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October 7 Massacre

Shalom,

I am writing this after this week’s nightmarish events and ahead of the opening of the Knesset winter session on Monday. There are no words to describe the magnitude of the horror. Hamas massacred hundreds of youngsters at a music festival and families in their homes, abducted women, children, and elderly persons. With more than 1,300 dead, 200 hostages, and over 3,000 wounded, this is not just a war crime. It is a barbaric and inhumane act for which there is no justification or legitimacy. I know that each and every one of us knows someone who has been killed, injured, or abducted, or whose relatives were. Our hearts are broken.

Amid the terrible darkness surrounding us, heroic stories have been emerging from the inferno about the deeds of civilians and soldiers, the solidarity of the Arab community, and the incredible mobilization of civil society organizations and erstwhile participants in the protests against the regime revolution. Now is the time to support each other.

Finance Minister Smotrich’s proposal to fight in Gaza as if there were no hostages is beyond outrageous. He has shown more empathy for the settlers who perpetrated the pogrom in Huwara than for Gaza’s infants, women, and elderly persons – they all mean nothing to him. Smotrich and the rest of the government must remember that harming uninvolved civilian populations must be avoided even in times of war.

The opening of the Knesset winter session will coincide with Supreme Court President Esther Hayut’s last day in office. Prime Minister Netanyahu ignored all warnings of past and present defense establishment leaders and spent a whole year promoting a regime revolution designed to curtail the independence of the judiciary and save him from going to prison. When the war ends and Israel’s citizens regain their security, the “emergency government” will have to be dismantled. This is one fiasco Netanyahu and his government will not be able to escape. We deserve a government that treats this country and its citizens seriously, or else there’ll be no hope for us.

Yours,

Zehava Galon

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Dr. Maha Sabbah Karkabi

 

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Tel Aviv University (2015), a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Gender Studies, SOAS, University of London (2015-2016), a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Sociology at Tel Aviv University (2016-2017), and a postdoctoral fellowship Ph.D. at the Humphrey Institute for Social Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (2018-2020).
Dr. Maha Karbahi’s areas of interest focus on the connection between social change, family behavior, and gender inequality in societies in the process of change and specifically in Palestinian Arab society in Israel. Her research draws attention to the study of family life and employment, using a combined “ethnic lens” and “gender lens” and paying attention to the perspective of Palestinian Arab women, a group characterized by intersections between multiple marginal locations, which over the years has remained hidden from the research eye. Dr. Karkabi-Sabah’s research is published in professional journals and chapters in scientific books that are considered pioneers in family research, work, and gender equality.

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Prof. Frances Raday

Professor Emeritus in the Lieberman Chair in Labor Law, in the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University and serves as a full professor in the College of Management’s academic track, where she also serves as chair of the graduate program and as honorary president of the Concord Center for International Law Absorption. Radai was a member of a working group of the UN Human Rights Council on discrimination against women. In addition, she is a prominent and feminist human rights activist.

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Dr. Rawia Aburabia 

Faculty member of Sapir Academic College’s School of Law, received her PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research deals with the interface between law, gender, minorities, and human rights. Has published in leading journals on the subject of the matrimonial laws pertaining to Muslim women in Israel. Her book Under the Law, Outside Justice: Polygamy, Gendered Citizenship, and Colonialism in Israeli Law is expected to be published as part of the Gender Series of Kibbutz Meuhad Publishing House.

Dr. Aburabia has extensive experience in international human rights and public law. She has worked as a jurist for the Association for Civil Right and has been invited as a specialist to address such international forums as the United Nations and the European Parliament on the subject of indigenous communities and minority rights. She has interned with Human Rights Watch in Washington DC, and has been a member of the executive board of Amnesty International. In 2018, she was selected by the magazine Globes as one of the 40 most promising young persons in Israel under the age of 40.

 

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Ron Kessler

With over two decades of experience in the field of digital content, Ron has participated in numerous political and social campaigns. He helped run the digital activity of senior public officials, and worked in various NGOs. Ron is a fundamentally optimistic man, who believes that Israel can be changed and so can people. Lives in Tel Aviv.