Communist MP Aida Touma-Suleiman from Israel’s Knesset spoke to Evrensel: “We must stop this crazy war!”

Ekim KILIÇ

Israel's attacks against Palestine gained a new dimension this week. The people of Gaza, who were under bombardment, were cut off from communication with the world last Friday. While the developments that frighten the people in the Middle East continue, various struggle groups in different countries are trying to raise the voice of peace. One of them is Aida Touma-Suleiman, who has been an MP for Hadash People's Bloc in the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) since 2015 and also a member of the Israeli Communist Party. Before becoming a member of parliament, Suleiman was the editor-in-chief of Al-Ittihad newspaper.

What is your general analysis about recent ongoings?

Well, also allow me, first of all, to thank you for hosting me for this. And I think it's very important these days to have all the voices, all of our voices heard in the world, to bring our analysis, our understanding of what's going on, and also to send a call for the world to intervene and to try to stop this crazy war that we've been seeing since the 7th of October. Well, first of all, let me start by saying it was very much shocking what happened on the 7th of October. We like many other Israeli citizens, and Palestinians did not expect that amount of killing of civilians. And we feel sorry for the Israeli civilians. And we feel the pain of the people of the Israelis, who lost their beloved, either by being killed or abducted to Gaza, don't know what's happening with them. But we have to understand that we've been living in such a chaotic situation for a long time. And we always understood that as long as the Israeli occupation continue on the oppression of the Palestinian people, there won't be a feeling of security for both sides.

Mainly, usually who suffered from that Palestinian people, our people as a Palestinian now I'm talking not only as an Israeli citizen, but I myself, I'm Palestinian. And I feel like the suffering that was that my people went through in the last 75 years and mainly in the last few years after the collapse of a hope for a political solution and to end the occupation in political diplomatic agreement between both sides. We understood that the situation is going to be complicated.

And lack of hope, despair on the Palestinian side has escalated since this government also in the last year has been composed, Israeli government as it is a very right wing government including fascist parties and members in it. It was also clear that this government not only do not intend to end the occupation, or do not intend to start any political process. On the contrary, this government was leading a policy that was we saw the numbers of Palestinians who were killed. From the beginning of the year, it was numbers of events that we did not see in many years. The number of attacks of settlers on Palestinian civilians, burning Hawara, or attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque, entering Al Aqsa Mosque, trying to legitimize the division of Al Aqsa by time to also make it a place where Jews can pray, or settlers can pray. It all escalated the situation. Of course, no one think or legitimize killing of civilians for any reason.

But you have to understand the context that what happened on the 7th of October came through. It's not legitimizing in any way we have, were actually the only force in Israel that always insisted to keep the civilians out of the equation of the blood equation. And we insisted usually that there is no military solution for the continuation of occupation or for the Palestinian situation, we always believe that there is a need to start a real negotiation to reach actually, the establishment of the rights of Palestinians, like all other people in the world, to have the right to establish their own state to have the right of stopping the occupation, be free of the occupation, and to stop the violence committed against the Palestinian society.

Since the 7th of October, and the horrible scenes that we saw, we can only hear voices from the Israeli government, and from the majority, let's put it this way, in the society asking for revenge. It looks like the logic and the brain went on a recess. And the only instinct of anger or deep sorrow, but it's all translated into revenge. I think that the current Israeli government is using those legitimate feelings of anger and sorrow and lack of security in order to launch a war that strategically want to achieve the plans that anyway this government had, from the beginning to liquidate the Palestinian issue, to stop any possibility to end the occupation is actually acting for. And it looks like it wants to take the whole region into a new order.

And the fact that the United States from the first moment has suddenly changed its position 180 degrees from reject to be supportive to the Netanyahu government, into embracing this government and supporting it military wise and financially wise. And we could see that decisions to move the plane carriers into the Middle East, we can see the amount of military support that the United States of America is planned, it all shows that the plans are for a huge event, for a huge war. Because that the United States of America is afraid that the fifth country or state in the world, in its military power, cannot face Hamas. We are afraid that this might lead to a regional war. And it can be catastrophic for everybody.

