Recently Haaretz’s weekend edition published a long interview, seven pages in the Hebrew version, with the veteran Communist Party of Israel leading member Tamar Gozansky, a former Hadash MK. She entered the Knesset in July 1990 as a replacement for veteran Hadash MK Tawfik Toubi and retained her seat in the 1992 elections, after which she chaired the Knesset’s joint committee on early childhood. She was reelected in 1996 and again chaired the joint committee on early childhood. Following a third re-election in 1999 she became chairwoman of the committee on the rights of the child and the special committee for school dropout rates. Prior to the 2003 election, Gozansky announced Hadash leadership that she would not seek re-election
“Most Israelis don’t see the link between the war in Gaza and the decades-long conflict with the Palestinians and occupation – and that’s a cardinal problem,” says Gozansky to Haaretz. “The life-long Communist hasn’t lost hope for a radical change in this country, even after October 7”, agreed journalist Shany Littman. Above excerpts of the interview.
Tamar Gozansky in the front-page of the Haaretz weekly magazine, January 17, 2025
Where would a sort of uprising begin at this moment in Israel? There isn’t even strong opposition.
“The circumstances don’t always make change possible. Sometimes you find yourself in a reactionary wave, and then you must hold on. Not to be afraid to speak out and not be afraid to do whatever is possible. It’s a concrete question: What now? What do we do? In periods like the present one, organizations arise. For example, I participated in the event at which the Peace Partnership was established [in Haifa in March 2024] – a Jewish-Arab organization that opposes the war in Gaza and is doing important things. I am worried, but I am not fatalistic. I don’t think that anyone today can say exactly what’s going to happen in Israel in another year or in another seven years. We act according to the existing conditions. If the conditions are not those of a democracy, we will act underground.”
“When it comes to political and social activity, you don’t say that if the outcome isn’t exactly the one you wanted, you’ll go home,” Gozansky observes. “That’s not how it works. You won’t succeed just because you’re right, and you won’t sweep people up with you only by distributing copies of ‘The Communist Manifesto.’ To get your foot in the door with people you need to serve them, to do things that are beneficial for them. Whether they will or will not remember that you did that, I don’t know. That’s why we in Hadash [and other people opposing the war] are participating in demonstrations for the return of the hostages and on the same occasion also speak our mind about other issues. If you keep your distance and stick with your own – you don’t achieve anything.”
Even though the mainstream media didn’t interview Gozansky much, even when she was an MK, somehow her activities became widely known. “Many people knew what I was doing,” she says. “I traveled a lot around the country, I spoke to people about what hurt them, and they listened to me.”
Where do you get the motivation to act on behalf of people who don’t understand that what you’re doing is for their own good?
“People do understand that it’s for their benefit. Maybe they don’t see the whole picture, and maybe they don’t draw political conclusions, but it’s not true that people don’t see. In history, there is no direct route that leads from Point A to Point B and so on. History is a winding road. If my friends and I give up and say what we are fighting for won’t happen soon, then our whole idea will be forgotten, it will no longer be an option. The revolution in Russia succeeded ultimately because the circumstances enabled it to happen. There was World War I, Russia lost, masses of soldiers returned from the fronts battered and hungry, in tatters, and at that moment communism offered a response. But you can’t foresee when such a moment will arrive. Lenin didn’t sit around and say, ‘It will happen the day after tomorrow.’ He couldn’t have known. I can’t know, either. Could I have known that there would be a million people on the streets in demonstrations against the government’s judicial overhaul, and now for freeing the hostages? No. Because it wasn’t something that had happened before.”
There were hundreds of thousands. But that didn’t help either.
“How do you know it didn’t? According to the polls, Netanyahu will ‘fall from greatness’ in the next election; Likud will not win the same number of seats. So, there are two possibilities: that there will be an election, and we will see this drop in seats, or that Netanyahu, in light of the emergency situation and the wars, will say that this isn’t the time for an election. In which case will we have to fight for one to take place. It’s impossible to foresee things. I can say that if the Palestinian issue isn’t resolved, there will be more and more wars. I can say that the occupation now of parts of Syria is stupid. What exactly does Israel want to achieve there? It’s suicide.”
