JVL Introduction
There was a time when Israel had many elements of a true democracy – at least for its Jewish citizens. Ilan Pappe noted that in his introduction to the seminal “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”. Now even the end of that has been manifested clearly on the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. As the majority of people are against the resumption of the war, demonstrators have come out in large numbers. The degree of police brutality has shocked many Jewish people in Israel.
Democracy also surely carries a commitment to diplomacy, to doing what is in the interests of your own citizens and upholding International Law, many aspects of which were strengthened or even developed in the aftermath of the Nazi era, with its brutality, occupation of many European countries and, of course, the despicable cruelty and wholesale murder of Jews, Roma, Sinti, disabled people, gay men and those it “othered”.
What has been learned? Is this the death throes of the Zionist State? Of the idea of Zionism? That terrible period when, as Gramsci famously said, “the old world is dying and the new world is waiting to be born, now is the time of monsters”? When terrible regimes are struggling, the violence increases. The horrors unleashed yet again on the people of Gaza also has faint echoes in Israel’s treatment of those who take a stand against the barbarism of the State as this report from a participant in one of the demonstrations shows.
This is surely unsustainable; how much longer can a State continue with such terrible levels of injustice, cruelty and with responsibility for the destruction of so much of Gaza, and of the people and their hopes and dreams?
Of course, it only survives as an apartheid State with the active complicity of so many, mainly western, governments and political leaders, against the wishes of the overwhelming majority of the citizens who continue to come out on the streets at local and national level time and time again. This report by Gali Alon, who participated in a demonstration a few days ago is, of course, a pale shadow of the brutality meted out to the Palestinian people but, just as we oppose the suppression of protest in the USA, in German and in the UK, this is also deplorable. Now the overwhelming majority of Jewish Israelis oppose this resumption of the bombing and yet….here is Gali Alon’s report.
LL
Old Mashbir, Jerusalem
Yesterday I got beat up. Really.
Yesterday I was beaten by people who are supposed to protect me. And while I was thinking that if the police were the ones attacking me, then who would protect me?
About last night. The demonstration was organized at noon, hours after the resumption of the war. In the evening we met there, about 200 women to protest against the war.
We managed to walk thirty meters, to the entrance of the pedestrian street, when the police started attacking. Those who were standing they pushed and laid on the floor, so quickly, we sat down. I have never felt this scared. Next to me sat a 60-year-old man, dragged by three policemen who also kicked him in the stomach, while he yelled “the glasses!” My glasses! “.
A young girl who sat in front of me refused to let go of the sign she was holding and was punched in the face, blood began to flow from pasture. Drums were violently taken and smashed, as well as Megaphones and signs, that were torn in two. Next to me sat Michal, she was badly hit and was forced to evacuate to hospital. In the morning she informed me that they broke her arm.
The police officers, almost all of them, were without name tags. They refused to be identified. One of them walked around with a motorcycle helmet on his face all evening, beating people.
Nevertheless we stayed sitting, without megaphones, without drums, without signs. We just yelled that’s enough. Enough of the war, that we refuse, that we won’t agree to renew fighting, for genocide. “We’ll keep shouting, we won’t give up, stop the fire already! “.
Today this is happening, I thought. They are going to kill a protester. I felt an anxiety attack coming towards me in giant steps. I tried to get up and run away, but a policeman saw me, grabbed me and slapped me to the floor. We started walking in the direction of Paris Square, just to get out of there, to get away from the police. They chased after us, hitting those who were lagging behind.
I fell on the floor, and a wave of people over me. A policeman picked up one of the fences that are used for separation and dragged it, stabbing my back on the way. I want to believe he didn’t mean it, but now I can’t sleep on my back.
But it’s a guess, what’s really bad is to see others, especially friends and relatives, being beaten to death. What’s really hard is the lack of power in the face of this violence.
Something’s changed, something’s broken. Jerusalem of yesterday, and especially Gaza Street, where I live, has become a dystopia, with thousands of policemen and soldiers and mobiles and mechatazians. Everything is blocked and locked and gated.
It was always thus. Fascism does not have a full stop. It is without morality and will destroy what it cannot coopt. Now it seems that the war has come home.
Its frightening for the Israeli protesters, those who support “Stop The War” [in Gaza] and those who want to see the release of the Israeli “hostages”. On twitter today [Sunday], there is footage of Israeli para-military “police” brutally attacking innocent protesters, who genuinely thought they had the right to protest [in the “only democracy” in the Middle East?]. There were also protesters ripping down posters of dead Israeli soldiers and others holding up photographs of Palestinian children, murdered by Israel since the Zionist braking the “ceasefire”. These are brave steps indeed at any time, but even more so right now. Those protesters are finding that police techniques, honed on the Palestinians over decades and spread throughout the world [reference George Flood and “taking the knee”], and are being used on them to surpress their perceived “freedom of speech”. October 7th changed everything and the genie is out of the bottle. Just like the the Refuser Solidarity movement, supporting the rapidly increasing refusal of reservists to head back to killing Palestinians in Gaza: Israeli society is fracturing and those who once supported the regime – are finding opposition strength on the streets, even in small numbers. Netanyahu`s fascist cabinet moves daily more rightward, but the dialectic is that the “Goliath” they represent may soon be toppled by “David” on their own doorstep.
And not a word about this on MSM. Let’s hope we are kept informed of these resistance incidents.