I have received a lot of curses in my lifetime, and here and there some compliments, too. But Ihave never received a compliment like this one: an important party, represented in theKnesset, has mentioned my name in its official election platform.
Under the heading “Legislation and strict supervision of organizations and activists of theextreme left”, the National Union party’s program says:
“We shall anchor in legislation more severe measures, including the cancellation ofcitizenship, against people like Uri Avnery, Leah Tsemel and refuseniks of all kinds, who aredefaming the country abroad.”
I don’t know whether to be proud, laugh or be angry.
To be proud, because my name is used to symbolize the whole peace camp. And also because I appearside by side with Leah Tsemel, the valiant lawyer who defends Palestinian prisoners, and therefuseniks, who represent the conscience of Israel.
To laugh, considering the abysmal Chutzpa of this sentence. The leader of the National Unionparty is Avigdor (Ivette) Liberman, a person brought up in the Bolshevik education system ofStalin and who has absorbed – as we can see – the racist and power-hungry attitudes of the redtyrant. He has come here when everything was ready, to a state that we have created (literally)with our blood, and now demands, no more no less, to cancel our citizenship.
To be angry, because Liberman, together with National Religious leader Effi Eytam and some ofthe Likud leaders, is in the vanguard of the dirty column that is besieging Israeli democracy.Last week they succeeded in inducing the majority of the politicians in the General ElectionCommittee to disqualify two Arab Knesset-members (Ahmed Tibi and Azmi Bishara) and an Arabelection list (Balad) from participating in the elections, expelling in practice 20% ofIsrael’s citizens from the political arena.
If some people still entertain the illusion that this attack is directed solely against theArab citizens (a totally unacceptable act by itself), they should be reminded of one of themost important sayings of the 20 th century, the murderous century of Stalin, Hitler andMussolini.
The saying belongs to Martin Niemoeller, a German U-Boat commander in WWI who later became aProtestant pastor and pacifist. The Nazis threw him into a concentration camp. Aftermiraculously surviving, he coined the following unforgettable sentences:
“When the Nazis took the communists away, I was silent; after all, I was no communist.
“When they put the social-democrats in prison, I was silent; after all, I was nosocial-democrat.
“When they took the trade-unionists away, I did not protest; after all, I was notrade-unionist.
“When they took me away, there was nobody left to protest.”
Liberman’s program shows clearly that something similar is happening now in our country.They started with the incitement against the Arab citizens and their expulsion from thepolitical system. Now they speak of eliminating the “extreme left”. Is there any doubt, thatin the next stage they will demand the elimination of all the left, “moderate” and “patriotic”as they may be? And then, following the historic precedents, it will be the turn of the”liberal” Likud members.
An apocalyptic vision? Not really. The President of the Supreme Court, Aharon Barak, thisweek compared our situation with Nazi Germany. In the presence of the President of Israel, theChief Justice, himself a Holocaust survivor, said that “if it has happened in the country ofKant and Beethoven, it can happen everywhere. If we do not defend democracy, democracy willnot defend us!” (It will be interesting to see how he will conduct himself next week, when hewill have to decide on the Tibi-Beshara expulsion case.)
In Israel, we don’t like to make comparisons with the dark regimes. The memories are too fresh,and nobody in Israel advocates genocide. But undoubtedly, parties and leaders who openlyadvocate “transfer”, would have been called anywhere else in the world Neo-Fascists (even ifthe term “Neo-Bolsheviks” would be more appropriate, since it was Stalin who used to transferwhole peoples in the Soviet Union.)
Joerg Haider does not propose to cancel the Austrian citizenship of people who disagree withhis obnoxious views, nor does Jean-Marie Le-Pen propose to expel from the National Assemblyevery deputy who is not of pure French blood.
For 54 years, the State of Israel has prided itself of being “the only democracy in the MiddleEast”. All Israeli propaganda abroad, and especially in the United States, is based on thisslogan. Now Liberman and the Libermen come and try to destroy Israeli democracy, ourcreation, and to set up a kind of Fascistan, somewhere between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
If somebody is “defaming our country abroad”, it is surely this person.