The same basic issue, she adds, can be applied to the case of Jewish-Arab relations. “Can Jews and Arabs live together, or are they fated to endure a perpetual war, as the right wing contends? If you think it’s a matter of perpetual war, then everything can be justified. They have to be moved; territory has to be seized.”
“The real test regarding the question of relations between Jews and Arabs generally arises during wars,” Gozansky says. “During the entire history of Israel’s wars, the Communist Party always had the ‘honor’ of being against – and for that reason was denounced. And not only denounced, but also a target of violence, like the attempted murder of Communist Party leader an MK Meir Vilner or to plant explosive devices under MK Issam Makhoul’s car” – a reference to a failed 2004 assassination attempt attributed to right-wing extremists.
“If you try to apply humanism to the conditions of life in Israel, as Yeshayahu Leibowitz did, the conclusion is that nationalism is the worst possible thing. If its price is perpetual war, then the result is horrific, as he described it: the destruction of the whole democratic structure.”
What particularly disturbs Gozansky today is the possibility that the current Knesset will enact a law that will lead to eliminating Arab citizens’ right to vote and to be elected. “If such legislation is enacted, which effectively implements the [provisions of the] nation-state law, that will be one of the stages on the road to the end of democracy,” she says, referring to the possibility that lawmakers might be asked to declare their loyalty to the Jewish state, or that there will be an effort to outlaw any future Palestinian state.
“This is a genuine concern. [Justice Minister Yariv] Levin, with Netanyahu behind him, is working on this. So maybe I have issues with capitalism and many other things, but what are we going to do now – in the face of this threat? If the Communist Party, which now exists within the Hadash framework, is not able to be represented in the Knesset then we are in a totally new reality. But we’re trying to prevent that.”
“The current Knesset is far more violent against anyone who thinks differently [from them],” she says. “When I was in the Knesset, it was clear that one behaved democratically, even if one didn’t agree [with others]. In this Knesset, it’s if you don’t agree with us – then get out of here.” She has only good things to say about Ofer Cassif. “Cassif is doing great and amazing work. He has far broader knowledge than most of the people in the Knesset. He tells it like it is and isn’t cowed.”
How is the Jewish-Arab partnership in Hadash sustaining itself after the events of October 7, 2023?
“We condemned the October 7 massacre from the first moment but always connected it with the reality of life in Gaza. October 7 shows what becomes of people who are closed in, imprisoned, in distress, hungry and largely helpless. Obviously, that can be exploited, and there were those who did that. Many of the Gazans who entered the country on October 7 came just to take things. There were those who perpetrated horrendous murders, of course. And there were some who just came to loot, to take things out of terrible distress.”
“At the emotional level, it’s insane. You’re apoplectic. But I’m also apoplectic at the ethnic cleansing that is going on in northern Gaza. That’s the difference between me and others. How many times was Shujaiyeh invaded, how many times was Beit Lahia conquered? The difference between me and those who do not have a Jewish-Arab mindset is that they condemn October 7 but don’t condemn the ethnic cleansing. You can’t generate social change like that.”
“The Palestinians must have a place to which they can return,” Gozansky continues. “Where is that state supposed to be established? At the present stage it’s clear that it must be established in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, that those two areas should be part of one Palestinian state. In 1947 the map was drawn differently. Fine. Those were the conditions of 1947. Today the data is different. We are arguing with those who think that it’s possible to remain happily in all the territories and things will be wonderful.”
Despite what happened in Gaza?
“Yes. The Jewish fundamentalist movement here, and the Palestinians’ fundamentalist movement, are both detrimental to the interests of the peoples. When Hamas came to power, the first thing they did was throw people who didn’t agree with them off the rooftops. So, we have no problem in coming out against them. They are tyrants. From our point of view, the Palestinians deserve a state.”
