As the date of Israel’s second annual Human Rights March approaches (Friday, 10 December), the writer, who is the executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), lists the many blows Israel’s democratic society has suffered over the past year – and explains why he remains hopeful.
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)
Cross-posted from the Project Democracy blog.