Comments on: Photos: 100,000 demonstrate across Israel’s periphery

By: Koshiro

Koshiro — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 07:01:48 +0000

@ Frank Tamimi Kahn
More to the point, even if this “movement” did to some extent include Palestinian citizens of Israel, it still wouldn’t do anything for Palestinians in the West Bank.
I’m as irked as you probably are about Israelis crying their hearts out about their luxury problems while a few miles to the east Palestinians have their homes demolished and their water cut off – with hardly any of the protesters giving a damn.

But I’ll try to be pragmatic about this: Anything which weakens the state apparatus of Israel in general, and the current government of Israel in particular, is with nigh certainty good for the Palestinians. Even if it’s for all the wrong reasons.

By: judith ackerman

judith ackerman — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 21:57:51 +0000

I lived and worked in Israel with the Zionist dream back in 1970. As I got more involved with the Women’s Movement I learned more and more about Israel’s crimes against the non Jews. Now I stand with the Women in Black in NYC. This latest news and these wonderful photographs fill my heart with hope for peace and justice. I feared this opportunity would never come. I am so happy to see Israelis who feel the way I do. Thanks very very much!

By: Sam Smith

Sam Smith — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 21:41:49 +0000

Decentralization is a good idea. At the protest in Beer Sheva, it gave a Bedouin woman a chance to speak before thousands of Jewish protestors about her community’s housing problems and specifically about Al-Araqib.
And the general movement is also working to weaken Bibi: a poll released today shows he’s dropped to 29% popularity. Irhal!

By: annie

annie — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 21:28:09 +0000

i remain hopeful, extremely so. things are moving exactly in the direction i was hoping for. i am an optimist. i have faith in both palestinian and israeli society for without it i don’t how peace will be made. i know this sounds crazy but i do, i think transformation will occur somehow. with all my heart i hope i am right. there are really people out here in the world hoping for unity with faith it can happen and i am one of them.

thanks for a great post.

By: Deïr Yassin

Deïr Yassin — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 14:12:15 +0000

Without feeling too concrned about the protests in Israel, I still think it’s a good idea to decentralize. “Rotchild Boulevard” sounds too elitist and anti-revolutionary, as a commenter on Mondoweiss noted. From Tahrir Square (‘Liberation’) to Rotchild Boulevard, the ME protests in a nutshell.
Irhal !

By: Frank Tamimi Kahn (Twitter @NabiSaleh)

Frank Tamimi Kahn (Twitter @NabiSaleh) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 13:39:00 +0000

@Woody I so hope you’re right! I would be totally delighted to be proven wrong by events. Still, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine continues daily in E. Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, Lyyda (Lod)just to cite a few. The demonstrations began against the back drop of the price of cottage cheese & apartment prices not against Zionism. If it evolves into that I will be utterly shocked. These people or at least the overwhelming majority thereof are angry about their possibly being denied the realization of the American Dream I work within the system I acheive my creature comforts. Opposition is not Resistance!

By: Frank

Frank — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 10:33:41 +0000

I was in Beersheva last night, a liberal estimate would say 7k people tops. 15k??? wishful thinking, just like the 100k overall me thinks.

By: Woody

Woody — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 09:15:08 +0000

@ Frank – if the occupation is to end, it can’t simply do so by going AROUND the Israeli people. Either you have to plan to kill or remove all Israelis, or hope for a transformation in the consciousness, values, and priorities of a critical mass of the society. The first option has failed in Israel’s attempt to remove Palestinians, so I’m not sure why it would work in your anti-Zionist case.

I was in Or Yehuda, with the 500 who converged from Yehud, Kiryat Ono, Or Yehuda and surrounding area. 300 people took over a MASSIVE highway intersection for HOURS. People sat down until the police backed off…then danced in circles, singing, cheering, clapping, dancing, and chanting. These are working class folks who only the day before were saying things like “I have nothing left to lose” and “I won’t let my kids go to the army for this country”. There was even this very interesting chant (which rhymes with the now standard “The People demand Social Justice), “The People demand Gilad Shalit”. I think it reveals the fact that people understand the government toys around with security and doesn’t aim to actually solve problems. As a man from Yehud expressed, the occupation is just used as a distraction while the government privatizes and attacks the people economically.

If one really wants the occupation to end, one must account for what it would take to transform Israeli society in order to implement that. I think this movement is the most AMAZING shot at doing that – it has to be, or else we’re left with a grim future here.

By: Richard Witty

Richard Witty — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 08:18:33 +0000

Thank you for that hopeful post, hopeful in tone, hopeful in content conveyed.

By: Sylvia

Sylvia — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 05:56:30 +0000

“Feminist Arab-Jewish blogger Lihi Yona posted on Facebook after attending one of the protests”
Please explain “Arab-Jewish”. Does that mean that one of her parents is Arab and the other Jewish?
.
Feminist “Mizrahi” activist Shira Ohayon made a brilliant speech in Tel Aviv Atzeret that should have made headlines yet no mention of it on this site. Why?
.
“urban elites”: what does that mean?