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Tarabut is a grassroots movement in Israel working for wide ranging and foundational social and political change, on the basis of justice and equality.

“In Israel, a walled in and separated society, which tramples the environment, endangers peace and its residents, and pits the oppressed against each other—it is difficult to come together to alter the agenda. The ruling elites have learned to overcome crises and become stronger through the creation of a social alignment, founded on systematic separation between the dispossessed and the exploited, and the pitting of each group against the other. The wars and settlements came together perfectly for the process of building a colonial, capitalist society. Against this system people are fighting for their rights in various arenas, a majority of them disconnected. There exists an urgent need to connect the struggles, to expose the connections between the separated fields, in a strategic counter strategy. We must rethink how to do this.”   

So begins the manifest drafted by a group of women and male activists in recent months. In the light of the separating, disengaging and crumbling reality, we set for ourselves the goal of building a movement that would aim for connection, and in Arabic—Tarabut: 

 “Connection of joint struggles in a divided society for the creation of a joint future, first and foremost, a strong connection between Arabs and Jews fighting for social change and between various groups in society […] but […] we must build additional connections…and therefore we must rethink the connection between activists and the society in which we work.

In Israel […] there exist few frameworks which connect the activities that are generally considered separate: the political, Arab-Jewish relations within Israel, the economic-social, religion and state and so forth. The separation amongst these areas is one of the greatest stumbling blocs in the path of those aspiring for substantial social change.”

This new political organizing aims to think together about strategies and alternatives, but it possesses clear political-ideological starting points:

• The essential equality amongst human beings, and thus a rejection of a social order founded on exploitative capitalist systems, and an objection to capitalist trends of globalization, which deepen the social gaps between states and regions, in the centre of which is the exploitation of humans as goods and consumers.

• An objection to Zionism as a settlement movement which dispossesses the Palestinians, creates a walled-in society and provides extra rights to Jews, creates racist civil, political and social hierarchies, and pushes the Jews from the east to the social and cultural margins whilst rejecting the public legitimacy of their culture.

• An objection to all forms of oppression and discrimination against women, and support for full equality and independent organizing of women to promote their struggle.

• An aspiration for full democratization of society, which promotes maximum participation of the population in decision-making and empowerment of communities with an ongoing expansion of civil rights.

• An objection to the pushing of any minority out of the public arena and the search for ways to connect the struggles of minorities for their rights with struggles for comprehensive social change.

• The future of Israel is in the Middle East beside the other peoples of the region; a free and egalitarian Middle East. We must search for our partners in the region amongst the democratic forces fighting against imperialism, against dictatorships, against the colonial and neo-colonial exploitation, against religious fanaticism and oppressive social conservatism.

• Support for reconciliation between the Israeli people and the Palestinian people, on the basis of recognition of past injustices, first and foremost the Palestinian Naqba of 1948, with an aspiration to correct them through courageously dealing with their implications in the present and the building of a future of justice, equality and mutual respect. The occupation of 1967 must be completely reversed whilst addressing past injustices and primarily through an implementation of refugee rights.  

• The aspiration for unity in the struggle of every oppressed group to promote its interests does not contradict a joining together with other groups and the promotion of an overall idea of democracy and equality.
  

Since we began to distribute this manifest, meetings were held in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jaffa, in addition to tens of home meetings, small meetings and personal conversations with political and social activists throughout Israel. Currently there are groups of Tarabut in the greater Tel Aviv area, Jerusalem, Haifa, the Galilee and the Negev, and a national meeting was held in February.

Double Rift

The discussions and consultations in run-up to the establishment of a new political movement were not smooth, and they raised important questions concerning both this specific initiative and the horizons of the politics of radical left-wing politics, i.e. outside the boundaries of Zionism and capitalism: “What, you want to establish a political party? A coalition of activists from NGOs and protest movements? What is a “political organization”?  Like Ta’ayush, but it will also compete in the national elections? Only discussions? What about actions? How is this different from the attempts to create the Israeli Social Forum? What will this give me as an activist—another two or three meetings each month? Is it really impossible to talk about actions without establishing another organization? Why do we need an organizational framework?”

It is possible that the difficulty in understanding our intention is connected to our rhetorical limitations, but it appears to me that these questions further express the deep difficulty derived from the double cultural-political disconnect. Firstly, the disconnect between the new generation of radical left-wing activists and the old Marxist Left. Secondly, the refusal of Tarabut initiators, who are intimately involved in both of these worlds, to return to the old structures and forms of political organizing on the Left.

The first political-cultural disconnect concerns those who have a radical and critical approach and who have thus far experienced the politics of protest movements, of associations, coalitions of organizations and coalitions, temporary or permanent, and activists in workshops or meetings for ideological discussions, who have no experience in integrative political frameworks of the former kind, which creates an alternative and attempts to influence the political ideas and practices in various arenas. Many believe that identification with or involvement in party politics means nothing more than voting in elections. 