That's why we are calling from the day first, to stop the war. We immediately want to stop the war, and we are calling to release or to have an agreement to release at least a humanitarian release of all the abducted children and women. We are calling the world to start a humanitarian corridor immediately. And to bring a humanitarian aid to Gaza which is facing a catastrophic situation. We are also warning that the plans to evacuate, ethnic cleansing of North Gaza, pushing the people either to the south, or as it was declared in the beginning to Sinai, it is a crime. It's all crime that is not accepted, and should bring those warnings to the world to wake up and to try to stop this crazy war.

"THE ISSUE OF KIDNAPPED ISRAELIS IS CRITICAL"

Can you see the end of this war?

Well, I wish I had the clear and exact answer for your question. It would have eased for us at least to know how it's going to end. In a war, it's like in a war. It starts nobody knows how it is going to end. And how it escalates. Sometimes small actions through the war and deteriorate the situation into a horrific situation. And this is what we are really afraid of. We are today on the 15th day of the war. And we feel at least easy that Hezbollah did not get really involved in this war, although there are a lot of provocations in the North. And for my regret, I cannot understand why Israel is attacking Damascus airport or Halab airport. Nobody understand it's as if calling for an involvement, a more massive involvement from Hezbollah in this war.

But I think that the issue of the abducted people should, it's not yet but it should guide any further movements of the Israeli army because there are more than 200. There is the more pressure of the family that wants to know what is happening with their family with their my relatives who are in Gaza. It's really scaring me the fact that that declare of this war is to erase Gaza. And the world is keeping silent about. It is not saying anything about, because when you are talking about raising Gaza, you are talking either massive killing, it is happening of civilians, together with ethnic cleansing, massive destruction and the transfer of a population. What does it mean to erase Gaza? There are more than 2 million people there. When you're saying you're going to erase Gaza, it means by definition, committing war crimes. Transfer, ethnic cleansing, massive killing, civilians killed, children killed, economy destroyed, everything. And we have seen within hospital bombed, churches bombed, mosque bombed. It looks like this plan is actually implemented little by little. And the world is still wondering if they should raise the voice. And when I say the world I do not speak about the people. Actually the peoples of the world are demonstrating or going out or asking to stop this war. But I'm talking about governments.

I'm talking about the United Nations who could not their Security Council take a decision of a ceasefire because of the weight of the United States and Britain. So, I mean… I’m saying this with a lot of pain, that what can stop this war? It is not the Palestinian blood. It looks like nobody care about that. What can stop this war is the attempt to relieve the Israelis who are abducted.

“ISRAELI PEOPLE ARE UNDER TRAUMA TOO”

What are the reactions of Israeli people?

We have to understand that Israeli people are under trauma, a very severe trauma for the first time in tens of years or ever they felt that they are not secure in their own state for the first time they are facing the numbers of people who were killed. It’s almost every family in the Jewish Israeli society is connected somehow to one or more people who either were killed or abducted. That sense of security is totally damaged. And the sense of confidence of the big myth of Israeli security forces has been damaged.

People are scared and angry, but at the same time, as they are angry and want revenge, they understand that the government and the army betrayed them, did not protect them, did not do what was expected from especially the government, and especially Benjamin Netanyahu. And there is a lot of anger directed to the government. Especially that the government not only failed on the 7th of October, but it's continuing to fail internally in supporting the families, in delivering humanitarian aid to those who are evacuated from their homes and left in all, and hotels and in other places.

The people are angry, and they are asking a lot of questions. Everybody is asking question about the function of the government and the army. And they want answers. But they are saying very clearly: We are in a war, meaning that Israeli societies and a war that Israel is launching a war, and all that debates about who is guilty and how the Israeli society reach this point, and to punish those who are responsible is delayed to the day after the war. And in my opinion, the price, political price that Netanyahu will pay will be huge. So I believe that Benjamin Netanyahu understand that very well. That's why he is he knows that his political life, or his Prime Minister opposition will continue as long as the war continue. And this is a scary idea.

