It’s long been clear that Israel prefers nonviolent Palestinian protesters and their supporters to be seen as dangerously violent, thus justifying extension of the Separation Wall and other security measures. This account on Infoshop of the latest anti-Wall demo at Bil’in, near Ramallah, offers an illustration:
Our group – Palestinians, Israelis (mostly anarchists) Internationals, and even dignitaries (Israeli Palestinian members of parliament and members of the Palestinian parliament, was blocked about 50 meter from the work site – still mainly by physical power only.
During this engagement, the “secret weapon” of the Israeli state was exposed: prison riot suppression unit persons disguised as demonstrators tried to provoke a violent clash with the Israeli army and police to justify a harsh suppression of the demonstration. However, the demonstration was highly organized, and they were immediately approached by village activist to enforce the nonviolence program… This exposed them to be outsider provocateurs. When reposed, they put their masks of and arrested two Palestinians….
Along the demonstration, and later – including the main news programs of the Israeli radio and TV, the demonstration was reported – with lot of video clips taken in the demo. The media reported on 300 Israelis and 700 participants. It also reported on the experiments done in the suppression of the demo. They also gave a false explanation to justify the failed provocation of the undercover agent provocateurs who tried to incite by their stone throwing.
They gave the ridiculous lie that they had to throw stones to keep them from being exposed…. (Which was of course the opposite – throwing the stones when no real demonstrators did it exposed them.
Dennis – thanks for posting this! I’ve been really struck with the escalating complaints from the Israeli right about Palestinian violence, even though militant activity has all but stopped and Abbas seems intent on enforcing the ceasefire (on his side, anyhow). It’s clearer and clearer that for the Israeli authorities, militant attacks are not so much an obstacle to negotiations as they are an excuse to avoid negotiations. If attacks aren’t actually occuring, they need to be fabricated.
Great find, as usual. You put a lot of really useful stuff up here!