[E-rundbrief] Info 1037 - Social protests in Israel or "war against terror"

Matthias Reichl info at begegnungszentrum.at
Fr Aug 19 18:01:03 CEST 2011


E-Rundbrief - Info 1037 - Adam Keller (Gush Schalom, Israel) and 
Social Protest activists, with a selection of messages posted on the 
Official Housing Protest Facebook Page (Israel): Crazy Country - A 
changed agenda? (Social protests in Israel or "war against terror" 
against Palestine ?)

Bad Ischl, 19.8.2011

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

================================================

Crazy Country

A changed agenda?

Adam Keller

Friday, August 19, 2011

Someone in the wild Sinai peninsula took a decision and sent a big, 
well equipped squad to infiltrate across the border into the Israeli 
Negev, attack buses and cars and engage in running battles with 
soldiers and  shoot and kill and kill indiscriminately. And presto, in 
one minute the agenda changed and the public mood changed into a state 
of emergency and war at the gate and in all communications media there 
was no more talk of social protests, nothing but terrorism and army 
and security issues.

It had been a difficult month for Prime Minister Netanyahu – truly, a 
very hard month. A Prime Minister under siege, caught in a bind. Tent 
encampments and more  tent encampments sprouting up all over the 
country, demonstrations and protests and more demonstrations. The 
demands for affordable housing and for Social Justice and for a 
Welfare State occupy the center stage, and the Free Market economics 
which Netanyahu had worked so hard to foster since he was Finance 
Minister are suddenly cast into doubt. What did he not try? He used 
sticks and he used carrots, he tried to entice the protesters with 
committees and benefits and rabbits drawn from the hat and he tried to 
castigate them as Leftists and pampered sushi-eaters, and they went on 
to protest and demonstrate and extend ever further the tent 
encampments and get their rallies to the peak of three hundred 
thousands in Tel Aviv. Just yesterday morning, the protesters arrived 
at the home of Eyal Gabbai, Nethanyahu's Chef de Bureau, and he spoke 
forthrightly and made it clear to them that the Free Market system 
will not change, and there will be no taxation on the rich and there 
will be no Welfare State in Israel. And these cheeky youths did not 
accept these clear clarifications from their government, and just 
announced that they will increase ever more their protests and 
demonstrations.

How, how to change the focus and move the public agenda in a different 
direction? Perhaps finally September will come and the Palestinians 
will go to the UN and demand to have their state and thus help to 
distract public opinion in Israel? But the big show at the UN is only 
due on September 20, how to get through another month until then? 
Besides, would even that change the tendency of public opinion? What 
if the Palestinians hold mass demonstrations in late September, 
without any violence, and demand to have some Social Justice, to be 
free in their country and no longer live under occupation – would this 
be enough to change the agenda? It might even get a bit of sympathy 
among Israelis.


But not all is lost, and relief for the harassed Netanyahu came from 
the usual quarter, out of the deserts of Sinai came the dramatic 
initiative to change the Israeli public agenda. And it so happened 
that Israel's fine security services had long since prepared a plan to 
liquidate Gazan leaders which just needed to be put into operation, 
and now put into operation it was forthwith, and all at once Israel's 
Air Force took off for  Rafah and made the hit, an instant and huge 
success, and immediately afterwards could the Prime Minister make a 
full-blooded patriotic Address to the Nation people over all channels 
and offer congratulations to the brave soldiers and the valiant pilots 
and the diligent security operatives and deliver a stern warning to 
the Palestinians and offer condolences to the bereaved and wish the 
injured a speedy recovery and how great it felt at last to make a long 
speech without a single word about social problems, just like in the 
good old days. And of course, as soon as Gaza was hit, Israelis all 
over the South knew that the time has come to seek shelter and expect 
the worst, and indeed the Qassam and Grad rockets were not slow in 
coming, naturally prompting the Air Force to counter-attack on more 
Gaza targets and bring on more missiles on Israel the escalation is 
mutually escalating - and who would now dare demand a cut the in the 
defense budget in order to promote social causes?

But what the social protest activists do now in their tent 
encampments? Would they quietly yield to the changed agenda and meekly 
disappear from the scene? If that's what Netanyahu is counting on, he 
should think again.


I would like to give the floor to Social Protest activists, with a 
selection of messages posted in the past twenty-four hours on the 
Official Housing Protest Facebook Page.

http://www.facebook.com/j14rev

Voices from the grassroots field

Yigal Cohen: We will not let terrorism beat us!

Ittai Hertzberg: I just read this piece of news:
Deputy Minister Ayoub Kara calls upon demonstrators to dismantle their 
tents and call off their protest, in solidarity with the wounded in 
the attack, as "it's time to be united in the struggle against terrorism".
Ayoub Kara, don’t you have another appointment scheduled with 
neo-Nazis in Austria?

Arnon Shaked: How sad, Bibi and his government got a terrorist  attack 
just in the nick of time. There is only needed a small military 
operation to make him happy. That's what they think about human life, 
it's like a game to them.

