Hello World: Israel is Out-Classing You in Civil Disobedience

10
>>Follow Matzav On Whatsapp!<<

protest-israelThe Washington Post reports: In the four weeks since the social protests have begun in Israel, hundreds of have been killed, dozens of women have reportedly been abused, 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. YouTube mashups featuring the PM’s soundbites. Professional-level videos advertising the protests.

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.

{The Washington Post/Matzav.com Newscenter}


10 COMMENTS

  1. There is no nation as Israel. Light upon the nations. Let all learn and see. Hear oh Israel Your God is True Your God Is One.

  2. Can it be that the secular media actually wrote something positive about the barbaric Israel and the horrible Jews?
    Our anti-semite friends will probably believe just the first paragraph though, or they’ll accuse the writer of being mistaken and maybe even accuse him of false coverage!

  3. ????? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ?????

    ????

    ???”? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ???? [?????] ?? ??????? ????, ????? ?????? ???? ????? ???? ????? ????? ???? ????? ???? ???’. ??? ??”? ????? ?????? ??? ?????? ????? ????? ?????? ????? ???? ?????? ????

  4. Its very simple. In all other countries, the people are saying ” Give Me” in Israel they are shouting “Give Us” we are all Acheinu Beis Yisroel.

Leave a Reply to smarty Cancel reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here