Bil’in in Tel Aviv
The December Bil’in protest I went to was relatively quiet, unlike the one in October. In October, as happens during most of the Friday protests supporting villagers who try to reach their land on the other side of the Separation Fence, Israeli soldiers let loose plenty of tear gas and sound grenades before moving on to more serious weaponry. In mid-December, though, the soldiers were unaccountably restrained, at least near the fence.
They had already provoked kids closer to the village to throw stones, which the soldiers responded to with gunfire, but this time they didn’t extend the action to the fence. So at the main protest things were edgy but calm enough. That left time for other things to transpire, related to fence signs like this one, for example.
Protesters, including members of the village organizing committee, were taking signs off the fence.
Soldiers were running around trying to get them back.
It was all kind of comical for a few moments.
Of course, other soldiers were photographing the action. Constantly.
And then there was all that razor wire fencing, just sitting there.
I wondered what was going on.
So I was glad the day after I returned to Boston to see this: Anarchists Against the Wall block Central Tel Aviv. This photo explains just about everything. Too bad I wasn’t around to take it myself:
And this is how Haaretz described it:
About 20 activists from the Anarchists Against the Fence organization on Thursday briefly blocked Basel Street in north Tel Aviv with a piece of barbed wire fence taken from the separation fence. Signed hanging from the barbed wire, also taken from the separation fence, stated: “Mortal danger - military zone: Any person who passes or damages the fence endangers his life.”
The act of protest created a traffic jam at the site, and police forces were called to the scene, but the activists dispersed before police arrived. The activists said they wanted to bring the daily Palestinian reality to the residents of Tel Aviv to remind them of the movement restrictions and land theft taking place in their name only a few kilometers away.
Good action, it seems to me.