Yossi Levy: This protest cannot stop, this protest will not stop. We 
must continue to protest, we must continue to protest. This protest 
will not stop! [modeled on a well-known Israeli song].

Friends, do not have to bow down low, we can prove that we can go on. 
Express our respect for the victims, with quiet rallies, go on  going 
out to  protest. Let the wounded heal and recover and rise up from 
their beds as patients in a better health system!
Let the soldiers on discharge find a better higher education system.
And a better Israel for all citizens.
Continue! Continue!.

Tamar Aviyah: We undertake to continue the protest even if military 
action starts. Protests throughout the country.

Avi Hevroni: Finally, we will have to learn to go on demonstrating 
even after such events. There is no choice. It can not be stopped. 
This may sound insensitive but it's not. There is no other way you can 
keep this issue alive in a country where there is no certainty of 
tranquility and security.

Avishai E. Edenburg: Now is perhaps the most crucial moment for this 
movement. We all had this cynical thought, that we would fold 
everything down and go home like good children, when security issues 
come to the fore. No. We will not fold down, not until our needs are 
seriously addressed.

Shlomo Ohana: Friends, let's have a moment of silence for the Housing 
Protest. It was nice while it lasted, but now it's over.

Bikosh Bik: Well, Shlomo, speak for yourself. If you feel OK with the 
situation as it is, good for you... But you can't decide for others 
what is good for them and what they will do or not do.
     *
Eshkar Eldan Cohen: Continue the protest, full steam ahead!
What happened today is a tragedy for the families of those killed and 
wounded. But it also a tragedy when men and women die from illness 
because of difficulty in purchasing drugs, or when people's  health is 
damaged because they could not buy proper food, and when disabled 
people lack what they urgently need, and when people are discharged 
from hospital prematurely due to shortage of beds in rehabilitation, 
and when children go to school when  their parents could not afford to 
buy textbooks, when people die because there were no beds free in 
Intensive Care – all these are tragedies. The military and government 
failure in their role to defend the border leads to tragedy. Also 
their failure to take care of daily needs. So the protest must go on, 
for those who manage to survive and want to go on living.

Meir Ben-Or: Mr. Prime Minister:
After the attack in the south, probably you will probably send out 
call-up orders also to the leftists who live in tents and eat sushi, 
just as you will send them the rightists and the settlers. You will 
sent us into action in Gaza which would  probably be followed by 
overall war, and who knows where it would end. I just ask you, Mr. 
Netanyahu, for one small favor. Just remember us who will go away to 
fight for you and for Sarah and for all your distinguished colleagues, 
and to eat dust (instead of sushi). Of course, if we do not come back 
from this war, then all bets are off and you are exempt from all 
obligations...


Ashkar Alden Cohen: Do not go to this delirious war. You do not have to!

Neora Barak: Do not stop the protest in any situation. We are not 
indifferent.  We are consistent and determined, we have patience and 
we will see who blinks!
Human pain and identification with the families of the victims does 
not mean giving up the momentum already created. We must not create a 
dangerous precedent of stopping the demand for social justice. Like it 
did not contradict the demand for release of Gilead Shalit. Suddenly 
the government sent a negotiator to Egypt to get him. That was only 
because the protests put some pepper up their ass.
We should not give up, there is a silent majority looking up with hope 
at this protest. Do not forget this!


  Elad Shechter: The government wants protest forgotten. They asked 
the Jerusalem encampment to cancel the demonstrations (which shows how 
much the government thinks only of its own interests ). So it is 
important to manifest our presence and show that with all the sorrow 
and the pain, citizens are struggling also to live in a better country!

Not only does the protest not divide the people - it unites them for 
the first time in decades. The tents strengthen us against enemies 
from outside as well as inside. There is no contradiction between 
defending the country and improving it: before '48 we were able to 
struggle to formulate an ideology and therefore there is no reason we 
can't do it today. This is our War of Independence.
If the protest organizers cancel the scheduled actions, we would go on 
without them!

Sivan Wolchinsky: That's right! In Kiryat Shmona there will be a march 
ending with a rally. Certainly one thing does not come at the expense 
of the other. You have to remember that in the aftermath of such 
terrorist attacks the state often defaults on its responsibility to 
provide aid to the wounded, to give them benefits for disability 
(physical and mental…). Social Security payments could be very hard 
for them to get, for no justified reason! This is the real test – now 
more than ever, get to the streets!

Charles Arthur James: I would like to propose a "middle of the road" 
solution. Both mourning and a protest. On Saturday night we will not 
hold mass demonstrations. Events will take place in tents, circles of 
study, lighting candles in memory of those killed and writing letters 
of support to the wounded, holding hands and creating a human chain 
along Rothschild Boulevard, and more activities like this. In this we 
will show that we are united in pain, but do not let terrorism destroy 
our struggle for a better quality of life here.

