Sami Michael - Social and Political Outlook and Activities

Social and Political Outlook and Activities

Michael is known for his deep commitment to peace, justice and human rights. He is on the board of various councils. Michael is a true left-winger, both socially and politically. While still in Baghdad, he was aware of the social gaps in society, and since his youth, he has been active in the struggle for equality and human rights. In Israel he has never ceased to work for human rights.

Michael was amongst a group of leaders of the Communist underground in Iraq. At this time there was no written material on Communism in Arabic, which meant they had to translate everything from English. During his time in Iran Michael joined Tuda, the Iranian Communist party. Once in Israel he joined the Israeli Communist party; he was a youth leader and worked on the editorial board of Al Itihad and Al Jadid (Arabic language newspapers of the communist party) where he worked as an editor for four years. At the same time, he had a weekly column in which he wrote stories and articles under the pseudonym "Samir Mared". In 1955, a short time before the mass disillusionment with Stalin he ended his affiliation with the communist party, and concluded his work on both papers: "…because they transgressed against all my ideals. Today I am a Marxist." "Communism was a beautiful illusion; despite the disillusionment I will always believe in the human spirit and justice," said Michael. "I joined Communism as a Jew and I left Communism as a Jew", wrote Michael in Unbounded Ideas.

Since leaving the Communist party Michael chose not to belong to any political organization "in order to keep his conceptual independence as an intellectual". Not once has Michael said: "I am a Party of one man."

Michael was amongst the first in Israel (1950's) to call for coexistence between Jews and Arabs, signing the first petition of artists and public figures calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Michael was invited to give lectures in Cairo directly following the signing of the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. During the first Palestinian Intifada (uprising) he was amongst a delegation of intellectuals that broke through IDF barriers that besieged Hebron. In 1994 Michael, was invited together with Palestinian author Emil Habibi to Tunis (at a time when Israelis could not travel there) sponsored by UNESCO and the Tunisian Ministry of Culture for a conference in Carthago on Arabic Literature.

Michael is known as a peace activist. "There are many definitions of war in different countries. According to my experience, I find that war is a type of disease that damages both body and soul and horribly distorts the images of people. I, myself am a product of two cultures, (Arab and Jewish), and to this day I do not understand the destructive power which has brought the two cultures to life and death confrontations. There is so much beauty and wisdom in the two cultures. It is so easy to be clever and give advice from afar, so hard to be wise and sane from within the flames."

Michael established together with activities people a movement against Meir Kahane (an advocate for the Arab transfer) in Ma'alot, where he lived for 10 years (1982–1992)

Michael was a partner in the struggle against the expulsion of Palestinian South Hebron Mountain cave dwellers: "The state of Israel was established thanks to international recognition which was granted following the holocaust and the deportations, stating that the Jewish people were entitled to establish a national home, where the proverbial wandering Jew and the refugee will find safe and secure habitat. This would be evil if we were to expel the caves inhabitants, if only because they don't have any defense or savior. The expulsion of these wretched people undermine our moral right to sit as free men and women in our secure homes in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa. There is abominable personal terror, but the use of militaristic power to banish citizens from their shacks and from their caves is no less abominable. Event at Tzavta Tel Aviv, 2002

In 2007 Michael, together with David Sasson, created the Forum of the peace initiative with Syria. The forum included Intellectuals, academics and business people such as Yaakov Peri, Amnon Lipikin Shahak and Alon Liel. An extract of the declaration composed by Michael: "We gave up Sinai and in return we gained peace with Egypt. We call upon the government of Israel, upon those amongst us who are responsible for designing policy, to listen to the voices that are making themselves heard from Damascus. Peace with Syria means peace with the region in which we live. The price of peace is much cheaper than the bitter and destructive price of war."

He has written extensively on social and political matters for Arabic and Hebrew newspapers and occasionally for foreign newspapers. His stance against stereotyping, prejudices and racism is also reflected in his novels. Even in his first novel, All Men are Equal – But Some are More (1974), he writes of these prejudices within Jewish society in Israel. The novel was influential for the second generation of the immigrants who saw Michael as a spiritual leader. The name of the book became a well-known saying.

