Sami Michael, President of ACRIDear Friends,
After years in which we have customarily viewed ourselves as “the only democracy in the Middle East,” this year’s Passover holiday is marked by heroic struggles for liberty and human rights waged in Tunisia, Bahrain, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Syria, Iran, and Jordan. Masses of civilians summoned their courage, raised their voices in protest, and confronted the authorities – risking their lives for human rights.
In Israel, stormy public discussions about freedom of expression, revoking the still-existing Emergency Regulations, and introducing progressive taxation brackets are taking center stage, reminding us all of some basic concepts on reciprocity between a sovereign and its citizens.
At the same time, the defenders of “the only democracy in the Middle East” frequently confront those who plot to erode it from within: dark forces in the Knesset persist in their attempts to restrict the freedoms of speech and assembly; nationalist politicians try to enhance the alienation and exclusion of Israel’s Arab citizens; the occupation takes an ever-stronger hold, trampling human rights values and pushing us ever further into estrangement from one another.
Yet optimism draws not only on external sources. Watching our democracy threatened, many citizens from various circles stood up and courageously protested. Some of them chose to struggle against the wrongs of the occupation by joining the Action-a-Day project, sponsored by ACRI; others endorsed petitions to the High Court of Justice against racist and discriminatory legislation; some wrote open letters, others staged demonstrations. Many Israelis refuse to succumb to the evil spirit that threatens our human liberties and are determined to fight it.
In the past year, ACRI promoted important struggles for the very nature of the State of Israel – fighting racist legislation, attempts to silence the freedom of expression, and the oppression of migrant workers; promoting public transparency, social rights, and the right to privacy; and organizing the Human Rights March on International Human Rights Day, which forged a coalition of human rights supporters from a wide variety of groups.
I sincerely hope that the courageous struggle of the freedom seekers, who stand up heroically in the face of tank columns or bullet barrages, will newly inspire Israel’s human rights defenders as well. As the Holiday of Freedom approaches, I see a ray of light in the chance that true democracy will exist in Israel, and that it will be surrounded by stable democracies in our neighboring countries. I wish our neighbor heroes success in their huge struggle for liberty. Good neighborliness and a stable peace can be sustained for long only between free nations.
I wish us all a happy spring holiday season.
May we and our neighbors live in true liberty.
Sami Michael
President
Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI)
