[News] Pro-Palestinian Israelis face threats, but vow to keep fighting for peace

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 Pro-Palestinian Israelis face threats, but vow to keep fighting for peace

*Activists in Israel say that as right-wing, pro-war voices dominate the
social discourse, their work has never felt more important.*
[image: People hold placards as left wing supporters call for a ceasefire
to allow negotiations following the escalation of the Israel-Hamas
conflict, during a rally in Tel Aviv, Israel]
Video Duration 01 minutes 16 seconds 01:16

By Alasdair Soussi
<https://www.aljazeera.com/author/alasdair_soussi_201371411236892468>
Published On 2 Nov 2023
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/2/pro-palestinian-israelis-face-threats-but-vow-to-keep-fighting-for-peace
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On Monday, a peace activist from Be’er Sheva, in southern Israel, learned
that his friend, Khalil Abu Yahia, a resident of the war-torn Gaza Strip,
had been killed in an Israeli air strike.

“He was one of the organisers of the Great March of Return,” said
Yossef Mekyton, visibly shaken and emotional when referring to the March
2018 to December 2019 pro-Palestinian protests held along the Israel-Gaza
border.

“And he was killed with his whole family.”

Mekyton, an Israeli citizen, has long supported the rights of the
Palestinians.

But since the events of October 7 – when Hamas fighters breached the Gaza
border with Israel, killing some 1,400 Israelis, prompting an unprecedented
scale of bombardment on the Palestinian enclave – Mekyton says that many
Israeli-based activists live in a climate of “fear”.

“I think one of the most effective ways to commit suicide these days in
Israel is to go out on the street with a Palestinian flag,” the graphic
designer told Al Jazeera.

While the treatment of activists felt threatening before October 7, it is
“much more threatening” now, he said.
[image: Yossef]Yossef Mekyton, pictured on the left, raises a Palestinian
flag in Israel with fellow activists during a solidarity demonstration
supporting the Great March of Return [Courtesy: Yossef Mekyton]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to destroy Hamas –
which has controlled the impoverished Gaza Strip since 2007 – following the
group’s incursion and kidnapping spree.

But Israel’s relentless shelling of Gaza has killed 8,500 Palestinian
civilians, including more than 3,500 children.

Israeli troops claim that among the dead are several Hamas commanders. The
Palestinian group has not yet announced any deaths of its fighters.

On Wednesday, as fighting raged, the Israeli military struck the Jabalia
refugee camp in northern Gaza, a day after it first bombed the site,
killing dozens of Palestinians.

Fear and panic have gripped most sections of Israeli society following the
Hamas attacks, making the activities of Israel’s activist population more
conspicuous than ever.

“I am facing harassment by individuals on social media,” said Israeli Ofer
Neiman, a pro-Palestinian resident of Jerusalem and supporter of the
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which is committed to
putting political and economic pressure on Israel to end its occupation of
the Palestinian West Bank and blockade of the Gaza Strip.

“Will it get worse? Yes, perhaps – it is concerning.”

On October 28, dozens of Israelis attended an anti-war protest in Tel Aviv
– widely regarded as a liberal city.

“In terms of going out to demonstrate, I would feel reasonably safe in the
Tel Aviv demonstration. But in other places, such as in Jerusalem where I
live, I would not feel safe,” said Neiman.
Right-wing voices ‘dominate’ discourse

Last month, Israeli Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai warned
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/19/israel-police-boss-threatens-to-send-anti-war-protesters-to-gaza-on-buses>
there would be “zero tolerance” for domestic rallies supporting Gaza.

But there are signs of a crackdown that go beyond protests.

Israeli Jewish sociolinguist Uri Horesh recently announced that he had been
suspended from his lecturing role at Israel’s Achva Academic College,
citing his opposition to the attacks on Gaza as the reason for his
dismissal.

Israel Frey, an ultra-Orthodox Israeli journalist, was forced into hiding
after expressing support for the people of Gaza – which he said made him
the target of far-right activists.

And it was reported that an Israeli citizen had been arrested on account of
a publicly displayed sign.

“There is no sanctity in an occupied city,” read the sign, which had
reportedly been hung from the window of his Jerusalem home for years.

“The [dominant] voices that we are hearing [in Israel] are either
right-wing voices for genocide or mainstream voices for war, maybe not
always with the genocidal language, but still in favour of bombing Gaza,”
said Neiman of the prevailing mood in Israel.

Neta Golan, an Israeli pro-Palestinian activist and an active member of
Israelis Against Apartheid, said the Hamas attack on southern Israel –
while painful – has not dampened her spirit.

“But that doesn’t mean that we don’t feel for those [Israelis] who were
affected or for the families of the hostages,” said the seasoned campaigner
in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.

Golan says she had “been arrested more times than I can count” by Israeli
authorities for her activism in the past.

Her group sent a letter to Karim Khan, prosecutor of the International
Criminal Court, on Wednesday requesting “accelerated action against the
escalating Israeli war crimes”.

“We really hope that all civilians everywhere return to their homes,
whether it’s the Israelis returning to their families or Palestinians
returning to their homeland from which they were expelled [when Israel was
established] in 1948,” she said.

Tali Shapiro, another Israeli activist based in the occupied West Bank – in
Ramallah – also says she did not question her long-held pro-Palestinian
convictions following the events of October 7.

“What it did cause me to do, was to call my parents in the south [of
Israel] to make sure they were okay,” Shapiro told Al Jazeera. “And to open
up my account [on X] to look for my Gazan friends because obviously [we
knew where] this was going.”

For Mekyton, the conflict has strengthened his commitment to keep
campaigning for Palestinian rights.

“But it also [makes me feel] weakened,” he said. “I feel so powerless right
now – but I feel like I want to do something. I hope this contradiction
will resolve itself somehow.”
Source: Al Jazeera
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