[Gush Shalom] Avnery: What a show! / "Ze'evi's heritage" call for letters
Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)
info at gush-shalom.org
Sun Oct 6 16:04:42 IDT 2002
GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/
[1] Uri Avnery comments on the Barghouti trial
[2] "Ze'evi's heritage" taught in all schools + call for protest letters
[3] Reminder about the Billboard's new home
Uri Avnery
5.9.02
What a Show!
Who doesn’t remember the picture: a Jew is put on trial in Moscow as
a Zionist spy. Family members and friends come to observe the trial but
are turned away. No place left, they are told, all the seats have already
been taken. And indeed, KGB agents have filled the hall early, and with
the entrance of the accused start to shout: “Traitor!” “Spy!” “Kill him!”
The day before yesterday I witnessed something frighteningly similar
in Tel-Aviv.
The prosecution’s request to keep Marwan Barghouti in prison till the
end of his trial was due to be heard in the District Court. Barghouti, a
prominent political personality, has been known for years as the leader
of Arafat’s Fatah movement on the West Bank. After Oslo, he
participated in many peace demonstrations. He was kidnapped by the
IDF and put on trial as a terrorist. Gush Shalom activists and others
decided to attend and observe the proceedings.
I arrived two hours early, but was not allowed into the courtroom, in
spite of my press card. All the members of the public had been evicted,
because inside a briefing of security personnel was taken place. I had a
peek at dozens of security people and others inside the room. They
obviously were planning what was about to happen.
In the meantime, a crowd had assembled in front of the door. The
security people ordered everyone to descend one floor and erected a
barrier at the foot of the steps. Behind it, security people and officials of
the Prime Minister’s office took up positions. They had lists in their
hands. “Only people who appear on the lists will be allowed in!” they
announced.
Who did enter? A number of journalists and TV teams, according to a
list prepared by the Government Press Office (a branch of the Prime
Minister’s office). A few diplomats and a Knesset member. Apart from
those, only people appearing on the list provided by the “Organization
of Terror Victims”.
This is an innocent name for a well-known group: a radical right-wing
body, well organized and trained, that specializes in extremely
vociferous Arab-bashing demonstrations. Often, the “victims” appear
side by side with the rowdies of Kach – an outlawed Jewish terrorist
group. The “victim’s organization” represents, of course, only a tiny part
of the tens of thousands of families hurt by the violence, who belong to
all segments of society. Suicide bombers do not differentiate between
leftists and rightists, Jewish and Arab citizens.
Apart from the members of this organization, no one – not one single
person!!! – was allowed into the courtroom. I am a journalist. For some
fifty years a have held a press card issued by the Government Press
Office. I am also a former Knesset member. No matter, for two and a half
hours I stood in front of the barrier, crowed in on all sides, unable to
move, hardly breathing in the stifling heat, while the members of the
“Victim’s Organization” passed by me, holding folded posters and large
photos. Around me there were lawyers, peace activists, foreign
journalists and ordinary spectators.
In Israel and around the word people saw what happened in the
courtroom: When Barghouti was brought in, the public inside started a
riot, waving placards and pictures and shouting “Murderer!” “Terrorist!”
“Kill him!” It looked like the circus in ancient Rome or a lynch mob.
People seeing this on TV had no way of knowing that this was a show
planned and organized well in advance by the Sharon government.
The aim was clear. One of the participants, a man called Swiri,
confessed to it candidly when interviewed on TV: “I wanted the world to
see the victims of this murderer, Barghouti!” Meaning: the participants
in the riot had not come to see and listen. They have convicted the
accused even before the start of the trial. The principle, that every
person is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a proper trial, is not
recognized by them. It certainly does not apply to Palestinians.
The very decision to stuff the hall with “terror victims”, to the
exclusion of everybody else, amounts to a conviction in advance. The
victims versus the perpetrator. This means that the whole “trial” is
nothing but a propaganda exhibition, a show-trial of the sort that used to
be associated with Fascist and Communist regimes.
The pre-planned riot took place in a court. The Court Guard, which
includes many Security Service agents, took part in the organization of
the show, which was orchestrated by the Prime Minister’s office. It is
hard to believe that all this happened without the knowledge – and,
indeed, the cooperation - of the court.
This puts the whole justice system, once the pride of Israel, to
shame. But probably this debasement was inevitable. After the
decisions of the Supreme Court approving torture (”moderate physical
pressure”), exiling and demolishing the homes of relatives of suicide
bombers, holding kidnapped people as “bargaining chips” (Sheikh
Obeid and Dirani), this is another inevitable stage. It adds to the price of
the occupation and the intifada: in this field, too, we are descending into
the Third World.
Israeli TV channels gave much prominence to the riot in the
courtroom, without reporting how it was planned and orchestrated. And
no wonder: what is happening now to the courts has already happened
to TV. Since Ariel Sharon recently took direct control over the electronic
media, everybody can see the result with his or her own eyes. Like the
late Stalin, Sharon now appears on TV almost every day, speaking at
length to the nation. Each such “event” is meticulously planned and
directed by his spin doctors. He appears among soldiers, against a
background of tanks, in the company of children, at meetings of
bereaved parents, at memorial ceremonies. Never with the jobless in
Yerucham or the hungry families in Dimona, who pay the price of the
intifada.
Every day one minister is invited, in his turn, to a long TV interview,
explaining the government’s and his own immense achievements. For
the sake of balance, a right-wing politician is often confronted with an
extreme-right-wing colleague. Sometimes, but on fewer and fewer
occasions, a “leftist” is called in for alibi purposes, and is allowed to
utter a few sentences about peace, before he is interrupted by angry
shouts. What a show!
This is how the “only democracy in the Middle East” looks now. Once
this was called a “people’s democracy”.
[2] "Ze'evi's heritage" taught in all schools + call for protest letters
At the personal initiative of Education Minister Limor Livnat, all Israeli
schools are to give today October 6 special lessons on the "heritage" of the late
Tourism Minister Rahav'am Ze'evi, assaasinated a year ago.
Ze'evi, a general turned politician, was a leading proponent of "Transfer" of
the Palestinian population of the Occupied Territories, which he saw as "the
only solution". The call for such a "transfer" was the main plank in the
program of the "Moleldet" ("Fatherland") party which Ze'evi founded and headed
up to his death, and which still continues to vocally advocate the same idea.
An Education Ministry spokesperson told Ma'ariv that the lessons given to
Israeli pupils about Ze'evi's "heritage" will not touch upon "politically
controversial issues" but will concentrate upon the character of Ze'evi as "a
devoted patriot and long-serving military man, whose love for his country and
dedication to her service make him a model of Zionist ideals".
Gush Shalom long-standing member Hava Keller, herself a retired teacher, was
this morning interviewed on Israeli Second Channel TV, representing a new
initiative of "Teachers Against Racism" which strongly denounced the Education
Minstry's step.
We call upon you to send messages of protest to Education Minister Limor
Livnat, using the model text or composing your own.
To
Education Minister Limor Livnat
Ministry of Education
Jerusalem
Dear Madam
I am surprised an shocked at your decision to have the heritage of Rehav'am
Ze'evi taught in Israeli schools. The fact that he was assassinated is no
excuse to make of him a martyr role model. Ze'evi is known in the first place
for his propagating ethnic cleansing (transfer). None other than your former
fellow Likud member Benny Begin, son of the late Menachem Begin, refused to be
with Ze'evi in one government.
The fact that Ze'evi was one of several thousands people killed in the cycle of
violence and bloodshed of the past two years is no reason to single him out
and make of him a hero which Israeli schoolchildren are taught to emulate.
[3] Reminder about the Billboard's new home
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