Sally Abed: Haifa City Council member shows how Israel remains paralyzed-by-choice
Why is it so hard to do the right thing?
Haifa, a city that prides itself on peaceful and respectful relations between Arabs and Jews, has been seeing demonstrations since Oct 7th that challenge this. Granted, there have been clashes in the past, but the country is now fighting for its life and one could expect that citizens would rally together when we are all being threatened.
I think it is reasonable to expect that.
I think it is reasonable to expect that members of city council would also promote unity among the various sectors of the population in the city for which they make decisions that determine quality of life or, in the current situation, the very protection of life.
Sally Abed is a city councillor who has taken upon herself to speak for Israel’s enemies under cover of bothsidesism. The party she represents is called Rov Ha’ir, that translates into English as ‘The City Majority.’ It appears that their platform is similar to the mission of ‘Standing Together,’ a grassroots Arab-Jewish organization against ‘the occupation’ and all that follows from that. Abed is on their staff and responsible for fund raising.
Not only is Abed on city council, she is also a member of Mayor Yona Yahav’s coalition and chairs the Municipal Museum Board.
Not a stranger to controversy, most recently, after the tragedy that befell Majdal Shams, Abed uploaded a series of three “X” posts in English. Every time I read them, my blood boils:
If you are horrified by what happened in Majdal Shams yet has not said anything in the past 10 months about the 15k+ children killed in Gaza, or the 10 in the last 2 days, or the 17 people just today, then you really need to take a second and think about your selective sympathy
Don't feed this governments hypocracy about the death of Syrian children in an occupied (now annexted) Golan Heights. They never intended to keep these children safe, nor equal. They are hijacking their tragic death to earn some imaginary point of victimhood.
They are not the victims- we are - all of our children, on all sides of the borders. If you don't see that, then you're not serious about a real solution that will allow us and our children to LIVE in this land.
Here is one example of the kind of responses her posts got on “X”:
I took a second to think about things. Then I realized there’s a difference between attacking children on purpose and their unfortunate death as part of war. Actually, it didn’t even take me a second. What should I do with the rest of my time?
and another:
I'm horrified by your retarded propaganda post. There is no and will never be a symmetry between evil Hezbollah terrorists and our brave IDF soldiers
As expected, some of these comments drew evil responses about how the IDF is worse than Hezbollah and Hamas, about the occupation. All the usual stuff that makes up intelligent conversation and exchange of ideas on social media. Nice to see the trigger for that, in this case, was a Haifa councilwoman.
How did her peers on the council react to such provocation?
According to HaifaKrayot News, those close to Yahav admit that he does not agree with her comments (well, I am very glad to hear that, Yona) but that he cannot prevent members of his coalition from voicing their opinions on social media.
When trying to get more specific answers to questions, such as where is the red line beyond which Abed would no longer be welcome on the city council, his spokesman’s office told me they do not preoccupy themselves with statements expressed by council members and I should write to Abed.
Of course, I had already written to Abed. She did not respond. I needled her a bit. To no avail.
In spite of the wall of silence I encountered, there was evidence of extreme dissatisfaction with her (to put it mildly) among her peers. According to the Hebrew language Haifa news site, Colbo News, Likud council member, Yaniv Ben Shoshan said that she should be ashamed of exploiting the murders of Druze children, who are not Syrian children, but Israeli, just like his own, and to do so to make a political point.
Because of the stormy exchanges among council members on their WhatsApp group, the group was closed to member messages, perhaps only temporarily.
Councilwoman Tatiana John (Haifa Beitenu) told mynet that she was not surprised by Abed’s posts and asked how she can be allowed to remain in the coalition and hold public office.
Abed has not only uploaded provocative “X” posts. In May, she organized a ‘Standing Together’ event in downtown Haifa to raise funds for Gazan children and, according to mynet, she has spoken before American leftist groups, calling for boycotting Israeli firms and imposing a weapons embargo on the state. As reported in Colbo, the police stopped the fund-raising-for-Gaza event and the municipality confiscated all the equipment used by the organization but there have apparently been no consequences for her overseas promotion of arms embargo.
Shai Glick, CEO of B’Tsalmo, an organization devoted to fighting for human rights in the spirit of Judaism, submitted a request to Yahav that he dismiss Abed from the coalition. Glick told me:
Instead of her taking care of Jewish and Arab residents of the City of Haifa, she chooses to publish in English, turning to populations outside of Israel to vilify and harm the State of Israel and the IDF. It is inconscionable that during a war a member of the council will stick a knife in the back of city residents she is supposed to represent. She must be dismissed from the coalition immediately.
It does not look like that is going to happen, even though, in Abed’s exercise of her right to free speech she is supporting Israel’s enemies and those marching in the streets of the world asking for weapons deliveries to Israel be stopped.
But why should the mayor of Haifa do what the Supreme Court has, countless times before, prevented the Knesset ethics committee from doing — keeping those who support terrorism against the state from being allowed to run for and hold public office?
This is how we have anti-Israeli members of Knesset who repeatedly glorify terrorists and this is how we have a woman, who defines herself as a proud Palestinian claiming to serve both the city in which she lives and the sector of which she is part, calling for the premature end to a war that will leave Israel vulnerable to Oct 7ths from any direction our enemies may choose. Because that is what happens when you equate the IDF with terror organizations, when you suggest that Israel is committing a genocide that has been debunked even by the UN, when you say there is no difference between children targetted deliberately and children used as human shields, when you deny the borders of the state in which you live.
Abed did not respond to my requests for comment, but she did respond to mynet. I’ll let her have the last word here and you decide what you think:
A child is a child is a child. It is heartbreaking to hear the news about innocent children being hurt — the children of Kibbutz Beeri, or children in the Deir al-Balah refugee camp in Gaza, or the children of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights that was conquered from Syria in the 1967 war. And even worse, that this extremist government is also showing signs of setting their sights on the children of Beirut. I invite all Haifa residents to join me at the weekly demonstration at Horev against this messianic and violent government that endangers us all.
Well, on second thought, I’ll have the last word. What is her solution? A two-state-solution. Sounds nice in theory to those who have no idea that that is not the ultimate goal of Sally Abed and other proud Palestinians — their goal is a one-state-solution. Even if what she wants means the end of the Jewish states, as long as she does not incite to violence or operate against the state, she is entitled to her opinion. Speaking in the USA in favour of a weapons embargo on Israel seems to have crossed that line. This should be enough to disqualify her.
Not disqualified, once she has been elected to public office in Haifa — not in Gaza City or Beirut or Damascus — her duty is to promote the well being of Haifa. Since, during this war at least, her activities as a leader in ‘Standing Together’ is in direct conflict with the post to which she was elected, she should be made to choose between them.
If she is unable to choose, then there should be some process by which the choice can be made for her by the municipal leadership. When the mayor chooses not to choose, he shows us how even at the local level, where citizens have more direct impact on the government than at national level, our leadership remains paralyzed in face of demonization and harm to the collective called Israel.
Until when?
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It's for reasons/people like this that, several years ago a loyalty pledge law was considered.
It's one thing to be entitled to an opinion. It's a VASTLY different matter if that opinion calls for the destruction of the country in which you live and in which you serve in some official capacity. The latter is absolutely not acceptable.
It’s very interesting how, in 2004, Avigdor Lieberman suggested incorporating Arab towns in the Triangle area into a proposed Palestinian state. The residents of those towns vigorously opposed the idea and wanted no part of it. I wonder if Sally Abed would be happy with the idea.