A people's revolution
Government has created deep rift among people of Israel
Tens of thousands of citizens stood for hours on the highway Monday night while the police prevented them from entering Kfar Maimon and beginning a three-day protest and planned march to Gush Katif.
Read a selection of Ynetnews' coverage of this week's protest at Kfar Maimon
- One big togetherness
- More than they bargained for
- Only 1,500 remain
- 250 arrested as protest ends
- Blues take to the streets
My wife, children and I walked on to a dirt path leading to the fields of Kfar Maimon before being met by two career army officers, whose assigned duty was to prevent us from continuing to walk.
We returned to the highway, and when it became obvious to the police that the civilian army not only outnumbered them but also was determined to stay there all night, the barriers came down and the gates of Kfar Maimon were opened.
Dozens of buses, no travel
The following three days saw tens of thousands of opponents to the government policy overwhelm Kfar Maimon despite attempts by the police to stop them. Law enforcement officers prevented vehicular travel from Netivot towards Kfar Maimon eight kilometers away.
They stopped dozens of busloads of people from leaving Israel's major cities and from the West Bank. They even boarded public buses and ordered several people to disembark because of suspicions they intended to travel to Kfar Maimon, or, even worse, Kisufim.
Police stopped my orange-ribboned car at Bet Kama, about 25 kilometers away from Kfar Maimon and asked me where I was going. When I answered, "Netivot," the officer asked me why and finally allowed me to continue when I answered that I was going to visit friends, which was the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Basic violation
For three days, people from all over the country and not just Judea and Samaria, became incensed, not only because of the way it warped democracy in order to pass the expulsion law but also because of the gross violation of basic freedoms.
Thursday night, when it was clear that the planned march to Gush Katif could not pass through the massive police and army force, the rally ended.
Police rights
The government this past week succeeded in trampling civil rights with the help of the silence of the attorney general and the cooperation by the High Court, which put off until Thursday to question the police's right to stop buses from traveling.
What right does a policeman have to ask me where I am going and why? What right do the police have to force men and women off a bus because they are going to a rally whose leaders have announced included a march into a closed military zone.
Entry into the Gush Katif is illegal under the army's regulations, but where do the police get the right to restrict my movement because of someone else's intentions?
If I announced that I intend to rob a store, is that a crime? Can the police stop me from going to the butcher shop because I said I intend to steal a chicken?
Popular revolution
This past week's episode was the beginning of a popular revolution. The police, egged on by the Prime Minister's support for its determination to "protect law and order," have flagrantly and brutally injured dozens of citizens and have taken the law into their own hands.
They have opened criminal charges against dozens if not hundreds of people on phony charges of striking a policeman or of not following policeman's orders. Minors have been illegally shackled and thrown into jail.
The more we are accused for being anti-democratic because we are trying to prevent a law from being enforced, the stronger our determination to prove that basic democracy requires allowing citizens to non-violently change the law.
The country's truck drivers, port workers and union leaders never have been as orderly and peaceful as we have been. The police explicitly expected violence at Kfar Maimon because they believed the year-old illusion that "extreme right wingers" make up much of the opposition to the expulsion plan.
We have nothing to lose because the government has treated us with insult and injury on every level. They have broken our bones and broken laws in the name of its own definition of democracy.
The next rally, whether at Kfar Maimon or Be'er Sheva or Tel Aviv of Haifa or in Jerusalem, will be even larger than this past week's planned march.
The question of whether we may or may not march to Kisufim has become irrelevant. The government has created a deep rift among the people of Israel, and support for the police measures against us is based on fear that our rallies will succeed.
The more the government incites its agencies to treat us like enemies, the more likely the people's revolution will force the Sharon government to repent or fall.
