Civil society orgs publish ad calling for civil rights and a...
Civil society orgs publish ad calling for civil rights and action on racism
On July 24th, Jewish, Arab and joint civil society organizations called for action on racist incitement. See the ad and read a translation below.
In English, the ad reads:
The escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the past month brought with it a wave of incitement and acts of racism and verbal and physical violence against Arab citizens. The boundaries of the public and media discourse are becoming increasingly narrower, and voicing a different opinion than that of the Jewish public mainstream is becoming condemned and dangerous. The magnitude of incitement, hatred and acts of violence should worry every citizen- men and women – and put the society in Israel on the brink of the abyss.
The Jewish public should understand that the Arab citizens in Israel are part of the Palestinian people, and many of them have family members in the Gaza Strip. The Arab public naturally identifies with the members of its people – in the face of the pictures of dead civilians, many of them women and children, and the enormous destruction in the Gaza Strip, Arab citizens feel rage and loss, which are not at all expressed in the public and media discourse.
On the contrary, elements within the government and the media exploit the natural identification of the Arab citizens with the Palestinian suffering in Gaza to incite against them an present them as supporters of terrorism. We call on the government to work towards ending the war and reaching a long term political solution. In parallel, the government must immediately address the destructive racist currents that are threatening the society in Israel:
- To take responsibility and to act boldly and consistently against incitement and violence towards the Arab minority to:
- Ensure freedom of demonstration and to investigate cases to police and civilian violence against demonstrators
- Publicly clarify that the Arab citizens are an inseparable part of the society in Israel and that their position is legitimate and important and should be heard in the public discourse.
Signatories include:
Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), Mossawa –the Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel , Adalah – the L:egal center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel The Abraham Fund Initiatives, the Arab Jewish center for Empowerment, Equality and Cooperation (AJEEC-NISPED), Itach-Maaki – Women Lawyers for Social Justice, Sikkuy – the Association for the Advancement of Civic Equality in Israel, Shatil, Tsofen – High Technology centers, Mahapach-Taghir , Kayan – Feminist Organization, Tishrin, Keshev – the Center for the Protection of Democracy in Israel, The Council of Unrecognized Villages in the Negev and the Belonging and Hope Association from Kalansua.