Thursday, May 17, 2012

Drowning Out the Protest


Drowning Out the Protest


Yesterday there was a protest outside of Tel Aviv University, commemorating what the Arabs call Nakba (catastrophe)  which we call Yom HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence Day). The joint left wing and Arab protest was accompanied by a counter protest by pro-Zionist Jews, probably organized by Im Tirzu.
In addition to the fact that the crowd was evenly split between protesters and counter protesters, one thing stands out. The counter protest was incredibly loud. The following video gives you a an idea of what I am talking about. (At the end of the video the speaker calls for the crowd to stand for a minute of silence, which mocks the Israeli minute of silence for both Holocaust Remembrance Day and Israel Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers. The counter protest crowd then reacts with a particularly noisy response).
The strength and “vocality” of the pro-Zionist side is signficant. For years the left wing in Israel has adopted the Arab anti-Zionist narrative, and there was no counter protest. Im Tirzu is fighting this, and it is no longer considered weird to be a young college student who is pro-Zionist (in other words, patriotic). Last year Im Tirzu published a pamphlet in Hebrew called Nakba Charta (Nakba BS). I wrote about this on my blog last year and gave a summary in English of its main points.
Take a look – Israeli patriotism is alive and well.

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