Towards today, March 8, International Women’s Day, last Saturday, March 6, Hadash and partners held rallies in Nazareth and Jaffa “spearheaded by the brave women who have led struggles during the past year, who dare to stand up to injustice and against discrimination, and who demand respect, recognition and equality for all women” — this in the words of a call to participate in the events. At the Jewish-Arab rally in Jaffa, where activists reported being assaulted, Hadash MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Joint List), one of the leaders of the Communist Party of Israel (CPI) said, “The feminist struggle for equality is at the heart of all our other struggles.” Hadash.

Demonstrators gather in Jaffa on Saturday, March 6, to commemorate today’s International Women’s Day. The two placards in the foreground read: “Enough murder of women”; the large banner to the left reads: “Women’s blood is not cheap.” (Photo: Zo Haderech)

In a statement released towards International Women’s Day, the CPI emphasized that “The quest for women’s equality is an essential element in the battle against all forms of discrimination, for the defense of democratic freedoms, against the demolition of homes and dispossession, against fascist tendencies and fundamentalist religious coercion. The interest of all women, Jewish and Arab, Israeli and Palestinian, is to end the policy of settlement expansion and of annexation and oppression, and the end of the Netanyahu government, which will only lead to more bloodshed and war.”

“Towards 2021’s International Women’s Day, the CPI expresses its great appreciation to all its women comrades, to all the women active in the Joint List parliamentary alliance, in Hadash and Tandi (The Democratic Women’s Movement of Israel), to all peace-loving women, and to all women active in class-based, environmental, equality and social change movements.”

Another International Women’s Day rally will be held in Haifa, next Friday, March 12.