How long will the world stand by with this sort of behaviour I wonder.
A settler mob, with municipal backing, rampages through Jerusalem | Jews for Justice for Palestinians
The article goes on to say how a growing number of Palestinians are understanding that Gandhi style protest is their best hope.
link for Bassem al-Tamimi's speech Maan News Agency: Non-violence activist addresses Israeli military court
I think its fair to say, Israelis have never heard at such a pitchslogans such as Butcher the Arabs (itbach al-arab) and Death to Leftists and The Land of Israel for the People of Israel and This is the Song of Revenge and Burn their Villages and Muhammad is Dead (the latter with particular emphasis outside the mosque in Sheikh Jarrah and then again as the march entered the Muslim Quarter of the Old City). Its one thing to hear such things occasionally from isolated pockets of extremists, or from settlers in the field in the South Hebron hills, quite another to hear them from the throats of tens of thousands of marchers whipping themselves into an ecstasy of hatred. The slogans call up rather specific memories: I couldnt help wondering how many of the marchers were grandchildren of Jews who went through such momentsas targets of virulent hatein Europe. Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah and the Muslim Quarter of the Old City watched in horror, but there were no attempts to meet the hatred with violence.
For nearly twenty-fours hours the settler mob maintained a huge, raucous presence in the streets of East Jerusalem, taking particular delight in marching through the Muslim Quarter at 4a.m. Some of the marchers threw stones at Palestinian passers-by near the Damascus Gate. The police, who largely stood by while this was going on, arrested three activists from Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity and nine Palestinians protesting in Silwan, of whom seven were children, along with a few settlers.
So here you have one vision of the future of Jerusalemand, sadly, it looks very much as if the current wave of racist hysteria is only gaining strength in Israel. Moreover, as is usually the case with modern nationalism, the political center and the more moderate right show no signs of attempting to hold back the tide. Indeed, a number of members of the government, which is in any case dominated by settler parties, regularly contribute to the inflammatory rhetoric. Whats left of the old Israeli left is fragmented, diminished, and politically ineffectual.
A settler mob, with municipal backing, rampages through Jerusalem | Jews for Justice for Palestinians
The article goes on to say how a growing number of Palestinians are understanding that Gandhi style protest is their best hope.
A Mediterranean variant of Gandhian-style mass protest has by now taken root among Palestinian communities in several parts of the West Bank: Maasara, Nabi Saleh, Dir Kadis, Naalin, and Bilin, to mention only a few. There is by now a clear awareness among many that non-violent resistance is far more likely to be effective against the Israeli occupation than violence; and these days the humane principles of Gandhi and Martin Luther King are frequently and clearly articulated in Arabic by grass-roots Palestinian leaders.
An eloquent statement of the philosophy and method was delivered on June 5 by Bassem al-Tamimi, one of the leaders of the Nabi Saleh protests, at his trial at an Israeli military court for organizing demonstrations. Al-Tamimis text will, I am sure, someday be taught in schools, maybe even in Israel; it is remarkably reminiscent of Mahatma Gandhis famous statement to a now forgotten British judge in Ahmedabad in 1922, when the judge sentenced him to jail for six years. [Published on JfJfP website, 07.06.11, Peaceful protester tried under military law ]
link for Bassem al-Tamimi's speech Maan News Agency: Non-violence activist addresses Israeli military court