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News :: Miscellaneous
Coalition of Women for a Just Peace Blockade Israeli "Pentagon" Current rating: 0
10 Feb 2001
We hear little about Israeli opposition to the blocakades and attacks on Palestinian areas. Here is an account of an action that protested the policies of the Israeli government at the headquaters of the Israeli Defense Forces. With war criminal Ariel Sharon's capture of the prime ministership, it will be more necessary than ever for these folks to receive support and recognition. This report was written by Gila Svirsky, one of those arrested in the protest.
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:

� An end to the occupation.

� The full involvement of women in negotiations
for peace.

� Establishment of the state of Palestine side
by side with the
state of Israel based on the 1967 borders.

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

� Israel must recognize its responsibility for
the results of the
1948 war, and find a just solution to the Palestinian
refugee problem.

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

� Opposition to the militarism that permeates
Israeli society.

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

� Social and economic justice for Israel\'s
citizens, and
integration in the region.

If you want to help:

Write to President Bush (president (at) whitehouse.gov),
Vice-president
Cheney (vice.president (at) whitehouse.gov), and Colin
Powell
(secretary (at) 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.
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