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Leftists stage 'Tel Aviv checkpoint'

'I want to be able to eat hummus in Gaza' says actor-activist playing soldier at staged checkpoint

An actor with a plastic machine gun wearing an army-like uniform speaks aggressively to a man. "Let me see your ID," he says. "Why do I have to show you my ID? I'm from Nablus," replies the man. The staged confrontation escalates in tone, as TV cameramen and photographers gather around.

 

This was the scene that unfolded at the Cinematheque complex in central Tel Aviv Tuesday afternoon, as a number of left-wing organizations attempted to recreate what in their view was taking place in the West Bank.


'IDF checkpoint' at Cinematheque (Photo: Yaakov Lappin) 

 

"The message here is that of peace," said Nir Nikadi, an actor from the Arab-Hebrew Theater, who played the soldier. "I think checkpoints are inhuman. Putting people in cages is inhuman," he added.

 

"We are two nations living here, with extremists on both sides. I want to be able to go to Gaza and eat hummus there, to live in peace," he said.

 

Asked what he thought would happen if checkpoints were removed , Nikado said that "extremists like Hamas and Islamic Jihad could exploit the situation".

 

"But we need a different security solution," he added.

 

The event, organized by Machsom Watch, an Israeli Left-wing organization which sends volunteers to West Bank checkpoints to monitor the conduct of IDF soldiers, drew a number of curious onlookers, some of whom made their views of the event clear. "This is disgusting, they should be ashamed of themselves," said Shoshi, a resident of Tel Aviv.

 

"We all want peace, but there is no peace. Why? Because the Palestinians do not want peace," she added.

 

'You in Tel Aviv know nothing'

Tomer Tamari, also a Tel Aviv resident, said an appropriate response to the event would be to come dressed up as a suicide bomber, to illustrate just what the checkpoints were preventing.

 

"At the end of the day, these people will wake up," he said. "There’s not a lot of them here, but they have lots of power in the press, though they are very limited in number," he added.

 

"Checkpoints aren't ideal, but you can't ignore the reality of terrorism," said Tamari. "Eventually, they will wake up, perhaps when Qassam rockets fall here," he added.

 

Intermingling in the crowd were youths with 'Peace Now' t-shirts and communist party members.

 

Elisheva Eitan, a Machsom Watch activist, told Ynetnews the point of the event was to make Tel Aviv residents aware of the realities of the West Bank. "For four years, I've been going to these checkpoints. Not those on the border between Israel and the PA, but those inside the West Bank, in between Nablus and Tulkarem. What you saw here is what we see everyday," she said.

 

"You in Tel Aviv know nothing about these checkpoints. They do not stop terrorists, because the terrorists don't go through them," she added.

 

Asked whether the disengagement from Gaza with its subsequent rocket attacks on Sderot caused her to reconsider her support for an IDF pullout from the West Bank, Eitan said, "We haven't left Gaza. They have no airport, or ability to develop their economy. There are rockets being fired because of the hunger and conditions in Gaza, which is being exploited by Hamas." 

 


פרסום ראשון: 06.05.07, 21:22
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