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Where are the Palestinian Voices in tomorrow's Israeli
Elections?
By mickielynn on 2019-04-08 21:20:46
The leader of Gaza's Hamas
group,Ismail Haniyeh; said on Friday that Israeli elections do not matter to Palestinians. Ismail Haniyeh said after Friday
prayers that Israel's April 9 vote was merely "a Zionist affair." Getty images.[/caption] As many readers may know,
Parliamentary elections will take place in Israel tomorrow [Actually since New York is 7 hours behind Israel, it was already
Tuesday, April 9th at 4:30 am when I finished this article]. Since it's a parliamentary system the election results will result
in a coalition government unless one party wins a huge majority, which doesn't appear to be likely. Under the Prime
Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud Party, the country's political system has been moving steadily to the right. In
fact even supporters of Israel in the US have criticized his tactic of joining forces with an extremely violent, anti-Palestinian
party the Jewish Power Party,to try and broker a winning coalition. in another move to attract nationalist and right wing
votes, just last week Netanyahu promised that if he were re-elected he would annex the Israeli settlements in the West Bank,
ending any chance of a separate Palestinian State. [caption id="attachment_12348" align="alignnone" width="600"]
divider
Netanyahu uses the threat of
"Arab power" within Israel to divide the population and win elections. Photo Ronen Zvulun/ Reuters[/caption] In response
to these threats, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki responded to that pledge, while attending a World Economic
Forum in Jordan on Sunday: "Jf Netanyahu wants to declare Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, then you know he has to
face a real problem, the presence of 4.5 million Palestinians, what to do with them," To return to the major rival party to
Likud, it's the "centrist" Blue and White party led by former armed forces chief Benny Gantz. But there are really no good
choices for Palestinian rights since both of these parties regard Palestinians as enemies to be killed or contained. And this is
also true of the New Right party made up of current cabinet ministers of the Likud Party. There are also some small left
wing parties and an Arab party that Likud wanted to keep from running by branding them "terrorists." [caption
id="attachment_12344" align="alignnone" width="600"]
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campaign billboards showing Israeli Prime Minister and head of the Likud party Benjamin Netanyahu (left) alongside the
Blue and White party leaders, including Benny Gantz. Ahead of Tuesday's election, Netanyahu has pledged to annex Israeli
settlements in the occupied West Bank. Photo by Oded Balilty/AP[/caption] [caption id="attachment_12343"
align="alignnone" width="600"]
all
Former Israeli army chief of
staff Benny Gantz dances with ultra-Orthodox Jewish men at the Western Wall, in Jerusalem's Old City, on March 28. Gantz
is running in opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo Sebastian Scheiner/AP[/caption] From the point of
view of those who decry the racism and cruelty of right wing, nationalist (for Jews only)Israeli leadership it's not surprising
that Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump are fast friends and mutual supporters and enablers. Both of them admire
dictators, like Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and including the surprising alliance between Bibi and Saudi Arabian
Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman. [caption id="attachment_12341" align="alignnone" width="600"]
Trump denies trying to help
Netanyahu reelection with Golan Heights decision. Getty Images, The Hill[/caption] Although the United States has
unconditionally given billions of dollars in military aid to Israel along with diplomatic cover and veto support for half a
century, Donald Trump has broken with US diplomatic tradition of at least pretending that a peace process is possible.
During the first two years of his presidency he has moved the US embassy to East Jerusalem, where the Palestinians hoped
to have the capitol of their state. And in 2019 he has unilaterally declared that the Golan Heights in Syria should belong to
Israel. Prime Minister, Netanyahu has taken credit for these policy declarations and made the most of his status as a favored
state leader in the eyes of the US president. [caption id="attachment_ 12340" align="alignnone" width="600"]
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fie Middle East Monitor, An
election billboard by Benjamin Netanyahu’ s Likud party, showing a handshake with US' Donald Trump, with the Hebrew
caption: "Netanyahu. In another league", seen in Tel Aviv, Israel on February 03, 2019 bharianmy / Twitter[/caption] To
summarize two of the more detailed reports from mainstream media about the Israeli details of the electoral situation here
upcoming elections But neither of these articles really expresses the violence and abuse that is the life of Palestinians i in the
occupied territories or the exclusion and racism against the 2 million Palestinians who live and vote in Israel. They also
don't mention the 263 Palestinians who have been killed by Israeli fire since the Great Return March protests began just a
year ago. As well as the thousands of others who have been deliberately maimed by sniper fire. So to give space to a few
voices speaking for Palestinians I'd first like to feature the article about what The leader of Gaza's Hamas group,Ismail
Hantyeh; said on Friday. When he spoke of Palestinians he was speaking of those who live in the occupied territories, who
can't vote and don't think that the choices in this election can change their lives for the better. Then I'd like to feature two
articles that do share Palestinian voices and very passionate ones at that. The first is written by Miko Peled who is an Israeli
author, and human rights activist born in Jerusalem. His father was an Israeli General but he has become a peacemaker. In
this article he shares the passionate voice of Ahmed Abu-Artema, the 33 year old poet, journalist, and activist who inspired
the March of Return that began on March 30, 2018, and has become a weekly occurrence in the Gaza Strip for more than a
year.
The March of Return is a scream for life so that we may leave the walls of our prison. Why would we die here
in silence? We want our message to reach the world. We want to say to the world ‘here there is a people. A
people searching for a life of dignity, human rights and freedom."
Then Miko Peled goes on to describe the lives of Palestinians under occupation in precise and stark terms. [caption
id="attachment_12347" align="alignnone" width="600"]
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Miko Peled with Ahmed Abu-
Artema in Washington, D.C. Photo by Jehad Abu-Saleem[/caption] And the second is an interview with Ahmed Abu-Artema
that is powerful and extremely moving. Since English is not his first language you need to listen carefully. If you want to
you can also use the closed captions to read along with his interview. Here's the video.
Embedded iframe at
https://web.archive.org/web/20210000000000/https://www.democracynow.org/embed/story/2019/4/1/our_will of life_is_stron:
Additional note: You may be wondering where the voices of Palestinian women negotiating peace might be. Unfortunately
their participation at the highest levels of negotiation has been diminishing since the 1990's but they do participate in several
Israeli/Palestinian groups such as Women Wage Peace. Just recently this group set up a tent encampment in Tel Aviv where
they will remain until the day after the 2019 elections.
The grass roots group Women Wage Peace has called on all political parties to commit to resolving the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict. On Friday, [March 8, 2019] the group set up a Mothers’ Tent in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv,
where the group plans to sit until the day after the April 9 elections. It also held a march and rally to mark
International Womens Day. The group has not put forward a specific plan, but has spoken generally of a non-
violent resolution that is mutually acceptable to both Israelis and Palestinians. It has also asked that women be
included in the peace making process as mandated by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325.
[caption id="attachment_12377" align="alignnone" width="600"]
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Elections 2019, Mothers tent at Rabin Square — Media coverage
Posted March 26, 2019 by women wage peace[/caption]
