The J14 movement is political, theological and ideological

By Louis Frankenthaler

The J14 movement is political, theological and ideological
Painting in Jerusalem that says "The People Awaken" (photo: Louis Frankenthaler)

Just in case it hasn’t been clarified, the J 14 protest movement is political. Moreover, the issue itself is ideological, and the establishment faith in extremist capitalism is theological.

Marching in Jerusalem with 30,000 angry citizens is political. It is a political statement that targets a political and ideological theology that prefers capitalism over social welfare. That there is a reticence or even an unwritten taboo to talk about the Occupation does not make this non-political. This too will change, and when it does, through a massive process of conscientization, the connection will be made between the Occupation, the settlement tycoons and the long-term deification of some messianic, fascist leaning utopian vision of what Israel, as a state, nation and people is supposed to be.

The Occupation is not the one and only cause of the abject degradation of the social-democratic potential that once existed in this political space called the State of Israel. Side by side with the Occupation lie additional pockets of privilege in which some benefit and the majority pay for it. Education, public transportation, access for disabled people, health care, and the wide range of social issues, currently the main subject in Israel now, are all areas where privilege is hegemonic, where further oppression is fomented and camouflaged and where social democracy is eviscerated.

The Occupation together with social oppression essentially leaves Israel in a state of social disarray with little resemblance to proper social democracy. In this sense the Occupation can be viewed, as more than a simple warning sign of a deeper political pathology. Rather, it is important to realize that the Occupation and extremist capitalism are two symptoms of a serious political condition and that the J14 movement may just be the vehicle to rouse a deeper, more nuanced national discussion on privilege and oppression that will eventually place the Occupation on the same shelf as cost of living/socio-economic inequality.

Yes, one may argue that the people are awakening; they are rubbing their eyes and searching for that strong cup of early morning coffee that may just help them put one foot in front of the other as they march in ever growing assemblies of the angry masses. The awakening is a slow one, not a sudden sit-up-in-bed, shut the alarm and jump into your shoes and run sort of awakening. And that is OK. It is a realization that one growing march after another over consecutive weeks will not draw out change sought and needed.

The protesters know that Netanyahu and his other priests of political-socio-economic scientology will try to keep the people chained with their doctrines of fear and false messianisms. The regime will try to buy people off, offer change to one group at the expense of another while stroking the ego of yet another group. Their ultimate weapon is discourse. They are happy to maintain some sort of false ideological purity and sanctimoniously charge some tent protesters with the crime of being political as if political is evil and they themselves are innocent of political maliciousness.

The reality is that political is not a crime, nor is it a curse. The demand for social justice is political, no less so than Netanyahu’s imposition of capitalist fundamentalism married to messianic nationalism that has produced, in a gross distortion of the Biblical injunction to go forth and multiply, both the Occupation and the colonization of the welfare state.

It is important, if not critical, to cultivate the process of conscientization, to talk about the Occupation and the way it has drained blood from the society. After all, both the Occupation and the current social system are repressive and one cannot shake off only one repression and leave the other in force. Once they figure this out at NGO Monitor or Im Tirtzu, the social justice movement will find themselves under attack as well. After all, the champions of ideological capitalism in the government are the Guardians of the Occupation. If they fall, what will become of their settlement beneficiaries?

Louis Frankenthaler moved to Israel in the 90s and lives, with his family, in West Jerusalem. He is a doctoral student, doing research on young men and their departure from Haredi Judaism, and a human rights worker. His political writings have appeared in Zeek, +972 Magazine, Mondoweiss the Electronic Intifada and in Ha’aretz.