The second disconnect expresses not only the deep and ongoing ideological crisis of the various Marxists streams, but also the insights of the activists who took part in the veteran left-wing organizing, and are therefore searching for another way: the feeling that there exists a need to establish a different organization, a type that does not yet exist, or even if it exists in other places throughout the world, there don’t exist any prepared formulas on how organize and create it here. This isn’t exactly a political party, and certainly not in the disciplined Leninist sense of the word, which stifles all debates and independent thinking. On the other hand, this is much more than a debating club. Action, concrete experience, is meant to nourish the thinking behind it, and the enrichment of actions in various arenas must be the goal. This is a political organization that carries with it wisdom and conclusions from the non-coincidental crisis of the revolutionary movements of the 20^th century, without giving up on the development of a strategy and acquisition of political power in order to change the social order. In other words, the initiators of Tarabut attempted to interest the networked leftists (network is the most appropriate analogy to describe the manner of organizing and the relations existing today in the radical left in Israel—a network not necessarily in the sense of the egalitarian illusion, but primarily as it contains so many frayed edges and large holes in the middle, through which people and ideas fall through, a wealth of thinking and practice) into something new that only partially resembles the old organizations, of which a majority of the young left-wing activists have only heard about through rumors, most of them uncomplimentary.

At times the explanation of what we would like to establish falls on the line between “what not” and “what yes”. We would like patterns of organizing which, if they won’t be entirely egalitarian and ideal (following the awakening from the utopia of the 20^th century and awareness of the innumerable power relations and hierarchies, many possess a healthy and founded fear of attempts to implement pure utopia), but will nonetheless attempt to work against the tendency to reproduce hierarchies; we need an organization that will not cancel out the need for unity for the needs of others with the claim that one struggle is more important than another; we need an integrated organization, which will not attempt to impose its views on the social movements in which its members are active, but to respect them and make due with learning what they are, with the hope that our discussions and wisdom will provide them with inspiration; we need an organization that will struggle in all the possible representative arenas, which will attempt to gain real political power, but without becoming addicted to parliamentarism, narrow and immediate electoral considerations and the distortions of the system.

Strategic Thinking

We know there is no such thing.  We understand that we cannot create something ideal; yet we understand that there also exists an immediate need to build a consistent Left that will provide a value-laden and practical alternative to the existing agenda and ongoing degradation that this agenda causes. We need a Left that not only protests and will be right and moral, that will not only create with endless dedication local alternatives to the existing agenda and will do wonderful actions that are limited in time and space, and of course we will not make due with documenting injustices with a sense of moral superiority, yelling “we told you!” to the society, between demonstration and petition. I again stress that we say this with great appreciation for all existing actions, of which we are a part and of which we will continue to be a part. Yet what is needed is an integrated left-wing organization, which creates strategic thinking but does not cancel out the actions and importance of the autonomous groups which are building another future. An organization such as this must not attempt to manipulate other frameworks; on the contrary, it must respect them, nurture them, learn from them and pass on knowledge and connections in order to assist in the construction of egalitarian networks and solidarity.

Our pretension to establish a comprehensive political organization, like a political party, encountered an additional misunderstanding when we explained that it was not our intention to add to the splits characterizing the non-Zionist camp in the Israeli parliament. We are too few to add another party that will attempt to compete with the existing parties, particularly in the wake of a terrible reality: President Bush in the United States and the establishment of apartheid enclaves for Palestinians here, war mongering and the placing of the population of Israel at the disposal of the strategic and tactical interests of the Bush government, a rampaging privatization process and elimination of the last shreds of a welfare state while creating unprecedented social gaps. In these conditions, splits are an unaffordable luxury. At the same time, it appears to us impossible to stand by and abandon the representational political arena. We must decide if and under what conditions to compete in the various electoral arenas (local councils, worker committees, the Histradut, the Knesset), if we will support some from the outside or join a common list, in what way to express our singularity and aspiration for unity and partnership in the consistent Left. We do not negate out of hand participation in parliamentary processes, and do not obligate ourselves to blind participation in their associated problems and costs. We will not concede influence in the important political arenas, but will not be hostage to the electoral logic.

A substantial number of the initiators of Tarabut took part in the initiatives proposed to the Hadash and Balad parties to run together on a common list in the last elections. Therefore, we noted that one of the first topics that we must discuss in the process of building a political movement is the creation of a formula for cooperation with the parliamentary power closest to us, Hadash, a power that is not a limited party but a heterogeneous front.

In a certain way, we represent a phenomenon opposed to the accepted rationale in establishing new political organizations, which attempt to brand themselves in order to be clearly distinguished from others. We reject the assumption that separation is necessary to create an independent identity. Part of the character of the organization we are creating is to give up sectarianism, to rise above narrow considerations and search for maximum unity relevant to each struggle, without giving up on the ideological discussion. This is meant to be a substantial component of any strategies that we develop. We are beginning a new organization and not joining an existing one as they do not supply us with the answers for which we search, as we believe they are stilted from a strategic perspective, as we don’t think exactly like them and have criticism of their actions and means of work. However, building an independent organization will not prevent us from seeing what matters. We must not ignore the common struggles and values, and we must together search for ways to promote them.

This article was translated into English from the original Hebrew. It was originally published in the Alternative Information Center Hebrew quarterly journal, Mitsad Sheni.