A week of demonstrating  in Tel-Aviv against the Gaza War – Tuesday and Wednesday updates after Thursday report

(We heard also of anti-war demos in Haifa, Jerusalem, Be'er Sheba (NB: under fire!) and Bakaa al-Gharbiyah, but alas, we have no reports of them.)

 

Update Saturday, Jan. 10

"Our Zionism does not make us crave blood and war",  a call to end the war by Peace Now

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054265.html

 

Update Thursday, Jan. 8, 

Solidarity with refusers kept silent

(report Adam Keller)

 

Courage to Refuse has resumed its activity after several years and asked everybody to join them in picketing the Ministry of  Defence. Courage to Refuse was founded  in 2002, by reservists such as  paratrooper officer David Zonshein, sickened and disgusted by the things they had seen (and took part in) during the army's efforts to put down the Second Intifada. At that time they had a considerable impact, and their call upon reservists to refuse serving the occupation worried the military authorities. But like other groups they were effectively derailed by Sharon's Gaza trick, which placed on the Israeli public a unilateral and woefully incomplete "Disengagement"

The beginning of the "Cast Lead" war in Gaza – and specifically, the calling up of an increasing number of reservists, being massed at the Gaza Strip borders in preparation to be thrown in - aroused Courage to Refuse back into action. Some of the activists themselves got call-up orders, and they got urgent calls from many others who were called up and were far from eager to comply. At least three reservists are known to have informed their officers of their outright refusal to go into Gaza, and many others have resorted to various means of "grey refusal" to avoid it. 

For their part, the Courage to Refuse organizers drew up a new manifesto on which they are busily collecting the signatures of reservists, both those who were involved before and those were not (see below). A call was issued for a demonstration outside the Ministry of Defence on January 8: "Once again we feel the need to call upon reservists and conscripts to refuse taking part in the brutal killing perpetrated by the IDF in Gaza. The terrible bombing of the UNRWA school in Jabalya Refugee Camp, in which Israeli forces killed more than forty Palestinian civilians in a single moment, increased our determination to act – coming after hundreds of civilians killed earlier, including many women and children. A killing perpetrated under the pretext of security, under the Blue and White Flag, and in the name of every citizen of Israel. A killing which must not be allowed to continue! "

Members of other groups, such as ourselves of Gush Shalom, were welcomed to join in, but with a caution: "Without in any way detracting from the importance of earlier demonstrations against the war, in order to make an effective appeal to reservists we should use a bit different language than of the slogans used in these. To restrain our anger, however justified, and moderate our narrative. Not to call the Minister of Defence "A murderer" nor term the IDF "a terrorist organization" (even when at times speaking in this way seems right) but focus on the pure moral call upon soldiers to preserve the 'purity' of their arms and refuse to take part in this madness."

 

We "radicals" who joined the January 8 action respected the organizers' wishes. The slogans prepared by Courage to Refuse included "Revenge  is not security", "Refuse to take part in the in the campaign of bloodshed", "No to the killing of civilians – in Gaza and Sderot", "Barak creates terror in Gaza", "Refuse to fight in Gaza" (this Hebrew slogan can also be translated as "Refuse to fight against Gaza"), "Refuse to destroy Gaza and Sderot", "The destruction of Gaza produces terror", "Courage to talk- not to kill". Some of placards had the national Star of David inscribed beside the slogan – which is far from the rule in other anti-war protests. Even so, the call upon soldiders to refuse orders made it very radical confrontation with the present warlike atmosphere prevailing in the Israeli media and political system.

What next? So far, the military authorities refrained from imprisoning any of the refusing reservists, knowing from the earlier confrontations that any imprisoned refuser would become a focus of solidarity actions from which the movement could grow and snowball. However, the Courage to Refuse organizers now contemplate a sharper action – i.e., going southwards to the Gaza Strip border, where the army concentrated the already mobilized thousands of reservists who might any day be sent into Gaza, with the government bent on escalating the war in defiance of the Security Council cease-fire resolution. The military authorities might find it impossible to ignore and tacitly tolerate the presence of agitators busily "subverting the troops".  

