A Report of the israeli group "Anarchists against the Wall" to the ongoing protest against the War on Gaza.
10,000 in Tel Aviv against the War
The direct action in the military airport
new year demo
Resistance to the war continues
03/01/2009
31.12.2008
2008 ENDS, LEGAL HARRASSMENT INTENSIFIES
The month of December saw an abrupt, rather-suspicious surge in indictments filed against AAtW activists. Police dug up a whole plethora of old charges - over 50 of them, some more than a couple of years old! - and suddenly decided to file them all within the space of a few weeks. The charges relate to offenses allegedly committed not only during actions against the occupation and against Israel's 2006 attack on southern Lebanon, but also during Women's Rights, First of May and anti-MacDonald's demonstrations, in a way highlighting the interconnectedness of all different forms of oppression and of the fight against them.
As to whether or not this uncommon move by the police is a conscious, political attempt to cripple activists with mounting legal costs, we can only speculate. We can, however, be entirely certain that regardless of any and all legal maneuvers by the Israeli state, Anarchists in Israel will continue to oppose injustice and fight oppression on all fronts.
31.12.2008
"HAPPY NEW WAR" ANTI-PARTY
On New Year's Eve, as Israel's offensive entered its sixth day and festivities were officially cancelled in Palestine and throughout a host of other Arab countries in solidarity, the escapist parade of partygoers was rained upon in Tel Aviv by a "Happy New War" street anti-party. Activists carrying signs and banners denouncing the attack on Gaza marched through the cold, rainy night, to remind Israeli citizens that war crimes committed on their behalf leave little room for celebration.
01.01.2009
FUNERAL IN NI'ILIN ATTACKED BY SOLDIERS
On January 1st, activists travelled to Ni'ilin to attend the funeral of Mohammed Sa'adat Fahami AlKhawaja, 22, who died the day before after being shot in the head by Israeli soldiers during a demonstration against the attack on Gaza the previous Sunday. This funeral took place only two days after the village of Ni'ilin buried Arafat Khawaja, 20, a young nursing student shot in the back by Israeli soldiers on the same demonstration.
(Elsewhere on that day, 17-year-old Muhammad Hamid was killed by soldiers with three gunshot wounds to his abdomen and chest in Silwad, east of Ramallah).
The Israeli army in Ni'ilin did not wait long and launched an unprovoked assault on Mohammed Khawaja's funeral procession, as soon as the people arriving began stepping out of their vehicles. Soldiers positioned in the outskirts of the village fired massive amounts of tear gas, and later on rubber-coated bullets, injuring residents and damaging houses. The attack led to clashes with many of the young mourners who built barricades, lit tires and fought back with slingshots.
This assault also introduced a new addition to the Israeli soldiers' arsenal: a plastic-coated tear gas canister capable of reaching much larger distances and at greater speed - as well as being considerably quieter, hence harder to avoid injury from.
01.01.2009
CRITICAL MASS AGAINST THE WAR DEFIES POLICE
Thursday evening, activists met in central Tel Aviv for a "Critical Mass against the War". Around 40 activists gathered at the city's municipality square, but before they could wheel their protest down the streets they were quickly surrounded by police officers and Border Patrol, who declared the event an illegal assembly and threatened to slash tires and arrest anyone attempting to ride their bicycles on the street or sidewalk.
Activists were forced to disperse, but only to meet a while later at a different location, from which they finally managed to carry out a short yet successful protest ride through Tel Aviv's main streets and boulevards, calling for an end to the siege and the attack on Gaza.
02.01.2009
FRIDAY DEMONSTRATIONS: NO TO THE WALL, NO TO THE WAR!
On Friday, AATW activists joined Palestinians and internationals at the weekly demonstrations in Jaayous, Ni'ilin and Bil'in. Residents of these three villages (and all over occupied Palestine, most notably East Jerusalem) raised their voice in solidarity with the people of Gaza, as well as in protest of Israel's Apartheid wall.
