Meretz activist defects to Arab party

At the Hadash campaign headquarters in Tel Aviv, Sharon Dolev, 36, explains why she abandoned Meretz to help an Arab Israeli party garner Jewish votes in the March 28 general elections.

Until recently the former leader of Meretz Youth Movement, Dolev, says she had been contemplating leaving the party she grew up for two months. But last week’s publicized meeting between Meretz Chairman Yossi Beilin and rightwing politician Avigdor Lieberman was her final blow.

“A chairman of a leftist party getting chummy with the leader of a rightwing, nationalist, racist party is too much,” she told Ynet.

Dolev conceived Meretz’s initiative to run buses on Saturday in the 90s and served as the leader of the party’s youth movement until 2000.

Lately she decided that Meretz was leaning to the center of the political map and decided to find a new home with Hadash.

“When I was very active in Meretz, I never felt like I am in a party that suites me most. And today with Hadash I feel I am in a party that represents the real left,” she says.

If you never felt like home at Meretz why did you stay in the party 22 years?

“Because I wanted to be part of an establishment, a party, where there is little chance to influence and therefore I compromised my beliefs only to have a chance to influence and forward the message. But lately Meretz has been sliding more and more to the center and this was no longer fitting me. I therefore decided to move to Hadash. I did so because of the centrality of Arab-Jewish relations in the party. There is a real partnership there.”

But Hadash has no chance of having an influence, while Meretz has a chance of being in government. More so Hadash is seen as an Arab party with a handful of Jews.

“The question is which principles Meretz will give up this time to be in government. Meretz has become over the last few years an elitist branch of Labor. He who can live with this should move straight to Labor and to Amir Peretz who is more socialist that Meretz. It is true that Hadash is perceived among Jews as an Arab party, but when I look at the line-up of their list I see three Jews in the first 10 names when in Meretz there is one Jew in the top ten who is not elected for his views but because he is likely to get more votes than others.”

But still Hadash is seen as an Arab party when Meretz is seen more and more as an Arab-Jewish party.

“I prefer to be with Arabs fighting for their principles and for change instead of Arabs like those with Meretz who enjoy the situation, see no need for change and are not ready to say out loud ‘this is not OK and this has to be changed.’ Meretz’ Arab members are ready to speak of swapping territories (with the Palestinians) to the media, and this sounds like the Right. I hope that my place in Hadash will encourage Jews to support the party.”

As someone who for years was in a party that supports human rights how can you be in Hadash which has no clear say on issues such gay rights?

“As I used to be in the opposition with Meretz where I argued with Yossi Sarid, I will argue with Mohammad Barakeh (Hadash MK). I believe that Hadash are more open to change and I sense this while working on women issues in the party’s charter. As for homosexuals, there is the pink-red forum where a lot of activities are being initiated on this front. Hadash is more open and modern than thought. It is true that they have old-fashioned and firm ideological and political principles, but they are renewing in many things like the environment for example.”

Roee Nahmias contributed to this report