International Release

# On March 20, Israeli activists busy with own war
# Avnery applies the Spanish example at home

NB: links and contact information re ongoing struggle
Against the Wall / Refusniks / Vanunu

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# On March 20, Israeli activists busy with own war

March 20 - first anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, a day of worldwide
demonstrations, finds us very much immersed in our own local problems.
While the headlines are devoted to PM Sharon's announcements of his
intention to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, the smaller print carries the
routine news of a seven-year old girl shot to death during the latest
military incursion into the refugee camp of Khan Yunes, in the same Gaza
Strip.

[Hebrew at request / raxiz rl ti awyd ]

--This morning, we came to honour a group of young people who are not
willing to share in the occupation and in its concomitant endless cycles of
oppression and violence, retribution, re-retruibution and re-re-retribution.
Haggai Matar, Matan Kaminer and Noam Bahat are now at Ma'asiyahu
Prison (Lod), a civilian institution, having been "expelled" from military
prison-6 where "their presence disrupted discipline and good order." (The
other two, Adam Maor and Shimri Tzameret, also serving a year's term for
refusing to join an occupation army were transfered to Hermon Prison in
the north of the country.)

Several dozen people answered the call of the veteran refuser support
group Yesh Gvul. One bus and many private cars stopped in front of the
prison walls and soon the banners were waiving: Neither military prison,
nor civilian! Free them Now!"

"They are not complaining; are filling their time by teaching fellow
prisoners English and mathematics. That is the kind of alternative
community service which they asked for all along. Why has it to be behind
bars?" - Noam Kaminer, father of Matan.

Daniel Milo, father to Laura, who had been denied the status of
conscientious objector and sent to imprison, announced the family
decision to go to the Supreme Court. "What the army did to Laura is
simply illegal. With regard to women the law is quite plain: a woman who
shows that for reasons of conscience she cannot join the army is entitled
to exemption."

Suddenly, the quiet and orderly vigil was disturbed by the arrival of two
police patrol cars. "Move away immediately! This is private land!" "We
are quite far from the prison walls; we don't disturb anybody." "Walls or
no walls, this belongs to the prison authority."

The police fastened their attention upon singer Yasmin Wagner, who
throughout the confrontation continued the song which she wrote after
her own psychiatric discharge from the army, all the while sitting on the
ground and strumming her guitar: "Hey boy, join the army / Make your
mother proud / Shoot the young, shoot the old / Guard well your country
// Hey girl, join the army / Join the pilot training, too / Bomb the schools
just like the men do / Show them what a girl can do." But the police were
not amused. They grabbed the guitar, and started dragging her to the
waiting police car. Demonstrators were quick to hold on to her: "What are
you doing! Are you crazy? What did she do wrong?" After some minutes
of haggling the police gave up.


--At the same time, a confrontation was taking place elsewhere. Three
buses full of women from all over Israel had set out to participate in a joint
Israeli-Palestinian demonstration at the village of Mes'ha, protesting the
Wall which has so severely disrupted daily life in the village. But they
never got there: not only was the army ready with "closed military zone"
orders which referred to these buses and to no other vehicles on the road,
but soldiers were also stationed near the Palestinian taxi stands -
preventing the women from making use of that alternative, too.

--"There Is No Military Solution! There Is No Military Solution! There Is
No Military Solution!"
rang the call at the gate of the Defence Ministry in Tel-Aviv. Some 200
Peace Now supporters have come to register this evening their vocal
protest, with banners and placards:
"No to suicide bombings! No to assassinations! Yes to peace
negotiations!"
"Get out of the Territories! End the bloodshed!"
"No sons for unnecessary wars!"
"Say Goodbuy to Gaza, Today!"

KM Ran Cohen of the newly-founded Yachad Party took up the
megaphone: "I read in the papers that withdrawal from Gaza is expected to
last a year and half. What the hell is that needed for? How many people
are going to be killed in this year and half - to be killed for what?"