Israeli police and soldiers responded to these nonviolent demonstrations by firing tear gas and rubber-coated bullets into crowds attempting to march onto their own lands after the Friday prayers. In Ni'ilin there was ample use of the new type of gas canisters, and in Bil'in (which marked its 202nd weekly demonstration against the wall), soldiers made use of yet more new ammunition: a small, green-colored bullet, light in weight, filled with an unknown liquid, which initially seems relatively harmless but lacerates the skin and draws blood on impact.
02.01.2009
21 ACTIVISTS ARRESTED AFTER BLOCKING MILITARY AIR BASE
In the early hours of Friday morning, 21 activists blocked the entrance to Sde Dov military air force base in Tel Aviv, staging a nonviolent, "die in" protest to prevent pilots from taking off to bomb Gaza's population. Dressed in white overalls and splattered with red paint, activists lay on the road leading to the base, held signs and handed out flyers reminding pilots that the bombing of innocent civilians in Gaza, where hundreds of people have already been killed by Israeli air strikes, is a moral crime – as well as a war crime according to international law.
Although protesters moved voluntarily to the sidewalk when ordered by police, all activists present – including two who did not even step onto the road! – were subsequently handcuffed and arrested.
At the initial court hearing the judge extended their stay in custody by another two days, based on hysterical charges made by the police (most of them easily disproved in the available video footage), and set the next hearing for Sunday.
Behind the protocol of these official charges, however, police made abundantly clear that it wishes to keep the activists in custody while it follows its true intention: launching an investigation (supposedly based on "secret evidence") in an attempt to prove that the arrestees form a criminal, clandestine organization planning far more serious and dangerous attempts to sabotage Israel's current war effort.
Sunday noon the activists were brought to their second hearing at Tel Aviv's Magistrate's Court, charged with illegal assembly, disorderly conduct after an order to disperse, blocking a public road and unauthorized entry to a military base. Furthermore, police requested they be remanded until the end of the proceedings (i.e. end of the trial, which would take months). However, the presiding judge refused to get carried away by the inflammatory wartime rhetoric of the prosecution, and in fact subtly ridiculed its grounds for arrest. The courtroom, packed with family and supporters, sighted in relief as all (Israeli) arrestees were set free on the sole condition that they remain at a distance from military bases. Meanwhile, two international activists also arrested during the "die in" were processed separately and kept in prison, scheduled to be deported (one of them was released later on in the evening, the other remains in prison).
While the activists' hearing was taking place, plainclothes police detectives arrived at the house of one of the arrestees, equipped with a search warrant, and proceeded to confiscate a computer, cellular phones, political material and other items from the house. Police has since threatened that more search warrants have been issued and are likely to be carried out in the upcoming days.
It is clear from the handling of the Sde Dov protesters – as well as police and secret service's arrest of scores of Israeli-Palestinian citizens who took part in demonstrations against the current war - that the state wishes to use the pretext of wartime emergency to intimidate and stifle the voices of both Palestinians and Israelis opposed to this war, cynically instigated by Israeli politicians as part of their campaign for next month's general elections.
Fortunately, they have so far remained unsuccessful, and opposition to Israel's attack on Gaza continues to grow and expand.
03.01.2009
FROM SAKHNIN TO TEL AVIV: THOUSANDS MARCH IN OPOSITION TO THE WAR
On Saturday, activists took part in one of the largest demonstrations of Israeli-Palestinians in years, which took place in the northern Israeli town of Sakhnin. Drawing tens of thousands of Israeli citizens (mostly Palestinians), the protest started with a minute of silence for the victims of the attacks and called for a halt to the ongoing military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
In the evening, a few hours after the massive Sakhnin demonstration, it was Tel Aviv's turn to witness one of its most impressive wartime demonstrations, organized by a coalition of over twenty different groups (including AATW). Unbeknownst to the thousands of protesters (ten thousand exclaimed some organizers, five thousand claimed the police, "a few hundred" wrote the newspapers) Minister of Defense Ehud Barak was already ordering tanks into Gaza while people were marching down the streets calling for an end to the carnage.
Earlier that week police attempted to cancel the demonstration entirely, arguing that they would be unable to protect it from the fascist mobs. Police demands included that organizers prevent the hoisting of Palestinian flags at the event. However, after a last-minute legal battle settled in the High Court, the demonstration was allowed to go forward as planned.
