Israelis, Palestinians join hands for social justice

This video says about itself: Israel’s biggest protest in decades overlooked worldwide.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Justice groups call for unity

Friday 09 September 2011

by Tom Mellen

Israeli and Palestinian organisations have issued a joint appeal for principled unity in the struggle for social justice and national self-determination.

The clarion call came in a statement released on Thursday by 18 progressive political parties and groups ranging from the Communist Party of Israel and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine to the Democratic Women’s Movement in Israel and the Union of Palestinian Working Women.

It hailed the unprecedented upsurge of popular protest activity in Israel this summer which has seen millions of Israeli citizens, both Arab and Jewish, take to the streets in towns across Israel to condemn the hawkish Netanyahu government’s failure to tackle rising social inequality as exemplified by soaring rents.

The Palestinian and Israeli groups hailed the umbrella J14 social protest movement for mobilising people around bread-and-butter demands for affordable housing and improved state health care.

But they warned that progressive advance within Israel will remain elusive until Tel Aviv complies with international law and ends the occupation of Palestine.

“One of the primary reasons for the social and economic distress of citizens in Israel in addition to the capitalist economic policies is the continuation of the occupation and excessive security budgets,” the alliance said.

The signatories called upon the J14 social protest movement in Israel to connect its struggle with the one against the illegal settlements and the occupation in order to prevent the Netanyahu administration from attempting to sideline the struggle in the face of “outside security threats” such as the upcoming vote on recognition of Palestinian statehood at the UN on September 20.

The organisations called for the broadest possible unity in the battle to “liberate the peoples of the Middle East from colonialism and hegemony, particularly that of zionism, halting the occupation and Israeli military aggression and supporting the just struggle of the Palestinian people for fulfilment of its right for self-determination.”

They explicitly recognised the right of Palestinian people living under Israeli occupation to make use of “all the legitimate forms of resistance in accordance with international norms for removing of the occupiers from its land and for self- determination.”

Signatories include the Tarabut-Hithabrut Arab-Jewish Movement for Social and Political Change, the Democratic Teachers Union, the National Campaign for Return of the Bodies of Arab and Palestinian Martyrs Captured by the Israeli Government and the Palestinian People’s Party.

See also here. And here.

As a delegate to the Israeli Communist Party (Maki) 2012 congress I was able to find out about its role in Israel’s growing social protest movement: here.

“In Israel Today, Everyone’s Just Fed Up”: here.

American Friends of Peace Now – The director of Peace Now`s Settlements Watch project was awakened by neighbors who told her that the door to her apartment, as well as the apartment building`s walkway, have been vandalized. Black graffiti sprayed on the door and the walkway read: “Revenge,” “Death,” “Peace Now – the End is Near,” and “Price Tag”: here.