Ale Yarok, whose call for “Green Leaf,” ran six times for the Knesset election, never crossed the electoral threshold. Despite this, the party’s founder, Boaz Wachtel, believes he has much to be proud of.
“I think we are the political party in history that has achieved the maximum of its program without entering the Knesset,” Wachtel said.
“We have proven to the political formula that the factor of legalization and medicalization of hashish has electoral value, and consequently this schedule has been followed through the highest parties, left and right. “
In the years since its founding in 1999, the party has gone through a number of other iterations. In 2015, while led by journalist Oren Leibowitz, Ale Yarok reached its zenith by garnering a record 47,000 votes. Six years earlier, at its lowest point. , won 13,000 votes under the leadership of comedian Gil Kopatsch. In the 2013 elections, the party moved away from its singleness purpose and formed a union with the Liberal Party, with a new platform selling separation of state and religion, tax cuts, and environmental protection.
Wachtel, who stepped down as leader of Ale Yarok following elections to the 17th Knesset (2006), recently sought to return to his leadership. In August, a dispute between the former leader and Dekel Hetz-David Ozer, posing as Hetz-David, and the party’s secretary-general, went to court. Among other things, Wachtel demanded that Hetz-David claim he will not sit down with the right, whose return “threatens the country’s long term” and is incompatible with the party’s efforts toward legalizing hashish. Eventually, the dispute was resolved through a compromise, which some would describe as reminiscent of Mapai’s tactics: Hetz-David appointed party chairman and board member, but agreed to resign if he did not enter the Knesset. In that case, Wachtel would return to the presidency. Therefore, after a seven-year hiatus, Ale Yarok is running again for the Knesset.
According to Hetz-David, this long electoral absence was the result of an informed resolution made through Ale Yarok. “In the 2019 elections, the party opted to stop running for the Knesset and instead become a lobbying entity,” he said. Hetz-David was then the party’s executive leader and worked alongside President Oren Leibowitz, author of the website Cannabis (קנאביס. com), a site that provides readers with data on the subject.
In 2020, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to announce the removal of records of criminals for hashish use and possession. Meanwhile, according to a report by journalist Raviv Drucker, the Likud bought classified ads on Leibowitz’s site, in exchange for support from Ale Yarok. Leibowitz and Hetz-David sued Drucker for this filing, but after mediation, the lawsuit was withdrawn.
Hetz-David, a longtime supporter of legalization and a former political consultant, believes he overlooked the party. From the commitment that secured his leadership, he signed an Arab-Jewish pact at a mosque in Tira, an appeal to the Central Election Committee. It was not easy to disqualify all the other lists vying for the 25 Knesset for their “crimes committed” against “the race of hashish users. “After all this, he renounced Ale Yarok and established a unified motion in the spirit of the Abraham Accords. A wonderful outing for less than 3 months. Hetz-David’s new not unusual party won the letter tav to constitute him in the elections, and its ballots bear his full name: “Knowledge of Good and Evil and Covenant of the Abraham Tribe – Ale Yarok and Usrat al-Islamia”.
Behind Usrat al-Islamia (al-Islamia family) is Karem Shbita, a 29-year-old resident of Tira, married with a daughter. Shbita is a career registered nurse who, until recently, worked in psychiatric wards. Box after deciding that he can no longer bear his traumatic visions. About two years ago, he opened Smokey Monkey, which he calls Israel’s first coffee shop, which is also the first Jewish-Arab coffee shop. At the store, Shbita sells prescription hashish holders and patients remain there to smoke on site. “Jews and Arabs sitting, dining knafeh and getting attention: intelligent life, isn’t it?”This is how Shbita described his business in a short documentary about him, produced through the public broadcasting company. .
Well not exactly. Last April, the café caught fire and the government suspected arson. Shbita says he has won threats because of his activism. “The extremists of Islam say smoking is prohibido. es much healthier than that,” he told Haaretz. “The clergy started talking about me on Friday, saying I’m giving young people brains. “
As part of their joint run, Hetz-David and Shbita signed their own “Abraham Accords,” encouraged by the normalization document signed by Netanyahu, Trump, the leaders of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. “This is the most important document signed between Jews and Arabs. Shosha Onima, reggae singer and single mother of Metula, treated with hashish and beaten cancer, despite her name as president of Ale Yarok, Hetz-David is the joint list.
