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NEWS & LETTERS, May-June 2010
World in View
Israelis, Palestinians oppose Netanyahu
by Gerry Emmett
The Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu has been a disaster for the country. Entering office in the wake of the brutalizing war on Gaza, it has been marked by an escalating war of words with the discredited Iranian government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad which threatens to erupt into real war. It has also fostered an atmosphere of McCarthy-style attacks on the Israeli left and human rights groups by right-wing outfits like Im Tirtzu which developed from the Gaza war.
Netanyahu himself has attacked Breaking the Silence, an organization which collects eyewitness testimony of Israeli soldiers who have seen or participated in the abuse of Palestinians. These attacks on the Israeli left are made more urgent, from Netanyahu's viewpoint, by the real possibility that a recent upsurge in Palestinian grassroots, non-violent protests might presage a new Intifada.
There are some hopeful signs that the Israeli left may be reviving and forging links with grassroots Palestinian activists. On March 9, thousands of Palestinian, Israeli and international peace activists came together in Sheikh Jarrah in support of Palestinians threatened with eviction and home demolitions. At the same time, leftist Israeli Knesset members called for the removal of illegal Israeli settlers from East Jerusalem and for respect of Palestinian residents' rights.
It was the first large demonstration in Sheikh Jarrah not to be met with police violence. The Israeli High Court of Justice recently ruled that such gatherings were legal, a blow to the police. The demonstration had a festive atmosphere, complete with music. (However, one activist, Michael Solsbury, was arrested the next day for "suspicion of rioting.") This is the spirit of peaceful co-existence that the current Israeli government can't accept, and it is where hope for the future may yet exist. As evicted Palestinian resident Nasser Ghawi said, "The Jerusalem Municipality has confiscated our family's tents 16 times. We have no more tents to live in, but maybe if Israelis continue to support us we may be able to return home."
Many on the Israeli left have been shocked into activity by recent violence against Palestinians. There have been serious clashes with police around the Al Aqsa and Ibrahimi mosques with dozens injured and arrested. This violence continues. On March 26, in Bil'in, Palestinians and Israelis, demonstrating against the wall, were met with tear gas and shock grenades, and an Israeli youth was beaten by soldiers. Similar situations occurred at recent demonstrations against the wall in Nil'in, Nabi Saleh and Al Ma'sara, where demonstrators expressed solidarity with local activist, Omar Ala-Din, who had been brutally beaten after being recognized by soldiers at an army checkpoint a few weeks earlier. Ala-Din, returning home from a theater performance in Ramallah, had been kicked, punched and shocked with a taser. The support march in Al Ma'sara, which included an Israeli-Italian samba band, ended peacefully.
An Israeli judge criticized the army for its treatment of Ala-Din, and he is considering a lawsuit.
Also, in Qalandiyah and Nabi Saleh Israeli police responded to protests against closed checkpoints by firing tear gas and rubber bullets indiscriminately into traffic. A number of injuries resulted.
The Israeli government is designating areas like Bil'in, with ongoing protest movements, as closed military zones, creating grounds for more violence. In the words of lawyer Gaby Lasky, "This is yet another illegal measure taken by the Army, which makes ill use of its authority in order to suppress dissent and infringe on the already volatile freedom of speech in the Territories. Closed military zone orders are not meant to deal with demonstrations, which are clearly in the civic rather than the military realm."
The governments of Israel, Iran and Saudi Arabia and other reactionary powers are playing a vastly dangerous game. A reviving Israeli left and a growing grassroots Palestinian struggle, together with the opposition in Iran, constitute a regional anti-war movement.
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