Israeli's stopping the Aid Truck obstruction

[HelenHen]

These guys are absolute heroes, to put themselves in harms way like that.

www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/31/solidarity-over-hatred-the-small-band-of-israelis-stopping-settlers-obstructing-aid-trucks

Fair play to them. I hope their numbers grow and people start to arrest those that are obstructing aid getting to starving, injured dying people. Of all the things that have happened I find these settlers vile and evil. How anyone can do this to vulnerable starving people is beyond me.

The settlers had received detailed information about the timing, location, and number of trucks that would pass through the checkpoint that morning.

This struck out at me. These activities are obviously being supported and encouraged.

I really like this quote from Alon-Lee Green, the national co-director of the Jewish-Arab peace coalition Standing Together:

"... it’s also a battle over the soul of our society, over the question of whether we can remain human in the face of fear, in the face of trauma; whether we can make sure that we choose life over death, or we choose solidarity over hatred and starvation.”

Imagine going out of your way to stop food getting to starving people. There is no justifying that.

Fair play to them. Ní neart go cur le chéile (there is no strength without unity)

I guess if the Israeli officials won't stop them, somebody has to.

Brings hope that there are some Israelis doing the right thing. Blocking aid going into a humanitarian disaster zone whilst being told by the UN there are people starving in there is just one of the most fucked up things I have ever heard

Just to point out the absurdity: the BDS movement denounces "Standing Together", the group running the "humanitarian guard" protecting the aid trucks as "normalisers" and "whitewashers":

https://bdsmovement.net/standing-together-normalization

Other things that Standing Together does: protesting regularly for a ceasefire already for months; running various campaigns to stop the radical right from targeting Palestinian students and lecturers on Israeli campuses; attempting to send a truck of food aid from Israelis to Gaza; demonstrating everywhere for equal rights for all citizens in Israel.

Why am I pointing this out? Because there isn't just one pro-ceasefire, pro-Palestinian narrative (listen to the excellent Palestinian podcast "Unapologetic" for the "third narrative"). And this isn't some weird one-off. The BDS movement consistently targets and delegitimises any left-wing Israelis who fall short of denouncing the entire Israeli state as collaborators and moving overseas. Often the more active an organization is, like Standing together, the more they are targeted.

So to answer the pp who wrote "Brings hope that there are some Israelis doing the right thing" - Israel has an active left and many of us have been out on the streets for years. We were wearing anti-occupation slogans in last year's democracy protests, we have been calling for a ceasefire for months, and we are involved in a million and one smaller local issues. Of course it's never enough - no individual can ever do enough. But it doesn't help that many Western people who sympathise with Palestine inadvertently strengthen a maximalist, rejectionist rhetoric which has done nothing to advance the Palestinian cause, rather it just makes people feel good to shout black and white "dismantle Israel" slogans rather than looking at how to actually deal with the mess we are in in order to shape a better future for everyone between the river and the sea.

To be honest @israelilefty I knew there was a minority left wing in Israel but have to admit I'm kind of surprised to hear what you're saying and had no idea it's a lot more widespread than I thought.

The pro-Israeli voices on mumsnet don't particularly speak to a left wing anti occupation narrative and obviously what we've been getting fed through our mainstream and social media doesn't cover this too.

But I am interested to find out more - is it a small minority of people? what kid of percentage would you say it is?

The left in Israel is much smaller than it used to be, mainly to do with people being disillusioned with the peace process after two intifadas and endless rounds of violence, and after years and years of rightist incitement.

Recently the left wing party (Meretz-Labour combination) is polling at 10 seats out of 120 in the Knesset, and the majority Arab party Hadash-Taal is polling 5 seats, and the Islamic party Raam (not leftist on social issues but yes anti occupation) is polling 5 seats.

But the definition of left really depends what's on the table. Nobody is out right now demonstrating about the occupation or the two state solution (aside from smaller protests on the left against settler violence) because there is no proposal on the table. On the other hand, the majority of Israelis support a ceasefire deal for the return of the hostages, and the majority of Israelis did not support the judicial coup Netanyahu's government tried to enact in 2023.

