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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Israel: Cannabis on the Ballot for Single-issue Party Hopefuls
Haaretz Wednesday 26 Oct 2022 “I think we are the only political party in history that has achieved most of its agenda without making it into Knesset," Wachtel says. "We proved to the political system that the issue of cannabis legalization and medicalization has electoral value, and as a result this agenda was adopted by most parties, on the left and the right." In the years since its founding in 1999, the party has undergone a number of different iterations. In 2015, while headed by journalist Oren Leibowitz, Ale Yarok hit its zenith by winning a record 47,000 votes. Six years earlier, at its lowest point, it recieved only 13,000 votes under the leadership of comedian Gil Kopatsch. During the 2013 elections, the party departed from its single-issue focus and formed a union with the Liberal Party, with a new platform promoting the separation of state and religion, tax reduction and environmental protection. Wachtel, who resigned as Ale Yarok's head after the elections to the 17th Knesset (2006), has recently sought to return to its leadership. In August, a conflict between the ex-leader and Dekel Hetz-David Ozer, who goes by Hetz-David and served as the party’s secretary general, reached the courts. Among other things, Wachtel demanded that Hetz-David declare that he will not sit with the right, whose return “threatens the future of the country” and is inconsistent with the party's efforts toward cannabis legalization. Eventually the dispute was settled through a compromise, which some would call reminiscent of Mapai tactics: Hetz-David was appointed party chairman and member of the board, but agreed to resign should he fail to make it into Knesset. In such a case, Wachtel would return to the chairmanship. And so, after a seven year hiatus, Ale Yarok is running for Knesset again. According to Hetz-David, this long electoral absence was the result of an informed decision made by Ale Yarok. “In the 2019 elections, the party chose not to run for Knesset anymore, and to instead become a lobbying entity,” he explains. Hetz-David served as the party’s director-general at the time, and worked alongside chairman Oren Leibowitz, creator of the webpage Cannabis (??????.com), a site which provides readers with news on the topic. In 2020, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his intention to promote the expunging of criminal records for the use and possession of cannabis. The ex-premier also said that Ale Yarok head Leibowitz would co-chair a committee, alongside then-Justice Minister Amir Ohana, to look into the matter. Concurrently, according to a report by journalist Raviv Drucker, Likud purchased ads on Leibowitz’s site – in return for Ale Yarok’s support. Leibowitz and Hetz-David sued Drucker for this exposé, but following mediation, the suit was withdrawn. Hetz-David, a long-time proponent for legalization and former political consultant, believes that he has saved the neglected party. Since the compromise which secured his leadership, he has signed a Jewish-Arab pact at a Tira mosque, an appeal to the Central Elections Committee demanding to disqualify all other lists running for the 25th Knesset for their “crimes committed” against “the race of cannabis users.” After all this, he resigned from Ale Yarok and established a unified movement in the spirit of the Abraham Accords. A fine output for under three months. Hetz-David's new joint party was given the letter tav to represent it in the election, and its ballots bear its full name: “Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Abraham Tribe Pact – Ale Yarok and Usrat al-Islamia.” Behind Usrat al-Islamia (al-Islamia Family) stands Karem Shbita, a 29-year-old resident of Tira, who is married with one daughter. Shbita is a registered nurse by trade who - until recently - worked in psychiatric wards. He left the field after he decided that he could no longer bear its traumatizing sights. Some two years ago, he opened Smokey Monkey, which he calls Israel’s first coffeeshop, which is also the first joint Jewish-Arab cofeeshop. At the shop, Shbita sells medical cannabis to prescription holders, and the patients remain there to smoke on location. “Jews and Arabs sitting, eating knafeh, and receiving treatment – the good life, no?” was how Shbita described his endeavor in a short documentary about him, produced by the public broadcasting corporation. Well, not exactly. Last April, the coffeeshop burned down, with authorities suspecting arson. Shbita says that he has received threats due to his activism. “The extremists in Islam say smoking is forbidden. But substances like Percocet or other opioids are far more dangerous and synthetic. A plant is far healthier than those,” he tells Haaretz. “Clerics began talking about me on Fridays, claiming I was brainwashing the youngsters.” As part of their joint run, Hetz-David and Shbita signed their own "Abraham Accords" – drawing inspiration from 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. It should have led to a Nobel Prize,” Hetz-David explains. Last week the party announced another change, with Hetz-David resigning from Ale Yarok’s leadership, handing it off to Shosha Onima, a reggae singer and single mother from Metula who was treated with cannabis and overcame cancer. Despite her