Eyewitness Account

 

From Alana Ruben Free

I am a living witness to the attack on the center of Tel Aviv yesterday morning at 4 AM. I was staying in a safe room with 3 other women, pretty much as close as one could be to the direct hit. It's very important that you understand the following:

This was a neighborhood of young, relatively "secular" Israelis who do not wear any kind of head coverings. They cover themselves more in tattoos than clothes.

From the young soldiers in the search and rescue crews that got us out of the apartment to the store owners on the street below, everyone was literally telling jokes, laughing, and smiling from the minutes to the hours that followed the attack. The vast majority of us knew we had once again experienced another open miracle: we were safe and completely protected from evil by the Guardian of Israel, and that we are his Children. The air was filled with a powerful "Yirat Shamayim"/ "Awe of the Greatness of our Creator in Heaven." There was zero looting of any kind despite none of the stores having windows or doors. How was it that not one person was killed? How was it possible that the rocket landed in the one patch of empty land, an unused parking lot, in the center of all the buildings? (I often wondered what was the purpose of that empty lot? Now, I know.)

The majority of Israelis (of all faiths) know we dwell in truth, goodness, kindness, love, and righteousness. As I was rendered apartmentless, I wandered in and out of other people's apartments and spaces--some that were utterly destroyed and some that were still functional. Despite the damage to property, there was a tremendous sense of joy in the air!

I ended up resting on the sofa of two guys, Liran and Noam, who had just moved in the day before to their now windowless apartment. By the time I arrived around 9:30 AM they had cleaned up all the glass, taped up the open spaces, put up shelves, arranged their plants, and unpacked their dishes. One had just returned a month ago after spending 3 years in Australia. He said, "Here we are home. Here we know what's true.."

When the interviewer from ABC news asked me earlier, "Where will you go now that you don't have an apartment?" I looked at him in an odd-way, I said, "Of course I will have somewhere to go. We are one family. There's always somewhere to go in Israel." And this is true, everyone's home is open to everyone else. We trust each other; we trust God, the One God who neither slumbers nor sleeps.

During the missile explosion, I was very calm and calmed others. We sang, we prayed, we recited psalms. I knew God was protecting us. We walked out without a scratch and found all three of my friend's cats within a few hours.

I had a taste yesterday of what it would be like if we lived in a world where everyone shared "Yirat Shmayaim"/"Awe of Heaven." It was glorious! May this understanding that we are all being watched over, and are accountable to a Loving, Wise Source spread globally.

DO NOT GLOBALIZE the intifada. GLOBALIZE a movement that spreads an AWE OF THE GREATNESS OF THE CREATOR OF LIFE.

 

Spotlighting the Israeli Police, Downplaying the Intra-Eritrean Riot

Video Of The Week - Israel's Gas Supply to Save Europe https://tinyurl.com/bp8w9rsx

On September 2, 2023, the streets of south Tel Aviv were turned into a warzone as rival groups of Eritrean expats battled amongst themselves and then, later, with the Israeli police, who were attempting to disperse the melee.4:00 pm

On September 2, 2023, the streets of south Tel Aviv were turned into a warzone as rival groups of Eritrean expats battled amongst themselves and then, later, with the Israeli police, who were attempting to disperse the melee.

The riot began when Eritreans opposed to the dictatorial regime in their home country confronted a group of Eritreans celebrating the African country’s independence. The confrontation quickly turned into a full-blown rampage, with members of both the pro-government and opposition camps attacking each other with pieces of lumber, metal, rocks, and at least one axe.

Ultimately, the Israeli police were forced to use a variety of riot dispersal methods, including tear gas, stun grenades, and live ammunition fired in the air, to quell the riot and return calm to the area.

With roughly 150 people injured, the brawl garnered a significant amount of international media attention.

While most of the media accurately portrayed the riot, several news outlets disproportionately focused on the police response, creating the false impression that the tumult was essentially a dispute between Eritrean refugees and the Israeli police.

Several commentators on social media also used the police response as an opportunity to malign the Jewish state.

Spotlighting the Israeli Police, Downplaying the Intra-Eritrean Riot

Several international news outlets played down the violent clash between the two groups of Eritreans and instead focused heavily on the Israeli police’s response.

For example, the BBC’s initial headline reported it as “Police clash with Eritrean asylum seekers.” Even though the headline was later updated, the article continued to dedicate several paragraphs to the police response while only briefly referring to the violent confrontation between the Eritrean groups in two paragraphs.

The BBC report even went so far as to implicitly blame Israel for the rampage, claiming that it “was sparked after activists opposed to the Eritrean government said they asked Israeli authorities to cancel an embassy event on Saturday.”

Similarly, The Guardian’s report, under the headline “Eritrean asylum seekers and police injured in clashes in Israel,” dedicated the majority of its coverage to the skirmish between the police and the Eritrean rioters.

When referencing the initial clashes that pre-empted the police response, The Guardian only mentioned a “demonstration” that “turned violent” as well as “clashes…between supporters and opponents of the Eritrean regime.”

This is a far cry from its coverage of a similar riot in early August in Sweden. In that instance, nearly the entire piece was dedicated to describing the intra-communal fighting and not the police’s response.

This false portrayal of the riot as primarily a clash between the police and Eritrean refugees was also evident in Sky News’ headline, “More than 140 injured in clashes between Eritrean asylum seekers and Israeli police.”

