Merav Michaeli, the leader of Israel’s left-wing Labor party told POLITICO in an interview that “something very bad is happening on the left.”

“It became very, very clear in this [October 7th] attack that people who consider themselves to be democratic, progressive, are supporting a totalitarian terror regime that oppresses women [and] the LGBTQ+ community,” she said on the sidelines of an international meeting of Socialist and social democrat parties in Spain.

“The more you go to the left, the more there’s a big mix-up. Something went very wrong on the way. I fail to see how shouting jihad and calling for a mass murder of Jews is pro-Palestinian. It’s important for me to emphasize to them that when you do not very strongly go against Hamas, and what it does in Gaza including to its own people, you are complicit.”

“When I’m speaking to people outside of Israel, then they need to understand that even the biggest peace activists and even the biggest believers in the two-state solution are now under a horrible attack.”

“[Calling for a] cease-fire now is giving permission to Hamas to continue rearming itself, continue stealing food, water, medicine and fuel from its own people and yes, rebasing itself.”

“They [Gazan civilians] are dying because Hamas is using them as human shields, because they have based everything from equipment to missiles to their headquarters in the midst of the most civilian functions there are,” Michaeli said.

She criticized the lack of support among EU politicians for the release of some 240 hostages kidnapped by Hamas. “I would have loved to hear more about that than just a mention, at least as much as they’re talking about the humanitarian needs in Gaza,” she said.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)