Police in Israel banned an anti-war demonstration in Tel Aviv Saturday night and when it went ahead and refused to disperse they attacked it arresting 14 people. Those arrested were held overnight and bailed on conditions including a ban on demonstrating for a month.
Police in Israel banned an anti-war demonstration in Tel Aviv Saturday night and when it went ahead and refused to disperse they attacked it arresting 14 people. Those arrested were held overnight and bailed on conditions including a ban on demonstrating for a month.
The protests was organised by the Da’am Workers Party who according to Haaretz “carried signs condemning the continued military action in the Gaza Strip and civilian casualties, as well as condemning Hamas strikes against Israel.” Da’am (Organization for Democratic Action) is a breakaway from the Communist Party of Israel. It’s a joint Arab-Jewish party which emphasizes class identity over ethnic or national ones.
The Leftern Wall blog reported that the protesters were chanting
“Enough killing, enough bereavement, enough occupation.”
“Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies”
“End the killing”
“First of all, first of all, the Occupation must fall”
“We’ve had enough/of Bibi and Hamas.”
Haaretz claimed that “right-wing demonstrators usually seen attempting to disrupt rallies against the Gaza operation were hardly present at Saturday’s demonstration” but we have heard from Israeli anarchists that they were present carrying clubs as well as Israeli flags and followed anti-war protesters as they left after the rally.
WORDS Andrew Flood (Follow Andrew on Twitter )