European Friends of Israel conference on J14
Last week Daphni Leef, a leader of the J14 social protests in Israel, appeared at a conference in Brussels on the social protests sponsored by the European Friends of Israel, an Israel lobby group.
Daphni Leef, at right last week, as guest of lobby group
EFI is dedicated to improving Israel’s image in Europe:
At the core of EFI’s work is its belief that Israel needs and deserves a better recognition of the close cultural and democratic bonds that its shares with the EU, with the aim of underpinning greater EU support for the continuing challenges it may face over the coming years. But EFI can equally improve and help foster an environment in which Israel’s commercial interests are enhanced.
Leef got pressure not to attend the conference. Ofer Neiman tweeted:
@DaphniNLeef of J14, please do not collaborate with EFP… And so far you haven’t addressed Israel’s apartheid towards the Palestinian people
Leef responds to Neiman’s charge here:
please give me some credit. nobody will invite me anywhere if not them and it’s important go have a critical voice out there
important to have a critical voice out there?
not mentioning apartheid?
is daphni leef afraid?
that if she speaks out?
j14 might lose financial support from well healed zionists?
or of being labeled a self-hater?
justice for palestine?
undeniable?
This J14 movement was quite educational, at least for those of us in the West. This was a mass populous movement of “leftist” Israeli Jews. As far as can be discerned their issue was the high cost of cottage cheese and rents in Tel Aviv. They avoided the Palestinians and the WB settlements like the plague. Just another piece of data supporting the notion that Israeli politics are so broken that it cannot solve their fundamental problem without severe outside pressure.