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Israel Tent Protests Called Off After Eilat Attacks
Organizers of campaign against high living costs cancel weekend's demonstrations to 'join the families in mourning'
Organizers of the tent protests which have enthralled Israel for more than a month have called off demonstrations planned for this weekend following the attacks in the south of the country.
A tent protest camp in Beersheva, one of dozens that have been established around Israel. Photograph: Menahem Kahana/AFP A series of marches and rallies was due to be held around the country with the main focus in Jerusalem. This weekend will be the first for five weeks with no Saturday night demonstrations.
In a statement, the National Union of Israeli Students said the protest movement was "lowering its head on this difficult day, joins the families in mourning, and wishes the wounded a speedy recovery". NUIS leader Itzik Shmueli told Army Radio: "We decided given the events to cancel them." He said the campaign for "social justice" and over the high cost of housing, childcare, fuel, electricity and food would continue.
Itai Gutler, head of the Hebrew University student union, told the Jerusalem Post: "I don't think this has any connection that will affect the revolution. The nation isn't going to stop because of this terrorist attack. The revolution will continue, because this won't change things in the country."
Demonstrations around the issue of social justice have drawn hundreds of thousands of people on to the streets over the past few weeks in the biggest protests seen in Israel for many years.
Dozens of tent encampments have been established around the country. The core protest, based in the affluent Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv, has grown to more than 500 tents.
The protests have attracted the support of around 90% of the population, according to opinion polls, and have seriously rattled Binyamin Netanyahu's government.
Some participants have said only a major security event would deflect attention away from the protests.
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26 Comments so far
Show AllRevolution?
I think there ought to be a moratorium on that word until the real deal shows up.
There is no revolution in Israel, there was no revolution in Egypt or Tunisia, and the rebellion in Libya has been fueled by Western arms and meddling from the start.
These Israeli "revolutionaries" are so timid they won't even whisper a mention of the ongoing genocide to which they are party.
I absolutely agree on both your points!
Yeah it's beginning to smell like a lot of the over/misused terms like "hero", "icon", "spreading democracy", "mendacity", "terrorist", "combatant", "warrior", "small business" and "austerity", etc.. It's hard today not to step in some marketing hyped "euphemism".
You can bet though in Libya we won't just sink Gaddafi's body quietly at sea. The banking world want's his head on a pike to scare off anyone else that might want to usurp their power or undermine the west's pillaging of Africa.
Seems the snarky speculations on the other thread about the Eilat attack being a false flag are accurate. They seem to have worked well at quelling the lily livered protests in Israel anyhow. Can't be seen to be opposing ethnic cleansing in that nation either, eh?
from yesterday's thread:
[The Eliat "attack" and IDF retaliation was a strategy - that worked - ] "to derail the mass protests on the streets of Israel over rents, food prices, etc."
Good Morning,
I also morn the senseless violence, causing death and destruction in this arena as well that which occurs daily throughout the world..
However, I do not believe the deaths in Israel, (if they actually occurred ) were caused by Palestinians fighting for their lives against a brutal inhumane occupation of their ancestral homeland.
The Palestinians have nothing to gain, nor will anyone else EVER have anything to gain by killing innocent people. In particular for anyone who calls himself or herself A Muslim, The Koran is specific on this ",killing of innocent people."
Muhammad by Words and Deeds demonstrated what IT is ... to be a Muslim.
So , the Nation of Islam be Warned Again, Those that lead you to Kill, rather than leading you to Paradise lead you to Eternal Damnation. And to those WHO LEAD, ALLAH has a place for you In Particular !
Children, those Teachers who teach Hate rather than Love,TURN AWAY, for it is a SIGN, they are not from Allah.
Children, those Teachers who teach how to kill rather than how to Heal, TURN AWAY, for it is a SIGN, they are not from Allah
The Palestinians in their Quest for recognition from the U.N. for Statehood,have
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to gain from this violence.
