ISRAEL: Israel's marginal parties offer to protect men from their wives and to legalise cannabis

Record ID: 398223

  • Title: ISRAEL: Israel's marginal parties offer to protect men from their wives and to legalise cannabis
  • Date: 21st March 2006
  • Summary: (W2) TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (MARCH 16, 2006) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) BOAZ VACHTEL, HEAD OF ALE YAROK PARTY, SAYING: "Our platform is for ecology, civil rights, human rights, legalisation of cannabis, and minorities right and many other progressive issues that are not being dealt with in the Israeli politics because of the fixation of the political or slash political issu
  • Embargoed: 5th April 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA9EBDUASHCYE7AF2SI2TJI4P68
  • Story Text: Some of the political parties running in the March 28 Israeli general elections offer to protect men from their abusing wives, or to legalise cannabis.
    The leaders of Tzedek Lakol - Ra'ash party are indifferent to polls, which indicate their party is not even registering with potential voters. Nevertheless, they drive around the town of Rishon Letzion in a van with a loudspeaker on its roof, trying to collect supporters on the streets.
    Huge posters showing the party's number two -- Yitzhak Malik -- with his grandchildren are hanging on the walls of his office.
    Malik was just a man fighting the authorities to regain custody of his grandchildren, until he joined forces with Jacob Shloser, a leader of an organisation fighting for men's rights in the family. The two men formed the Tzedek Lakol - Ra'ash (justice for all) party and are trying to get into the Knesset (Israeli parliament) so they can promote their agenda.
    "The party of the men's right in the family and against kidnap of children in Israel and to check again who is really murdered (late Israeli Prime Minister) Yitzhak Rabin," said Shloser, the leader of the party, just before he hit the streets with the party's campaign van to recruit more supporters.
    Despite Malik and Shloser's confidence in their electoral potential, political science lecturer Reuven Hazan does not think that their party, nor any other small parties running for Israel's 17th Knesset, will make any difference in Israel's political map.
    "The two examples you raised (Ale Yarok and Ra'ash parties) are specifically those kinds of parties that have always tried but have never managed to get into the parliament and yes, they won't get in again, and even in the chaotic world of the Israeli political system sometimes there are parties that are on the verge of being a joke," Hazan told Reuters.
    But polls show that not all small parties will be soon forgotten. Ale Yarok (Green Leaf) party is expected to get a seat or two in the Knesset on March 28.
    The atmosphere at the party's headquarters in Tel Aviv is optimistic. The walls of the office are covered with posters calling for the legalisation of marijuana.
    Even Shimon Peres, a senior statesman who is running with the Kadima party and has at least four decades of political experience, consider Ale Yarok as a threat.
    "I want to tell you that from the intellectual point of view, our real rival in this election -- do you know who that is? -- Ale Yarok. They want to spread illusions, a permit to spread drugs and illusions. We have no drugs and no illusions. We are a party with both feet on the ground and with a look forward ('Kadima in Hebrew), towards the horizon," he said during a campaign rally in Tel Aviv
    But Boaz Vachtel, the head of the Ale Yarok party, says his party is not just about smoking joints.
    "Our platform is for ecology, civil rights, human rights, legalisation of Cannabis and minorities right and many other progressive issues that are not being dealt with in the Israeli politics because of the fixation of the political or slash political issues," Vachtel told Reuters Television.
    According to Vachtel, most of his supporters are young Israelis who are secular and liberal. He says that many of his potential voters are tired of traditional security and economic candidates, and are looking to Ale Yarok for alternative leadership.
    When asked if he thinks people will vote for a candidate who does not hesitate to admit he regularly smokes cannabis, Vachtel said that smoking a joint once in a while does not harm a person's functional abilities.
    "Taking a puff from a cannabis cigarette from time to time does not hurt your life as much as the government would want the public to believem and it's a companion for many people who say it's a vitamin for the soul - that helps people pass - especially in Israeli society that is very strenuous due to terrorist activities and so forth," he added.
    For now, Israeli police continue arresting cannabis smokers, and at least until elections March 28, police will continue to crash parties celebrating international marijuana day.
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