[Reader-list] Reports of Protests against Israeli Air Strikes in Gaza
Rahul Asthana
rahul_capri at yahoo.com
Sat Jan 3 23:34:49 IST 2009
Hi Shuddha,
What do you think the Indian state should do,in response to the recent terror attacks?
Thanks
Rahul
--- On Tue, 12/30/08, Shuddhabrata Sengupta <shuddha at sarai.net> wrote:
> From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta <shuddha at sarai.net>
> Subject: [Reader-list] Reports of Protests against Israeli Air Strikes in Gaza
> To: "Reader-list list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Date: Tuesday, December 30, 2008, 6:02 PM
> 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.
> Advertisement
> "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.
>
>
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to
> reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject
> header.
> To unsubscribe:
> https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive:
> <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
More information about the reader-list
mailing list