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It Won’t Be a Happy Year Until They Come Back Home

>> Read all messages from Zehava Galon

Shalom to all,

Rosh Hashanah is a good opportunity to ask where are we headed. This question has become even more relevant in the light of the assassination of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, the prospect of a regional flare-up, and the fact that 101 hostages remain in Hamas’s captivity in Gaza. It is also a question that many Israelis have asked themselves in the terrible year that has just ended. It is hard not to pose it, as these days you cannot be an Israeli without feeling anxious and angry or wonder how far you can plan into the future when there is no telling what tomorrow will bring. As in the Book of Job, the bad news has been relentless, not stopping for even a single minute. Such was the year that was.

It was a year that began with the horrific massacre of October 7 and ended with 101 hostages, “half of whom are still alive,” as the Prime Minister affirmed, and with the constant threat of another war. It was a year that started with a shell-shocked government and civilians volunteering to fill the vacuum, and continued with a government that came back to life to resume work on the exact same agenda it had been pursuing before: the regime revolution. It was a year in which tens of thousands of Israelis lost their homes and became refugees in their own country, while Netanyahu scrounged around for funds to renovate his private residence in Caesarea and Finance Minister Smotrich poured millions into the settlements. It was a year that saw many people maimed and dead, but was described by far-right MK Orit Struk as a “miracle time” because her beloved illegal outposts actually flourished. Everybody knew that this would be a terrible government when it was elected, but these people managed to exceed all expectations.

Where are we headed? Honestly, it’s up to us. Where the government is going is entirely obvious. It is clear that the State of Israel is currently being led by people who are primarily concerned with granting financial benefits to their mouthpiece, Channel 14, which systematically incites to war crimes against the Palestinians in devastated and starving Gaza. It is clear that the Justice Minister will continue to mess with the Judicial Selection Committee whose job it is to appoint court judges, that the Communications Minister will pursue his efforts to gain control of the media, that Minister Smotrich will go on harming the economy and will not assume responsibility for lowering Israel’s credit rating, and that Netanyahu will continue to oppose our demand for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the failures of October 7. In other words, it is clear that this government is willing to forsake the hostages and that it is not here to look out for us.

At the same time, it is also clear that Israeli civil society has shown a fighting spirit the likes of which has rarely been seen in other societies. For two years now we have been out in the streets, every Saturday night, which is astounding. After October 7, when the government was seized by paralysis, it was the protest movement that saved the day and built an aid system from scratch. These are the same Israelis who risked their lives fighting in Gaza. These are the same organizations that relentlessly fought in the Knesset to block the initiatives of a government that spat in their face and continues to do so. Admittedly, the existential threat to Israelis comes today from their government, not from Hamas or Hezbollah. Our vibrant society is a miracle, thanks to which we are all still here. We are a fabulous, determined, and creative people, and we are here to stay.

In a year when it was so easy to despair, Israelis showed what they are made of as we fight for our lives. Let’s hold our heads high, we have reason to be proud.

Wishing for the release of the hostages,

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.