Among the thousands of protesters marching through all four lanes of Ibn Gvirol St. - one of the city's main streets – was a lively, energetic radical Anarchist block, 150-people strong, which included a large samba-band. The block's chants for freedom and solidarity in the face of the Zionist war-machine echoed throughout the two kilometers from Rabin Square to the Cinemateque.
The march was besieged on both sides by counter-demonstrators and frantic right-wingers chanting racist taunts and waving Israeli flags (which at times, and rather symbolically, were also used by them as clubs). Scuffles broke out repeatedly, with police seeming not-too-keen on protecting peaceful protesters from nationalist violence (at least one protester was admitted to the hospital after being injured in an attack). Even the clearly-political arrest of our 21 anarchist comrades the day before did not manage to dampen our spirits, and we raised our voices loud and clear.
For more details
awalls.org
israel.indymedia.org
03/01/2009
31.12.2008
2008 ENDS, LEGAL HARRASSMENT INTENSIFIES
The month of December saw an abrupt, rather-suspicious surge in indictments filed against AAtW activists. Police dug up a whole plethora of old charges - over 50 of them, some more than a couple of years old! - and suddenly decided to file them all within the space of a few weeks. The charges relate to offenses allegedly committed not only during actions against the occupation and against Israel's 2006 attack on southern Lebanon, but also during Women's Rights, First of May and anti-MacDonald's demonstrations, in a way highlighting the interconnectedness of all different forms of oppression and of the fight against them.
As to whether or not this uncommon move by the police is a conscious, political attempt to cripple activists with mounting legal costs, we can only speculate. We can, however, be entirely certain that regardless of any and all legal maneuvers by the Israeli state, Anarchists in Israel will continue to oppose injustice and fight oppression on all fronts.
31.12.2008
"HAPPY NEW WAR" ANTI-PARTY
On New Year's Eve, as Israel's offensive entered its sixth day and festivities were officially cancelled in Palestine and throughout a host of other Arab countries in solidarity, the escapist parade of partygoers was rained upon in Tel Aviv by a "Happy New War" street anti-party. Activists carrying signs and banners denouncing the attack on Gaza marched through the cold, rainy night, to remind Israeli citizens that war crimes committed on their behalf leave little room for celebration.
01.01.2009
FUNERAL IN NI'ILIN ATTACKED BY SOLDIERS
On January 1st, activists travelled to Ni'ilin to attend the funeral of Mohammed Sa'adat Fahami AlKhawaja, 22, who died the day before after being shot in the head by Israeli soldiers during a demonstration against the attack on Gaza the previous Sunday. This funeral took place only two days after the village of Ni'ilin buried Arafat Khawaja, 20, a young nursing student shot in the back by Israeli soldiers on the same demonstration.
(Elsewhere on that day, 17-year-old Muhammad Hamid was killed by soldiers with three gunshot wounds to his abdomen and chest in Silwad, east of Ramallah).
The Israeli army in Ni'ilin did not wait long and launched an unprovoked assault on Mohammed Khawaja's funeral procession, as soon as the people arriving began stepping out of their vehicles. Soldiers positioned in the outskirts of the village fired massive amounts of tear gas, and later on rubber-coated bullets, injuring residents and damaging houses. The attack led to clashes with many of the young mourners who built barricades, lit tires and fought back with slingshots.
This assault also introduced a new addition to the Israeli soldiers' arsenal: a plastic-coated tear gas canister capable of reaching much larger distances and at greater speed - as well as being considerably quieter, hence harder to avoid injury from.
01.01.2009
CRITICAL MASS AGAINST THE WAR DEFIES POLICE
Thursday evening, activists met in central Tel Aviv for a "Critical Mass against the War". Around 40 activists gathered at the city's municipality square, but before they could wheel their protest down the streets they were quickly surrounded by police officers and Border Patrol, who declared the event an illegal assembly and threatened to slash tires and arrest anyone attempting to ride their bicycles on the street or sidewalk.
Activists were forced to disperse, but only to meet a while later at a different location, from which they finally managed to carry out a short yet successful protest ride through Tel Aviv's main streets and boulevards, calling for an end to the siege and the attack on Gaza.