 

 

The Gaza Refusal Manifesto:

We, soldiers and officers of the IDF

To whom the security and future are dear

Who understand that the attack in Gaza intensifies the conflict, will bring additional long years of missiles upon growing circles of the Israeli population, and brings terrible disasters upon the peoples in Israel and Palestine alike.

We understand that revenge is not security and that the IDF operation in Gaza perpetuates the conflict, and certainly does not help its solution.

In light of the above, we hereby declare that we will not take part in the campaign of destruction in Gaza.

Contact:

Noam Livneh +972-522-754528

David Zunshein +972-545-656760

Arik Diamant +972-522-754528

diamant.arik@gmail.com

 

 

Update Wednesday, Jan. 7  

King George protest

 (report Adam Keller)

 This will not be one of the big memorable events. Even in the memory of those who stand here today, it will soon merge with many other protests before and after. Part of the daily grind of demonstrating and protesting, day after day after day. Several hundred people gathered on a boulevard in the heart of Tel Aviv, the place where the Women in Black have been holding their vigil for more than twenty years, facing the passing traffic on three sides with the signs "Stop the carnage!" "Stop Killing, start talking!" "The Ministers are war criminals!" "Cease-fire Now - for the sake of Gaza and Sderot!". 

"Shame on you, to have such signs when our boys are figting the terrorists!" burst out a bypassing woman. "Shame on YOU, for supporting dirty massacre and war crimes!" answers vehemently a woman demonstrator. "Shame on you!" "Shame on YOU!" the futile dialogue continues for several minutes, until the present police pounce and forcibly pull the two of them apart.

 Towards the scheduled end of the vigil, the rain starts, and gets heavier and heavier. The morning had been clear and most of us had not brought umbrellas or raincoats. "At least the mud will slow down the soldiers and tanks in Gaza" mutters an old man with the sign "Thou shalt not kill".

 It seems that exactly becuase of the rain, we have stayed an extra twenty minutes more than planned - though the passing cars now had their windows closed and steamed over, and there were no bypassers on foot. Though nobody stated it aloud, clearly and quxiotially many felt that getting ourselves thoroughly soaked was the least we could do when Gazans had to suffer so much worse things.

 Finally, the vigil ended and participants disappeared along the King George Street.   King George Street - a name left over from the time, still in living memory of some of the older participants, when this city was ruled by an alien occupying force and when foreign soldiers were patrolling this city and imposing curfews.

 Then the  people of Tel Aviv thoroughly detested the occupying troops and admired the "terrorists" fighting them. 

  

Update Tuesday, Jan. 6

Arab-Jewish Protest in Jaffa

 (taken from http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/events/1231029668 )

Two hours after the shelling of the school in Jebaliyah, in which 40 refuge-seekers, including entire families, were murdered, an Arab-Jewish protest against the war took place in Jaffa (Tuesday, 6.1). It was one of the many demonstrations against the war which take place practically every day now throughout Israel.

The hundreds of Arab Israeli citizens gathered in Yephet Street, following a call by Zedaaka organization and the Jaffa list. They where joined by Jewish protesters - activists of Gush Shalom, Anarchists Against the Wall, the Women’s Coalition for Peace, and others. The Arab protesters turned their anger especially against the leaders of the Arab countries, who were accused of collaborating with the Israeli onslaught on Gaza. One recurring slogan was “Mubarak is an agent of the United States and Israel”.

Several of the Arab and Jewish demonstrators held aloft the Gush Shalom emblem showing the flags of Israel and Palestine next to each other. Others hoisted a poster saying in Hebrew: “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies!” The most popular slogans were: “Barak, Barak, Minister of Defense – how many children have you murdered until today?” and “All the government ministers are war criminals”. The posters said in Arabic and Hebrew: “Stop the War Crimes”, “Widows and orphans are not election".

Photos from the demonstration

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/galleries/gallery_1231359869