If you haven't heard, yesterday was a pretty dark day in Israel's history. Members of the Likud party and members of several far-right political groups turned a demonstration against immigration into an all out race riot, smashing windows of African businesses and assaulting Africans.
These attacks came after Likud MK and Defense Spokesman Gen. (Ret) Miri Regev called africans in Israel a "cancer in our body." And today, a Likud MK said:
The infiltrators must be distanced immediately. We must expedite the construction of temporary detention facilities and remove Africans from population centers.
That was Likud member Danny Dannon arguing that Israel should round up an ethnic minority and put them in camps. The images from last night are generally horrific, as are the reports. I won't post most of them here, you can find them yourselves, but I will post what I found to be the most striking image:
A man holds an Israeli flag next to a shop, popular with African refugees, that has been ransacked.
But there is some good news.
You see, the Israeli right wing wasn't the only group out in force last night. The Israeli Left was completely incensed. They staged a counter protest, carrying signs that said "We are all refugees." Last night they responded to the race riot by blocking off access to Likud Party HQ for several hours.
Anti-Racist Israelis blocking access to Likud HQ
The woman who tweeted that photo was one of hundreds of Anti-Racist activists reacting immediately to the racist actions of right-wing Israelis. She and other activists tweeted:
Protestors are chanting "#Fascism shall not pass", only that it already has. #Israel
Hundreds protesting in front of the Likud hq in Aviv against the pogroms, violence and incitement against #Refugees. #Israel #Racism
4 Israeli parliament members took part in today's pogrom. Danny Danon Yariv Levin Miri Reggev-Likud& Ronit Tirush-Kadima #Kristallnacht2012
This goes straight to the top. Netanyahu et al should be made to pay for tonight's violence #kristallnacht2012
The image above, and some of the tweets come from an incredible young woman who goes by
Leehee Rothschild, who snapped the photograph outside of Likud HQ last night. She said on twitter today that the Israeli military fired live rounds her while she protested with Palestinians in Nabi Saleh.
So when Russia Today called the racist attacks in Israeli Kristallnacht, they were quoting the words of the Israeli left.
Other than telling the truth about the Israeli left, what can we do?
Here, we have people who are engaged in direct action against the Israeli occupation, literally putting their lives on the line regularly.
All the international press shows us of Israel is the racist attacks, they don't show us the response from the Israeli left, and they don't tell us that the youth of Israel are risking their lives in direct actions against the occupation.
So my question is, how can we help? I'm going to keep telling the truth about the ignored Israeli left, but how can we help them fight what they rightly call "fascism?"
It's leading me to conclude that the left, around the world, must start organizing globally if we want to start having an impact on global problems. But how?