'Hunter Gray' hunterbadbear@hunterbear.org [marxist]
2014-07-27 11:28:46 UTC
----- Original Message -----
From: David McReynolds
To: MrDavidmcreynolds .
Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2014 12:56 AM
Subject: Re: PEPPER SPRAYED & PURSUED IN NORTH TEL AVIV
This report from Tel Aviv is going to the Edgeleft list.
David
On Sun, Jul 27, 2014 at 1:16 AM, Adam Keller <***@actcom.co.il> wrote:
PEPPER SPRAYED & PURSUED IN NORTH TEL AVIV
July 26, 2014
http://thelefternwall.com/2014/07/26/pepper-sprayed-pursued-in-north-tel-aviv/
It happened after the demonstration -the biggest in Tel Aviv against the war yet, estimates of over 6,000 demonstrators- had mostly dispersed. The now-familiar group of right-wing demonstrators had worked themselves up into a frenzy throughout the speeches by left-wing Knesset Members and bereaved parents and chants to end the war, end the siege, end the occupation, end the violence. They were screaming: âTraitors!â âDeath to Arabs and Leftists!â âYou all get fucked in the ass!â The usual. The two demonstrations had been tightly cordoned off by the police, though. And then, after.
A large number of us were walking away, in a cluster, for safetyâs sake, and then suddenly, thereâs yelling, screaming, pushing. I donât know how it started, but I do know that I looked over to see the rightists begin hitting people on the heads with their flag poles, blue and white flags crashing down. I rush over to try to calm things, speaking in an easy tone, making eye contact, and it seems to work with a few of the guys, who hesitate as they look at me. And then:
Ffffsssst.
And my eyes are burning.
I blink rapidly. Could this be tear gas? No. My throat feels clear. But my eyes are stinging and fuzzy. I ask a bearded man next to me, also blinking and tearing up, what happened, and he says: âPepper spray.â I donât know if it was the right-wingers or undercover police. Next thing I do know is that I look up to see another demonstrator hit over the head with a aluminum crutchâ and then blood starts pouring out, and everything seems more serious and scary.
Some activists -a few who I recognized as anarchists experienced at dealing with violence- ask everyone to stay together, and we walk away quickly, as a group. After a block or two, Kobi asks me to take a few others off to the left, so five of us branch off, and the rest of the group begins to disperse in different directions. We walk, alternating between shocked laughter and silence, my eyes still fuzzy but the pain dulling. A group of about six guys- a few wearing kippahs, all seeming to be Mizrahi/Jews of Middle Eastern descent (a devastating element of these clashes is the race breakdown, with many of the leftists being Ashkenazi/white, and many of the rightists being Mizrahi. My friend, Daria, who is leftist and Mizrahi said that at another demo, she wore a shirt with some phrase about being Moroccan, and folks on both sides of the barrier seemed terribly confused) saw us, recognized something or someone, and started yelling âYou all get fucked in the ass!â âFuck you all!â âWe should kill you, traitors.â We kept our eyes down, did not respond, and they walked onwards.
Then we got a drink -because we needed to process and because most of Tel Aviv seemed to be bopping along as usual, drinking, chatting, flags flupping, et cetera- and then went home.
And the demonstration?
The demonstration was good, considering. It was big, it was somber, it took itself seriously. The crowd was by far the biggest since the beginning of this recent violence, and it looked like people were trickling in all night. Here were a few of my tweet-observations:
And that is all for tonight. Facebook and twitter report of more demonstrators injured, which is horrible but also really not the story, just the subplot. Gaza. All of the people there. I canât imagine. I am wired and alert with sadness; it is 1:00 in the morning. Please, enough.
This blob merits socialmediazation:
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From: David McReynolds
To: MrDavidmcreynolds .
Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2014 12:56 AM
Subject: Re: PEPPER SPRAYED & PURSUED IN NORTH TEL AVIV
This report from Tel Aviv is going to the Edgeleft list.
David
On Sun, Jul 27, 2014 at 1:16 AM, Adam Keller <***@actcom.co.il> wrote:
PEPPER SPRAYED & PURSUED IN NORTH TEL AVIV
July 26, 2014
http://thelefternwall.com/2014/07/26/pepper-sprayed-pursued-in-north-tel-aviv/
It happened after the demonstration -the biggest in Tel Aviv against the war yet, estimates of over 6,000 demonstrators- had mostly dispersed. The now-familiar group of right-wing demonstrators had worked themselves up into a frenzy throughout the speeches by left-wing Knesset Members and bereaved parents and chants to end the war, end the siege, end the occupation, end the violence. They were screaming: âTraitors!â âDeath to Arabs and Leftists!â âYou all get fucked in the ass!â The usual. The two demonstrations had been tightly cordoned off by the police, though. And then, after.
A large number of us were walking away, in a cluster, for safetyâs sake, and then suddenly, thereâs yelling, screaming, pushing. I donât know how it started, but I do know that I looked over to see the rightists begin hitting people on the heads with their flag poles, blue and white flags crashing down. I rush over to try to calm things, speaking in an easy tone, making eye contact, and it seems to work with a few of the guys, who hesitate as they look at me. And then:
Ffffsssst.
And my eyes are burning.
I blink rapidly. Could this be tear gas? No. My throat feels clear. But my eyes are stinging and fuzzy. I ask a bearded man next to me, also blinking and tearing up, what happened, and he says: âPepper spray.â I donât know if it was the right-wingers or undercover police. Next thing I do know is that I look up to see another demonstrator hit over the head with a aluminum crutchâ and then blood starts pouring out, and everything seems more serious and scary.
Some activists -a few who I recognized as anarchists experienced at dealing with violence- ask everyone to stay together, and we walk away quickly, as a group. After a block or two, Kobi asks me to take a few others off to the left, so five of us branch off, and the rest of the group begins to disperse in different directions. We walk, alternating between shocked laughter and silence, my eyes still fuzzy but the pain dulling. A group of about six guys- a few wearing kippahs, all seeming to be Mizrahi/Jews of Middle Eastern descent (a devastating element of these clashes is the race breakdown, with many of the leftists being Ashkenazi/white, and many of the rightists being Mizrahi. My friend, Daria, who is leftist and Mizrahi said that at another demo, she wore a shirt with some phrase about being Moroccan, and folks on both sides of the barrier seemed terribly confused) saw us, recognized something or someone, and started yelling âYou all get fucked in the ass!â âFuck you all!â âWe should kill you, traitors.â We kept our eyes down, did not respond, and they walked onwards.
Then we got a drink -because we needed to process and because most of Tel Aviv seemed to be bopping along as usual, drinking, chatting, flags flupping, et cetera- and then went home.
And the demonstration?
The demonstration was good, considering. It was big, it was somber, it took itself seriously. The crowd was by far the biggest since the beginning of this recent violence, and it looked like people were trickling in all night. Here were a few of my tweet-observations:
And that is all for tonight. Facebook and twitter report of more demonstrators injured, which is horrible but also really not the story, just the subplot. Gaza. All of the people there. I canât imagine. I am wired and alert with sadness; it is 1:00 in the morning. Please, enough.
This blob merits socialmediazation:
--
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intl-***@mailman.gush-shalom.org
and write the word unsubscribe in the subject line.
In some programs it is enough to use the following link:
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send it again but now to ***@gush-shalom.org and we will do it manually
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