As the Right celebrates 50 years of military rule over the Palestinians, the Left must not be afraid to create alliances between struggles and remind Israelis that ending the occupation is everyone’s task.The following is the full text of Local Call blogger and editor Eli Bitan’s speech in front of 10,000 left-wing protesters at Saturday’s anti-occupation rally.
Fifty years of occupation, of an enormous, never-ending injustice, force us to stop working within our comfort zones, to join new groups, and to let Palestinians lead the struggle. As the Right divides us, it is incumbent that we make connections. As the Right incites, we must meet and talk. As they try to put up walls to divide us into classes, tribes, and sectors, we must break through the differences they invented and join together. As the Right celebrates 50 years on the deck of the Titanic, we must shine a light on the occupation and say, without fear: these have been 50 years too many.
Eli Bitan is a journalist in the Haredi press in Israel, and is a blogger on Local Call, where this post was originally published in Hebrew.
