Overview:
A new pattern emerged in the
recent Israeli elections for prime minister. Many on the Israeli Left
called for the casting of blank ballots to register opposition to the
policies and practices of the supposedly "pro-peace" incumbent
Ehud Barak, rather than vote for him. Although in the end some wavered, it
appears that a large number simply avoided the polls. Overall voter
participation dropped from 75 percent in 1999 to 59 percent. The
Palestinian citizens of Israel boycotted the election, accounting for half
this drop: only 18 percent voted, compared with 76 percent last time.
Thus, Sharon received 13 percent more votes than former Likud Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu did when defeated two years ago. Yet even more
significantly, Barak's support fell by 46 percent. For the first time, the
Palestinians and the Jewish Left in Israel cut their ties to the Labor-Meretz
bloc-a significant step-thereby spurning the argument that one should vote
for the "lesser evil." As long as this argument prevailed, it
impeded the creation of an alternative.
The Palestinians in
Israel:
In 1999, the Jewish Left and
the Palestinian parties gave Barak automatic support. For this, they paid
a heavy price. Having hauled in 95 percent of the Palestinian vote, Barak
turned his back on these voters and set up a rightwing government. He did
not even meet with the Palestinian parties, much less carry through on
budgetary promises or attack double-digit unemployment in their sector.
When the Palestinian citizens
of Israel poured into the streets this past October, they were protesting
not only Israel's killing of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, but
also the discrimination they themselves suffered from the very party they
had lifted to power. Barak's response to their demonstrations was to
approve the use of live ammunition, resulting in the death of 13
Palestinian citizens. This gunfire ended any final Palestinian illusions
about a bond with the Labor Party.
The movement to boycott the
polls began on the street, imposing its will on Palestinian party
officials. Yet at the last moment, Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders,
such as Yasser Abed Rabbo, and oppositionists like Na'if Hawatmeh called
on Palestinian voters not to lend a hand to the rise of Sharon, but the
people ignored them. The Palestinian street united behind a new consensus:
To these Palestinians, Barak and Sharon amount to the same thing.
The Labor-Meretz circle
responded with anger, some arguing that the Palestinians in Israel
betrayed them. The liberal camp in Israel refuses to see itself through
Palestinian eyes. It will not understand that for a Palestinian
worker-unemployed, futureless, shorn of civil rights-there is really no
difference between Labor and Likud.
The Jewish Left:
Since blank ballots are not
counted, merely lumped with disqualified votes, many people saw no point
in going to the polls to cast one when they could achieve the same result
by staying home. Nonetheless, an important and lively exchange developed
on e-mail discussion lists and through other Internet forums. In the
elections of 1996 and 1999, this writer and her colleagues in the
Organization for Democratic Action were denounced by the Left for calling
on Israelis to cast blank ballots. Yet now this issue was openly
addressed, no longer a taboo.
In
an article published at www.indymedia.org
, peace activist Irit Katriel urged the Left to listen to the Palestinians
who planned to boycott the elections. "As for us Jews, . . . we held
our discussion, each took a decision, all without listening to
them-without remembering that the future we are trying to create here is a
future we'll share with them. This revolution, this struggle against
institutionalized, public, everyday racism is one they are leading-let
whoever wants join in."
The discussions focused on the
question of the lesser evil: Is it permissible to aid, even indirectly,
the election of Sharon? The balance of the exchange tipped toward casting
blank ballots. Among the proponents was Uri Avnery of Gush Shalom (Peace
Bloc). On December 10, he posted his views on the Gush Shalom Website:
"I don't like to be blackmailed" into voting for Barak, he
wrote. He chastised Barak for assuming that "he has my vote in his
pocket. My vote and the votes of all the members of the peace camp, both
Jewish and Arab." He said he had always opposed blank ballots in the
past, and in fact still did, yet "if the only choice is between the
man who went to the Haram al-Sharif causing hundreds of fatalities, and
the man who sent him there accompanied by 2,000 policemen, a white [i.e.
blank] ballot seems the only way out."
Blank Ballot
Controversy:
The question of casting blank
ballots was an academic discussion within the Jewish Left, yet the boycott
in the Palestinian sector was a spontaneous, street-based movement.
Neither group presumed to put forth a long range alternative, but the
movement arose in order to punish Barak and demonstrate that they no
longer could be taken for granted. Although the Palestinian street
followed through, the Jewish Left fell into confusion, when key figures
who had started out by taking principled positions got cold feet as Sharon
rose in the polls.
As election day neared, people
on the radical Left and key journalists began softening their criticisms
of Barak and decided to support him "in spite of everything."
They opened the files on Sharon's bloody history, from the 1953 Kibya
massacre to the 1982 slaughter at Sabra and Shatila, and spread this
information via the newspapers. Among them was Avnery, who reversed his
earlier position. In addition, Ha'aretz journalist Gideon Levy-among the
most consistent chroniclers of abuse in the Occupied Territories during
the Barak term-promised on television that he would "never vote 'Barak'."
As election day neared, however, Levy was swayed by the noises coming from
the PA and Hawatmeh. If Barak was good enough for them, he asked, who are
we to argue?
Once election day passed, it
was clear that Sharon's only hope for longevity required him to form a
coalition with Labor. With only 19 Likud members of Knesset, Sharon might
barely achieve a majority, but would be subject to constant extortion from
the religious parties. If Sharon succeeds in forming a coalition with
Labor-which seems very likely-those leftists who rallied around Barak may
regret their decision. Having supported the Labor candidate, they will be
responsible for the deeds of the government that Labor preserves in power:
a government under a man commonly viewed as a war criminal.
Outside the
Establishment:
The Palestinians, being
outside of the Israeli establishment, were able to hold fast while the
Jewish Left faltered. They did not punish themselves by not voting for
Barak, because they could not expect to gain anything from Labor. The
Israeli Jewish Left, on the other hand, gets plenty from Labor in the form
of jobs and support for its institutions. It cannot afford, therefore, to
let Labor fail in an election-not even once.
In this election, the
Palestinian population was able to realize its electoral clout at
last-although its preoccupation with Barak as an individual, rather than
with Labor in general as a Zionist party, may later undermine their
achievement. Next time, Labor will likely present a more palatable
candidate, and the argument for the "lesser evil" will again be
bruited in the land.
Still, Katriel was correct in
calling on the Left to heed the new Palestinian voice. This voice promises
an alternative not because it is Palestinian per se, but because of its
unique independence from the Zionist establishment. This is true even
though it has taken shape as a result of familial solidarity with the
Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and those in the wider Arab
world. Yet to push further and establish a new alternative will require a
wider, class-based solidarity with other oppressed peoples. Only a long
term view of the forces at work in the world will equip the opposition to
resist the "less-ness" of evil on election day.
Roni
Ben Efrat is the editor of Challenge
magazine.
Source:
by courtesy & © 2001 Roni
Ben Efrat & CPAP
by the same
author:
Sharon and Arafat:
Can't Make War, Can't Make Peace
