Jews and Arabs running together, the response to 7 October
Yonatan Ziegen, the son of pacifist Vivian Silver, killed in the Hamas attack on 7 October, talks about his decision to run for the Knesset with Makom Lekulanu in Israel's fall elections. Born from the experience of Standing Together, it intends to fight war and fear with a proposal inspired by hope, and serve as a "political home" to build a “new leadership”.
Milan (AsiaNews) – Yonatan Zeigen, son of Israeli-Canadian peace activist Vivian Silver, one of the more than 1,200 victims of the 7 October 2023 attack that triggered the war in the Gaza, bringing further death and violence, spoke to AsiaNews about the creation of “Makom Lekulanu” (A Place for Us All).
“The most important and new thing about this party is the fact that it's a complete partnership,” he explained. “It's not a Jewish party with an Arab representative, or an Arab party with a Jewish representative. It's an Arab-Jewish party.”
Recently unveiled ahead of parliamentary elections on 27 October, the newly formed party is the product of the activist experience of the Arab-Jewish peace movement Standing Together. Led by Alon-Lee Green and Rula Daood, its goal is to bring to the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, a political, social, and institutional proposal that is based on hope, not fear.
“It also unifies causes,” that is, to bring to “end the occupation and resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” said Zeigen, but also “radically change Israeli society,” which has been marked by permanent conflict.
The two are not “separate issues. We need radical reform in our policing, in our allocation of resources, education system. This is a party that is based on equality: national equality, gender equality, and social justice.”
A political home
For the Israeli pacifist, who experienced first-hand the tragedy of 7 October with the Hamas massacre that triggered the bloody war in Gaza with its tens of thousands of victims, this is “the first time that I was excited about a political party”.
“It was the first time that I felt like I could have a political home. I always voted in the Israeli elections, but never with conviction. And this time I saw the possibility of a party that is committed to a Jewish-Arab partnership and equality, both cross-border and in Israeli society, I think that it really moved me to join.”
For Zeigen, this political commitment follows years of social activism, a wealth of experience and dedication that seeks to offer a broader vision, going beyond the tragedy caused by the movement that controls Gaza.
“When my mother was killed on 7 October, it sparked a very strong sense of responsibility in me to be engaged in change. I believe that her death, and everybody else's, were and are preventable. But it's not preventable with military action, with guns. It's not preventable by reallocating where the soldiers are. It is only preventable by ending the occupation and solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
As the name suggests, Makom Lekulanu, A Place for Us All, offers "a different political vision from the majority” and is “completely different from this government”, from what Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the far-right ministers stand for.
“In my personal experience, what happened to me after 7 October is that I quit my job and I became an activist. I became dedicated to reconciliation, to co-resistance, to peace.”
Becoming an active member of this party represents “direct continuation of this activism,” which must “come both from the grassroots, from the streets, but also from the political sphere. We need different policies that trickle down from our government in order for us to be able to implement change.”
A new leadership
Conceiving and proposing a different vision not only to society but also within institutions is a recurring idea that the Israeli activist and pacifist expressed in an interview with AsiaNews last January.
Today's change must come from above and can transform the very nature of a country that is currently steeped in hatred, violence, and a constant war that involves multiple fronts, from Iran and Lebanon to Gaza and the West Bank.
“This is the change you want to bring from the top. I want Israel to have a constitutional law of peace. That means that any other law is interpreted through this constitutional law.”
This project was born from the desire to promote ideas and values, without considering alliances with other parties, factions, or groups, including Hadash, which may share common guiding principles.
“In Israel, the system is one of coalition government. Right? Of course, we want to collaborate with any party that can be aligned in our values. The Arab parties, of course, we would be happy to collaborate with them. But in order to do that, you have to present yourself. You can't just come as a person and say, listen, I have ideas. You have to create your own political power and presence and then collaborate as equals.”
On the matter of values and equality, a new report recently published by the Zulat Institute for Equality and Human Rights accuses Israel’s current government and its institutions of exploiting the Hamas massacre to suppress free speech in the Arab-Israeli community.
“Israel is a country that is crumbling. There is no real parliament. There is no state in the sense that a state should be of service to its citizens. There is a criminal organisation running the state. Which is the government.”
The current cabinet, its radical members such as the National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich “are busy with burning this land and the countries around us in order to create more and more enemies”.
In fact, “the only thing that they really care about is Jewish supremacy. And you can't build a state on this singular value. It's not only immoral, but you can't maintain a state like that.”
Lebanon and Gaza
Israel has long been a country at war within its own borders, with systematic violence by Jewish settlers in the West Bank, as well as abroad, starting with Lebanon, which is now considered the conflict's hotspot.
“You see the absurdity. You have a prime minister in Lebanon who is reaching out to Israel and publicly talking about agreements and peace and he's being ignored.”
“Instead, to whom and how does Israel talk? It knows how to talk to militant organisations. That is the only language that Israel knows how to use, the language of militarism and force. The absurdity is that we talk with Hezbollah and we don't talk with people who seek collaboration.”
“It's the same with Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority, already in 1988, was talking about recognising Israel, talking about the ability to collaborate. They are collaborating on the ground militarily, but the only one we talk to is Hamas, and the language we use with them is the language of weapons, death, destruction, and annihilation.”
“It’s the same in Lebanon with Hezbollah. There are means to reduce societal and political power of militant organisations when you elevate the power of diplomacy. Politics. We need politics.”
Finally, Zeigen has a final thought for the Gaza Strip, which the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, visited yesterday unannounced.
“Gaza is dying. After 7 October, for a long time, it was dying very loudly and violently, and now it is dying silently. It's the same kind of tragedy. But at a different volume. It's a silent tragedy that is being consumed. But because we turned our eyes towards different fronts, nobody is hearing about it. Nobody is talking about it.”
While silence prevails, the tragedy “is happening all the same,” Zeigen stressed. “But I speak to people in Gaza. They are now suffering. They are now hungry. And they are still being bombarded and killed every day.”
Gaza is an issue that must be addressed. “Our party, as I said, thinks about Israel, Israel and Palestine, Israel and the neighbouring countries. [. . .] We have to end the oppression of the Palestinian people. We have to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians. And then we have to assimilate into the region.”
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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