“Now is not the time to back down”

Standing Together’s co-director Alon-Lee Green writes to supporters.

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I’m writing this email to you from my house arrest, after spending most of this week in jail. Real jail. Why was I in jail and now in house arrest? Because I dared to march to the Gaza border with hundreds of Jews and Palestinians to protest the annihilation of Gaza and its people, which is how even our ministers describe this catastrophic war. At the march on Sunday I was quickly arrested together with eight activists, and we suffered physical violence at the hands of Ben-Gvir’s police. We were released after Standing Together petitioned the court.

They think that by arresting and abusing us, we’ll feel scared and ashamed. But they’re wrong if they think we’ll be quiet now. The very first thing I’m planning to do tomorrow morning when I can leave my house is to get on a bus to another big protest we are organizing on the Gaza border. Resisting this war, refusing it, is the only option.

Our government is doubling down on efforts to stop opposition to this catastrophe. The police has refused to provide a permit for the rally at the border tomorrow [Friday 23 May], and they’re scared. While they approve right-wing gatherings calling to occupy and resettle Gaza in the same location, they’ve decided not to grant permission to our movement, which represents the call of the Israeli public for the war to end. They know we are a threat to the government’s plans of more death and destruction in Gaza.

But this is not the time to be quiet or to back down. It’s the time for all of us to remind our government that we are the majority, and that we demand another way.

Posted 23 May 2025