Page last updated 28 Jun 2015
Introduction
Opposition from below in Israel – to the occupation, to the militarisation of Israeli society, to the right-ward, racist drift of Israeli political and social life, and in solidarity with Palestinians – takes many forms. Since the virtual demise of the peace movement after the collapse of the peace talks and the start of the second intifada this opposition has been fragmented and dispersed. The numbers actively involved are relatively small compared with the heyday of the peace movement in the 80s, but the movements that do exist are committed, courageous and active.
There have been various waves of Refuseniks and related organisation such as Breaking the Silence and Combatants for Peace; campaigns against the Wall with Israelis and with Palestinians involved in non-violent protect against it, particularly in the border villages like Budrus and Bi’lin, protests against Israel’s various war, campaigns against torture, against human rights’ violations in the occupation, for chronicling what goes on at the checkpoints, and arming Palestinians with video cameras to record abuses (JfJfP supplied an handful of the earliest cameras for this purpose). There are still courageous writers and organisations continuing to expose the realities of oppression in both the occupied territories and in Israel itself such as Uri Avnery and Adam Keller of Gush Shalom, the online Magazine +972. Ha’aretz on a good day, particularly if Amira Hass or Gideon Levy is writing, Michel Warshawski and the Alternative Information Center. And of course the work of Who Profits from the occupation, exposing the commercial involvement of companies in the continuing Israeli control over Palestinian and Syrian land.
The right-hand widget on any of our website pages, Links, takes you to the websites of every important campaigning, research or simply critical Israeli (and Palestinian organisation) we know of. If there are others we should include, please e-mail us details.
The Another Israel exhibition, from 2008, focussed on about thirty Israeli campaigning organisations. Its brochure provides a convenient summary, under seven headings of these organisations: Civil Inequalities, Whose Land?, Telling it how it is, Challenging Military Practices, Action without Violence, Working Together, Women for Peace.
****
There is also a war on critical Israeli organisations, and on their right to receive funding from abroad (no campaign against Sheldon Adelson pouring millions and millions of dollars into supporting Netanyahu or Zionist organisations’ right to receive such funding!). We link to a few articles on this topic below, previously posted on the JfJfP website.
1. Culture minister to enforce anti-left national culture
JfJfP 15 Jun 2015
Composite posting dealing with Culture Minister Miri Regev’s war against disloyal artists and intellectuals.
__________
2. How Israel tries to instil despair
Lynne Segal, Signatories Blog, JfJfP 20 Feb 2015
Lynne Segal takes a wide view of the strategies used by the Israeli state to make people feel Zionism is the only answer, and the psychological strategies employed by many dissidents to sustain their morale in the face of an implacable force.
__________
3. Treason of the intellectuals
Zeev Sternhell, JfJfP 24 Aug 2014
Prof. Zeev Sternhell, an authority on the rise of fascism in France, defines fascism as a rejection of, an assault on, enlightenment values. In the regime’s treatment of the Palestinians and of Jewish dissidents, in the submission of intellectuals to government orders and the blind following of the masses, Prof. Sternhell sees signs of fascism, and certainly the end of Zionism as he understood it.
__________
4. NGO Monitor attacks Heinrich Boell funding for +972 and Zochrot
Compilation, JfJfP 26 Jan 2012
Gerald Steinberg, head of NGO Monitor which attacks the funders of any liberal or critical NGOs which work in Israel, has attacked Germany’s Heinrich Böll Foundation for funding +972 ezine. Their funding, he says, “helps provide a platform used to demonize Israel” and “the one-sided perspectives on the Arab-Israeli conflict”.
Followed by responses from +972 and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
__________
5. Delegitimization and censorship continue…
JfJfP 5 Feb 2010
