The thing is, Hassan (may I call you Hassan? I see you so often on television, I feel that I know you) - No. We do not want war. God, we are so sick of war. Has it really been only five days since this nightmare began? It feels like a month.
So.
When Jill called to ask me whether I was going to the demo, as we'd tenatively planned earlier in the day, I hesitated. Surely nobody would show up. And I had so much work to do - people to interview, notes to write up, phone calls to make, articles to translate. I haven't slept much lately, either. Oh come on, said Jill. If nobody is there we'll take a few photos of the empty space and blog about it. Yalla, I thought. I could use a break from the computer. I'll go.
And lo, there were people there. Many people, in fact. Okay, so they were mostly from the so-called far left: Gush Shalom, Hadash, Yesh Gvul were the most visible, but there were other groups as well. But no, they were not all artsy fartsy bleeding heart liberal Ashkenazim. There were Arabs and Jews, Ashkenazim and Mizrahim, teenagers, young couples with children and old people.
"There is no military solution."
"In war there are only losers."
Okay, some of the signs were a bit inane:
Israel out of Gaza, Beirut and Haifa (Haifa??!!)
And:
"Femnists say yes to negotiations."
And yes, I did see the ultimate ineffectiveness of this demonstration. But
really, it was rather heartwarming. Some sincere, goodhearted people stood up while their country was under siege and got together to say publicly that they hate killing, but they don't hate the people who live in the country from which missiles are launched at them. Okay, there was the nutter who wore a T-shirt with a picture of Stalin on it (!), but otherwise...normal people.
Jill and I walked alongside and listened as they walked up Chen Boulevard and chanted:
לא, לא למלחמה, כן, כן לשלום
Oh, and check it out: The Israel-Lebanon Crisis of 2006 has its own Wikipedia entry.No, no to war. Yes, yes to peace.
But then they chanted something a bit odd:
But then they chanted something a bit odd:
חייל, הקשב, אפשר גם לסרב
Soldier, listen, it is possible to refuse.
Hmm.... The last time I heard that chant was during the right wing anti-disengagement demonstrations last summer (every summer a new crisis, it seems). Those demonstrators were encouraging soldiers to refuse orders to evacuate Jewish settlers from Gush Katif; they were roundly condemned by the political centre and left for mixing politics with military matters and for encouraging soldiers to disobey orders. And now these leftist demonstrators were doing the same thing, but for a different reason. Which goes back to my pet theory - that there is not much difference between the extreme left and the extreme right.
Except...
When I interviewed right wing extremists before, during and after the disengagement I was inevitably met with sullen curiosity at best, or outright hostility at (frequent) worst. But these leftist demonstrators were friendly, relaxed and open. Even when a nutty old woman walked up to a young couple - she pregnant, he holding their toddler in his arms - and said to the woman, "You're a lesbian! We don't need any more homos in this country! And habibti, the Arabs only understand one thing: force."
The pregnant woman looked at the angry woman, smiled calmly and said, "Okay." And she continued walking.
Other than that, I saw people hanging down from apartment balconies and joining in the "No, no war" chant. I saw a few drivers waving in support - and one taxi driver who yelled out "homos!" - which drew a bit of a laugh, because the word is hardly an insult in ultra liberal, very gay-friendly Tel Aviv.
Then I went home, back to my computer, the news on television and the endless phone calls for work. I took a few minutes to read some Lebanese blogs, too. And I saw that, for many, the hate is taking over. That fragile dialogue between Israeli and Lebanese bloggers has been undermined by that nutty, fanatical, hate-filled man with the turban. Hang on, wasn't our abhorrence of him one of the things we had in common just one week ago?
Hmm.... The last time I heard that chant was during the right wing anti-disengagement demonstrations last summer (every summer a new crisis, it seems). Those demonstrators were encouraging soldiers to refuse orders to evacuate Jewish settlers from Gush Katif; they were roundly condemned by the political centre and left for mixing politics with military matters and for encouraging soldiers to disobey orders. And now these leftist demonstrators were doing the same thing, but for a different reason. Which goes back to my pet theory - that there is not much difference between the extreme left and the extreme right.
Except...
When I interviewed right wing extremists before, during and after the disengagement I was inevitably met with sullen curiosity at best, or outright hostility at (frequent) worst. But these leftist demonstrators were friendly, relaxed and open. Even when a nutty old woman walked up to a young couple - she pregnant, he holding their toddler in his arms - and said to the woman, "You're a lesbian! We don't need any more homos in this country! And habibti, the Arabs only understand one thing: force."
The pregnant woman looked at the angry woman, smiled calmly and said, "Okay." And she continued walking.
Other than that, I saw people hanging down from apartment balconies and joining in the "No, no war" chant. I saw a few drivers waving in support - and one taxi driver who yelled out "homos!" - which drew a bit of a laugh, because the word is hardly an insult in ultra liberal, very gay-friendly Tel Aviv.
Then I went home, back to my computer, the news on television and the endless phone calls for work. I took a few minutes to read some Lebanese blogs, too. And I saw that, for many, the hate is taking over. That fragile dialogue between Israeli and Lebanese bloggers has been undermined by that nutty, fanatical, hate-filled man with the turban. Hang on, wasn't our abhorrence of him one of the things we had in common just one week ago?
