“The majority wants a hostage deal that ends war”
An interview with Standing Together’s National Field Organiser Uri Weltmann.
This interview was originally published in Spanish at Aporrea. The English translation was published by Green Left.
Israel has been rocked by an explosion of protests in recent weeks, with trade unions staging a general strike on September 2 and an estimated 750,000 Israelis taking to the streets on September 7 to demand a hostage deal with Hamas.
The protests came in the wake of news reports on August 30 alleging that Hamas had executed six more Israeli hostages. Family members of the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7 blame Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not doing enough to secure a deal that could have halted the fighting and seen them return home.
Standing Together is a left-wing Israeli Jewish-Arab social movement that has been campaigning for a permanent ceasefire and lasting peace. Federico Fuentes spoke to Standing Together national field organiser Uri Weltmann about the protests and their impact on Israeli politics.
Could you give us a sense of the recent mass protests and general strikes of the past couple of weeks?
Following news that Hamas militants had executed six Israeli hostages imprisoned in an underground tunnel in the Gaza Strip, anti-government protests in Israel, which have been ongoing for months, exploded in size. Hundreds of thousands have since filled streets in Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and other major cities, confronting police, blocking roads and facing arrest.
The Histadrut, the main trade union federation in Israel and which has a rather conservative leadership, declared a general strike in support of the mass protest on September 2. Large sections of the Israeli economy were affected: teachers did not show up for school and kindergartens, municipal workers did not report to work in city halls, and all international flights were cancelled as airport workers went on strike.
After several hours of general strike, the labour courts issued an injunction ordering workers to resume work, which the Histadrut leadership respected. Nonetheless, major disruptions rippled through Israeli society.
The mass anti-Netanyahu protest movement enjoys widespread support among Israelis, as demonstrated by numerous public opinion polls. While the main catalyst of this movement is the demand to free the Israeli hostages through a negotiated deal, the fact is that any such deal can only be achieved through a ceasefire agreement that ends the current war.
This notion was reinforced by United States President [Joe] Biden in a May speech where he called for resuming negotiations based on releasing all Israeli hostages in exchange for a permanent cessation of hostilities.
When people in Israel rally behind the protest movement for such a deal, they understand this. In a recent i24news poll, 52% of respondents said they support a hostage release deal that includes ending the war and a complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza.
Netanyahu remains isolated, as he tries to sell the Israeli public the lie that a hostage deal is possible while continuing the war.
The focus of the protests has been on the Israeli hostages and a ceasefire. What about the issue of mounting Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza and increasing military incursions into the West Bank? Are these issues also being raised either by the general protest movement or by the left, including Standing Together?
The death toll in the Gaza Strip has been staggeringly high and continues to rise on a daily basis. The scale of human suffering there is beyond words. International experts warn of an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe given the lack of proper food and medical supplies.
At the same time, Israeli soldiers and violent settlers have shot dead hundreds of Palestinians in what is now the deadliest year in recent times in the West Bank too.
The mainstream of the protest movement avoids addressing these realities, which are not only horrific in themselves but create conditions that will undermine the future wellbeing and safety of people in Israel for years to come.
Left-wing organisations and movements — including Standing Together — are intervening in the mass demonstrations to raise these issues, each with their own style, strategy and theory of change.
Standing Together activists in major cities have been marching in “purple contingents”, handing out bilingual signs in Hebrew and Arabic, and chanting anti-occupation slogans such as “In Rafah and Sderot, children want to live”.
Our main message is that a policy of perpetual war, escalation and occupation is not only depraved and inhumane, but also dangerous and unviable. As a Jewish Israeli, the actions of my government deeply undermine my interests, rather than serve them.
And it is not only Netanyahu’s far-right government but the entire Israeli political establishment that is united around policies that reject the very basic realities of the land on which we live: there are millions of Palestinians in this country, and none of them are going anywhere; and there are millions of Jews in this country, and none of them are going anywhere.
The only hope for safety and security lies in an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement that ends the Occupation, allows Palestinian people their right to national self-determination in an independent state, and respects the rights of both peoples to live in freedom, justice and independence.
This is why Standing Together, as a movement that operates inside Israeli society to change the political climate, shift peoples’ attitudes, and persuade and convince our communities, refrains from moral lecturing. Rather, we seek to politicise people around our shared mutual interests.
For example, is a new war of aggression against Lebanon and Iran, which military experts estimate could lead to thousands of Israeli deaths, in our own interest?
Do we as a society benefit from the enormous military expenditure needed to maintain not only a large standing army, but also the settlement project in the West Bank, when this eats up the budgets for education, public transportation and healthcare?
What is more important for our daily lives: that a far-right settler organisation is allowed to drive Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah out of their homes to settle there or that we are able to afford our own homes?
And is it worth dying for the messianic fantasies of fundamentalist politicians from the parties of “Jewish Power” and “Religious Zionism” currently in coalition with Netanyahu?
When difficult political issues are posed as questions of interests, and not as abstract moralities, it is easier to get people to discuss and, sometimes, reconsider.
Prior to the recent protests it seemed Netanyahu was surging in polls. Could these latest mobilisations mark a turning point in terms of the war and Israel politics or is it too early to tell?
Netanyahu’s popularity has fallen since October 7. A solid majority (72%) think Netanyahu should resign (44% say immediately, 28% say at the end of the war).
While his current coalition has a small minority, with 64 out of 120 seats in the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament), all serious polls since the start of the war show his Likud Party and coalition allies winning a combined 42‒54 seats in a future election — meaning a minority unable to form a government.
This political reality has shaped the course of the war. Netanyahu knows that a hostage deal means the end of the war, and that the end of the war means his far-right allies will leave his coalition, thereby forcing early elections that he is expected to lose.
For him, it is not only a matter of political survival but personal survival. Netanyahu is facing trial over several charges of corruption. If he is forced to leave the Prime Minister’s office, the trial will resume with haste, and he might find himself in jail.
This is why Netanyahu is gambling on buying time by not moving towards a deal, while maintaining a facade that he is still negotiating.
He is hoping that a [Donald] Trump victory in the [United States] November elections will create favourable conditions for him. Or, sadly, hoping for the death of the remaining hostages, whether as a result of Hamas executions or Israeli army attacks.
These internal political dynamics are impacting on how the war unfolds and affecting people throughout the Middle East.
Standing Together is a small political movement of only a few thousand members, including both Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel. Yet we are determined to play a part in shifting the balance of forces in a way that hastens the end of the war.