In short, the left is not tiny but it's not a majority. It really needs to rebuild, and get out of the stagnation of the last years. It won't be easy. Oct 7 was a huge moment of despair for anyone who thought peace was anywhere near and it will take a lot for most Israelis to have any kind of trust in a Palestinian partner, and I'm sure vice versa. But now is the time for rebuilding and organizations like Standing Together are at the frontline of working for equality and cooperation between Palestinian and Jewish Israelis in civil society, which I believe is an essential part of undoing the racist and rightist incitement that has taken over much of Israeli society in recent years.

Editing to add: not everyone who isn't a leftist is a raging rightist. There is a big centre including plenty of people who support a two state solution in principle, but don't see it on the cards any time soon and generally think that leftists are naive.

It's really helpful and interesting to hear your perspective as a left leaning Israeli- thank you.

Thank you for this, it's really insightful.

I forgot to write in the previous post, for anyone who wants to read a bit more from an Israeli leftist, I have been doing an epic AMA on the Ask Me Anything board, here:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/AMA/4967191-im-a-jewish-israeli-ama

The settler’s activities have always been supported by the state.

This is very encouraging to read. I have to say everything I have read re the Israeli left suggested it had become so hard for them to object/protest that they had almost been made to disappear from view. That must have been quite a sight to see them stood there. I hope their families are proud of them.

I think sometimes in discussions (and I use that lightly) the concept of dismantling the state is “ideal” because other posters are totally in denial of the existence of a functioning society prior to their arrival. Practically dismantling a state is as impractical as creating a state while dismantling the existing status quo.

It's not difficult for the mainstream Israeli left to protest. I was in 3 demonstrations last week, one against the war, one against the government and one for a ceasefire deal and freeing the hostages. In the massive democracy demonstrations of 2023 in every single demonstration I attended there were people with anti-occupation slogans (usually several, even in small local demonstrations) - and at the big demonstrations there was a huge bloc of anti-occupation demonstrators within the more general pro-democracy protests). My t-shirt slogan, from that same bloc, said "Democracy cannot coexist with occupation" in 3 languages. Having said this, freedom of speech has been restricted due to threats and heavy policing by the police, especially since our most far right minister (Ben Gvir) is the police minister. Generally police ban protestors from carrying Palestinian flags or using terms like "genocide" about the war (which most Jewish Israeli demonstrators don't seek to do but some on the far left do and some Palestinian citizens would choose to do), and they also particularly intimidate Palestinian-Israeli protests against the war.

Aside from this, the main thing that makes it difficult at the moment is that there are so many different demonstrations/campaigns that it's difficult for people to find time for them all. Of course people are also involved in political activities that are not demonstrations, and many are focusing on the hostage issue until it is resolved.

Nonetheless @israelilefty thank you.

@israelilefty Thank you

It does sound as if you are part of a small percentage of the population - the non left are as you say not necessarily raging right wingers - but those raging are the voices we unfortunately end up hearing, you only have to look on these threads to see lots of them.

Thanks.

Just started reading and it's on my watch list.

Very interesting, articulate and measured.

Remember though that the pro-Israel voices you hear in English are also generally not Israelis - or if they are, they are often propagandists, or members of Israel's English-speaking immigrant population, which is actually a very small part of Israeli society and in many cases like any immigrants can be quite divorced from mainstream Israeli society and opinion (Of course the same criticism can be levelled against me - though I don't live in one of the main areas of English speakers, and I work in a fully Hebrew-speaking environment and consume primarily Hebrew media so I like to think I'm reasonably in touch). It's a mistake to think that what you hear in English is representative of the conversation in Israel.

This is one of the reasons I recommend the podcast 'Unholy' as one of the co-hosts, Yonit Levy, really is a prime-time Israeli news anchor so at least when you hear her you are hearing someone on the ground. Likewise I will add to the list the amazing podcast 'Unapologetic' by two Palestinian-Israelis, which I think also represents the position of many Jewish-Israeli ideological leftists.

