I'm not a religious person; it has been a long time since I visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. But after National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's provocative proposal was approved by the prime minister, nothing is more important to me today than Al-Aqsa.
Since the end of 2018, when I resigned from the Knesset, I have tried hard to suppress the memory that I once served in Israel's legislature. I turned in my keys to the Knesset because of the law that declares Israel the nation-state of the Jewish people, but the legislation that disturbed me most from that period was the so-called Muezzin Law, which places restrictions on muezzins' calls from loudspeaker systems at mosques.
For three months, I fought it with Yehudah Glick, someone who in every other regard was my ideological opponent. We were asked to present an alternative bill, so we drafted a reasoned and thorough proposal. Despite this, and contrary to the understandings we had reached, the Muezzin Law was approved in a preliminary vote. This affair rattled our nerves and made me stop believing in the rules of the game in the Zionist parliament.
So it is. Anyone who represses his or her memories will in the end be overwhelmed by them because the awful reality always outweighs ordinary logic. The more we fight racism, the more it grows. The more we battle these soldiers of destruction, the more they sharpen their swords. We try to build while they come back with a D9 bulldozer.
We must stop sparring with the people taking land and money in the pursuit of their messianic and political interests – people lacking any humane feelings. We must simply remove them from power. They must be thrown from the top of the stairs into the cellars of oblivion.
Ben-Gvir is their leader. He behaves like the last of the thugs, like a criminal asking for trouble. He destroys every sign of humanity, and he does it under the auspices of his leader, Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister covets power and is constantly striving to extend his reach so that nothing is left untouched. His motives are political and opportunistic, devious and dangerous.
Instead of achieving "total victory," he's bringing Israel to collapse by joining a messianic sect that longs for a state devoid of moral restraints and based on Jewish law. These people should be thrown onto the ash heap of history. If we fail, we won't be able to restore sanity to a society that has become bloodthirsty.
The people spreading the poison are intensifying their efforts and driving stakes into this holy ground. Mother Earth cries out for help, but that's not enough. They must be uprooted, the government must be replaced before it destroys everything and tramples us all without mercy.
It's obvious that none of them ask themselves how they can harass people who showed bravery and risked their lives on October 7 to save the lives of others. They give no credit and show no appreciation for our shared fate. Their way is to spread hatred and to demonize people. In their eyes, Arabs are despicable and wicked.
They didn't know how to protect the country and never developed a comprehensive national security strategy. Now they're refusing to repair the damage, instead choosing to take on more and more supposed enemies by inciting against the families of the kidnapped, saying no to Joe Biden and destroying any chance for "a day after" in Gaza.
They try to pull the wool over our eyes, depress us, make our lives miserable, and at the end of the day Bibi – his hair neatly combed, his face made up nicely and the TV studio well lit – delivers messages appropriate for a nation of blockheads rather than the people of the book.
Now he's opening a new front – this time a community that has shown restraint and responsibility during wartime: Israel's Arab community. This is a priority now: to prevent the country's Arab citizens from worshipping during Islam's holiest month, Ramadan.
This cruel, racist decision – which places restrictions on Muslims coming to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the month-long festival – is designed to harm the deepest feelings of Muslims (and not only them). It comes amid the harassment of Christian clerics (including spitting on them) and discrimination against minorities of every stripe, including my fellow Druze, who have been stung by the Nation-State Law and the so-called Kaminitz Law against illegal construction.
Once, I fought the Muezzin Law; today my struggle is an internal one. My insides are turning over and my tears are flowing, none of which will be healed until we remove the thugs, instigators, snitches and racists.
We are all Al-Aqsa today. Secular or religious – and whether Jews, Arabs, Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bahais or any other religion. This is total war against the forces of destruction.