Sol Salbe
After a week of rallies and demonstrations, Israelis opposed to their army's attack on Rafah were still protesting. The week's final protest was a 1000-strong rally at the entrance to the Gaza strip.
The week of action began on the late evening of May 15, when 150,000 demonstrators packed Tel Aviv's Rabin Square in a massive rally that reflected the country's mood. The latest opinion poll suggested that 79% support a total withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
This 79% are divided almost evenly between those who would follow Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposed model of a unilateral disengagement and those who believe that peace between Palestinian and Israelis can only be achieved through negotiations. The latter believe that any withdrawal should be coordinated with the elected representatives of the Palestinian people. The former justify their position by claiming that Israel has "no partner" in the peace process.
Those differences were reflected in the demonstration. As the May 17 Australian reported: "Mr Sharon was reportedly pleased by the rally, made up mainly of his political opponents, because it helped prepare the public mood for another attempt to press his Gaza pullout proposal."
The debate inside the peace movement about the rally received widespread publicity in the Israeli media. Commentators such as Ofer Shelach in Ynet argued that the rally should not be supported:
"The Israeli Left has no agenda because it adopted the thesis of the 'no partner', and large segments of the Left haven't yet got rid of it. If indeed 'there is no partner', there is no difference whatsoever between the Left and Sharon, [Likud Deputy PM Ehud] Olmert and even [finance minister Binyamin Netanyahu].. The whole question boils down to one of a 'deal' and Likud has always been better in marketing 'deals'..."
But boycotting a peace rally or even emphasising its negative aspects is dead wrong. Just about every peace, left-wing and radical organisation in Israel mobilised its members for the rally.
The immediate trigger for the demonstration was the failure of Sharon to win support within his own party in the referendum on the disengagement plan.
Sharon's plan does not indicate that he has suddenly decided to abandon his life-long project of supporting Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. He has simply reasoned that by withdrawing 7500 settlers from Gaza, he could get away with grabbing a large proportion of the more fertile land and water resources of the West Bank. But even this was too much for the settlers who mobilise within Likud.
Many people were induced to come to the rally by the deaths of 13 Israeli soldiers in direct military confrontations with Palestinian militants between May 11 and May 14. Protesters realised that the soldiers were not defending Israel but the settlements.
While it is true that Palestinian attacks on civilians coalesce Israelis behind their government, direct military confrontation between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians has the opposite effect. It drives a wedge between ordinary people and their pro-occupation government. It reminds people of Lebanon, which for Israelis carries the same connotations as "Vietnam" has for US people.
As Gush Shalom <http://www.gush-shalom.org> reported, the huge differences between those, like the Labour Party leaders, who back Sharon's plan, and those who appreciate that no peace can come without facing and dealing with the entire Palestinian people, caused major raptures before and during the rally. A compromise slogan was eventually chosen: "Leave Gaza and start talking".
Tsali Reshef of Peace Now told the rally: "We have not the slightest trust in Sharon. We know that he wants to withdraw from Gaza in order to keep the West Bank. But just as he was forced to give up Gaza, we will force him to give up the West Bank. Ofra and Beth-El [near Ramallah] and Kedumim [near Nablus] will be evacuated just like the Gaza settlements! Yes, they will!"
Yossi Beilin, initiator of the "Geneva Accords" and head of the Meretz/Yachad Party, received the biggest applause when he said: "Those who refuse peace have tried everything, targeted killings which are not always very targeted; re-invading the West Bank and Gaza; destroying fields and groves and houses — 1800 houses destroyed; burning the fact of defeat into the other side's consciousness and doing it again and again and again. The one thing which they did not try is to make peace. Those who say that there is no partner are those who don't want to talk!" Beilin also attended rallies protesting against the Rafah operation.
All this time, the radical groups who were excluded from the podium were busy among the enormous crowd, arguing the points that none of the speakers made. On the day before the rally, organisers announced that signs advocating refusal would be banned — but in practice nobody stopped Courage to Refuse and Yesh Gvul from holding up "It will not end if you don't refuse [to serve in the Israeli army]!", while the Refuser Parents Forum collected a considerable number of signatures in support of the six imprisoned refusers.
[Compiled from various items posted by the Middle East News Service which provides an alternative view from the Israeli media and peace groups. For a free subscription write to <ssalbe@bigpond.net.au>.]
From Green Left Weekly, May 26, 2004.
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