You are making a fair point. As a French citizen who has lived in the UK for the last 36 years, I can relate to been divorced from the mainstream French society and opinion, despite being in touch with family in France.
It's a mistake to think that what you hear in English is representative of the conversation in Israel.
This is reassuring as I have found, at times, their views to be troubling.

BDS seems to criticise Standing Together for denying oppression and apartheid, paying lip service to occupation and ignoring the disparity in power between Palestinians and Israelis. That doesn't seem unreasonable, given their own perspective,

Totally agree on Unholy - it's a brilliant podcast. I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the Israel-Gaza situation. I'll look up the other one too- thanks for the recommendation @israelilefty

I have no issue whatever with constructive disagreements about protest tactics. What I have an issue with is the BDS movement actively seeking to delegitimise and denounce Standing Together by branding it with every possible "traitor" label: "Serving Apartheid Israel's Propaganda"; "intellectually dishonest", seeks to "whitewash" etc etc, while failing to engage with what they actually do.

How does it help the Palestinian cause to delegitimise an organization which is putting people out there on the front lines to stop settler violence and to protect aid convoys? Which is protesting against the witch-hunting of (mainly Palestinian) university lecturers and public figures who are being demonised for attending a Nakba rally, speaking about genocide or eulogising a Palestinian convicted in Israel as a terrorist? Which was afaik the first organization to draw hundreds to protest for a ceasefire on the streets of Tel Aviv? How can they claim that Standing Together is paying lip service to occupation when literally one of the two main aims of the organization is ending the occupation? How can they claim that Standing Together is "based on a master-slave relation rather than justice, reparations and full equality" when literally the other main aim of Standing Together is "democracy, equality, solidarity and justice in society".

In my view it is BDS who are whitewashing here: they are making an arbitrary litmus test based on a dogmatic, exclusionary conception of pro-Palestine activism then declaring that Standing Together fail it, rather than acknowledging the group's actions, or their weight in political terms, being one of the only such voices operating within the mainstream of Israeli society, not on some radical fringe. And I feel passionately about this because I've seen exactly this vindictive litmus testing far too many times.

I encourage anyone wanting an in-depth discussion of these dynamics to listen to the 'Unapologetic' podcast, made by two young Palestinians, which offers a nuanced "third narrative" on the conflict outside the mutual demonisation of "pro-Palestine" and "pro-Israel voices".

Thanks for these explanations. Unfortunately when people see hate and fear all around them, they don't always recognise when someone can be a friend. I suspect everyone has been so beaten down and is so suspicious of each other, that they just struggle to work together. I've seen it in Northern Ireland too... groups mainly working towards a common goal focus on the things that make them different.

Fwiw I appreciate this groups efforts to protect and help their neighbours.

@israelilefty I think it's positive that they want to create a left to balance the surge to the right. I had a look on their website, They are rather vague about what they do, but mention protesting for the climate, social equality, ending the occupation, which are all good causes (and recognisably left wing.) They also mention a desire to avoid being moralistic, or to label communities as 'fascist', or bigoted, that they will not use 'human rights rhetoric', and do not give any strategy for ending the occupation, though they state they would like to. I think they probably do some good things, but I can see why their refusal to discuss human rights, oppression, apartheid and their refusal to morally condemn people who some might call fascists is problematic to BDS which takes a firm moral stance on all those things, and believes in putting pressure on other countries/institutions/corporations to end complicity. Maybe you are right that support from anyone should be welcomed, it doesn't have to be from a group that is fully morally aligned. I try to imagine if I was watching my people being killed every day, evicted, my homeland slowly taken over by another group, whether I would appreciate help from a group who think it's a hatred problem rather than an oppressive situation. I don't know, in the short term possibly I'd just appreciate the help. But in the long term there has to be more honesty than this.