Hadash MP Touma-Sliman: Israel Must Be a State with Equal Rights for All its Citizens

Last week, while visiting the European Parliament on the invitation of the Portuguese Communist Party, MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash) give an interview to Rosa Luxemburg Foundation on the escalating repression against Arab-Palestinians in Israel, the Gaza war, Netanyahu’s plans for territorial conquest, and the shrinking space for left-wing forces in the country. Above some excerpts of the interview.

As an Arab-Palestinian citizen of Israel, you have been very vocal about the discrimination and inequality facing your community in the past, even referring to Israel’s 2018 Nation-State Law as an “apartheid law”. How have things changed since 7 October?

 

Communists from Israel and Cyprus demand an end to the war in Gaza

Protest in front the UK military bases in Cyprus, January 14, 2024

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of AKEL (Progressive Party of Working People, Cyprus), Stefanos Stefanou, met Friday, May 17, with MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash), member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Israel, with whom the situation in Gaza and in Israel in general was discussed. 

 

In statements made after the meeting, both Stefanou and Touma-Sliman called for an end to the war and the implementation of the resolutions of the UN on the Palestinian issue.

Israel: Communist MP Aida Touma-Sliman sanctioned over statements against Gaza War

Aida Touma-Sliman and Ofer Cassif (Photo: Zo Haderech)

Knesset Ethics Committee suspended Wednesday a leading Communist Party of Israel lawmaker, MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash) from the plenum sessions and committee meetings for a period of two months over statements she made against the war in Gaza.

The Touma-Sliman’s post read: “And they still insist: The ‘most moral army in the world’ does not harm innocents and does not attack hospitals!” That evening, the army spokesman issued an official statement saying that the military is not striking [Palestinian Hospital in Gaza Strip] Al-Shifa.” Touma-Sliman said her words were taken from “repeated Palestinian testimonies in the hospital” that she had given and subject to “the right of freedom of speech given to members of Knesset.”