“May your children die, you dogs”: As Gaza burns, Israelis bay for blood in streets of Tel Aviv

Ali Abunimah 16 November 2012

“They don’t deserve to live, they need to die”

“May your children die, you dogs”

“Now we want to go back there [to Gaza] and kick out all the Arabs.”

“The people demand more shooting”

“Muhammad is dead”

These were some of the calls from a group of Israelis demonstrating in favor of Israel’s attack on Gaza in the streets of Tel Aviv last night.

Peaceful protests by Palestinian students at Israeli universities were met with similar incitement.

In Tel Aviv, across the road, another group of Israelis protested against the assault. “We came here to say that we must end this war immediately,” Knesset member Dov Khenin of the communist Hadash party told the anti-war crowd, “every additional drop of blood is needless.”

The duelling demonstrations were filmed by David Sheen. While anti-war voices exist, there’s little doubt that much of the Israeli Jewish population stands behind Israel’s attack on Gaza, believing the government propaganda that Palestinians are firing rockets at Israel unprovoked while Israel seeks peace and quiet.

Among the pro-violence demonstrators was Baruch Marzel a notorious settler fanatic who frequently incites violence. “The enemy must be expelled and destroyed,” Marzel said, specifiying that Palestinians should be kicked out of Gaza so Israelis could re-settle there.

“You’re cross-dressers! You’re the Gay Pride March, that’s what you are,” shouted another war supporter at the peace demo, a call that was echoed by others.

One man warned fellow protestors, “They’re filming us, don’t curse” but that did not stop the violent calls. “Go to Gaza with the Muslims, you sons of bitches,” said one. “The people demand more shooting,” responding to calls for a ceasefire from the pro-violence demonstration across the road.

The calls for blood and violence in the streets echo incitement by Israeli government leaders. In recent days Israel’s “minister of home front defense” Avi Dichter called for Israel to “reformat” Gaza – wipe it clean – like a computer hard drive, except using bombs.

Israeli transport minister Israel Katz called for Israel to bomb Gaza so hard that the population would flee into Egypt, and for Israel to cut off water and electricity supplies.

“Death to the Arabs”: Incitement at Israeli universities

Hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel, students at several universities, turned out to protest the Israeli attack on Gaza, despite a heavy police presence on and around campus, reported Arabs 48, a website providing news on Palestinians in Israel.

At Tel Aviv University, some 150 Palestinian students gathered despite a heavy security presence, Arabs 48 reported, and there right-wing students from the Zionist group Im Tirzu confronted them shouting racist slogans including “Death to the Arabs.”

Similar scenes took place at Hebrew University, where right-wing students were held back by security forces from attacking Palestinians calling for an end to the violence.

“the most terrible thing I’ve seen in my life”

At Haifa University, Palestinian students held a moment of silence for victims of the Israeli attacks in Gaza, and were quickly confronted by Israeli Jewish students, according to Arabs 48.

“What happened today at the Haifa University was the most terrible thing I’ve seen in my life,” tweeted Israeli Twitter user @kesterica who witnessed what happened at Haifa, “Arab students were silently protesting against the war. They invited the Jews to join them.”

“In response,” @kesterica tweeted, “dozens of Jewish students attacked the Arabs, called them traitors, spread rumors that they were mourning [Jabari], sang [the anthem religious songs encouraging war].”

On Wednesday morning, Israel carried out the extrajudicial execution of Ahmad al-Jabari, the top Hamas military leader in Gaza, breaking a truce, and reigniting violence that left 19 Palestinians, including at least 6 children and a pregnant woman, and three Israelis dead since Wednesday, by Friday morning.

“The Jews sang: ‘he’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead.’ I don’t tend to cry fascism, fascism, but that’s what it was,” @kesterica tweeted.

“An Arab girl who stood there told me that she was asked why she was standing there, and she said she was against war and against casualties [deaths] and invited people to join her. It didn’t happen,” added @kesterica.

“I cannot say what each of the protesters thought, but she and quite a few of the folks standing there said they were just against war. To tell you the truth, me too,” she tweeted.

Palestinian students sang the Palestinian anthem “Mawtini” in response to the taunts, as the video above shows.

Violent and racist sentiments have also been widespread among Israelis on Facebook and other social media.

During Israel’s 2008-2009 attack on Gaza, journalist Patrick Cockburn observed:

Israeli society was always introverted but these days it reminds me more than ever of the Unionists in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s or the Lebanese Christians in the 1970s. Like Israel, both were communities with a highly developed siege mentality which led them always to see themselves as victims even when they were killing other people. There were no regrets or even knowledge of what they inflicted on others and therefore any retaliation by the other side appeared as unprovoked aggression inspired by unreasoning hate.

Much the same appears to be true today.

