I just got back from a joint Arab and Jewish Israeli demonstration across from the American Embassy in Tel-Aviv (situated on the sea-shore) set for the occasion of Secretary of State Powell's visit.
I would guess that there were 600 people there altogether, of which perhaps 200 or more were Israeli Palestinians.
The demonstration was made up of a coalition of several activist groups, including: Ta'ayush, Union of Arab Community Based Associations, Gush Shalom, Arab Student Coalition, Indymedia Israel, Ha-Campus Lo Shotek (Trans: The Campus Isn't Quiet), Gay and Lesbian Arabs and Jews Against the Occupation, etc. (Missing as usual were Peace Now and Meretz...they are in a coalition with themselves).
A week ago, there was a similar protest in the same location, and it ended with six Israeli Palestinians getting severely beaten and two arrested after Palestinian flags were taken out and waved.
This week there were many more people and more media.
People held up multitude of different signs and banners against the occupation such as:
"The Occupation is Killing Us All"
"Bush: STOP the War Immediately"
And yelled/sang various chants in English/Arabic and Hebrew.
The back side of the Embassy, where the protest took place is right in the center of the beach/hotel district of Tel-Aviv on the seashore, on the main sea-boulevard. During the protest hundreds of cars passed us, some honking there horn in solidarity, and some trying to stop and yell "Kill the Leftists."
The large police presence, unlike last week, stayed back to the U.S. Embassy side of the road, ushering on right-wing hecklers who stopped their cars to scream curses at us.
The only tense episode happened when somone unfurled and waved a Palestinian flag. The police moved forward quickly across the street until they were between the protestors and the street, but they didn't actually move in to try to take the flag like last time. This could have been due to the larger crowd of Jewish Israelis at this weeks protest, the large media presence, or trying to look on good behaviour with Powell in the country. After several more minutes, in which a portion of the crowd began singing a couple verses of Biladi Biladi (the Palestinian National Anthem) the flag went down.
Not too long after this, the protest ended.
All in all, it was a pretty good turn out...it is just too bad though that Peace Now doesn't get more inclusive. We would be much more effective if a Peace coalition could be formed that allowed each group to have some of their own autonomy in regard to platform, slogans and such, but work together. Actually that is what goes on, more or less, excluding Peace Now and Meretz and some of the other soft-left groups. The problem is, Peace Now won't take part in a protest where they don't have full control over what is said and what signs are shown.
Last week at a Peace Now march/demonstration in Tel-Aviv, a group of us were carrying signs that were pro-conscientious objectors and paper mache (or however it is spelled) dolls with faces like vampyres that said in Hebrew, "The enlightened occupation" and "freedom" in Arabic. Some of the Peace Now organizers came and started actually yelling at us that we have no right to show these banners and dolls at their protest. One tried to pull the Pro-refusnik sign out of one of our hands.
It is really sad in this sense because Peace Now has a name that pulls a lot of people in to a protest.
Well, anyway, it was still a good turn out today considering.
Best to all,
Bryan
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