--On the same evening, an emergency meeting was taking place at the
municipality of A-Ram, a large Palestinian suburb of Jerusalem. A few
days ago, work started on the 8-meter high concrete Wall in this area
along a route which would hopelessly break up economic and social life in
this town of 50,000. Representatives of Gush Shalom, Ta'ayush and others
discussed with Mayor Sirhan Salaymeh a large-scale campaign.

Over the past two weeks, the struggle against the Wall has intensified. In
village after village the inhabitants turned out en masse - to block the
bulldozers' way with their bare bodies, undeterred by barrages of tear gas,
the shooting of rubber-coated metal bullets, and occasionally live
ammunition as well. Israeli activists, especially Anarchists Against the
Wall have been constant partners in this struggle, and their presence is
increasingly noted by the Israeli media, but seems no longer a guarantee
against killings.

There have been some successes: the Supreme Court has been more
inclined than hitherto to grant injunctions halting work along considerable
parts of the route, and in some places the army at its own initiative started
negotiating changes in the route. A not unimportant role was played by
inhabitants of nearby Israeli communities coming out in support of their
Palestinian neighbors. Also significant was the high profile involvement of
the Council for Peace and Security, a body uniting hundreds of dovishly-
inclined former senior officers. Originally supporting the creation of a
separation fence, they now strongly oppose its route.

--As we write this report, we got a phonecall from Rome, where Anat
Matar - mother of imprisoned CO Haggai - had been invited to address a
mass anti-war rally. "I was moved, when it turned out that the release of
the five Israelis was among the official demands of the rally. And when I
spoke and said the words "my son is in prison for refusing to serve the
occupation" there was a heartwarming wave of applause from the
immense crowd present.
~~~~~~~

# Avnery applies the Spanish example at home

Uri Avnery
20.3.04

Hebrew at request & soon at the site
raxiz rl ti awyd `e awxea a`zx

Bravo, Amigos!

A Prime Minister is waging war. The great majority of the people
oppose the war. The majority vote for the Prime Minister.
Absurd? Well, that was the situation in Spain. It also applies, more or
less, in Israel. But here the similarity ends.
The Spanish people have thrown their Prime Minister out. The Israeli
people go on supporting their Prime Minister.
The Spaniards, in their innocence, believe that if a Prime Minister does
the opposite of what the great majority of the people want, he has to go.
They think that this is what democracy is all about. In Israel, such a thing
is unthinkable.
And that is not the only difference.
Of course, the Spanish people arrived at this conclusion under the
influence of the big terrorist attack in Madrid. The Spanish reaction was
very different from the usual Israeli one.
After the terrorist onslaught, the Spanish asked themselves: why did
they do it? What caused this murderous attack on us? The logical answer
was: the Prime Minister's policy has brought this on us. The conclusion:
Let's find another one.
In Israel, such a question cannot arise. What brought the terrorist
attacks on us? What sort of a question is that? The reason for terrorism is
the inborn murderous character of the Arabs. It has, of course, nothing at
all to do with the policy of our Prime Minister.
When a terrorist outrage happens here, logic flies out of the window.
Instead of thinking and asking questions, people shout "Death to the
Arabs", demand bloody revenge and gather around the Prime Minister.
Another difference: the Spaniards got angry. The Prime Minister lied to
them. He exploited the outrage for his election campaign. When he already
knew that all the signs pointed to Islamic fanatics, he pretended in public
that the attack was perpetrated by the Basque ETA organization. He
hoped to garner the votes of those Spaniards who oppose an independent
Basque homeland. But the voters understood that this was a lie and did
not like it. The Prime Minister is lying to us? To hell with him.
In Israel, when the Prime Minister lies, the public remains apathetic. The
Prime Minister has lied to us again? So what? Isn't he always lying?
Nothing to get upset about.
One can only envy the Spanish. After a horrible civil war, after decades
of an oppressive dictatorship, in spite of domestic splits and many
terrorist attacks, what a healthy reaction! What strong democratic
instincts!
(By the way: some 500 years ago, half a million Jews were expelled from
Spain. In the last decades, almost all the "Sephardim" - Sepharad is the
Hebrew name for Spain - came to Israel. The great majority of them support
Ariel Sharon. Why do the "Spanish" Jews in Israel react differently from
the Spanish people back home?)
There is another difference between Spain and Israel, and it may be the
decisive one.
Last year I visited Spain. Some days before I arrived, the Prime
Minister's party had won an impressive victory in the local elections. The
opposition Socialist Party was lying flat out. Everybody spoke of it with
contempt, some with pain. The party was in ruins, perhaps beyond
redemption.
And then it happened: the party replaced its old leaders with an
energetic, fresh one, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. With a lot of luck, this
man has now led his party to power.
When the Spanish people were fed up with their Prime Minister, they
knew that there was a reasonable alternative. They could throw the ruling
party out because there was another party ready to move in.
In Israel, these conditions do not apply. Our leading opposition party,
Labor, is also a shambles, but there is no sign of recovery. Quite the
contrary.
It is headed by a pathetic person who would make a deal with the devil
for a place in Sharon's government. Its other old leaders, all of them
certified failures, are already quarrelling about the chairs that Sharon may
allot them, should he be so kind as to invite them into his cabinet.
The Israeli situation is surreal: according to all opinion polls, a large
part of the public is fed up with the war, the bloody cycle of suicide
bombings and targeted assassinations, the settlements and the settlers.
They want a solution and are ready to pay the necessary price - the end of
the occupation, a Palestinian state, the dismantling of the settlements, a
reasonable compromise about Jerusalem, withdrawal to the vicinity of the
Green Line. They want to shift our national resources from occupation and
war to economic growth, education and social welfare.
So how does this translate into political realities? It doesn't. There is no
serious political force able to offer an alternative leadership.
In Spain that was a temporary situation, which corrected itself in a
natural way. In Israel, this situation seems to be permanent.
Therefore, one can not only envy the Spanish, but also learn from them.
The political ball is round. It can turn suddenly. What seems to be
impossible can become possible - if there are good people around, who
can convert good intentions into political reality.
I hope that this will happen here, too. True, some people are already
standing in line - Tony Blair and George W. Bush. What has happened to
Jose Maria Aznar in Spain must happen to them, and I hope that it will.
Then, with a lot of courage and a lot of luck, the turn of the fourth in the
queue will come, and Ariel Sharon, another man of blood and lies, will be
turned out.
In the meantime we salute our friends at the other end of the
Mediterranean Sea - Bravo, amigos!
~~~~~~~

