Over this past weekend the leftist organizers, students, unionists, anarchists and their supporters held a demonstration protesting the Tel Aviv government refusal to issue them a license to establish a repeat of last year’s tent city anti-capitalism, pro-socialism protests. Adding fuel to their fiery disposition was the arrest of their outspoken leader Daphne Leef and the small group who attempted to erect tents in central Tel Aviv Friday afternoon. The protesters emotion escalated until fights broke out between the separate factions while anarchists and others set to throwing rocks and bricks through bank and store windows and attacking the police when they attempted to restore order using minimal force. Eventually everything escalated completely out of control and the result was the arrest of over eighty-five demonstrators Saturday night. None of this was the truth revealed on the streets of Tel Aviv. For that we need to look in a completely different direction.
The first item to be gleaned from the violent demonstrations Saturday night was the attitude of law enforcement personnel towards those who were destroying private property, resisting the police instructions which soon escalated to violent response to the police which is what eventually left the police little choice other than to arrest the most violent instigators. What was most revealing about the police and their initial attempts not to arrest or even overly restrict these demonstrators until well after their actions turned to violence and destruction was the stark difference between the attitude and civility shown these demonstrators, almost as if they were privileged people, with the outright contempt and disrespect shown by the violence used against both Haredi demonstrators at their similarly unsanctioned demonstrations and settlers during evictions and destructions of West Bank communities or illegal outposts. Such restraint and respect has not been the rule of law enforcement when dealing with Haredi demonstrators, nationalist and Zionist demonstrators, and settler families who have been treated with extreme prejudice and very rough treatment being awakened in the wee hours of the morning to be thrown into the cold darkness, children and all, and herded like animals while their homes are destroyed right before their eyes, often by hired Arabs from neighboring villages who take to their tasks with exuberance and glee and without any respect for property or the victims. In Amona the police utilized rubber bullets against the Jewish residents during their eviction and showed such vile disregard for their countrymen that eventually some of the officers were disciplined for using overly and unnecessary violence against the residents. In Tel Aviv on Saturday the police initially requested the cooperation of the demonstrators and only resorted to arresting people after the entire situation was pushed beyond any reasonable measure by the demonstrators who were set on provocation and destruction in order to force a situation. But even this contrast is not the really big truth revealed on the Tel Aviv streets.
The real truth came Sunday morning when the news shows and newspapers came out with their coverage of the disgraceful behavior by the leftist and anarchist demonstrators who provoked a confrontation despite all restraint and deference shown by the police. But this was not the story from the leftists who populate much of the media. Our trusted media in Israel told a different story when reporting on the poor, unfortunate young victims who were simply attempting to bring needed social ills and inequalities to the attention of those evil members of the government who refuse to implement honest and compassionate socialist governance. According to the reports on Sunday, these innocent and gallant defenders of the downtrodden had gathered peaceably in order to raise conscious awareness and focus the public attention on the inequalities in Israel. The police used unnecessary violence and a demeaning attitude showing complete contempt and disrespecting these paragons of virtue thus instigating the violent confrontations. Had the police not viciously attacked these innocents there would have been nothing but peace and virtue. It was despicable that these peaceful innocents were set upon as if they had resisted and acted just like those horrid settler types who have always forced police to utilize a heavy hand by their disrespect for law and order and these poor children did not deserve such disrespect and ill treatment. The entire violence was the result of the government’s evil ideology and the overreaction of the police who were not provoked in any manner. This complete whitewashing of this story by the media was the real truth revealed on the Tel Aviv streets. The reporting was so over-the-top slanted that if one did not have a reason to doubt the objectivity and honesty of the leftist press coverage in Israel before the reporting of this confrontation, they most certainly should have that evidence in spades. All one need do is to compare the coverage given by the apologist media with the video of the actual events and the police reports to understand how far the leftist media goes to purvey opinion as fact and sell a world view that is, honestly, inimical to the very existence of Israel itself. And if one still has doubts and is insistent on following the story woven by the mainstream media, then please go one small step further and take a quick trip to central Tel Aviv on Rothschild Street and witness the damage to the banks and businesses themselves and ask, where was this in the reporting about those poor innocent victims of an out of control state. Who are you going to believe, the sold-out press or your disbelieving eyes?
Beyond the Cusp
