[discuss-dan] FWD: Report from Gila Svirsky in Israel

[Doc Rosen <drdrdoc@dr.com>]

------Original Message------
From:
To: drdrdoc@dr.com,
Sent: February 5, 2001 10:08:50 PM GMT
Subject: Report from Gila Svirsky in Israel

Friends,


It's 1:30 in the morning, and 17 of us just returned
from the Tel-Aviv lockup, where we were under arrest
since 6:00 this afternoon, when the police decided they
had had enough of women taking control of the streets
away from them. It was our demonstration against the
cruel "closure" that
Israel has imposed on the Occupied Territories.



The demonstration was brilliantly conceived by a mostly
Tel-Aviv group of

the Coalition of Women for a Just Peace.  About 500
women were there from

all over Israel.  We dressed in black and donned black
"sandwich boards"

with the word "Closure" painted in white in three
languages (Hebrew, Arabic

and English).  We massed outside the entrance gate to
Israel's "pentagon",

its "Defense" Ministry in Tel-Aviv.  At the signal, a
group of women started

to cross the street very slowly, with the intention of
slowing traffic

through this busy artery.  But when the spirit moves
you, you respond:  A

group of women suddenly sat down on the road in a line
clear across the

street and completely blocked all passage of cars. 
Within moments, a larger

group of women thickened the line, and stood with their
placards facing the

cars -- a solid block of "Closure" signs preventing the
drivers from

advancing.  For us, this was a small representation of
what the Palestinians

experience every day -- being blocked entry and exit
from their towns and

villages.



The sight was so dramatic -- some women were sitting
across the road, others

were standing behind them with arms linked, the closure
signs forming a

solid black message clear across the road.  We started
to chant a very

powerful set of slogans.  Here's the translation,
though in Hebrew it rhymes

and is very strong:



End the closure in the territories -

Get out of their bloodstream.

End the closure in the territories -

Give jobs to the workers.

End the closure in the territories -

Give food to the children.



It was amazing to be part of this powerful line, and to
have brought this

busy road to a complete standstill.



Then the police drove up, shrieking up with sirens. 
They didn't waste time

asking for cooperation -- they just plowed in and
grabbed, dragging women to

the sides, and wading in for more.  Some women returned
to the road as soon

as the police let them go, but there were car drivers
who took their cues

from the police, and tried to use their cars to plow us
off the road.  I

stood facing a car with my sign, and the driver first
hit me (gently), then

kept moving forward on me.  I was not violent, but I
wouldn't step to the

side.  The police dragged some of us off the street
many times, but we

returned again and again until they suddenly realized
this, and began to

throw us into paddy wagons.  All this was done with,
shall I say, excessive

force.  My body feels bruised all over, and I'm not the
only one.



After the police had taken away two carloads, women
returned to the road and

again sat down and blocked traffic.  It was wonderful
how they were not

intimidated by the previous brutality.  They continued
for quite a long

time, until an hour or so had been spent illustrating
for Tel-Aviv drivers

the tip of the iceberg of what it means to have a
closure imposed on you.

We did not, of course, demonstrate how it feels to be
cut off from access to

medical care, jobs, schools, and family.  That they
will have to imagine.



At the police station, we were first 12 women and 4
men, who came to the

demonstration.  Then they arrested the lawyer who
showed up to represent us!

The interrogations were civil, though they charged us
with everything they

could think of --  participating in an illegal
demonstration, disturbing the

peace, blocking traffic, resisting arrest, attacking a
police officer, and

even (in my case) attacking a car (poor car!).  Two of
us (including me)

admitted to the acts of civil disobedience (though not
to the accusations of

violence), and the rest took advantage of their right
to remain silent.

Gradually, until about 1 a.m., they released everybody
after bail was

posted.  Many, many thanks to our sister demonstrators
who waited for us the

whole time at the station, drove to the airport to find
an open post office

to post bail, and met us with food and soft drinks when
we came out.  And

thanks to tireless Knesset Member Tamar Gozansky, who
came to the station

for a solidarity visit.  And big, big thanks to Leah
Tsemel, human rights

lawyer extraordinaire, who stayed with us to the bitter
end negotiating with

the police for our release, brought enough cash to
front bail for everyone,

and gave her professional services completely pro bono
as her contribution

to the cause.



I'm not sure how much will be in the media tomorrow. 
There were tv cameras

from French and Belgian stations, and lots of still
photographers.  We had

excellent coverage on the radio, with an accurate
explanation of who we were

and why we were doing it.  We think the Israeli
newspapers tomorrow will

have some coverage.  I hope so.  The Israeli media have
a terrible track

record of covering women's peace actions, even though
the women's actions

are much more dramatic, progressive, and even larger
than the mixed-gender

demonstrations.  Could it have something to do with the
fact that we are,

after all, only women?



I don't think we stopped the closure tonight, but we
did let Tel-Aviv know

what we think about it.  The only way to maintain a
brutal occupation is by

brutally suppressing awareness of it, and criticism. 
We must not let that

succeed.



Shalom / Salaam,

Gila Svirsky,

back in Jerusalem



For the detail-oriented:



The arrestees:

Dalit B., Asaf S., Dalit S. Barbara S., Yehudit K.,
Irit K., Haggai K., Iris

B., Tirtze T., Susy M., Asher F., Roni A., Nabeha M.,
Micheline B., Shahar

S., Gila S., and Yossi W.



Member organizations of the Coalition of Women for a
Just Peace

Bat Shalom; Mothers and Women for Peace (formerly Four
Mothers); New

Profile: Movement for the Civil-ization of Society in
Israel; Neled, TANDI,

Women Engendering Peace; Women in Black; and WILPF -
Israel chapter.



Our principles:

Ø       An end to the occupation.

Ø       The full involvement of women in negotiations
for peace.

Ø       Establishment of the state of Palestine side by
side with the state

of Israel based on the 1967 borders.

Ø       Recognition of Jerusalem as the shared capital
of two states.

Ø       Israel must recognize its responsibility for
the results of the 1948

war, and find a just solution to the Palestinian
refugee problem.

Ø       Equality, inclusion and justice for Palestinian
citizens of Israel.

Ø       Opposition to the militarism that permeates
Israeli society.

Ø       Equal rights for women and for all residents of
Israel.

Ø       Social and economic justice for Israel's
citizens, and integration

in the region.



If you want to help:

Write to President Bush (president@whitehouse.gov),
Vice-president Cheney

(vice.president@whitehouse.gov), and Colin Powell
(secretary@state.gov).

(Skip Barak, who shut down his email to the public.) 
Just say "Tell Israel

to end its closure of the Palestinian towns and
villages."  Remember -- a

simple message gets counted and reported the same as an
eloquent one.



If you'd like to contribute:

We'd appreciate a donation for the Coalition -- not for
bail, but for future

actions -- in any of the following 4 ways:

(1) In the US, you can make a tax-deductible
contribution by writing a check

to the New Israel Fund, with a memo "For the Coalition
of Women for a Just

Peace", and sending to: New Israel Fund, 1625 K Street,
NW, Suite 500,

Washington, DC 20006-1604.

(2) Send a check addressed to US/Israel Women-to-Women
marked "For the

Coalition of Women for a Just Peace", and mail to
US/Israel Women-to-Women,

275 7th Avenue - 8th floor, NY, NY 10001.

(3) Send a check to Bat Shalom "for the Coalition of
Women" at Bat Shalom,

POB 8083, Jerusalem 91080, Israel.

Please let me know if you're doing this, so I can
follow up on it.



Thank you!

Gila Svirsky

Somos la misma familia,
Doc
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