NB: links and contact information re ongoing struggle
Against the Wall / Refusniks / Vanunu

--
pekgez ienieniz aktxim n`inim r"i dgend lz`m rm
`iiai 064-604172  isichel@netvision.net.il
`xiw 050-607034  info@rhr.israel.net

Day to day presence at villages threatened by route of wall.
Contact: Ivy Sichel 064-604172  isichel@netvision.net.il who set's up a list
for people who can come at short notice, or: Arik Asherman 050-607034
 info@rhr.israel.net


--
Refuser news:

Constantly-updated list of all presently jailed refusniks:

English -  http://www.yesh-gvul.org/english/prison/
Hebrew / raxiz -  http://www.yesh-gvul.org/prison/


For the latest news about the five:

 http://www.refuz.org.il/News.html

NB:
Letters of support to
Noam Bahat / Haggai Mattar / Matan Kaminer
AGAF BET
Ma asiyaho Prison
P.O.B 13
Ramla
Israel

Adam Maor / Shimri Tzameret:
Hermon Prison
P.O.B 4011
KFAR M RAR
Israel

--
List of international vigils on day of Vanunu release (April 21):
 http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/
 http://www.vanunu.freeserve.co.uk/

Instead of sending flowers - an online option (paypal) for your welcome
gesture:

Online petition for the unconditional release of Vanunu
 http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/freemordechaivanunu/

--
 http://www.gush-shalom.org/ (raxiz/Hebrew)
 http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html (English)
 http://www.gush-shalom.org/arabic/index.html (selected articles in Arabic)

with
\\photos of recent actions
\\the weekly Gush Shalom ad
\\the columns of Uri Avnery
\\Gush Shalom's history & action chronicle
\\position papers & analysis (in "documents")
\\and a lot more

N.B.:
On the Gush Shalom website links for
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