In the four
weeks since the social protests have begun in Israel, hundreds of have been
killed, dozens of women have reportedly been raped, a number of children tortured,
and countless districts have been looted. The authorities have imposed a
complete lock-down on all cellular networks. All access to Facebook and Twitter
has been blocked. Little information is going in, or out.
Except the
absolute, complete opposite.
The social
protests in Israel began 4 weeks ago with a national outcry over the rising
price of basics such as cottage cheese. They then snowballed into a full-blown
national movement by way of a simple act by a then unknown young woman. The
act? Striking a tent in Tel-Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard in portest of high
apartment rental costs.
A single
tent became the heart and soul of the movement whose main gripe is that the
middle-class is bearing the brunt of an imbalanced budgetary spend. “The People
Demand Social Justice” is the key chant.
The
protests are local, scattered all across Israel, drawing hundreds to hundreds
of thousands. Big name musicians volunteer to headline these protests.
Barricades and PA systems, all donated. People talk about the movement at every
cafe, over every lunch, at every business meeting, at every family dinner.
There have
been a few skirmishes with the law. Small stuff though… For example, small
groups of protesters were arrested by the police for blocking roads and were
released without charges within a day.
Small
potatoes aside, it’s been four weeks and zero acts of the barbaric,
non-discriminatory violence we’ve seen across the middle east, and even in the
UK. No shots fired. No stores looted. No form of communication has been shut
down. In fact, not only have the Israeli police and army not taken any role
other than safeguarding the protests themselves, they have even been applauded,
literally, by hundreds of thousands for their efforts.
While in
neighboring countries regimes are slaughtering the opposition, in Israel we
have complete free speech to criticize our politicians and leaders. As I’m
typing this, on the TV is Israel’s version of SNL doing a parody skit of Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s mishandling of the situation (they have him
wearing a red t-shirt with Che Guevara on it). YouTube mashups featuring the
PM’s soundbites? Posted below for your scrolling convenience.
Professional-level videos advertising the protests? Also, posted below.
Sorry
Shervin, no need for your curation and retweeting on this one, the Israeli
people are doing A-OK. Really, look:
The
backbone of the movement has unquestionably been Facebook, via pages, and
events, and of course Twitter, via the #j14 hashtag. A revolution needs a site,
right? Right.
At this
point there’s no guessing which people will next rise-up and demand political
and social change. The world is not what it used to be before Tahrir. I wonder
though how many of these future civil disobedience movements will be modeled
upon Israel, where technology and love trumped violence.
In Jerusalem, scholars trace Bible's evolution
"The End of History" – Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)
(Subjects:Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)
(Subjects:Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)
"If an Arab and a Jew can look at one another and see the Akashic lineage and see the one family, there is hope. If they can see that their differences no longer require that they kill one another, then there is a beginning of a change in history. And that's what is happening now. All of humanity, no matter what the spiritual belief, has been guilty of falling into the historic trap of separating instead of unifying. Now it's starting to change. There's a shift happening."
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| Tiny Israel among their neighbour countries in transition |
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