The pictures of starving children coming out of the bombarded Gaza Strip have become too much even for Israeli media to ignore. What was until about a month ago completely hidden from the Israeli public has finally escaped the Hasbara cage and is now looking Israelis dead in the eye — urging more and more of my compatriots to post "I'm an Israeli. I am not my government" on their social media accounts.
This slogan has been used for many years by Israelis to distance themselves from some heinous act done by one or another Netanyahu coalition. The post aims to help us feel absolved from our government's sins against LGBTQ people, against minorities and even Palestinians. After all, the logic goes, if we didn't vote for this government, why are we the ones to blame?
But after witnessing the daily horrors the IDF is committing using my tax money, for the sake of my "protection," for almost two years now, this one seemingly inconsequential sentence signifies just what is wrong with the anti-government protests.
How many left-leaning, secular, liberal Israelis have actively done military service in Gaza and implemented this government's policy in action? How many Israelis, including myself, have politely kept their mouths shut at Friday night dinner as their family members were going into Gaza for another round of fighting, to destroy what little remains there? How many Israelis have voted for parties that, while sitting in the opposition, have not uttered a single word of criticism against the way this "war" is handled?
We are all involved in this, whether we voted for this government or not. Blaming National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and his ilk while we sit idly by is not going to cut it.
So, what should Israelis do?
First, we have to admit what this war is — an attempt by Israel to erase the Palestinians in Gaza off of the region's map, be it by starvation, be it by "voluntary emigration," be it by death. Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu said it as bluntly as one can: "Gaza should be Jewish" adding that "once Gaza is Jewish, the Arabs there will also be better off." What a philanthropist.
It's shocking how hard it is for liberal Zionists to admit this, even though our ministers have said this vocally, proudly, for months. Saying that the war is "bad," or "doesn't serve Israel" includes the subtext that Israel's actions are fine until they're bad for Israelis, until they no longer serve our needs.
Then we must shift the goalposts on our internal discussion and our signs at our protests. Israelis must call to end the war, not because it's bad for Israel, not because our soldiers are dying and not even because it's killing the hostages. We must start talking about the carnage in Gaza as something inertly immoral, regardless of how bad the war is for us. Sixty-thousand dead Palestinians are not just a means for Israelis to save themselves from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Their death is a tragedy we should have prevented. The least we can do is call for this to stop.
Many I've spoken with say they fear that if we as a society begin to speak out against the war crimes currently being committed, we will lose the common ground bringing tens of thousands to the streets, and therefore the Israeli majority. But this majority is meaningless if we continue to beat around the bush.
If we don't call to end the war, if we don't resist this genocide, this "crime of crimes" perpetrated against our own 80 plus years ago, then not only are we tied to this regime, we're also bystanders, ineffective in stopping it. Until then, we remain, and rightfully so, very much "our government."
On Saturday night, a group of activists rushed the stage during a live broadcast of Israel's "Big Brother" reality TV show to protest against the Gaza war. They wore shirts reading "Leaving Gaza," a call to withdraw the IDF from the Strip.
As Netanyahu and his far-right friends unveil their plans to resettle Gaza, and once again displace millions of already-displaced Palestinians, we must elevate and escalate our resistance. Disrupting Israeli entertainment is great, but we must escalate to disrupt daily life, our government's ability to function, until this massacre ends.
But escalation is not enough. "The war in Gaza must end! The war is killing all of us!" one of the activists shouted once they stormed the set. I commend the activist for this effort, as it certainly was a step up from previous acts of protest in Israel. But attempting to speak to Israeli "logic," that the war doesn't bring security to us either, has run its course. When resisting Israel's offensive, we need to remember that while the war is killing us all, it's killing one side a whole lot more.
Otherwise, the Israeli government, who claim to speak for us all, will still be able to say that everything they're doing is for the hostages. And if not the hostages, then for Israel's security. All Israelis must acknowledge that saving Israeli democracy, whatever that may be, has to wait. If we want to distance ourselves from this criminal government, we have to start calling out its war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, just like the rest of the world.
Israel is an apartheid state with a separate judiciary system for Palestinians and many concentration camps.
You would NOT expect the same for any religion because NO religion does this at all. This is NOT a religious problem and maga concentration camps are NOT being built because of christian teachings.
This is fascism: zionism, maga, european right wing parties are all fascists. The whole west is getting more explicitly fascist because the capitalist system is under threat.