Right-wing NGO may join housing protest if Hatikva sung

"My Israel" chairwoman says protest should be for all Israeli organizations, organizers should not stop demonstrators from singing national anthem.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Housing protest in Jerusalem 311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Housing protest in Jerusalem 311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Right-wing NGO "My Israel" offered on Friday to join Saturday night's mass housing protest – but only if the organizers agree to sing Hatikva at the demonstration.
"This should be a protest for all Israeli organizations, left and right, because centralization and monopolies do not know the difference between right- and left-wing," My Israel Chairwoman Ayelet Shaked said. "Therefore, we decided to join the struggle."
However, she added that the "minimum requirement for joining should be obvious. The protest 's purpose and participants should be Israeli, and its organizers should not stop demonstrators from singing Hatikva, as they did last week."
"Victory is within reach – together we'll win," Shaked said.
The organization wrote on its website and Facebook page: "Members have asked us in recent days: Where are we? Millions of nationalist Israelis deal with the same economic problems, the same high food prices and the same rent rates."
"What stops us from joining the protests is that many of its organizers are left-wing post-Zionists who speak openly against IDF soldiers, even during wartime," the site reads.
"We, members of the Zionist-nationalist camp, cannot collaborate with people who oppose the IDF and the Jewish State. We would be happy to work side by side with left-wing Zionists who support the State of Israel, but think territory should be given up. They are our brothers, even if we disagree with them," My Israel explained.
A number left-wing Zionist organizations, such as The National Left, waved Israeli flags at last week's protest.
However, the organization wrote that the activists involved in the housing protest "do not want Israel to be a Jewish state."
"If the heads of the protest are not prepared to sing and play Hatikva, we do not want to be a part of them. We will find a better way to improve Israelis' lives," the organization wrote.