With thanks to Dena Shunra for spotting and translating @kesterica’s tweets.

Social media in the “war”

This morning I appeared on The Current, the flagship morning program of Canada’s CBC to discuss Israel’s use of social media to promote its propaganda.

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Comments

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Greg Larkin replied on

The Zionist regime is clearly on the brink of attempting to "liquidate" the Gaza Concentration Camp that they have forced millions of ethnically-cleansed Palestinians to "live" in. This action raises a number of questions: If this is not a crime against humanity, then what is? How long is the Orwellian fiction that Israel is the democracy going to be propogated? When are the Palestinian people going to be recognized as actual human beings?

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Paul besterman replied on

I thoroughly commend the people shown in the front of the Video of the protest in Tel-Aviv calling for a cessation of Violence and condemn the Right-wing idiots in the second half, but, would welcome more Videos of Arab protesters calling for the same in their own states not just in Israel. By saying Arab students are protesting in Israel (even though they face approbation from thugs) you are implying that Israel is truly a Democracy, and it is self evident that one group would cry for justice when it is faced with opposition from it's host. However to my point the Zionism I grew up with was of the Socialist kind, the Kibbutz. Why is the Left wing in Israel now so undermined ? Because of insecurity when people are faced with suicide bombers,Threats of annihilation and rocket attacks they will naturally gravitate towards Violent retribution,this is seen on both sides. I bemoan the dilution of the Socialist ideal in Israel and challenge the people of Gaza and Hebron and Ramallah to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Left wing of Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem to peaceably decry the devastation wrought on them by Rabble rousing leaders of both factions.

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Teri T replied on

The Israelis are committing genocide. Responsibility to protect was used to justify intervention in LIbya. It should be used by the international community to intervene in Gaza now to protect the Palestinian people, men, women and children from genocide by the Israeli military.

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INAAM OTHMAN replied on

ISRAELI SPOKESPERSONS BLAME CIVILIAN CASUALTIES AMONG GAZANS, ON HAMAS WHO PUT THEIR ROCKET LAUNCHERS AMONG POPULATED AREAS. DON'T THEY KNOW THAT GAZA IS THE MOST POPULATED AREA ON EARTH? AND THERE IS NO PLACE FOR ANY THING ? THERE IS NOT ONE UNPOPULATED INCH OF LAND IN GAZA. AND ONE MORE THING: ISRAELI SOLDIERS WERE TRIED FOR USING GAZAN CHILDREN AS HUMAN SHIELD DURING THE 2008 INVASION OF GAZA.

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Bruce replied on

“They don’t deserve to live, they need to die”
“May your children die, you dogs”
“Now we want to go back there [to Gaza] and kick out all the Arabs.” :

How GENOCIDAL Holocausts happen.

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Theo Baumann replied on

70 years ago Germans demanded the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem. Today the children of the survivors scream for a Final Solution to the Palestinian Problem.
How time has changed!!

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Basil replied on

If Hamas had close to the kind of weapons that Hezbollah had and very sophisticated missiles with a GPS system and anti-air craft weapons, I doubt they would be so readily calling for more attacks. Israel likes to show it can scare its neighbors. It's not hard to scare them if a super power is arming you to the teeth, you know? Nixon said he armed Israel to the teeth to make more peace, not for it to do the opposite. I wasn't a Nixon fan, but he was right about Israel, obviously.

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Artemis replied on

The heartbreak is for all those lives being destroyed in these days by a mad, out-of-control beast.
But heartbreak is also hatred in the faces of these young Israelis. And it is terrifying to think they may be let loose - or are let loose on Palestinians when they serve in the IDF. Having seen the "Breaking the Silence" exhibition and hear the ex-soldiers themselves speak of their senseless abuse and taunting of Palestinians, the cruel games the played, making life hell on a daily basis, it is too horrible to imagine what they may do when they march into Gaza.

One feels like a wretched child crying out in the desert, why don't our elected leaders listen, why are their hearts like stone, why is every single one terrified to acknowledge 60 years of dispossession, humiliation, violence and oppression and the clear and obvious tactic of using settlers to take all of Palestine?! Why do people do nothing!? Surely a million people can come out to say we will not tolerate this!

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Basil replied on

The energy Israel is putting forth is darkness, and it has done this for decades to the Palestinians and disfigured Palestinian culture, and Israel also mangled its own culture in the process. They need to change for their own good. Not only does Palestine need to be liberated, but so does Israel but from itself and oppressive ideology. I believe momentum is increasing to where Israel has less capital to do what it was doing. Remember, in the 1980s, Israel could do even worse in Lebanon and get away with it much more easily. Let's hope there will be sun. I send my prayers to the people and dream of a free Palestinian people. At least, you can send positive vibes and write your representatives.

Ali Abunimah

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.

Also wrote One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.