BREAKING: Police arrest 17 people in Israel’s largest demonstration against Iran war | International
In breaking news, the following story has emerged from the international scene.
There could only be 150, after a petition to the Supreme Court to reconcile the right to demonstrate with the limit on concentrations (50) due to the missiles of Iran and Hezbollah, but several hundred more ended up gathering this Saturday in Tel Aviv, in the largest demonstration in Israel against the war it launched in Iran together with the United States. Just like last week, when it only gathered dozens, the police intervened to disperse it, with 17 arrests and gratuitous pushes. The protesters kept it up until the reality of the conflict prevailed: a mobile alert announced the imminent arrival of an Iranian projectile and both participants and police sought refuge in an underground parking lot. Until then and for an hour and a half, the protesters showed banners and chanted slogans such as “Enough of perpetual war”, “Only peace will bring security”, “Let’s stop the killing”, “There are no just wars” or “Your government is in blood, our money”. Two groups dominated the protest: one recently created, the Omdim Beyahad organization, which advocates coexistence between Jews and Arabs; and Hadash, the communist-inspired Arab party that receives thousands of Jewish votes. The rest, as could be seen on t-shirts and stickers, was a mix of Jewish Israelis who, from different political positions, defend pacifism, criticize the occupation of the Palestinian territories or have taken to the streets since the last decade against the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A few carried photos of children killed by Israeli bombings in Lebanon or Gaza. Also from the Bani Odeh, the Palestinian family who returned to their home in the West Bank three weeks ago when undercover Israeli soldiers showered their car with bullets. Tel Aviv has been, as usual, the center of the protest, but hundreds of others have taken to the streets in other cities, such as Haifa and Jerusalem. Also in limited and determined numbers after the last minute petition to the Supreme Court of ACRI, the largest civil rights organization in the country. They have only been summoned in places with shelters nearby. In Tel Aviv, in the square that overlooks the Habima theater, next to the largest in the city. Some protesters, this Saturday in Tel Aviv. Maya Levin (AP) “It is our obligation to take to the streets against the war in Iran, in Lebanon, in Gaza and in the West Bank,” the co-leader of Omdim Beyahad Alon Lee-Green, who ended up being arrested and handcuffed by the agents, shouted with a megaphone. Other chants referred more to the old fight against Netanyahu after his indictment in three cases of corruption (“Government of criminals!”) or to the massive demonstrations in 2023 (the largest in the country’s history) against Netanyahu’s reform to give more power to the Executive to the detriment of the Supreme Court. They belong to a segment of the population politically on the margins in a militaristic and nationalist country in which each of the different wars in the last two and a half years is experienced as inevitable. But attendance this Saturday also reflects a small but growing change in the national mood. On February 28, when Israel and the United States began the war with a massive wave of bombings that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and other political and military leaders, the atmosphere in Israel was mostly euphoria. A survey by the Israel Democracy Institute analysis center placed support among the Jewish majority at 93%. Another, from the Institute of National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, at 91%. Lower support Five weeks later, Iran continues to launch daily missiles against the country, its regime is still standing and the objectives stated during the initial drunkenness of enthusiasm seem far from being achieved. The cold water jug of realism has also diluted the support. In the latest poll by the Israel Democracy Institute, last week, it has already dropped to 78%. Above all, the percentage that “clearly” supports it decreases and that which opposes it increases: it has gone from 4%, in the first days of the war, to almost 11%. Nitsan Noiman, 38 years old, represents those who have been qualifying their opinion these weeks. She was happy, she says, at the selective assassination of Khamenei by his army on the first day of the war, for his “violations of human and women’s rights,” although she admits that she was “confused,” aware of “what was coming” and generally not believing in wars as a way to resolve conflicts. Now, she has come out publicly to demand its end, wearing earrings with the dove of peace and a sticker with the slogan “Fuck war.” “I came because this country is in free fall and I want it to look like the place where I want my children to grow up,” he says before pointing out three more specific reasons. One is the laws that the Government is passing “in the shadow of war”, such as the drastic expansion of the death penalty to make it the default punishment in the military courts of the occupied territory of the West Bank for those Palestinians who kill Israelis within the framework of the conflict. “It is more typical of a dictatorship,” he laments. Noiman also criticizes the result of the campaign (“he has only managed to get the Revolutionary Guard to govern, which is more radical”) and highlights his distrust in Netanyahu’s coalition, the most right-wing in the country’s history. “If there was someone to count on, who would believe and explain things… but he is not waging this war thinking about our good, nor about the Iranians, but rather out of mere political calculation,” he points out. Another protester, Tal, 58, was on the other hand clear of her rejection from the beginning (“it leads us nowhere and only serves Netanyahu’s interests,” he summarizes), but has come for the first time spurred by the violent repression of last week, which contrasts with the laxity with which the authorities allow daily much higher concentrations almost anywhere. “I am against wars in general, but,” he adds, “if I have come today it is also to defend my right to express my opinion.”
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Source: This article was originally published in another language by Internacional en EL PAÍS and has been translated and adapted for our global English-speaking audience. Read the original article here.