The Yesha Council this week launched a new advertising campaign. Under the slogan "They Won't Decide" is a picture of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas next to a picture of Joint Arab List MK Ahmad Tibi, over the backdrop of a photo from a recent anti-sovereignty protest at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv.
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The campaign appeared on various platforms โ including on the front page of this very newspaper. Its purpose was obviously to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu more than harm the people starring in the ad, but the slogan "They Won't Decide" raises a question: Who won't decide, and why, as a matter of fact, shouldn't they? What is more elementary and fundamental than the right of the other โ as an individual or group โ to partake in the decisions that affect his life and future? And on the political level, if Abbas isn't allowed to decide, then why pretend you want to negotiate? And if MK Tibi, who represents about one-fifth of the country's citizens, cannot decide, then why does Israel even need a parliament?
The condescending and aggressive statement โ "They Won't Decide" โ is reminiscent of the debate in Israel during the peace talks with Syria, and the idea of holding a national referendum over the future of the Golan Heights. At the time, there were calls to revoke the voting rights of Israel's Arab citizens on "fundamental issues." Why? You guessed it: Because "they won't decide." And why won't they decide? Because they aren't Jewish. Which leads us to the question: Do we expect every single citizen in the country to be on a certain side of the map or hold the same political views? Are the positions of the other inherently and automatically contradictory to the general interest?
Even the most ardent right-wing ideologues, Menachem Begin or Reuven Rivlin for example, opposed the notion of banning the country's Arab citizens from voting because they knew with certainty that doing so is a dead-end policy that potentially categorizes Israel as a backward, totalitarian, borderline apartheid state.
The members of the Yesha Council, as an ideological group, are within their rights to fight for their ideas, but they cannot promote ideas that cancel out and negate the other and those who are different. Perhaps one day they will find themselves in the exact same situation. We all remember them during the Oslo Accords and Gaza disengagement, and how bitterly they decried being excluded and silenced.
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I would expect the sane majority in Jewish society to come out against this campaign slogan and against this dangerous commentary because canceling the other means canceling oneself. And just as the last election proved, when it comes to attempts to exclude and mute the Arab public, it responds with increasing political participation. Whoever thinks they can prevent Arab citizens from deciding in the Knesset, including in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, will be keep being surprised. We all remember the attempts to terminate Arab representation and raise the electoral threshold, and how those ended. If you favor annexation, go find a more convincing slogan.
