Hadas Binyamini writes:

This past June, the news of a merger between two veteran Israeli political parties on the left of the Zionist spectrum, Labor and Meretz, passed without much fanfare. With the once-hegemonic Labor Party occupying only four of the Knesset’s 120 seats, and Meretz having been wiped out altogether in the 2022 election, that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Lacking a compelling alternative vision to the perpetual subjugation of Palestinians under the boot of the Israeli military, Israel’s parliamentary left — now led by Yair Golan, yet another former army general, who led the calls over the summer for an invasion of Lebanon — has been condemned to irrelevance.

“There is no left-wing politics in Israel; this is a reality many people overlook,” Palestinian activist Hamze Awawde tweeted in July. His remarks came after the Knesset passed a resolution opposing Palestinian statehood by 68 votes to nine, with only lawmakers from Palestinian-led parties voting against it. “While there are some grassroots left-wing movements, left-wing politics as a political force simply doesn’t exist in Israel.”

The question of how leftists can best shift Israeli policy from the inside, in the absence of leftist political leadership, provokes endless debate among activists on the ground. Since the Oslo peace process, conventional wisdom both within and outside the left has dismissed any political potential for Israeli leftists — due to the camp’s small size, its electoral weakness, its infighting, and its abandonment of Palestinian solidarity and leadership.

The left’s complete marginalization, enforced by Israel’s politicized police, has only accelerated since October 7. Even family members of Israeli hostages, who call for a ceasefire in order to free their relatives, are harassed and smeared as leftist traitors. The increased suppression of Palestinian society, too, has radically limited the horizon for dissent or collective political action over the past year. Since just days after the Hamas attack, Palestinian citizens have faced a government-backed campaign of intimidation, persecution, surveillance, and harassment.

Nonetheless, this past year has seen left-wing Israeli activists persist in their efforts to build power in pursuit of a more peaceful, just, and equal future for Israelis and Palestinians. [Continue reading…]