Next month, the internal elections for the leadership of the Labor Party will take place. Arutz Sheva spoke with Dina Dayan, the only challenger to the gallery of generals and politicians who are competing for the leadership of the Labor Party, and who also made history as the first haredi candidate for the leadership of the party of David Ben Gurion and Golda Meir.
According to Dayan, the general street is very sympathetic to her, but the problem is the way in which party members and media refuse to accept her and ignore her. She mentioned a video she produced, in which she asks to speak above the heads of the politicians and the media, and to talk about the real hardships which members of the Labor Party were supposed to be dealing with. "I got thousands of responses and views, and it is an amazing feeling [to hear from] the people who said that they were waiting to hear that voice [from the Labor party]. But from the party I get [nothing] but an icy silence."
"The point which I am raising is difficult [for the Labor establishment] to digest. My argument is that throughout the world the left is supposed to represent the weaker sectors of the population, the workers, the poor and the helpless," Dayan continued, describing the significance of the discourse she is conducting as part of her campaign, and how she hopes that her campaign will serve as a wake up call to the Labor leadership to start paying attention to the needs of the periphery and weaker sectors of society.
"In fact, I and others like me have been voting for 40 years for those who are economically putting an end to our lives, and when I look to the left I see people who do not represent me at all, so I have to run for Labor," she said.
According to Dayan, the solutions to the problems of society cannot be found on the right, which has been in power for most of the past 40 years. "Mizrahi Jewry is moderate. The worldview of those who live in the periphery is not that of the religious extremists and is not as interesting as what happens beyond the Green Line. But it is important to me and I want things to change for the better. Where I come from, the situation is getting worse and there is poverty, filth, and neglect, which is the real threat to the State of Israel."
"The problem is that the whole country is run by welfare organizations, non-profit organizations, and beggars. It is an unparalleled shame. Are you in power so that I should beg to feed my children? To ask for help from charity organizations of the haredim or the religious Zionists? I don't want your charity organizations to fix the economy in the State of Israel, but the State itself [to do it.]
"I want the starting point for my child to be equal to another child in Ofra or in northern Tel Aviv. A child in Mitzpe Ramon receives NIS 5,000 a year from the state and the local council, and his neighbor in Ramat Negev receives NIS 21,000. Why? Because he is from a development town?
"We need a more socialist state, a welfare state, and not one where indirect taxes are paid at the grocery store, where basic goods can not be bought, where the elderly are freezing in the winter, and two million people live below the poverty line. Who will change it? The Likud? The Likud that brought us to this situation?" she asked.
Dayan does not agree to the proposal that she should form an independent party, because she believes that the solution will come only through a ruling party, and now there are two such contours, the Likud and the Labor Party, and she is therefore fighting for the Labor leadership. "The problem is that the left has lost its direction and what it is supposed to represent. There is the liberal and left-wing Likud that is supposed to bring a welfare state, but it's not like that."