"THE TWO-STATE SOLUTION IS STILL THE MOST VALID SOLUTION”

What is your party's and Hadash's stance on the question of Palestine?

The two-state solution is actually something that was first offered by the Communist Party in Israel. We were the first raised that but we were attacked at that point by the Israelis and by the Palestinians. And today it is up till some years ago, it was like the only hopeful solution that everybody spoke about. As I said in the last few years, as the situation escalated on the ground, and as the Israeli government's continued to establish more and more a colonial regime in the West Bank instead of settlers or occupation… You know, occupation is a status that should be a temporary situation by the look. The Israeli government, especially the last government have decided that that situation is not a temporary situation. And they want to move it into a colonialist situation. They want to create that big Israel state. And for the Palestinians to be only not even citizens, but residents, who have you a few rights. And this is an apartheid regime actually. The apartheid regime has existed for a few years now in the West Bank. And they are trying also to establish it more and more inside Israel. For the Palestinians who are citizens of Israel. And there are more and more voices, saying clearly that they don't want to go for diplomatic solutions.

For those who don't know, the Hadash is a big coalition, front that was created, basically, on the Communist Party and its alliance. So actually, the solutions that we offer is very much we agreed upon, especially in the Palestinian issue. We believe that every people who are under occupation have the right of resistance to the occupation, to get rid of the occupation. We do not decide what are the ways of resistance that the people decide on. We hope that any resistance will exclude civilians. But we are not the ones who decide how the Palestinian people want to resist. And as long as there is oppression, the more oppression there will be, the more resistance there will be. This is the nature of the situation. We still believe we know that there are voices talking about a one-state solution, a one-state solution is existing. And it is an apartheid. Because when you are talking about a state, a one-state, the world is not able to guarantee the safety of Palestinians under all the human rights and international laws that are talking about occupation.

We still believe that the Palestinian people have the right of self determination. And the Palestinian people decided that they want a state of their own and agreed on a state on the borders of 1967. Jerusalem is its capital and implementing the decisions of the United Nations about the refugee. So we are supporting this. We believe that even as much as the solution seems to be vanishing, it is still more relevant than any other solution that.

ISRAELI MOTHER: DO NOT USE OUR PAIN TO SHED MORE BLOOD

What are you doing to stop the attacks? A while ago, your comrade Knesset member Ofer Cassif was suspended from office for criticizing Israel's attack on Gaza.

Well, first of all, you know, we are a very weird voice in the parliament. We are very isolated. We are the only ones who are voting against the decision of war, including in the decision to enlarge the government and to bring guns into the government. We were the only parliamentarians who voted against such a government. All the other supported or just did not vote. We are attacked every day, criticized, incited against because of our position that are asking to stop the war and stop the killing of children and women in Gaza. I don't know if you have seen when I was speaking in the Knesset saying that the children in localities around Gaza and the children in Gaza wants to live. The Knesset members were shouting at me: “How could you equalize between the children of Gaza and our children! Our children were in a party and were killed. And the Gaza children brought this on themselves.” And we are talking about children.

For our regret, there is a massive attack on the right of expression. And especially when it comes from the Palestinian citizens of Israel or democratic forces of the Jewish society. That's why for example Ofer Cassif is threatened. Actually, all of us are threatened. Ofer is more because they cannot tolerate the fact that he is a Jew. And he still speaks against the war. And there is a massive attack. In first of all, you can see that they are trying to promote laws that are anti-democratic, semi-fascist laws under the cover of the war, and the needs of emergency situation. That's how they call it. So you can see that they are authorizing carrying weapons in the public sphere. They are intensifying and make it very easy for civilians to have arms. They are distributing arms, you know, like you bring ice cream and distribute. That's how they are distributing arms in especially mixed cities like my city where Jews and Arabs live together in the same city. There are threats, very clear threats from the police from ministers, that if the Palestinian citizens of Israel dare to organize any actions against the war, or to support Gaza, they will be transferred to Gaza. That's what the chief of the police had said three days ago. He said anyone who wants to get in solidarity with Gaza, he is more than welcomed, I will take him by my hand, get him on a bus and throw him in Gaza. That's how it is. There are more than 170 arrests of people who were followed on the social media. If they in their history of Facebook, they had a Palestinian flag on one occasion, or say something these days about the children of Gaza or say stop the war, they are arrested. Every night there are new arrests happening in our villages and towns.