On the ever widening social and economic gap in Israel, Sami Michael has said,

"This is dangerous shortsightedness. Poverty is a hot-house for the collapse of democracy and culture. Poverty is not a natural disaster. The rich need to understand that widespread poverty threatens, in essence, the existence of social-order. The most secured mansion with all its inhabitants, will not endure if the mansion is built in the center of a shantytown."

When the annual report of ACRI came out on International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2007, it noted:

"Author Sami Michael, the association's president, said upon the release of the report that racism was so rife it was damaging civil liberty in Israel. Israeli society is reaching new heights of racism that damages freedom of expression and privacy." "A hundred years of conflict has given us a majority poisoned by ideological education –a racist majority even more extreme than its leadership." 10. At the Hebrew Book Fair in Tel Aviv when Michael made a solitary demonstration against racism in Emanuel (a settlement town):

"Let's call a spade a spade: The lords of Emanuel are racists who imperil the values of Judaism and democracy. This separation fence of defilement, which shady rabbis plot to plant in our souls, must be uprooted… I will definitely demonstrate during the celebration of Hebrew Book Week, for a school is called 'the house of the book' in Hebrew… Every man, woman and teenager will be welcome to join me to extirpate the racist crime in Immanuel today – and should we remain silent, in all of Israel tomorrow."

About the immigrant and foreigner:

"The fact that we are talking about Christians and Buddhists and those without religion does not negate from them the possibility to be helped as the poor of my city. How could we, as Jews that groaned under the evils of fascistic regimes, adopt the same fascistic measures towards those who are prepared to come here (Israel) to look after our sick and elderly and to strengthen our factories? And what about the children of these foreign workers that were born here and whose only language is Hebrew, they no longer have another homeland? And in whose name exactly are we entitled to trample on these people and their rights? We that claimed the right and the duty, to take care of the migrant, the orphan and the widow?" 10

For years Michael was a volunteer in the ERAN organization – an emotional/mental crisis hotline – Israel's only emotional first aid service provides a confidential 24-hour hotline, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Michael also lectures voluntarily in prisons to prisoners, both Jews and Arabs.

In 1987 the Israeli High Court of Justice appointed Michael as arbitrator to decide on a matter of education and multiculturalism. The subject was widely covered in the press and his decision was a precedent in Israel which still stands.

Michael is chairman of the council of AHI, the Council of Iraqi born Artists for encouragement of research, literature and art in Israel (Ramat-Gan).

In the early 1990s, he was on the editorial staff of the Jewish Quarterly, published in London.

In 1998, he was elected president of The Society for Solidarity between the People of Israel and the People of Iraq, a non-profit society founded by key public figures from cultural, academic and intellectual circles in Israeli society. The group, attracting much attention in Israel, the Arab world and elsewhere, stresses that a clear distinction ought to be made between the Iraqi oppressive regime and the Iraqi people, who have unjustifiably borne the horrifying consequences of the ongoing conflict in the region. The request of the group, however, to be registered as an official non-profit organization was denied by the Interior Ministry’s registrar, claiming that Israeli law forbids “contact with 'enemy states'.” In April 2003 the founders reestablished the Society. Michael was reelected as its president. In the same year after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, Michael was invited to join the group of composers of the new Iraqi constitution. As he did not reside in Iraq nor had he for many years, he felt that it would not be right. He did however have one request which was to insert one important clause: the defense of minorities.

Michael has close relations with many Iraqis, both in Iraq and throughout the world. His novel Aida (2008) is set in Iraq in the days of Saddam Hussein. Friends from Iraq sent him up-to-date pictures of the country so that Michael could see the Iraq of today. He wrote thereon in the acknowledgements of the novel: "I will not forget the good people who extended me their help which was priceless, but I am not able to mention their names as it may put them in danger, amongst them university professors businessmen and women and journalists who risked their freedom to help, and where one of whom was actually arrested for this literary mission."