Although Wachtel explains that he “doesn’t adhere as much” to the existing party line, it turns out that he and Hetz-David agree on its basic principles. Hetz-David also says that “the greatest merit of Ale Yarok is that other people know we were right over the years. All hashish users know this, and that’s why they know us.
A crowded field
Ale Yarok is one of many parties that have run for the Knesset over the years on a narrow platform. “These are parties that don’t have a general ideology, but announce a singleness problem,” says Professor Ofer Koenig, a researcher from Israel. He cites a number of examples from the past, adding a party that called for the abolition of the source of income taxes, the Teva (“Nature”) party, which sought to publicize the principles of transcendental meditation, and Ra’ash: “human rights in celebration of the circle of relatives. “
Several single-issue parties are also running in the existing elections: Ometz, which represents the parties at war with COVID vaccines, the Pirate Party (created about a decade ago), Yaron Zelicha’s new economic party, and much smaller factions loyal to the platforms. Alongside those are parties representing express populations: Seder Hadash representing retirees, parties representing the self-employed, and some other party representing taxi drivers. Koenig believes the difference between single-issue and multi-issue parties is negligible, but notes that the literature on the subject makes the distinction.
Like a movie
While Ale Yarok tries to attract new audiences, the Yesh Kivun list, led by Amos Dov Silver, hopes to attract those who focus only on the green leaf. Silver, the founder of Telegrass, released under space arrest last week, 12 “If I a screenwriter wrote this script, I wouldn’t have been able to write it like that,” Silver told Haaretz hours before its premiere. His long-awaited moment of freedom was celebrated, of course, with a joint.
“Unlike other parties, we are one of the few who have falsified receipts for paintings made even before qualifying for the Knesset,” Silver said, explaining why he believes his list has a smart chance of crossing the threshold. “If there’s one thing the prosecution and I agree on, it’s that Telegrass has absolutely replaced the hashish market. We need to continue the revolution. According to Silver, the legalization of hashish is priceless in itself, however, “through hashish, other people are exposed to politics. “slavery that exists here in front of other people who have not harmed anyone. “That is why the party’s platform includes, in addition to regulating the hashish market, problems such as empowering individual freedoms, cutting the burden of life, creating a plebiscitary institution and cutting off the state. participation in the economy.
Silver may have been released, but the limitations placed on him make his candidacy a challenge. While under space arrest, he is prohibited from talking on the phone or receiving visitors. He can only leave his house to attend court hearings, which he intends to use in his election campaign. Next week, he is due to appear in court for an indictment hearing in the case of the thief who opposes him, and before the Supreme Court for an appeal opposing his release conditions.
Another obstacle facing Silver is the ban on contact between him and some other member of the list: Shimon Tohami, who is also charged in the Telegrass case. When he gave the impression to the election committee to present his list, he explained to the committee members that he does not like to sit in front of the media or a judge.
This is the first time the party has stood for election. Silver also attempted to run in 2020, but was disqualified due to ethical turpitude imposed on him following a previous conviction. Silver and his list, as discussed above, only about cannabis. The party’s platform also speaks of the desire to rule over the judiciary and law enforcement. On this issue, they are not alone in the game. “I don’t communicate about the other parties that communicate about governing the system, because I don’t have to get out of what I’ve been through. I descended into the abyss,” says Silver. With all due respect to Netanyahu’s cases, none of them has experienced such brutal deprivation of liberty as I have. They only see the icing on the strength of the accusation. “
Upon his release from Rimonim prison, a friend passed Silver a joint. “I need to give you the greatest gift,” he said. Silver took a puff, raised his head to the sky, and released the smoke from his mouth. The fact that they explained to me as the leader of a scammers’ organization and called a scammer Telegrass depreciates the term crime,” he told the many reporters around him. But with all due respect to the campaign, Silver spent the first weekend after his release resting. “These restrictions have a pretty good compatibility with my weekend schedule,” he concluded.
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