And avoiding many people of showing that the party and Hadash has published already positions and analysis of the situation and have declared its position from the war. We urge our people to use those positions, to share them. So that they can raise the voice against the war.

The main target is to reach out to the Israeli Jews who have spoke against the war and some of them while burying their own people who beloved who are their sons or brothers spoke out in the funeral against the war. One mother, one brave mother who lost her child, she saw that on one of the missiles that is going to Gaza was written the name of her son that was killed in the war. And she went out and say: “Don't use our sorrow, or the name of my son, in order to bomb other children and to have more bloodshed.” So we want to reach them out, it's time to build a kind of Jewish-Arab Democratic Front in order to face this.

"THERE ARE BRAVE WOMEN'S VOICES AGAINST WAR"

You are founder of Arab feminist group - Women Against Violence. What are the impacts of occupation on women?

There are many factors, but for sure, the militarization of the society and occupation are two things that are a major obstacle for women to promote a feminist approach to deal with the political issues. While I'm saying this, it has been a long time that I've been discussing with the Israeli feminist movement. And, you know, I served for eight years as the head of the Parliamentary Committee on Women, Status of Women and Gender Equality. For eight years, I was chairing this committee. There was a lot of discussions that the feminist Israeli feminist movement felt that part of the struggle that should be led for the rights of women equality for women, is to ask for the right of women to serve in the army in combative units, and to be pilots. And I was always saying that we are living in a society where army and being part of the army is ranking people into different. Where you served in the army and what you did in the army decide actually how much power you will have all your life and how much you will be promoted in your life to positions in Israel.

Instead of talking about dismantling this way of thinking that the army should control every aspect of life the feminist movement chose to struggle to be part of this oppression machine, that is called the army. And I was always saying, I would like women to be struggling to contribute to political solutions and to be part of decision making instead of being part of bombing other people, or protecting settlers who are bombing or burning other people. I think that in many aspects a lot of the issues that are related to women thrive have been postponed under the claim of “it's not time to deal with this issue, we have much huge problem." We are in a war situation. So nobody wants to speak about including women in decision-making.

We are under from the Palestinian side, we are under occupation, it's not time now to raise issues related to women's rights that is not accepted by everybody. You are only you know, raising problems inside the Palestinian society. All those claims, which are in my opinion, tools developed over the years in order to oppress first of all to neutralize 50% of the society and make it a reserve for whatever the patriarch decides. And the second is to serve values, and issues that are contradictory to the feminist vision of having all people equal, of give of making it for all people to reach their rights. The minute you decide yet that you can be part of the occupational machine, or the settlers operation, you are denying the rights of the Palestinian and the Palestinian women to be equal. So in my opinion, nowadays you know, it's about time now to check and to see if there are women who are willing to lead an active movement against the war.

And this is mainly in the last three days what I've been trying to do. Because there were brave voices of women, not the majority, of course, but there are brave women. And I think all of the women even if they, politically they are not on the right side, they don't want to be afraid that their sons will be killed in this war.

"INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY ACTIONS SHOULD INCREASE"

Anything that would like to add?

Well, first of all, I would like to say that in these days, it's very important to see the solidarity of other nations and people who are demonstrating, who are putting pressure on their governments to get involved and to stop this war. In the last two or three years because of what's happening in Ukraine, and before that, in other parts of the world, the Palestinian issue was removed from the international community’s table. And now it's brought back.

We would like first of all, to see all acts of solidarity, also with us as Palestinians and democratic Jewish forces who are trying to raise the call to stop the war. But, again, just remember, please what we believed in all the time that there is no way in the Middle East to avoid the Palestinian issue has been proved more than ever in the last two weeks.