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Photo: Niv Calderon
Police at the university
Photo: Niv Calderon
Yaron London

Protest lessons

Police approach to anti-pullout protestors, demonstrating university students, can teach us a lesson

Sheikh Munis is the Arab village upon whose land sits today Tel Aviv University. Were it not for right-wing attempts to tease their left-wing adversaries, the name would today be long forgotten, like the names of hundreds of villages that suffered a similar fate.

 

The Sheikh Munis argument is only mentioned by those who believe an Israeli withdrawal from a tiny, godforsaken sliver of land does away with any Jewish claim to Israel. “Look,” they spit at those university softies, “your university is also built on ‘stolen’ Palestinian land.”

 

For those who believe fervently in this claim, it does not matter just how to pursue the logical extension of it. It is merely a technical matter. In light of the power of our rights and in light of the desperate need to exercise them, there is no significance to violations of the law.

 

According to the settlers, nothing major has changed since the beginning of the settlement enterprise prior to the establishment of Israel, since we purchased lands from absentee landlords, bribed Ottoman officials, built settlements despite the British White Paper, smuggled weapons, and established an underground that grew into a proper army.

 

The current government may indeed be an elected representative of a Jewish state, but it is “ours” only insofar as it is connected to those old-time goals. Deceptive actions -directed not only against the world’s nations but also against other Israelis - are holy.

 

‘Police treated right-wingers like kindergarten kids’

 

The Ayalon, which the Arabs call the ‘Musrara brook,’ spills out into the Yarkon River exactly opposite the hill where the university stands today. Yesterday it was witness to a student protest over budget cuts and cancelled classes, fired lecturers, and an attempt to apply differing standards for university tuition.

 

Police sent large forces to deal with the students, who only caused a minor disturbance. There were no protracted beatings, but the police certainly did not treat them with kid gloves.

 

Now, compare that to the treatment accorded to right-wing protestors:

 

The Ayalon freeway tire burners stopped traffic for hours on the country’s busiest thoroughfare. The police were late to arrive, and even when they did, only arrested a few instigators and treated them like kindergarten kids.

 

This, too, is a lesson: rebel against the country and disrupt the daily goings-on of hundreds of thousands of people, and it’s almost certain nothing will happen to you.

 

But if you demonstrate for a just cause, be sure that you’ll receive a blow to the head.

 


פרסום ראשון: 03.18.05, 16:58
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