02.01.2009
FRIDAY DEMONSTRATIONS: NO TO THE WALL, NO TO THE WAR!
On Friday, AATW activists joined Palestinians and internationals at the weekly demonstrations in Jaayous, Ni'ilin and Bil'in. Residents of these three villages (and all over occupied Palestine, most notably East Jerusalem) raised their voice in solidarity with the people of Gaza, as well as in protest of Israel's Apartheid wall.
Israeli police and soldiers responded to these nonviolent demonstrations by firing tear gas and rubber-coated bullets into crowds attempting to march onto their own lands after the Friday prayers. In Ni'ilin there was ample use of the new type of gas canisters, and in Bil'in (which marked its 202nd weekly demonstration against the wall), soldiers made use of yet more new ammunition: a small, green-colored bullet, light in weight, filled with an unknown liquid, which initially seems relatively harmless but lacerates the skin and draws blood on impact.
02.01.2009
21 ACTIVISTS ARRESTED AFTER BLOCKING MILITARY AIR BASE
In the early hours of Friday morning, 21 activists blocked the entrance to Sde Dov military air force base in Tel Aviv, staging a nonviolent, "die in" protest to prevent pilots from taking off to bomb Gaza's population. Dressed in white overalls and splattered with red paint, activists lay on the road leading to the base, held signs and handed out flyers reminding pilots that the bombing of innocent civilians in Gaza, where hundreds of people have already been killed by Israeli air strikes, is a moral crime – as well as a war crime according to international law.
Although protesters moved voluntarily to the sidewalk when ordered by police, all activists present – including two who did not even step onto the road! – were subsequently handcuffed and arrested.
At the initial court hearing the judge extended their stay in custody by another two days, based on hysterical charges made by the police (most of them easily disproved in the available video footage), and set the next hearing for Sunday.
Behind the protocol of these official charges, however, police made abundantly clear that it wishes to keep the activists in custody while it follows its true intention: launching an investigation (supposedly based on "secret evidence") in an attempt to prove that the arrestees form a criminal, clandestine organization planning far more serious and dangerous attempts to sabotage Israel's current war effort.
Sunday noon the activists were brought to their second hearing at Tel Aviv's Magistrate's Court, charged with illegal assembly, disorderly conduct after an order to disperse, blocking a public road and unauthorized entry to a military base. Furthermore, police requested they be remanded until the end of the proceedings (i.e. end of the trial, which would take months). However, the presiding judge refused to get carried away by the inflammatory wartime rhetoric of the prosecution, and in fact subtly ridiculed its grounds for arrest. The courtroom, packed with family and supporters, sighted in relief as all (Israeli) arrestees were set free on the sole condition that they remain at a distance from military bases. Meanwhile, two international activists also arrested during the "die in" were processed separately and kept in prison, scheduled to be deported (one of them was released later on in the evening, the other remains in prison).
While the activists' hearing was taking place, plainclothes police detectives arrived at the house of one of the arrestees, equipped with a search warrant, and proceeded to confiscate a computer, cellular phones, political material and other items from the house. Police has since threatened that more search warrants have been issued and are likely to be carried out in the upcoming days.
It is clear from the handling of the Sde Dov protesters – as well as police and secret service's arrest of scores of Israeli-Palestinian citizens who took part in demonstrations against the current war - that the state wishes to use the pretext of wartime emergency to intimidate and stifle the voices of both Palestinians and Israelis opposed to this war, cynically instigated by Israeli politicians as part of their campaign for next month's general elections.
Fortunately, they have so far remained unsuccessful, and opposition to Israel's attack on Gaza continues to grow and expand.
03.01.2009
FROM SAKHNIN TO TEL AVIV: THOUSANDS MARCH IN OPOSITION TO THE WAR
On Saturday, activists took part in one of the largest demonstrations of Israeli-Palestinians in years, which took place in the northern Israeli town of Sakhnin. Drawing tens of thousands of Israeli citizens (mostly Palestinians), the protest started with a minute of silence for the victims of the attacks and called for a halt to the ongoing military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
In the evening, a few hours after the massive Sakhnin demonstration, it was Tel Aviv's turn to witness one of its most impressive wartime demonstrations, organized by a coalition of over twenty different groups (including AATW). Unbeknownst to the thousands of protesters (ten thousand exclaimed some organizers, five thousand claimed the police, "a few hundred" wrote the newspapers) Minister of Defense Ehud Barak was already ordering tanks into Gaza while people were marching down the streets calling for an end to the carnage.
