Blockading the Defence Ministry
Gush Shalom, 31 Mar 2002
GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/
The parking lot in front of the Defence Ministry has been the Tel-Aviv
location for spontaneous protests already for a long time and for a variety
of peace groups. But this evening was different. The about 500 people who
turned up came out of desperation. Feeling sick with anger at the cynicism
of those in power doing everything to escalate and further escalate the
situation. The news which could be heard on the transistor radios which
some had brought was increasing the tension: in Ramallah - the most worldly
of Palestinian cities - all men between 15 and 45 being ordered to turn
themselves in; the room in which Arafat was held already for days without
food and electricity soon - to that effect army officers were quoted -
to be stormed.
'The occupation is killing us all' placards, originally
printed for the February 9 rally, had only become more true. There were
also huge newly-made ones "Withdraw the tanks"/International Intervention
Now! and a lot of hand-written signs produced at the spot: "Get out of
Ramallah now" "Stop the madness" "Tanks against civilians breed suicide
bombers."
The people had been mobilized in less than twenty-four
hours, through phoning and emailing only. The initiators, veteran activists
Yehudith Har'el and Lev Grinberg were the same who two weeks ago organized
the petition calling for UN forces to be stationed in the Occupied Territories.
It was joined by Gush Shalom, Ta'ayush, the Women's Coalition and Hadash,
whose group was led by Knesset Members Muhammad Barake and Issam Makhoul.
Some of the internationals from France and Italy, who just arrived in the
country in order to act as human shields in the the Territories, also joined
in. For part of the participants, it was the second or even third demo
they attended today; a whole busload had arrived directly from the Land
Day rally in the Negev. If they were tired it did not show in the strength
and militancy of the slogans chanted. Halfway through the hours-long demonstration,
hundreds of activists suddenly poured from the sidewalk into the street,
blocking the traffic and chanting angrily: 'Fascism is in Power' / 'A Government
of War Criminals' / Occupation is Terror, the Refuser is a Hero' / 'We
will neither kill, nor die in the war of the settlements.' "At such a time,
we can't just behave nicely and correctly" said a young activist. Near
him, the white hair and beard of Uri Avnery were conspicuous among the
crowd advancing towards the defence ministry gate, on the other side of
the street.
"This is an illegal demonstration. You are ordered
to disperse immediately" announced an authoritative voice over the police
car's loudspeaker. It was answered with jeers. "Are you going to bring
some tanks from Ramallah, to crush us?" shouted one. A few minutes later,
police started trying to drag demonstrators off the street. There were
only a few of them, and they were not making much of a headway - but the
demonstrators on the edge were receiving heavy blows from police sticks
and from mobile radios made of tough metal wielded as weapons in the police's
hands. Some were resisting, and suddenly there was visible a policeman
bleeding from a gash in his head.
"This is enough! We made our point, don't escalate
the situation here any further" called organizers on the loudspeaker. The
crowd, surprisingly disciplined, turned back to the sidewalk. There was
a further hour of chanting. The police who were involved in the scuffle
were standing just in front, some of them actually chatting with demonstrators
and seeming quite friendly. Suddenly, however, a new police car pulled
up, a bigger one with a lot of room for prisoners at the back. The reinforcements
seemed bellicose and looking for a fight. Suddenly they picked on one demonstrator,
quite randomly, it seemed - except for the fact that he was obviously an
Arab. His identity card was taken away, and he was told to show up at the
police station and undergo interrogation before it could be recovered.
At about 9.00, a large group of activists were preparing
to go to the police station and hold a solidarity vigil outside, and on
the mobile phone came the message that the parallel Peace Now/Peace Coalition
outside the prime Minster's residence in Jerusalem had gone well, also
attended by about five hundred and proceeding more quietly. And then suddenly
a convoy of no less than nine ambulances, sirens wailing, tore across the
street. In the Israel of March 2002, this could mean only one thing. Sure
enough, opening the radio we just caught the message "...interrupting this
program to bring you a special bulletin. A large explosion just happened
at a cafe on Allenby Street..."
----
NB: Full transcript of the war crimes panel available on the Gush site
For Hebrew http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum.html
For English http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum_eng.html
French available at request.
Also on the site:
photo's - of action or otherwise informative
the weekly Gush Shalom ad - in Hebrew and English
the columns of Uri Avnery - in Hebrew, Arab and
English
(and a lot more)
http://www.gush-shalom.org
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