Eyal Ap: The occupation and the settlements are part of what creates 
such situations, in which we cannot just go on with "a normal protest" 
that does not touch upon the conflict. That's why we must demand an 
end to conflict, demand true security which only peace can give.

Bikosh Bik: Eyal, this is not necessarily .. It is also possible to 
adopt a protest policy that says that the social and economic 
situation is no less important than the security situation ... without 
going into the unresolved debate about the conflict.

Matan Bar: We all feel pain and grieving over the deaths of innocents. 
Our outcry will be the continuation of the protest, despite all. For 
us, for the dead, and for the mourners. Another "Cast Lead" operation 
in Gaza? Again an enshrining of the khaki uniforms? Talking of 
security and silencing the voices on education, equality, welfare? We 
grieve for and and honor the victims, but we also continue the protest 
whose hope they also shared. Will will not cooperate with the war 
drive of Bibi - Barak - Lieberman! We will not run again to kill and 
die in Gaza under the outworn banner of 'state security'. We will walk 
in silence at the rally Saturday night, we will remember the dead, and 
will continue to press our demands upon the ministers and the prime 
minister!

The protest organizers announce:

We march in silence - the pain of all, the protest of all

On Saturday, August 20 at 9:00 pm, we all march together with the 
entire Israeli people, from Habima Square to the Charles Clore Garden. 
It would be a peaceful march with torches and candles, designed to 
remind the Prime Minister that even in these difficult times, he is 
still responsible for welfare and health just as he is responsible for 
security. When the march gets to its destination in the Charles Clore 
Garden on the Tel Aviv coast, we will all sit on the grass in wide 
circles or intimate discussion, talk, discuss, argue and  sing – 
everything quietly, in silent respect for and solidarity with the 
victims of the criminal terrorist attacks.

This is the pain of all, this is the protest of all of us.

Quietly, but firmly. Because the people which demonstrates is the same 
people which is hit by the fire of our enemies. And their determined 
demand for a deep change in the order of economic priorities and for 
comprehensive social justice does not at all come at the expense of 
fighting terrorism - on the contrary. A people whose members are 
responsible for each other, struggle together for the future and 
strength of the State of Israel, are a strong people who can stand up 
to all their enemies.

Together with in the circles, honoring us with their presence, will be 
the best of Israel's artists, their voice devoid of the help of 
microphones, their guitars not connected to any amplifier. They will 
sing with us in pain and hope, for all of us have no other country - 
except the State of Israel.

Millie Duluoz: There is no such thing as a silent protest.


Ori Milstein: That's exactly what they want. Be quiet. We're good 
kids. God forbid that we should demand defense budget cuts. A silent 
protest is an oxymoron. Like was said here before, there is no need to 
apologize, no need to reduce our force.
I'm personally going to cry out when I get there. Otherwise it will 
simply be a  surrender, a nail in the protest's coffin. If they manage 
to silence us now, what would happen if riots break out in September?

Hila V Goldstein: Dear firebrands! People were killed today. In the 
South there is a kind of war. A silent protest is the best now.

Bar Hefetz: It should not be silent and not be in Tel Aviv, it's time 
to express social solidarity, go the Gaza border communities and cry 
out that we're not afraid, not afraid of Hamas, and also not afraid of 
this evil government which is just trying to scare us and silence us. 
No, don’t be silent!
     *
David Bochris: We undertake to continue the protest even if military 
operations begin. Protest all over the country!


Ido Daniel: TV stopped talking about the incident and broadcast a 
miserable  program on cooking ..... And the football games have a 
moment of silence and the players put on a black band to honor the 
dead, and then go on playing...  Power is in the continuity, must show 
that we are continuing!


Gil Orlev: I understand all who are angry that it is to be a silent 
rally (why quiet? One terrorist attack. Life goes on, including all 
the junk programs on TV). I want to say on record that I much more 
sympathize with you than with the other side to the debate. Yet we 
must not ignore all the people who feel uncomfortable with a shouting 
rally when such things happen. Do not argue with feelings. There are 
situations where it is impossible to please everybody. I think the 
organizers deserve credit for trying to think of everybody and find a 
creative solution. There is room for two voices. We have a silent 
action, demanding peace and social justice.

Einat Doz'ovni: I have the experience of a quiet walk with only 200 
people, which had a mesmerizing intensity. There is no need to shout 
in order to be heard.

Star Rajuan: I live in Gan Yavne, I was woken up twice this night by 
the sound of sirens. I they to keep optimistic also under air raid 
alarms, I hope you do too.  We will continue to cry out - loudly or 
silently, each in their own way. To demand both justice and peace.
Peace will mean that fewer people would be killed. And justice will 
mean that fewer people will die because they  do not have money for 
medications, treatments or food.

Posted by Adam Keller אדם קלר at 4:37 AM

http://adam-keller2.blogspot.com/2011/08/changed-agenda.html


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Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
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