Attorney Eran Hermoni, a founder of the new left-wing movement Smola (Leftward), thought it was important that there be an Israeli flag at the Casa Veranda pub on Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard. On the night of Sept. 9, the pub hosted the beginning of a new movement. Hermoni borrowed the flag from Beit Berl, where he works, and hung it temporarily on one of the walls in the dimly lit bar. It may have seemed out of place, but Hermoni insisted that it be there. He thinks the flag and other national symbols have been appropriated by the right and are considered exclusively theirs. Now is the time to bring them “back home.”

The Smola movement on the Zionist Israeli left was founded during the days of Operation Protective Edge; it emerged out of a real sense of distress experienced by Hermoni and his friends. They could no longer take the demonstrations of the radical left against Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers.

They felt that the extremists on the left were painting them in post-Zionist hues, causing electoral harm to the mainstream leftist parties.

An emotional Facebook post titled “Don’t call them leftist,” posted by Hermoni on July 26 quickly gained a following. He wrote, “I’m … a hard-core leftist with every fiber of my being. I’m a leftist by definition, in my heart and in my soul, and I say it with my head held high. One of the things that really infuriates me is those reports in the media (or in social media) that appear from time to time and as a matter of course. They feature ‘left-wing’ activists getting into confrontations with IDF soldiers, ‘left-wing’ demonstrations against the IDF in which Hamas flags are raised and academics from the ‘left’ who call for an international boycott of Israel. And there are many other reports like this. The people whom the media consistently refers to as ‘left-wing activists’ have absolutely nothing in common with me.”