title as Ale Yarok chairwoman, Hetz-David is the one heading the joint list. Though Wachtel explains that he “doesn’t connect as much” to the party’s current line, it seems he and Hetz-David agree on its fundementals. Hetz-David also believes “Ale Yarok’s main advantage is that people know we were right throughout the years. All the cannabis consumers know this, and that’s why they believe us.” A crowded field Ale Yarok is one of several parties which ran for Knesset over the years on a narrow platform. “These are parties which don’t have a comprehensive ideology, but promote one single issue,” says Prof. Ofer Koenig, a research fellow at the Israeli Democracy Institute. He names a number of examples from the past, including a party which called to abolish income tax, the Teva (“Nature”) party, which sought to promote the principles of transcendental meditation, and Ra’ash – the “men’s rights in the family” party. Several single-issue parties are also running in the current election – Ometz, which represents those opposed to COVID vaccines, the Pirate Party (established about a decade ago), Yaron Zelicha’s new economic party, and much smaller factions devoted to various platforms. Alongside these are parties representing specific populations – Seder Hadash representing retirees, parties representing the self-employed, and another party representing taxi drivers. Koenig believes that the difference between single-issue and multi-issue parties is insignificant, but notes that the literature on the subject makes the distinction. Like a movie While Ale Yarok is trying to appeal to new audiences, the Yesh Kivun list, headed by Amos Dov Silver, hopes to attract those focused solely on the green leaf. Silver, the founder of Telegrass, was released to house arrest last week, 12 days before the elections, after three years in custody. Silver is accused, among other things, of running a criminal organization, criminal brokerage, drug dealing, and enticing a minor to deal drugs. His supporters see him as a political prisoner. “If I was a screenwriter writing this script, I couldn’t have written it like this,” Silver said to Haaretz, a few hours before his release. His long-awaited moment of freedom was celebrated, of course, with a joint. “Unlike other parties, we are one of the few coming with solid receipts of work done even before qualifying for Knesset,” Silver said, explaining why he thinks his list has a good chance of crossing the threshold. “If there’s one thing that the prosecution and I agree on, it’s that Telegrass has completely changed the cannabis market. We want to continue the revolution.” According to Silver, legalization of cannabis is not valuable by itself, but “through cannabis, people are exposed to the political enslavement that exists here against people who have done no wrong to anyone.” This is why the party’s platform includes, alongside regulation of the cannabis market, issues such as empowerment of individual freedoms, reducing the cost of living, creating a plebiscite institution and reducing state involvement in the economy. Silver may have been released from custody, but the limitations imposed upon him make running for office a challenge. While under house arrest, he is forbidden to use the phone or have visitors. He is allowed to leave his home only to attend court hearings, which he plans to leverage for his election campaign. Next week, he is scheduled to appear in court for an evidentiary hearing in the criminal case against him, and at the Supreme Court for an appeal against his release conditions. Another obstacle facing Silver is a ban on contact between himself and another member of the list – Shimon Tohami, who is also a defendant in the Telegrass case. When the latter sat before the elections committee to present his list, he explained to the committee members that he is usually not keen on sitting in front of the media or a judge. This is the first time the party is running for election. Silver tried to run in 2020 as well, but was disqualified due to moral turpitude imposed upon him following a previous conviction. Silver and his list, as mentioned above, do not deal solely with cannabis. The party’s platform also touches on the need to reign in the justice system and law enforcement. On this issue, they are not alone in the game. “I don’t talk about other parties who speak of reigning in the system, because I don’t have to prove what I went through. I went down to the abyss,” Silver explains. “With all due respect to the Netanyahu cases, none of them ever experienced such brutal deprivation of liberty as I did. They only see the icing on the prosecution’s power." Upon leaving Rimonim Prison, a friend handed Silver a joint. “I want to give you the most beautiful gift,” he said. Silver took a puff, raised his head to the sky and released the smoke through his mouth. “The fact that they defined me as the head of a criminal organization and called Telegrass criminal cheapens the term crime,” he said to the many journalists surrounding him. But with all due respect to the campaign, Silver spent the first weekend following his release in rest. “These restrictions fit my weekend schedule pretty well,” he concluded. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/2022-10-25/ty-article/.premium/cannabis-on-the-ballot-for-single-issue-party-hopefuls/00000184-0f8f-d161-a99c-ef9f4e070000
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