On Friday, March 8, a march will be held in Haifa to commemorate and express solidarity with International Women’s Day. The march and rally afterwards are being sponsored by The Democratic Women’s Movement of Israel (Tandi) and Hadash – The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality. In the invitation to the public issued by the sponsors, they write that the event will be “spearheaded by the brave women who dare to stand up to injustice and against discrimination and who demand respect, recognition and equality for women.” Participating in the rally will be Lamis Faraj (Tandi), MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash), the head for the Knesset’s Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality, feminist activist Dror Sadot, Adel Amer, Secretary General of the Communist Party of Israel (CPI); author Lilach Weber, and others.
The march will commence at 1 pm setting out from UNESCO Square in Haifa. From there, the marchers will make their way to Prisoners’ Square on Ben-Gurion Avenue where the rally will be held.
On Saturday, March 9, another public event commemorating International Women’s Day and organized by Hadash and the CPI, will be in Tel Aviv at the Hagada Hasmalit (“Left Bank”) Alternative Cultural Center (70 Ahad Ha’Am Street) starting at 7:30 pm. Participating in this event will be MK Aida Touma-Sliman, Dror Sadot, feminist activist Atty. Keren Grinblatt, Hadash activist Maysam Jaljouli, and Tel Aviv municipal council member Atty. Moria Shlomot, former head of the Peace Now movement.
On the eve of International Women’s Day, the CPI has 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 by the Netanyahu government, which will only lead to more bloodshed and war. The CPI actively encourages the phenomenon of conscientious objectors to give impetus to the public campaign to end the occupation and reach a just and stable peace. At the core of this peace is an independent Palestinian state to be founded within the borders of June 4, 1967, with its capital in East Jerusalem, and living in peace alongside Israel.
Towards International Women’s Day of 2019, the CPI expresses its great appreciation to all its women comrades, to all the women active in Hadash and Tandi, to all peace-loving women, and to all women active in class-based, environmental, equality, and social change movements.