The Government of Israel has EVERYTHING to gain by these Killings.
Because I do not Trust what the Israeli Government and the U.S. Government
represent as facts, I cannot believe the Palestinians committed these murders, if they actually happened.
The True Jews in America, have always been in the forefront of every positive
social movement in America and throughout the World.
They carried the LIGHT of Love,Justice,and Knowledge from generation to generation all over the World "The Wandering Jew " They were the CHOSEN
for this job.
I have Faith the Demonstrators in Israel will be able to re-ignite the LIGHT of Love ,and the Jews of Israel will bring Peace.
Please do not say "Allah" when you are writing in English. It really offends Muslims because it makes it seem as though their God is not the same as the Christian/Jewish God. "Allah" is merely the word for God in Arabic; Muslims always refer to Him as "God" when they speak English and "Gott" in German, "Dieu" in French, etc.
Yes. And as far as I know those of the three Abrahamic faiths all worship the same god. Of course Christianity's version of "god" seems to suffer from a split personality, and you have to love all those "graven" images like crucifixes, crosses, "jesus" portraits and lambs and doves.
Sorry for my ignorance,
But I was not consciously creating the text, I was sort of daydreaming, listening to a song by the Grateful Dead, "Ripple " , drifting in a rhapsody of memories,
after several songs another band started playing and I went back to the screen
what you see was on it.
Geez, no one here tiptoes around Christians, and I don't think they should. I don't mind offending any devoutly religious person, as they offend me everyday. Jesus and Allah can suck it.
The idea this was a false flag operation are just ridiculous. A lot of people want to attack Israel. That something like this was bound to suppress the protests is sadly predictable, and I don't doubt the government is happy for the reprieve. On the other hand, whoever attacked probably has no interest in the protests bringing down the Israeli government and creating a more democratic and functional state. If the goal is to get rid of Israel, then more democracy and justice is a bad thing. The cancer of theocracy that seems to be growing in Israel would then be a good thing. This attack was the last thing the protesters would want, but that doesn't mean the government did it or knowingly allowed it. Nonetheless, all the attackers accomplished was to strengthen a noxious government when democracy had been resurgent.
I can't conceive that anyone would need more lessons in violence won't solve anything for the Israelis and Palestinians, but here's another one anyway.
" Nonetheless, all the attackers accomplished was to strengthen a noxious government when democracy had been resurgent."
Which then begs the question of who the actual perpetators were and what their motives were. The world will never know because the only justice Israel ever meets out if obliviation of all suspects and evidence. I am guessing bearing false witness is not considered one of the important commandments anymore. Probably ranks right up there with adultery and coveting one's neighbor's possessions.
Re-read the story of the boy who cried "WOLF".
In all likelihood a false flag.
All good Zionists want the occupation and ethnic cleansing to continue. White thinking Americans support it with their tax dollars.
There are no words to describe how revolting some of the comments here are (and on a previous item previously posted about the attack itself). Ordinary citizens were killed in cold blood, but what we get here is the classic cocktail of talk-points characteristic of palestinian propaganda - sometimes all mixed in the same comment: It never happened; It's a false-flag operation (!) and, finally, it is 100% justified - so, really, the victims deserved it. Plus a touch of blunt antisemitism: insaf2000 writes in a comment on the previous thread, "Jews are masters at deception and it is not at all surprising... Such laothsoeme people! If only they could see themselves from an eye of a camera, they would commit suicide!!!". And in this beacon of progressiveness, neither the readers or the moderators seem to care at all. My request to delete that comment has been ignored so far. Maddy, in a comment posted on the same thread, proposes that jews were stealing land in Germany in 1933!
