Aida Touma-Sliman
@AidaTuma · Israeli opposition & former officials
Knesset profile: Aida Touma-Sliman →
Aida Touma-Sliman is a Hadash-Ta'al MK long active on women's rights and Arab-society issues.
I have complete confidence in the women and men of the Joint List. We all bear a great responsibility. In the face of the government of fascism, war, racism, and crime, our public needs a united, determined, and steadfast political force. Good luck to the Joint List. The responsibility is great, and so is the hope.
Translated from HebrewDuring the period of the genocidal war in Gaza, parliamentary tools were also mobilized, foremost among them the Ethics Committee, in order to punish, silence, and even attempt to remove Knesset members because of their political positions; freedom of movement was restricted as a result of the personal threats against us. There was also a sustained attempt to turn political persecution into a legitimate governing tool. I said these things yesterday at the conference “Pay with your career or stay silent,” hosted by Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights, and the Academy for Equality, which addressed the personal and professional price paid by those who refused and refuse to remain silent in the face of the war, incitement, and political persecution. I also shared candidly that even at moments when I myself was subjected to political persecution, I found it difficult to engage with it. How can we focus attention on what we, as elected public officials, are going through, when at the same time my people in Gaza are subjected to genocide, faced with unimaginable scenes of destruction and killing, starving children, women burying their families, and under the terror of settlers and the fascist escalation in the West Bank? And alongside all of this, systematic persecution is also being carried out against Arab society in Israel: students suspended from their studies, workers dismissed, women and men doctors, women and men lawyers, artists, and educators who found themselves threatened in their liberty, livelihoods, and future, simply because they voiced a human and political opposition to the killing and devastation. These are not isolated cases, but a policy whose purpose is to create fear and instill a dangerous equation: pay with your career or stay silent. This is an attack on freedom of expression, freedom of thought, and the very right to express a political position. We will not accept this equation. We will continue to stand alongside everyone persecuted for their positions, fight against silencing and intimidation, and defend the right of the members of our society to live, work, study, and make their voices heard without fear and without persecution.
Translated from Hebrew