Thank you all for coming here today. I'm excited. I'm not used to speak in English in front of a large audience, but I want to say some important things.
My name is Daniel Shalgi Shira Hirsch. I am the partner to Michal and father to Or, Maya, and Noam – my daughters. I am a very worried citizen of Israel. I have been living in Amsterdam for the past five years.
I believe we are a part of Israeli society, even if we look at it from abroad. We have a significant role to play and influence Israel's future.
My grandparents immigrated to Israel from France after the Holocaust. They were persecuted by the Nazis simply because they were Jews.
As I walk the streets of Amsterdam, I encounter many stumbling stones. These bronze plates on the sidewalk near the houses where Jewish people lived. We all know these small memorials to individuals and families who were taken from their homes and killed just because they were Jews.
My grandparents survived the holocaust.
They came to Israel to establish a model society.
They were among the founders of Kibbutz Nahshonim.
My other grandfather was a foreign volunteer. He came to fight in the War of Independence, then immigrated to Israel, and was among the founders and builders of the Israeli industry.
So many people immigrated to Israel from so many countries with so many hopes and dreams, wanting to establish a model society based on the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
Going forward many years
I am ashamed of so many things that the Prime Minister of Israel, the ministers, and the government have been doing for many years and much more in the last nine months.
The Prime Minister of Israel – Bibi Nethanhu – appointed as a minister a man who admires a mass murderer. A person with undisguised racist views
This prime minister also appointed to be a minister a man who calls members of the LGBTQ community animals. A man who doesn't want his wife to be in a room with an Arab woman after giving birth. A minister that calls for the deletion of an entire Arab village.
In Israel government today – my homeland, there is more racism than in any democratic country government that I know of.
What a Shame.
BUSHA
In the occupied territories terrible acts of violence, injustice, and inequality are taking place. Day after day. And many Israeli ministers live there.
Lets take a look at a pro-government protest that took place this week:
1 – A few years ago, a jewish man burned a complete arab family to death.
At a pro-government protest this week, people walked around with signs and stickers that this man was right.
Did the prime minister condemn it? No! He didn’t!
What a Shame. BUSHA
2 – Years ago, a man murdered dozens of people solely because of their religion and their different faith from his own. In their place of worship. He did it in order to destroy any chance for peace.
At a pro-government protest this week, people walked around with signs and stickers that this man was also right.
Did the prime minister condemn it? No! He didn’t!
What a Shame. BUSHA
3 – A man murdered the prime minister – Yitzhak Rabin – to prevent him from making peace and ending the occupation.
At a pro-government protest this week, people walked around with signs and stickers that this man was also right.
Did the prime minister condemn it? No! He didn’t!
What a Shame.
BUSHA
Even the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces, the army that many of us served in with a sense of mission, including me as an officer. Even this army has over the years become an occupying army, an army with soldiers who abuse the Arab population and even soldiers who shoot live ammunition at innocent people.
It is so wrong and so sad.
All these things, these events, these happenings are caused because occupation corrupts.
You can't rule over people by force without hardening your heart without turning a blind eye to injustices.
It is impossible to rule over other people by force for decades without beliefs and actions seeping into personal, civil, and political life in Israel itself.
It is so wrong and so sad and shameful.
But now there is hope again!
The biggest protest ever – a protest for democracy came in.
A massive movement that calls for democracy.
A movement that lights a beacon of hope.
A movement that calls for freedom, equality, and democracy and gives hope to Israelis and non-Israelis in Israel and the whole world.
The movement that might save Israel from its bad government.
A movement that says:
Democracy or rebellion (דמוקרטיה או מרד).
A movement that says:
There's no half-democracy (אין חצי דמוקרטיה).
This movement is magnificent it is significant.
I salute this movement's leaders and all the people in Israel and worldwide who give so much for this cause.
Unfortunately, many of the people in this movement find it hard to say outright:
There's no democracy with occupation.
They say: democracy or rebellion (דמוקרטיה או מרד),
they say: there's no half democracy (אין חצי דמוקרטיה),
but they find it hard to say: there's no democracy with occupation.
But it is a fact there's no democracy with occupation.
There's no equality and justice for only part of the people.
I understand it's a process. We all understand it's a process.
There are stages.
And you don't achieve all the goals at once.
But in my eyes, part of the hope for the future of Israel should be in the clear statement that we are fighting for democracy and equality in Israel for everybody, and we know that there's no democracy with occupation.
I call, we call for freedom, equality, justice, and democracy for all.