No subject

(I am writing in English for the benefit of our friends outside
Israel, to encourage them to continue speaking out to get the world to
respond to this. I assume most of my Israeli friends can follow this).

There is a huge number of protests going on around the country. This
blog http://mystical-politics.blogspot.com/2009/01/israeli-demonstrations-a=
gainst-bombing.html
mentions some. One of the most impressive was outside a base of the
airforce, to remind pilots that they are actually killing people, not
just bombing targets. In this protest 21 people were arrested, some of
whom have been in jail for several days.

A significant development is that parts of the zionist left, such as
Meretz and Peace Now, have joined the calls for an immediate halt to
the war- http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=3D1230456536477&pagenam=
e=3DJPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull.
Several thousands protested last night in Tel Aviv -
http://things.co.il/, and thousands more demonsrated in Sakhnin
earlier that day, in what is seen as the biggest protest in the Arab
sector for many years.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=3D29543
Not enough to stop the land invasion, but public opinion is turning in
our direction.

The counter-protestors yesterday told us we had no right to an opinon,
since we don't live in Sderot. It brought me great satisfaction to
tell them of the petition by Sderot civilians against the war (thanks
Sarah Anne for posting it on Jewish Peace News
-http://jewishpeacenews.blogspot.com/2009/01/some-voices-of-dissent.html).

(I resolved not to let anyone silence me, and the next time someone
tries to take my place in the queue at a bank or at a store, I will
definitely scream "fifth column!!!! go to Gaza!!! traitor!!!!". Also,
those who weren't at the rally missed the counter-protestors'
inimitable rendering of HaTikvah, the Israeli national anthem, as some
kind of soccer song, to which some us responded quite naturally by
screaming stuff about the referee's mother. I guess you should have
been there)

Yesterday I spoke with M., a 20-year old student at the Hebrew
university, who is planning a vigil this week in her campus. This is
her first semester ever. In Jaffa, Palestinian activists are
undergoing serious intimidation, including being woken up at night by
the police for trumped up charges, and then released without being
accused of anything. In spite of this they are continually protesting:
last week they set up a mourning site for the civlians who died in
Gaza, on Saturday many of them came to demonstrate in Tel Aviv, and on
Tuesday another protest is planned in Jaffa (יפת
פינת הפגנה
ביפו ביום
שלישי -
ארליך, שעה 6).
Here are some testimonies -
http://www.alternativenews.org/news/english/freedom-of-speech-denied-to-pal=
estinian-citizens-of-israel-20090101.html
Maybe remember this the next time someone tells you how lucky Arabs
are to be citizens of Israel.

The police initially said that it would ban Saturday's demonstration
if participants were to wave Palestinian flags, and it took a decision
by the High Court to allow the protest to happen
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3649253,00.html. This is, of
course, the "flag of the enemy", and Palestinian citizens of Israel
are expected to proudly wave the Israeli flag with the Star of David,
as an expression of their national identity.

I am constantly impressed by people's creativity: a party scheduled
for Saturday was not cancelled because of the war, but it turned
instead into a protest event, with drag kings dressing up as soldiers
and parodying the fighting. A group of Jewish and Palestinian poets
brought out a collection of anti-war poems (in Hebrew - you can
download it here - http://notes.co.il/mati/51225.asp), and organized a
reading outside the house of Barak, the Defense Minister, to emphasize
his responsibility for the massive
killings.http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1052047.html - and these
are only a few instances that I am aware of, mainly from my area (Tel
Aviv).

The media is barely covering it, but as a Tel Avivian friend told me,
she was hardly aware of the protests against the war until 10000
people passed by her house chanting slogans like (my favorite) - Arabs
and Jews refuse to be enemies - . Since many Arabs bused into Tel Aviv
to be present, this felt especially poignant.

Tom Segev wrote in his column this week that "On April 5, 1956, Israel
bombed the marketplace in the center of Gaza City. Fifty civilians
were killed in that attack, including women and children. Then foreign
minister Moshe Sharett thought it was a "savage and stupid" operation.
But David Ben-Gurion, the prime minister and defense minister, and
Moshe Dayan, the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, believed the
Egyptian president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, sought to destroy Israel and
therefore his regime must be toppled, via a defeat in a comprehensive
war. Therefore, the ministers followed a policy designed to increase
tension and escalation, to the brink of war". This was 52 years ago!
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1052024.html
whereas this market in Gaza was attacked last week -
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tom-Pessah/1237509#/video/video.php?v=3D1037=
755058264&ref=3Dnf

We can either continue to accept this logic, that killing hundreds of
people will "teach them a lesson", or we can demand a complete change
of policy - a real honest attempt to end the occupation in both Gaza
and the West Bank, dismantling settlements instead of building new
ones, allowing people access to health care, food, higher education,
travel abroad and the right to choose their own government
democratically just like everyone else. To all those who say "there is
no choice" - why is killing 500 people, very few of whom were engaged
in firing rockets, even considered a legitimate choice? where is this
leading to? only to the death and wounding of more Palestinian and
Israeli soldiers and civilians. Enough is enough. Get up, stand up.

................................................................
--------
Jewish Peace News editors:
Joel Beinin
Racheli Gai
Rela Mazali
Sarah Anne Minkin
Judith Norman
Lincoln Shlensky
Rebecca Vilkomerson
Alistair Welchman
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Jewish Peace News archive and blog: http://jewishpeacenews.blogspot.com
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--=20
Ben West
westbywest at gmail.com
http://savetheinternet.org