Israel launched its Independence Day celebrations in characteristic fashion, with all the pomp, spectacle, counter-pomp and counter-spectacle that we have learned to expect from this country. A report of a few events:
Torch Lighting
The traditional torch lighting by establishment-selected individuals at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery was matched by an “alternative torch lighting” sponsored by Yesh Gvul, in which 11 peace and human rights activists lit torches and spoke. Several hundred people came to hear speeches that sounded much different than those given at Mount Herzl. Some highlights:
§ Fighting ex-Knesset Member Shulamit Aloni expressed the hope that “Next year we celebrate 51 years of the state of Israel and the birthday of the Palestinian state”
§ Journalist Uri Avnery spoke in memory of Yitzhak Rabin and of Issam Sartawi, a Palestinian journalist who was a pioneer of dialogue with Israel.
§ Feminist activist Alice Shalvi called for independence for agunot [women refused a divorce by their husbands], battered women, and prostitutes in the sex slave trade.
§ Poet Natan Zach lit his torch in honor of Mordechai Vanunu, exposer of Israel’s nuclear warfare capacity, currently serving a prison sentence for revealing “state secrets”
§ Bedouin rights activist Nuri el-Uqbi called upon Israel to end the house demolitions, return land confiscated from the Bedouin, and recognize the “unrecognized” villages.
§ Conscientious objectors David Enoch and Yuval Lotem called upon brave young men to refuse army service in the occupied territories.
§ Gila Svirsky lit a torch in honor of the women’s peace organizations and also the gay community in Israel, who constitute a large portion of the peace camp.
§ Social justice activist Shlomo Vazana called for the government to pass the public housing reform law.
§ Political writer and activist Yehuda Meltzer called for a future Israel that will be more democratic, more just, and more peaceful.
§ And Lea Tsemel, human rights lawyer extraordinaire, spoke just as the fireworks from Mt. Herzl began to illuminate the sky above both ceremonies. Lea expressed the hope that the torch she kindled would light the interrogation rooms darkened with torture, and called for a Jerusalem that would turn its shining countenance upon its Palestinian inhabitants as well.
The voices of those who marked Independence Eve with acknowledgement of Israel’s sins, as well as hopes for its future, seemed to be a more honest and fitting tribute to Israel on its 50th anniversary than those in the state-sanctioned ceremonies.
Har Homa Face-Off
Independence Day saw a gathering of 10,000 right-wingers at Har Homa [Jabal abu-Ghaneim] for a day of picnicking, speeches, nationalist songs, and placement of the cornerstone for the settlement planned at the site. This was offset – in decibels rather than quantity – by a counter-demonstration of 1,000 activists from several peace organizations (including Bat Shalom, Peace Now, and Gush Shalom). We gathered in a wadi opposite the hill and directed our instruments of protest – sirens, horns, drums, cowbells, kazoos, trumpets, whistles, and chanting – at the spectacle opposite. Border police kept hustling to keep the two swirling vortexes of noise at a safe distance from each other, though individuals occasionally broke through and had to be forcibly returned to their respective camps. Under the present Israeli government, we cannot do very much, I’m afraid, but we all felt the need to raise our voices so that the settlers, the government, the outside world, our children, and heaven would know that this evil will not pass unremarked.
I hope that next Independence Day will be marked by peace, justice, and a sister state of Palestine beside the state of Israel.