[Reader-list] Reports of Protests against Israeli Air Strikes in Gaza

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear All,

We are all aware of the terrible toll of unarmed civilian casualties  
caused by the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) air strike on Gaza a few  
days ago. It demonstrates yet again the willingness of those who  
currently hold power in Israeli to sabotage the chances of a lasting  
and durable peace with the Palestinian people. There is no other way  
to describe these air strikes other than as acts of gross state  
terrorism.

Of course, Hamas, (which controls the West Bank, and whose origins  
lie in the cultivation by Israel of an 'Islamist Opposition' within  
the Palestinian ranks in the eighties and earlier ) with its own  
obduracy has contributed to the 'blowback' that holds the peace  
process in Israel-Palestine hostage to a never ending cycle of  
competitive retribution.

Militant Zionists, Fundamentalist Islamists and inflexible  
Palestinian Nationalists have a joint vested interest in the  
perpetuation of conflict in a manner that should come as no surprise  
to those familiar with the faultlines  and destinies of identity- 
based conflicts in South Asia.

There are  of course, a few stray voices in the Indian 'blogsphere'  
who are already calling for 'India to Emulate Israel'. Some of them,  
such as this one,

http://blogs.expressindia.com/showblogdetails-comments.php? 
pg=2&contentid=393780

come from Dr. S. Subramaniam, IPS (Retd.)

He says -

"..A country which did not have a geographical existence before 1948  
is continuing to show the way on how to respond to terrorism...They  
strike at the terrorist bases wherever they are, ignoring standard  
international conventions and borders...India has to reassess its  
policy options and think of non traditional measures for tackling  
this menace.In this, we have a lot to learn from both Israel and USA."

Dr. Subramaniam  has had the distinction of being the former DG of  
NSG (National Security Guards) CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force)  
and Founder of SPG (Special Protection Group). So he is not exactly  
an audolescent Hindutva shadow warrior on testosterone who admires a  
bit of Israeli state muscle flexing (and there are lots of those). He  
is a former senior ranking officer who has held posts of great  
responsibility in the security establishment in India. I sincerely  
hope that his views represent the opinions of an isolated fringe that  
has no current influence in the corridors of power.

However, especially at times like this, it becomes important to  
complicate the picture. Just as  few Indians  and Pakistanis (or so I  
hope) other than some hyperventilating television anchors and  
isolated armchair warriors within and without the military- 
intelligence complexes in India and Pakistan have been recently  
rooting for war, so too, there is a substantial component within the  
spectrum of Israeli public opinion and civil society that is outraged  
(and justly so) by the IDF's disproportionate and lethal show of  
force in Gaza.

And just as many of those in India and Pakistan who are committed to  
combatting war hysteria and the hardening of postures have been  
condemned as 'traitors' by their jingoist peers. So too, many in  
Israel today are willing to stand up and be called 'traitors' because  
they condemn events like the attacks on Gaza. I think this kind of   
action that runs the risk of being called 'treason' are worthy of  
being honoured. Right now, I am rooting for all  those who are being  
called, or run the risk of being called 'traitors'  for opposing  
militarist options in India, Pakistan, Israel and Palestine by their  
respective 'uber-patriotic' peers.

Please find below, a report and a reflection on protests, in Israel,  
by Israeli people, against the Israeli state's assault on Gaza. May  
their tribe increase. Characteristically, these have been reported  
far less in the international media in comparison to the protests  
across the Arab and Islamic world.

regards,

Shuddha

------------------------

1. Hundreds of activists in Tel Aviv protest IAF strike in Gaza
By Ofri Ilani, Haaretz Correspondent (Haaretz is a mainstream but  
liberal Israeli Newspaper)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050470.html

Hundreds of left-wing and human rights activists marched in the  
streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday night to protest the massive Israel  
Air Force offensive in Gaza that left at least 230 dead and hundreds  
more wounded.

The protesters marched from Tel Aviv's Cinematheque toward the  
Defense Ministry offices. Police, some mounted on horseback,  
surrounded the protesters, arresting five of them.

According to the protesters, Israel's military action in Gaza does  
not protect Israeli citizens or provide them security.
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"No one can tell us that slaughtering the citizens of Gaza is meant  
to protect the citizens of Sderot and Ashkelon," said Matan Kaminer,  
a student who participated in the march.

Some protesters complained of extraneous force on the part of horse- 
mounted police, but overall the march remained non-violent.

Similar protests took place in Arab villages in the Galilee and in  
Bedouin villages in the Negev.

2. Onslaught on Gaza - protest on Day 1, in Tel-Aviv
Report by Adam Keller for The Other Israel, December-2008-- 
January-2009 issue
http://chet-justice.blogspot.com/2008/12/onslaught-on-gaza-protest-on- 
day-1-in.html

Saturday, December 27 - a few minutes to midnight. War in Gaza. It  
has come.

This morning, some of us got up with anxiety to listen to the early  
morning news, and go on hoping against hope for a few more hours.  
This morning, more than two hundred Gazans, whose names we will  
probably never know, woke up without guessing that is was their last  
morning. And also in the Israeli border town of Netivot, the 58-years  
old Beber Vaknin got up and went strolling through the quiet weekend  
streets of his hometown, not knowing that long before sunset he would  
become part of statistics. A very favourable body count indeed for  
Day 1 of Israel's newest war - one dead Israeli to 225 Palestinians,  
as of this hour. Cheers!

