of all opposition, until it turned into silence.  Israeli democracy is failing. The forces overrunning it from the inside – in the government, in the Knesset and in society – are growing stronger and the public’s silence is very loud.  It is hard for me to fathom a public struggle more important in Israel than the fight to resist the dissolution of democracy.

I will come to the march in Tel Aviv because I don’t have a foreign passport stashed in my desk drawer.  I don’t dream of living elsewhere.  I want to struggle so that life in this country, my country, will be based on social justice and defense of the innocent and the dignity and freedom of all people living here.

I will come to the march because of a combination of fear and faith: fear of the continuation and amplification of violations of human rights and civil liberties and the deterioration of democracy; and faith that we have an interest and a duty to fight these trends – faith that the only hope for a future for this country is in building a society based on equality, democracy and an unwavering commitment to human rights and faith- sharp and firm. And faith that we have the power to change reality.

See you on December 10 in Tel Aviv.

Ron Gerlitz
The author is the Co-Executive Director of Sikkuy, the Association for the Advancement of Civic Equality in Israel

***

On December 10 – International Human Rights Day – we will march together, women’s organizations, and we will once again lift our voices to protest, because we are sick of the systematic violations of our rights.

Every woman has been sexually harassed at least once in her life. Every third woman has been sexually assaulted. Every seventh woman has suffered from sexual abuse committed by a family member. Most of the people who earn minimum wage are women.  Most of the civilians wounded in wartime are women. Most of the people whose freedom of movement is limited are women. The majority of the people at the lowest levels in terms of employment, income and social position are women.

Women are murdered in the name of ‘honor.’ They are beaten and bruised in the name of love. Women are fired from their jobs when they are sexually harassed, when they are pregnant, when they are undergoing fertility treatments, when they are older and when they no longer fulfill the boss’s idea of ‘standard appearance.’ Women work from morning ‘til night – inside and outside the house – but they are paid for only a fraction of their labors. Women are required to provide all sorts of services from dawn until dusk, because that is how our role was defined by society – a society in which the man is in control of the woman’s life. Women are exposed daily to an environment that is filled with violent pornography – from sexist advertisements to sexual harassment. For a significant proportion of the female population, home is a place that is not only small, but which also tends to be dangerous.

Dorit Abramovitch is an Israeli feminist writer and LGBT activist.

For Israelis, the fire was a painful tragedy.  People mourned the loss of life and prayed for the recovery of the wounded, identified with the suffering of those that were forced to evacuate their homes and those that lost their homes to the fire, and anguished at the loss of so much of the Carmel National Park.  Ami Kaufman, who grew up in Haifa, explains in this post, the Carmel Forest is his city’s backyard – a green canopy visible from every point of the city, and a place where everyone goes for picnics and recreation.

The mourning and shock were exacerbated by the horrible understanding that this tragedy could have been avoided – or at least mitigated – if the state had lived up to its basic responsibilities toward its citizens. The treasury has starved the fire department of funds, depriving it of firefighting chemicals and reducing fire fighting squads to skeletons, even as Israel suffers year after year of drought. The minister of interior, Eli Yishai, who is directly responsible for the fire department, fails to take responsibility for the situation. Instead, he claims he is being unjustly targeted because he is Mizrachi and ultra-Orthodox.

This Friday, 10 December, is International Human Rights Day. In Israel, we will march not only for human rights and social justice and democracy, but also in protest of the continued trends of responsibility-shirking of our leaders. As ACRI’s president and Haifa resident, author Sami Michael said, “The fire was caused by human beings… and so are the government’s shortcomings.” Michael will be one of the speakers at the human rights rally at Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square, immediately following the march.

By Hagai El-Ad

One year ago, when we came together to organize Israel’s first Human Rights March, we did so under the banner “No Way!” The message was clear – there was no way we would accept the continued deterioration of our democracy, human rights violations, the ever-widening social gaps, and the increase of racism in our society. There was no way we would allow our democracy to lose.

One year ago, we took to the streets on our day – Human Rights Day: some five thousand marchers and more than one hundred civil society organizations linked arms and joined together, representing a broad spectrum of struggles – unprecedented in diversity – for equality, social justice, an end to the occupation, democracy and human rights.

