They'd do it again: protesters under arrest
Photo: Gil Yochanan
A kid for every cell
Uprooters call their victims "Lord of the Earth" the way anti-Semites of old used to call Jews "thieves" and "bloodthirsty" when they wanted to swindle or kill them
Attorney General Menahem Mazuz was correct. Blocking the road is an illegal act.
Protesting Disengagement
By Ynetnews
Hundreds of right-wing activists block major roads (see video), junctions, set tires on fire in anti-disengagement demonstrations throughout the country; protestors in Jerusalem chant ‘police state’
But thousands of teenager protesters who shut down the country's intersections last week did so with full knowledge of their actions, and, armed with "jail kits" went out with the express intent of getting arrested.
The "long arm of the law" hit them like a boxer whose crushing blow hits an empty target.
In jails, interrogation rooms and court rooms around Israel, fantastic kids, from law-abiding homes, crossed the red-line of civil disobedience. They refused to identify themselves and didn't agree to conditions for release.
To the amazement of officers and judges, parents encouraged their children to stay in jail, and even some who gushed they had children in each jail.
This phenomenon of civil disobedience was born out of the expulsion of Jews from Gaza. In they eyes of these teenagers, and those who educated them, the government's plan to destroy Jewish communities removed any legitimacy from the government.
Read more Ynetnews opinions about civil disobedience
- When is civil disobedience appropriate?
- Wild, Wild West
- Settlers deserve a parade
- Leftists, bring it on
The road blockers do not care that people were angry. What other options remain to do to people who are taking everything away from them, except for life itself?
The country is removing bodies from graves, destroying a massive agricultural undertaking (15 percent of the country's agricultural exports), destroying 25 settlements – all as a down payment for the expulsion of tens of thousands yet to come.
Bottom of the pit
Someone thrown to the bottom of a pit cannot fall further.
If someone comes after 38 years of a national project only to force his former partner out with an outstretched hand, what other language can he speak if not for body language?
"Lords of the Land," curse the uprooters to their victims, as anti-Semites of old called Jews "thieves" and "bloodthirsty" when they wanted to swindle or kill them.
But the "Lords of the Earth" didn't react when the left gave terrorists guns, and laid the foundations for a Palestinian state on their doorstep.
Even now, they are rising up only because their backs are against the wall, and the can only wish they were "lords" of the land, that their standing was at least equal to that of neighboring Arab villages, who no one would ever consider destroying.
Who better than (left-wing author) Amos Oz to express their deepest feelings:
"When faced with the expulsion and exile of Arabs… we must rise up and say in the strongest, simplest terms: no way, even if we split the country and the army, even if we have to lie down under the wheels of trucks" (Morality, War and Occupation – On democracy and obedience).
With these words, Oz warned: you can wish for whatever you like, but it will not happen, because we will not allow it. And in doing so Oz and co. erased the idea of expelling Arabs from the political map. The "Lords of the Land" ask for no more than this.
Worse than Sharon?
Even the fall of the Likud and the rise of the left does not worry the protesters. Could there be a worse alternative for them than Sharon-Peres? The street, the intersections, the courts and jails would also be ready and waiting if Yossi Beilin was prime minister.
They say a country cannot "give in" to pressure from the street. But the pressure from the 4 Mothers organization that called on the IDF to leave Lebanon didn't worry the left, who called on the country to recognize the limits of power.
If so, then also with regard to the people it is no shame to recognize the limits of power. The dictator may be weakened, but the country, the army and democracy will all come away strengthened.
So, too, the powers-that-be that pressure us will learn there is a limit to what a government that calls itself democratic can force on its citizenry.
In Lisbon and East Berlin, in Prague and Moscow and Tbilisi and other capitals, even brutal dictators recognized their limited power against the masses.
The result? More democracy, more independence.
So, too, the "road blockers" can manage to add Jerusalem to this list, it will strengthen, not weaken, the army, the country, and our democracy.