The mass bombing and killing at 11.30 am came as a shocking surprise  
- even though there had been, in fact, no reason whatsoever to feel  
surprised. Out of our anger and outrage, sharp texts of angry protest  
and denunciation were feverishly written and hurled out to other  
activists, to the media, to anyone and everyone in Israel and the  
whole world who might possibly be willing to listen: "The Gaza war is  
the vicious folly of a bankrupt government", "Barak conducts his  
elections campaign by bloodshed on both sides of the border."

At record speed, a rendezvous for protest was suggested by the  
Coalition of Women for Peace and quickly taken up by Hadash, Gush  
Shalom, the Anarchists, Tarabut and also the Meretz grassroots  
network. The message spread among all by word of mouth and phone and  
email and SMS and Facebook: "Stop the War! Stop the War! Gather at  
6.00 pm for

"Stop the War! Stop the War! Gather at 6.00 pm for an open planning  
meeting at the Tel Aviv Cinemateque Square. We march out at 7.30.  
Come one, come all!" Friends were contacted in both bombed Gaza and  
bombed Sderot, both giving their heartfelt support to any effort to  
stop the madness. Transportation was improvised from Haifa and  
Jerusalem, and even from the Arab towns of Tyra and Nazareth some  
came to Tel-Aviv, though there were demonstrations going on in their  
hometowns.

The police, too, had somehow heard of it. Long before six, the  
Cinemateque was surrounded on all sides - ordinary police and riot  
police and mounted police, and more and more patrol cars arriving and  
unloading additional ones every minute. "Look, these ones don't carry  
pistols - they have automatic rifles! Do they intend to bring the war  
here, too?" whispered a girl in an Animal Rights t-shirt.

On the side a dozen youngsters were intensively preparing placards.

"Stop the massacre!" / "Olmert's War - Our Victims!" / "War is not  
election s spin" / "No to the murder of innocents!" / "We Israelis  
say: The Government of Israel perpetrates War Crimes!" /  
"International Intervention Now!" / "EU, Stop the War!". "Livni,  
Murder is not Feminist!" / "Thou Shalt Not Kill!"

One slogan came up very often: "This is not my war!" It was written  
again and again in Hebrew, Arabic, English or a combination of these.

Meanwhile, there was an event taking place inside the Cinemateque  
building, planned long in advance, of the African refugee community  
in Israel›calling upon the authorities to give asylum to the refugees  
and not deport them.

A young black woman came over, speaking of children in Congo, her  
homeland, being forced to work at mines and handle carcinogenic  
materials. The circumstances didn't allow to go in and give this  
cause the attention which it also deserves.

By seven o'clock, the Cinemateque Square was crowded with over a  
thousand present. More than what one would expect in Israel during  
the very first hours of a war, amidst the kind of war fever which the  
Israeli media is capable of.

Lines were formed, banners unfurled, and the drummers started their  
rhythm - but the police stretched their own line after line, blocking  
all exits. A large-scale violent clash seemed inevitable but  
organizers called out: Stop! Wait! and began negotiating. After some  
twenty tense minutes the call was sounded: Forward! and to the wonder  
of all, the police ranks parted to let protesters through.

The compromise with the police was that the march take a route to the  
Ministry of Defence avoiding interference with main street traffic.  
The inhabitants of the normally tranquil Sprintzak Street looked down  
from their balconies to the ongoing stream of chanting protesters:

"Jews and Arabs Refuse to be Enemies!" / In Gaza and Sderot, Children  
Want to Live!" / War is a disaster - Peace is the solution!" / Stop  
the War! Return to the Truce!" / Silence the guns - Save the  
peoples!" / Barak, Barak, hey, hey, hey - How many did you kill  
today?" / "Bloodshed will not buy you power!" / "The blood is flowing  
for the ministers' prestige!" / "The blood is flowing for the polls  
of the corrupt parties!" / "No to War! - Back to Negotiations!"

Even "No to War! - Yes to Peace!", which on most days would sound  
like a naive truism, was today a sharp radical message.

For a considerable while, police did not intervene, but at the corner  
of Kaplan Street there was suddenly a charge of the mounted police  
directly into the crowd, a scuffle and angry shouts of "Police  
State!" - "Forward, forward!" called the organizers. "We have an  
appointment with Olmert at the Ministry of Defence."

Several hundred metres to the right and the Ministry gates appear on  
the far side of the street. "Ladies and gentlemen of the press - our  
attack on Gaza today was surgical an pin-pointed", the voice of  
Olmert on the radio, which some activists put on, is broadcast from  
the towers across the street. "Liar, war criminal!" rises the shout  
as if answering from the street, and several young people broke  
through the police fences, trying to block the street - to be  
immediately dragged into the waiting patrol cars.

It continued until half past nine when it was announced: "We are  
finished here for today, but we will continue to come back until it  
is over. Anyone willing to spend some more hours, join us to picket  
the police station where our friends are held."

In the bus, on the way home, the radio - amidst all the war reports  
from the south - carried a short report of the demonstration. The  
number of protesters was given as two hundred... It was an obvious  
hostile reporting, a way of trying to diminish the opposition to the  
war.

But maybe, one should not be too discouraged with getting mentioned  
at all, on such a day of media-orchestrated war euphoria.