One year ago, we witnessed – perhaps for the first time ever in Israel – groups of Muslim women from the Negev holding green flags marching alongside groups of gay activists from Tel Aviv with rainbow pride flags. Different flags, different struggles, proclaiming a single message of shared values: all human rights for all people! The Human Rights March is an expression of partnership between multiple groups marching under a host of different banners, finding commonality in their difference and unity in our shared values. These different voices combine and resonate with a message of humanism, pluralism, and democracy – declaring that these are the defining values of our society.

A year has since passed – a bad year for human rights and democracy here. As it turns out, we weren’t totally right when proclaiming “no way”, when stating that it cannot happen here. As a matter of fact, it can happen here.

2010 was the year in which almost not a single day has gone by that we haven’t slid further down the slippery slope: from anti-democratic legislative proposals to public expressions of racism; from McCarthyism in academia to the silencing of critical voices within Israel’s cultural institutions; from a widening social gap and record levels of poverty to even more anti-democratic initiatives – and the list continues.

All these, taken together, threaten to bring about a discriminatory and anti-democratic future, in which we no longer can rely on the protection of the safety net of human rights, equality and social justice. And so we see how the narrow economic interests of certain groups are promoted at the expense of everyone else. We witness a tyranny of the majority that exploits its current political power to advance measures blatantly designed to promote a demographic perception of the state’s identity. In keeping with these trends, Israel’s Arab citizens have already been marked as a “fifth column”, those who speak out against these trends have been labeled an “anti-Zionist”, a “traitor”, or simply as “disloyal.” Over the last year, rather than boasting an open public discourse, Israel has seen a proto-fascist contraction that has dominated the public consciousness. Actions and statements are constantly being weighed against a dogmatic standard of “loyalty”, and organizations and individuals that speak out against this trend have been labeled as illegitimate. A campaign of slander and sedition has been waged against the “disloyal”, under which dangerous bills are advanced in the Knesset, with a similar atmosphere being pushed upon academia.

What these measures have in common is not only their anti-democratic stance, but how they came to be. Ultimately, it is the Knesset that enacts laws, the government that executes them, and the state that shoulders the responsibility. The point is, when the ground rules of democracy are trampled, civil society groups are not the ones to be blamed. The Knesset, the heart of Israeli democracy, is where our elected representatives ultimately vote for passing, or rejecting, anti-democratic bills. Responsibility for safeguarding democracy and human rights lies with state authorities, and over the past year the most worrying trend of all was the way that these very authorities – through action or silence – gave legitimacy to and led the anti-democratic offensive.

The radicalizing reality of recent months has given the government no shortage of opportunities to establish a clear distance – if in fact there is any – between its policies and extremist, racist, anti-democratic positions. For example, it could have objected to the recent wave of racism in the city of Safed, denounced the ideology of transfer, and distanced itself from those leading campaigns of extremist incitement. Unfortunately, in all these instances the best we have heard from the government has been silence – i.e. tacit approval – while in other instances, government officials and NGO anti-democratic forces were clearly pushing towards the very same vision.

So yes, it can happen here. The threat to democracy can, in fact, cross a threshold of no return. As Edmund Burke said, all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing – for us to be silent, to feel overwhelmed or to acquiesce, to be apathetic or pessimistic.

And that is exactly the opposite of what has happened this year. In 2010, the attack on democracy has shifted gears, but so have we. Israeli citizens have proved that we are awake and vigilant, aware of what is happening, understand the gravity of the situation – and are utterly determined to turn this tide. It was a year of organizing, activism, and standing up for our rights. It was a year of increased protest, demonstrations, and determination that our voices will not be silenced. Many thousands of people have taken upon themselves the struggle for a better future: against the discriminatory “admissions committees”, and against the wave of racism. Thousands are fighting for equal education, housing and health care. We count among us citizens struggling for freedom of speech, people who have been falsely arrested, and their dedicated attorneys; migrant workers and the organizations and activists struggling for their rights and those of their children. People fighting for their rights as workers, and struggling to ensure a dignified existence for their families; those who struggle against the occupation and the separation regime; those who insist on education for human rights and democracy in an educational system that is growing estranged from these values. The activists struggling in al-Araqib, Sheikh Jarrah, and Bil’in; people with disabilities and activists working for their rights; people struggling against the current McCarthyism, fighting to maintain academic freedom and battling against the anti-democratic legislation in the Knesset; and the list goes on and on.