Earlier that week police attempted to cancel the demonstration entirely, arguing that they would be unable to protect it from the fascist mobs. Police demands included that organizers prevent the hoisting of Palestinian flags at the event. However, after a last-minute legal battle settled in the High Court, the demonstration was allowed to go forward as planned.
Among the thousands of protesters marching through all four lanes of Ibn Gvirol St. - one of the city's main streets – was a lively, energetic radical Anarchist block, 150-people strong, which included a large samba-band. The block's chants for freedom and solidarity in the face of the Zionist war-machine echoed throughout the two kilometers from Rabin Square to the Cinemateque.
The march was besieged on both sides by counter-demonstrators and frantic right-wingers chanting racist taunts and waving Israeli flags (which at times, and rather symbolically, were also used by them as clubs). Scuffles broke out repeatedly, with police seeming not-too-keen on protecting peaceful protesters from nationalist violence (at least one protester was admitted to the hospital after being injured in an attack). Even the clearly-political arrest of our 21 anarchist comrades the day before did not manage to dampen our spirits, and we raised our voices loud and clear.
For more details
awalls.org
israel.indymedia.org
Comments
Hide the following 3 comments
nice, but
06.01.2009 20:20
The resistance of western anti-capitalist kids pales into miniscule, meaningless, decadent mental masturbatory insignificance when compared to actual resistance shown by Hamas and more pertinently Hizbollah in recent years (not that I condone these Islamic group's views on women).
gun diplomacy
solidarity
06.01.2009 21:36
it's hardly self-congratulating - just a round up of the solidarity actions that are happening within israel, and a key reminder that we have anarchists comrades everywhere. while the mainstream media continues to wheel out people from sderot, or the families of injured soldiers it is important to see the actions of those opposed to all nations, capitalism and the apartheid and massacre politics of israel.
and let's be clear. these guys are doing this shit all of the time - taking part in numerous actions, protests and meetings every single week - it puts anarchists like myself to shame. as does the perseverance and focus despite numerous injuries from rubber coated bullets, live ammunition, all sorts of chemical weapons, innumerable court hearings and court fines.
and if you think this is happening in isolation, think again - see the film "bilin habibti" to see more about the ways in which those involved in anarchists against the wall work directly with palestinian organisers in the west bank - and the true comradery, respect and ties that have been built between the two....
respect - and solidarity,.,,
viral
SUPPORT - THOUGH....
07.01.2009 01:03
ITS A DIFFERANT KETTLE OF FISH being ARRESTED IN ISRAEL is big time sticking your neck out - dont compare actions in ISRAEL with UK.
stakes are very high in Israel - actions/protests are differant to nonviolent calm interventions and these are sadly few. Though they occur.
THESE PEOPLE ARE BRAVE, COMMITTED AND CONSTANT - THOUGH IN MY VIEW ALSO PROMOTING DIFFICULTIES AS ITS MORE THAN LIKELY IF PEOPLE ARE HURT ITS PALESTINIANS NOT ISRAELI'S.
THEY HAVE THIS DILEMMA SEE - DO NOTHING AND OPPRESSION CONTINUES FOR PALESTINIANS - IE THE WALL CONTINUES TO BE BUILT ETC APARTHEID IS REINFORCED
or
PROTEST AND DEMONSTRATE AND CHALLENGE - AND PEOPLE MOSTLY PALESTINIANS GET HURT.
A solution to this dilemma is to utilise anarchist principles for organising to promote nonviolent impishness that is not protest and does not demonstrate - unless the demonstrating is a form of showing. It does not necessarily mean people will not be hurt it just stops polarising the protesters and the police/IDF.
Nonviolence is a force - transformation is better than pithy destruction.
Approach is important - I hope that the AAtW become more than they are for the sake of many they can be a hope for Palestine - no offence intended.
Hoppstubbe Mor