Jewish-Arab Solidarity conference organized by @omdimbeyachad, Haifa
@GhadirHani speaking right now
@GhadirHani Also will be speaking: @elad_harel, @sally_abed, @AlonLeeGreen and @AyOdeh
@GhadirHani @elad_harel @sally_abed @AlonLeeGreen @AyOdeh The Emir of the Ahmadi community in Haifa, Muhammad Sharif Odeh is also speaking. The event is hosted in the Ahmadi center, since the Haifa municipality forced Beit Hagefen to cancel it, following right wing pressure.
@elad_harel: "More weapons in our streets will not bring us security, security in haifa means Jewish-Arab cooperation"
@AyOdeh: "100 years ago today Jabotinsky wrote the Iron Wall. You can argue about ideology, but please let's agree about reality. It's been one year, five years, ten years. Where is the iron wall? Peace is the iron wall!"
@sally_abed: "We all need to unite against evil, the evil committed by Hamas on that damned day, the evil happening here, and the evil happening in Gaza right now"
@AlonLeeGreen: "while there is a war happening in Gaza, in which any harm to innocents should be condemned, there is also a war happening here, a war on our society, whether it'll be a human one or one based on hatred, we will win that war."
Standing together, with no despair and no fear
In good leftist fashion, the event ended with conversation circles.
From what I'm hearing, 700 people attended the event, making this the largest non-protest event organized by @omdimbeyachad since its founding.
Earlier this week similar conferences took place in Tel Aviv and in Abu Gosh, in which 300 people and 150 people participated respectively. Another conference is scheduled on Monday in Baqa al-Gharbiyye.
Omdim Beyachad has organized Jewish-Arab Solidarity guards in 14 different cities and regions throughout the country, as well as in 11 different campuses. You can read about some of what they've been doing here.
אחר צהריים בעין אל חילווה, מתנחלים ממאחז סמוך מונעים מפלסטינים לחרוש את אדמתם. המתנחל התקשר לצבא ולמשטרה וטען שהם חורשים בשטח אש (שקר) וחסם את הטרקטור.
משם הם המשיכו לאזור אחר בקהילה שם הקימו ספסל בצמוד למגורים עם חבורה של מתנחלים נוספים. התושבים אמרו שהם אמרו להם שזה "עונש על זה שחרשתם"
כשהגענו היו שם גם החיילים שהמנתחל התקשר אליהם. כשהתחלתי לצלם החייל לקח לי את הטלפון ואמר שאני מועכבת עד שאני מוחקת את הסרטונים. הסברנו לו שזה לא חוקי והוא אמר ש"לא מעניין אותו החוק" ושהם מ"יחידה מיוחדת" ואני "מסכנת את חייהם." בסרטון רואים אותו מסתחבק עם המתנחלים שפלשו לקהילה.
Bibi was able to bring himself to fire Galant because he completely secured his legitimacy and status both domestically and abroad. If the murder of the 6 hostages was his low point, he is now at the peak of his influence, and he can fully thank Biden's rubber stamp policy. 1/9
The US let the hostages (among them american citizens) die by refusing to put any sort of pressure on Netanyahu, even when Gantz stopped being a fig leaf in the cabinet and Netanyahu was left with his extremists. 2/9
Following the murder of the 6, the general strike was put down, and motivations for protest supressed through the leaked documents to JC and Bild. Just when the opposition finally caught on that the only path forward was advocating to end the war, the Lebanon campaign began. 3/9
There were not one but TWO major anti war protests this week. Yesterday the "peace partnership" coalition of 40+ left wing Jewish and Palestinian groups protested in Haifa. Thread on how it went:🧵
The protest outlaid 5 demands:
- Immediate ceasefire
- An all-for-all prisoner and hostage deal
- A political solution to the conflict
- Stopping racist and political persecution
- Domestic equality and uplifting of disadvantaged groups
Speaking is Hadash secretary Amjad Shbita
Hundreds of people showed up despite police trying to cancel the event and forcing it to be held on a Saturday afternoon with no march.
The crowd is chanting here "Refuse! Refuse! Refuse!" As Ishai Menuchin from Yesh Gvul (a refuser group) was speaking.
Tomorrow, on the opening day of the school year, I, along with over 200 other Israeli teenagers will present our letter declaring that we will not serve in the IDF as long as the government continues to enact a dictatorship, within or beyond the green line. 1/5
The board of the school which was supposed to host our event, just announced a cancellation of our plans, due to threats of cutting funding and recognition from the Ministry of Education and pressure from far right groups, who planned to organize a protest against us. 2/5
This was decided against the will of the principal, Ze'ev Degani, who is standing with us, threatening to resign will the event not be held. The board said "they will make sure the event is held at the appropriate time and format", however we weren't offered any alternatives. 3/5