Now, towards the end of 2010, it is clear that in response to the institutional attack on our fundamental democratic values, it is none other than the people themselves who have risen in defense of human rights – and we are doing so in ever-increasing numbers. On December 10, International Human Rights Day, we will again come together in Tel Aviv, to march in Israel’s largest human rights event. Neither indifferent nor afraid, facing yet another difficult year ahead of us, we will turn out in even greater numbers than the thousands who participated in the first Human Rights March a year ago. Looking ahead soberly to the year before us, we aim to show the government that we want a change in direction, to demonstrate that the pro-democracy public will staunchly defend our values even against a radicalized government, to make this statement together as a diverse community, and to show that even when we are under attack, we will never stop being optimistic.

On Friday, December 10 we will be vigilant, numerous and optimistic together: for that one single day – and for the many difficult struggles that still lay ahead.

The writer is the executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI)

Translated by Sol Salbe of the Middle East News Service. Click here to read the Hebrew original.

Fourteen hours of labor

Israeli framers have declared that they will cease delivering their produce to the markets until there is an increase in the number of migrant workers available to them. That protest touches every newspaper reader in an immediate and a direct way. But nevertheless the protest has been shoved down to a lowly place in the papers’ priority lists. They prefer to keep on digging up the sexual harassment case at the top echelon of the police and dealing with other not-so-ground-shaking items.

Not that nothing has been written. “’Tomato strike” is the somewhat idiotic headline on the cover of Yediot Aharonot.” The double-page spread on the subject focuses on the direct and immediate impact on consumers (will there or won’t there be any vegetables in the markets). The coverage in Ma’ariv is identical; the same box in the same location on the cover and the same degree of idiocy in the headline with market is in shock (a great alliteration in Hebrew). The report focuses on the short-term effects and not the protest or its causes.

Yisrael Hayom carries a laconic report, quoting the farmers’ arguments and those of the Treasury. The reporter carries the by line of three reporters, while a single secretary, not even proficient in Hebrew, would have been enough to produce it.

Haaretz is the only newspaper that offers  a mature perspective of events. The headline deals with the strike, but the report itself, by Haim Biur and Eli Ashkenazi, highlights to the reader the reasons why there may be, or may not be, any tomatoes on his table. There is a juxtaposed report explaining more by Dana Weiler-Polak. According to her report “starting from 2011 the employment of asylum seekers will be deemed equivalent of employing an illegal worker.” In an analysis column Biur asks, “Why should we not require the farmers to employ African workers who are in Israel, instead of bringing workers from Thailand?”

But the clearest analysis was provides by Globes’ Shai Niv.  He points out that the government has adopted the recommendations of the committee that provided for a gradual reduction of the number of foreign workers in agriculture to only 7,000 by 2015. “However, farmers’ organisations, thanks to an extraordinarily broad lobby in the Knesset that includes MKs from Meretz to the National Union, have managed to thwart the implementation of the recommendation. Instead they concluded a far more conducive agreement with the Departments of Agriculture and the Treasury: Rather than 7000 employees, the number will be capped at 18 thousand.” But now the farmers went to raise the quota to 26 thousand.

“You would expect someone in the government to look the farmers in the eye and tell them agreements must be respected,” writes Niv. He sarcastically quotes the Welfare Minister’s call for farmers’ demands to be acceded to, as the strike “will cause damage to the minimum nutritional security of children, the elderly and families in distress”. Even those 7,000 employees, whom the Eckstein Committee recommended should stay, were to be restricted to remote locations. “On the other hand, in the North of the country or in the central and Sharon districts, there are enough Arab women labourers ready to work,” writes Niv. “If you require proof, an organisation called Maan has lists of thousands of experienced Arab women workers desperately seeking work”.

“So where’s the problem? Farmers, or those who own the fields (many in the industry have long ago ceased working the land themselves), expect their employees to work 12-14 a day for the minimum wage they pay. Further, they want their employees to sleep close to the fields. Heaven forbid they should go home. ‘The Arab labourers want to go home after 8-9 hours of work’, the farmers tell us. Really, what nerve on the part of the Arabs.  But we are fortunate to have Thai labourers, lucky to have Isaac Herzog as Minster for Welfare to give farmers an easy life. ”

“Treasury contends that the farmers ought to increase wages and employ Israeli workers,” reads the report in The Marker.” Now, there’s an idea.