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Judy Lash Balint is a freelance writer based in Jerusalem. Her articles have appeared in numerous international publications. Balint is the author of published by Gefen.
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By Judy Lash Balint
July 18, 2005
How are you getting there? How are you getting back? Are you taking your kids/letting your kids go? Is there any point in going? How will the police and border police react to us? Are you staying for all three days?
These are questions my friends and I have been asking each other for the past few days as we weigh up how to peacefully express opposition to the Gaza retreat plan and offer support to the thousands of Jews in Gush Katif who are about to be kicked out of their homes.
I'm off in a few hours to drive down with a group of fellow travelers to test the limits of Israel's democracy. Already, the authorities have declared day two and three of the march illegal, since they refuse to give permits for the assembly. We're the wimps -- we're going to the legal part that's due to start late this afternoon with a mass prayer gathering at the tomb of the Baba Sali in the southern town of Netivot.
Our thinking is that the media and political forces will be counting heads there and it's important to have as strong a showing as possible to start the thing off. We'll try to drive back tonight and then go back down on Wednesday as the group moves toward Kissufim, the entryway into Gush Katif.
Organizers have repeatedly exhorted participants not to engage in any kind of verbal or physical violence with IDF, police or border police, but a favorite tactic of our Shin Bet secret police is to place provocateurs inside the ranks of the right wing organizations, who then initiate the most extreme acts that are then blamed on those groups.
Many commentators keep on referring to the fact that Gaza retreat protestors are breaking the law by engaging in demonstrations without permits, or that Gush Katif residents who refuse to show ID cards in order to get to their homes are acting against the law and "that's going too far," as Judy Nir Mozes said on her popular talk show last week.
Well, for those of us raised in western democracies, we can only reflect on the fact that it was also against the law once upon a time in the great US of A for African Americans to sit at the front of a bus, or eat at a whites-only diner. It was also against the law for Jewish activists in the former Soviet Union to teach Hebrew or to gather to demonstrate for the right to emigrate. Would anyone suggest today that those activists should NOT have broken the law for their principles?
Tonight we'll see whether Israel can tolerate mass opposition to government policy (wouldn't it have been easier if we could just have had a referendum?)
In the meantime, the Kassam rockets and mortars keep on falling -- not just in Gush Katif, but over the past few days dozens have slammed into Sderot and the kibbutzim inside the Green Line. Offers to host hundreds of Sderot kids whose summer activities have been cancelled, pour in from all over the country. Beersheva will provide transportation and facilities for Sderot kids to join day camps there, and a few private companies are sponsoring Fun Days for Sderot kids at various parks and attractions.
And the adults? They're just trying to stay calm as they become the new frontline of the latest episode in Israel's seemingly endless border war.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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