When things are getting worse it's not getting any better
By Beate Zilversmidt To all those whom I consider "friends" (perhaps you don't think of me in such terms, but I have no other friends than you - I came to live here at a late age, making "Aliya" - as anti-Zionist - not to the Jewish State, but to its peace movement, so where could I have made friends if not during weekly vigils or while picketing a ministry, in the bus to a re-planting or rebuilding action, chanting slogans condemning injustice or supporting the rights of occupied Palestinians, Palestinian fellow citizens, foreign workers...).

As you may know, some four to five years ago I came to the conclusion that it is not enough for me to spend my social life in protest action, I MUST also have the right to vote. My becoming a citizen took quite some trouble, since I insisted on not answering the question "are you Jewish" - I fought against this kind of registration useful only for discriminatory purposes already in Holland, where I was born (and where my family experienced the disadvantage of such things being recorded). I refused to answer the "are you Jewish" question in the airport, and also in the Misrad Pnim. So, after some battling I got Lo Rashum (unregistered) as my ethnic identity and the citizenship - which I requested on the basis of having married an Israeli - took letters to the press, to ACRI and in the end even to the ministerial level, but I got it. I am now among the minority of the Oley Holland, since Holland doesn't allow double citizenship and most prefer not to give up Dutch rights.

But I should not speak so much about my credentials and come to the point: to vote for Barak or not to vote Barak, that is the question.

We had this dilemma before. We were not used to it in Israel with its multi-party system (which is by the way the system which I was used to in Holland as well). We are used to the fact that the vote expresses our identity. But the direct elections, whether for President or for PM are in fact based on a bipartisan structure; so we have to do the acrobatics of expressing with the one vote our political identity, and with the other vote only to which of the two camps we want to be counted. On the two extremes of the political spectrum that forces upon people to vote - definitely in the second round, if there is one - for a politician who probably they hate not less then the leader of the other camp, if not more. We hate most someone whom we feel should be our friend, our representative, but in whom we are (or know that we will be) disappointed.

With the leader of the right-wing we don't have a personal account; but the - mostly "hawkish" - leaders of the Labor Party are able to arouse among us feelings of anger, bitterness, even hate. And in order to be able to protest and not vote for them we start finding arguments: let's keep our own hands clean; perhaps Netanyahu will arouse more international pressure; perhaps it is good when it becomes clear how bad Israel is, etc..

On the way to the Orient House, a few days ago, I heard from a journalist covering the Territories something which I want to share with you: she remarked that she learned from Palestinians why it is not true that "when things become worse, they become better; when things become worse, it's simply getting worse." Like in Andersen's Naked King story, we sometimes have to be reminded of truisms. It reminded me of somebody else with whom I spoke during the previous elections, somebody who had been participating in burning the Israeli flag, and for years could not return to Israel. He had a story not so different. An Arab friend had told, and convinced him: "When you do vote for Hadash, why are you not willing to provide Hadash with the framework in which it can at least exert some influence."

This is what I wanted to share with you.You may be involved in similar discussions, with yourself, or with your good friends.

Beate Zilversmidt is from The Other Israel, a veteran peace newsletter from Israel and Palestine.

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