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5763: Articles posted from September 2002-September 2003 Get the real situation in Israel every day. Get The Facts to the Public
October 7, 2002 As a result of this silence, attacks against Israelis appear to be committed in a vacuum. For instance, few people know that the most recent attacks which killed 8 Israelis in 3 days, were preceded by a week in which 72 Palestinians were killed by the IOF. Yesterday I decided to do something about the situation, albeit in a very small way, a sort of preliminary step to test the waters. I had planned to go to the Marwan Barghouti trial in Tel Aviv. At 7:00 AM the news reported that only a small number of people outfitted with special permits would be allowed into the courtroom; knowing full well that I would not be among these privileged few, I decided to demonstrate at the courthouse entrance holding up a placard with figures showing the numbers of lives lost in the years since the signing of the Oslo agreements. Under the heading "Violence
Breeds Violence" were listed annually the number of
Palestinians and Israelis killed from 1993 through 2002.* The numbers
are revealing. Particularly noticeable is the enormous difference
between the figures in 1999 when people on both sides still hoped for a
settlement and the numbers of those killed since.
495 Israeli deaths of the 615 have occurred since Ariel Sharon became PM I had hoped that these figures would give passersby some food for thought, would show the link between the two sides and the enormous increase in lives lost (Palestinian and Israeli) since Sharon became PM. What actually occurred was a different matter. When I arrived, others on the Israeli 'left' who had come to the trial earlier, were in the building upstairs outside the courtroom. Consequently, I found myself alone among a group of 50-60 of extreme right wingers who instantly took offence at the poster. For the hour and 50 minutes that I remained there, I experienced shoving, attempts to hide me and the poster from the view of passers by, attempts to tear the poster out of my hands and to destroy it, as well as a steady stream of verbal abuse. A leader of the attackers ordered that I be delegitimized. The tactics used to do this included obscuring me from view by waving large Israeli flags in front of my face, covering my poster with theirs (consisting of photographs of Israelis killed in terrorist attacks), and placing their bodies in front of mine, no matter where I stood. While these attempts were largely successful, they attracted the attention of the media, which rushed to film both the acts of the opposition and the poster, and even resulted in 4 interviews (BBC, a French reporter, a few questions from the Jerusalem Post reporter, and one unidentified). This media attention further angered the right-wingers. Ugly abuse was hurled in the air: "I hope your daughter will be killed by a suicide bomber." "I hope you will be killed by a terrorist." "May you be raped." "Go to Canada." "You're a rotten apple. Get out!" - is a sampling of the more common sort. The worst was reserved for the Arabs. I have no intention of repeating it in writing. Although it made no sense to argue with these people, I did not remain entirely silent. I can't say that I won any friends among them when after they complained about how many Israelis had been killed I told them to thank Sharon and his government. The police's distaste with me was obvious. For the most part the police ignored me. On two occasions when the crowd became overly menacing, I shouted for help. In both instances one policeman came, but only to tell me to move on and to stay away from the others. Would have loved to, but unfortunately the others refused to leave me alone. Finally, a friend from upstairs who had heard that I was downstairs alone came to my aid. After he told the police that they were fascists they, quite surprisingly, formed a cordon for a few minutes to keep the others from us. As for the media, despite its attention to the poster and myself, I have found no evidence of this in the newspapers or elsewhere. Was it nevertheless worth the doing? Yes! For one thing, I learned something about myself: I could take abuse and not return it. I could even keep my calm. More important, I learned an important fact: the stark truth - even when consisting only of bare numbers--panics right wing extremists. They obviously are scared stiff that the public learn the truth and consequently question the lies and deceit being fed it. We therefore have to make every effort not only to inform ourselves, but also to get the data out to the public both in Israel and abroad - on placards, on fliers that can be distributed in the market place, on street corners, and in other public places. We must put on our thinking caps and be creative and find ways to reveal what really goes on here to the uninformed person on the street. Best,
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