The frenzy of responses here, and on the previous item (55 so far + 13 posted already on this very new item) is fascinating also in comparison to comments typically posted by readers on other topics. This site rarely publishes anything about the attacks on citizens in Syria, certainly, when taking into account the graveness of the situation there. During the past two crucial weeks, when Asad launched yet another brutal attack on Hama and other cities, there were two watery reports (perhaps because Asad's regime is the darling of Iran?) And when something does get published here, there are zero comments from readers. No comments about "massacre" or "genocide", no calls for the obliteration of Asad's regime, let alone of Syria as a country. So much for caring for human life and human rights.
It is very, very sad to see so much blatant bigotry and utter disregard for human life by the readership of a web site which is supposed to promote progressive values. Of course, this is no coincidence. The unholy alliance between (self-proclaimed) progressives and Islamo-fascism is characteristic of those who hijack progressive ideas to promote the very opposite.
blah blah blah... I'd feel pity for you, but I know that you're another cheerleader for settler violence and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The reason we don't buy the bullshit from the IDF is that they've been caught out in so many lies that to continue to believe them would be insane.
There is room for me and others to condemn Israel for their butchery while also condemning the butchery of the other tyrants in the area. But there is not always space in a story to detail every barbarity on the planet. Perhaps you noticed that the paper also doesn't condemn the butchery and brutality of the Burmese. Exactly what the Burmese have to do with how the Israelis butcher people in the lands they occupy is not clear, but hey...
Your reaction to this is justifiable. Killing innocents is always deplorable. When people who call themselves progressive appear to be hypocritical - condemning Israel's ongoing violence and ethnic cleansing towards Palestinians but not condemning Palestinian violence against innocent Israelis - it weakens their cause - like your cause is weakened by calling Palestinian rights activists "Islamo-fascists." If it's violence we oppose then we must oppose all violence. The truth is, under international law, occupied people have the right to resist occupation. The occupiers have many legal responsibilities towards the occupied: they must not disrupt commerce, they must not appropriate resources (land, water, natural gas, fishing grounds, etc) belonging to the occupied, they must not imprison innocent people (Gaza and Israeli prisons) and deny them their rights. So if Palestinians occasionally fight back violently, I understand but I don't condone. And let's get real, Israel has killed far more Palestinians, 10 times more, including 1460 children since the year 2000. Children! The Israel government has undertaking a most brutal and heartless agenda. Can you imagine what it must be like to live under Israeli occupation? Put yourself in their shoes. If Israel refuses to come to terms with what they're doing to Palestinians, if they continue to paint themselves into a corner with only the US watching their backs, the blowback will destroy them. What if the US decides Israel is a liability to it's designs in the "new" ME? Then what?
Fold up the tents, it's over. These demonstrations originated from and belonged to disappointed progeny of the middle class, without a shred of concern for the original inhabitants. They were upset that the price of apartments and of cottage cheese are squeezing them out of what they regard as their rightful inheritance. One tiny toot from the bugle of Zionist propaganda, and they all blow away.
Exactly. It's all about the non-plutocrats among the Israeli Jews wanting a bigger piece of the pie for themselves. It's about nothing else.
Someone called the "revolution"'s bluff-- and the "revolution" blinked.It remains to be seen whether it will resume, or even attempt to resume, when the period of mourning ends.And if it does, whether it will blink again at the next "major security event", which will surely occur sooner than later.
It's a good idea for the demonstators to stand down in good order with the option of returning on thier own time. It's as hard to stop a demo as start one, Eygptians got caught up in the "we won't leave untill Mubarak does", but what they got in return does not please a lot of people and reprising that kind of energy to go after what they actually do want is pretty fraught with even more danger and difficulty. The reason to pospone more street demonstrations in Israel reflects well on the protestors, respect for those who mourn, but also leaves open the option of returning to the fray when the mourning period ends. And they can have showers, cooked meals and reconnect with family also, which I am sure will be welcomed by many.
Which terrorist attack are they talking about? The one by the citizens of Gaza or the one against the citizens of Gaza? Or about the theft of Palestinian property? In Israel, it's hard to tell what terrorism means unless the article is very specific.