Hadash leading member, MK Ayman Odeh took Thursday the pages of The New York Times and said: “Israeli babies, Palestinian babies, they all cry the same, laugh the same. Regardless of their mother tongue, they all communicate in the same way, and want the same simple thing: to live a good life. As leaders, as adults, we have a responsibility towards our young ones to allow them to have a good life. That can be possible only if we work towards peace in our region.”
“Democracy for all”, MK Ayman Odeh at a demonstration against far-right government in Kaplan Street, Tel-Aviv, March 2023 (Photo: Zo Haderech)
Under the title “What It Takes to Choose Life Over Revenge”, Odeh call for global action to end the deadly siege of Gaza and prevent far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from using the ongoing conflict as an opportunity to permanently displace Palestinians living in the occupied territory.
“Mr. Netanyahu has used every day in the prime minister’s office and every ounce of his power to try to convince the world that safety for Israelis must come at the expense of safety for Palestinians and to block all pathways to peace,” wrote Odeh. “He has sold a fairy tale about the unbeatable might of the Israeli military and his own ability to manage a violent system in which Palestinians have gone to sleep under occupation and siege and Israelis have woken up with an uncertain future. Now he is adding to the civilian death toll.”
“Those of us who are Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel are uniquely positioned to see through his bluster and warmongering to the failure he really is—truths that the past several days have laid bare,” he added. “We see the extent to which he is willing to burn our shared homeland to the ground rather than bring about long-term solutions that will deliver safety and a good life to all of us, Palestinians and Israelis alike.”
Odeh implored the international community to “step up in the face of unspeakable tragedy and choose life” by taking several immediate steps, “including calling for a cease-fire to stop all civilian deaths and preventing Mr. Netanyahu’s government from any attempt at pursuing the long-term forced displacement of Palestinians; a humanitarian exchange of prisoners to bring home all civilians held hostage, especially infants, children, and older adults; and restoring the flow of basic human necessities to all the people of Gaza.”
To secure peace over the long-term, he argued, nations must end their “support and approval for the Israeli military occupation and siege of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.” Odeh’s op-ed came on the 13th day of Israel’s latest bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip. On Thursday, relentless bombardments on Gaza continued, resulting in an additional 307 Palestinians killed. This brings the cumulative fatality toll in the Gaza Strip to 3,785, including at least 1,524 children, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Hundreds of additional fatalities are believed to be trapped under the rubble. Palestinian population in Gaza is facing a massive humanitarian crisis as Israel restricts the delivery of critical aid, including fuel that the territory’s overwhelmed hospitals desperately need. It also came amid escalating violence in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli soldiers killed nine Palestinians on Thursday, including a 16-year-old boy.
In his New York Times op-ed on Thursday, Odeh wrote that “there is nothing in this world—not even the cruel occupation—that can justify harming innocent people. Nothing. I have always categorically opposed harming civilians, and I will continue opposing it with every fiber of my being. It is a violation of our collective humanity.”
“I have friends who were killed and who lost children in Hamas’ murderous attack on October 7,” Odeh added. “I have friends who were injured and killed in Gaza in the days that followed. My heart has broken, along with the people of this country and people around the world, for each and every family searching for loved ones, grieving them, or trying to bring them home.”
Odeh isn’t the only Knesset member who has sharply criticized the Netanyahu government’s assault on Gaza. On Wednesday, the Knesset Ethics Committee suspended Hadash MK Ofer Cassif for 45 days for comparing the Netanyahu government’s policy in Gaza to the Nazis’ “final solution.”
“They use the terrible, horrifying, unacceptable carnage in the struggle of Israel as an excuse to attack Gaza as part of the realization of this fascist subjugation plan,” Cassif, told Democracy Now! in an interview days after the Hamas attack. In response to his suspension, Cassif said that “even in these difficult days, I will not be silent and will continue to fight for the public and the principles on whose behalf I was elected—peace, equality, and justice for all.”
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