Voice of America’s one-minute video, “Eritrean Asylum-Seekers Clash With Israeli Police,” predominantly featured images of the police response and almost no coverage of the violent skirmishes that precipitated the response.

The story was not newsworthy for The New York Times until, 24 hours later, the Israeli government began discussing a plan to deport those who had engaged in the violence, contributing to a false and misleading media narrative that portrays the Israeli police and government as the aggressors and victimizers of Eritrean refugees.

Misrepresenting the Riot on Social Media

Some anti-Israel social media personalities took their hate to the extreme by erasing any mention of the clash between the two Eritrean groups and portraying the Israeli police as using deadly force without provocation.

The British rapper Lowkey claimed that “Israeli police opened fire with live ammunition on a protest of Eritrean refugees in Tel Aviv” while pro-Palestinian activist Heather Alexandra was more blunt in her revolting message by tweeting that “Israeli police fired live bullets at black people in Tel Aviv today.” 

Israeli police fire with live ammunition on  protest of Eritrean refugees in Tel Aviv.

Over 100 protestors are injured, including 13 in serious condition.

Just another day in a racist state. pic.twitter.com/O0qtX5fZdu

— Lowkey (@Lowkey0nline) September 2, 2023

Independent journalist Rafael Shimunov claimed that “There are images of corpses of Eritrean refugees who were murdered by Israeli police in a playground” (even though there were no reported deaths from the riot at the time of his tweet) and that “Their ‘crime’ was protesting an event by the Eritrean embassy. Rather than deescalate…they used bullets and will now smear the dead.”

Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti tweeted that “Israeli police are brutally cracking down on Eritrean refugees in Tel Aviv,” adding that this signified the “essence and core of Israeli supremacy. A single ethnoreligious state for White Jewish people.”

Barghouti clearly doesn’t account for the fact that the vast majority of Israeli citizens are of non-European descent.

Various skirmishes have occurred around the world between expatriate Eritrean supporters and opponents of its government. However, only the melee that occurred in Israel seems to have resulted in a change of narrative to turn an intra-Eritrean conflict into one between the police and Eritrean expats.

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ZIONIST GUIDE FOR THE EURO-VISITOR TO EUROVISION

Video Of The Week - Eurovision 2019 in Israel - https://tinyurl.com/y5vu5slh

Dear Euro-visitor,

Please tell everyone that we aren’t just alive: but, having returned to our natural habitat, our homeland, ever improving and stretching, still being self-critical – we’ve figured out how to thrive.

We know worried friends suggested skipping the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv, following the Palestinians’ 698-rocket barrage. We know fanatics bullied you to boycott this apolitical celebration of international unity. So, thanks for coming.

In this small Albania-sized country, Israelis party in Tel Aviv clubs as friends scramble into shelters. This insouciance is not callousness or obliviousness; it’s defiance. Our coolest cats cry like babies on Remembrance Day, and exchange their hipster threads for military khaki when called to serve. But after millennia of being persecuted – often, ahem, by your ancestors – we won’t be pushed around anymore. We laugh, love, dance and party whenever we can – while ducking, crying, empathizing and fighting when we must.

Besides, what’s real? Everyone underestimates us. Everyone overestimates our problems. Yet, look around. We have failures and blind spots – what country doesn’t? But watch the trend lines. Israel today is stronger, richer, more sophisticated than ever. And it’s kinder, gentler, more tolerant, more pluralistic, too.

Even with a right-wing government, Israel has a liberal-democratic soul. Israeli Arabs, gays, women, religious people – actually, most citizens – are better off personally, economically, democratically, existentially than they were 10, 20, 30 years ago.

You can’t fake Israel’s freedom, openness, creativity; it pulses through our Eurovision hits. Dana International’s 1998 winner captured our roller-coaster emotions, singing of “pain and hurt” – glorifying a “Diva” who cries like “an angel” yet laughs like “a devil.” Netta Barzilai’s 2018 winner celebrated independence, defiance, openness and Wonder Womanness: “I’m not your toy... You stupid boy!”

BUT TO understand Israel, think historically. Appreciate what Judaism is, what Zionism is and where Palestinians fit into the bigger story.

I’m not sugar-coating: Israelis clash over deep divisions, amid deeper wells of intolerance and insensitivity – like all countries. When Dana International became a transsexual star, some rabbis objected. “I am what I am, and this does not mean I don’t believe in God,” she proclaimed, “and I am part of the Jewish nation.”

Hmm... How can an Israeli drag queen condemned by rabbis be a believer – and what’s this “Jewish nation” – isn’t Judaism just a religion?

Welcome to that complex multidimensional civilization called Judaism. Just as two cookies connected by crème make an Oreo, Judaism combines nationhood and religion. The Jewish people follows the Jewish religion but can create a Jewish state that isn’t a theocracy, because even the religiously mandated Sabbath has national and cultural dimensions. Tel Aviv’s charming Saturday sleepiness reflects collective desire – and memory – not religious coercion. And before condemning democracies wielding religious symbols, check whether your country flies one of Europe’s 27 cross-bearing flags.

Zionism is the Jewish national liberation movement. As a people, we have rights – like the 41 other Eurovision countries – to establish a nation-state in our homeland.

Zionism courts trouble by rejecting John Lennon’s postmodernist “Imagined” world without borders, without countries. But neither Palestinians nor Brits nor Americans nor most proud peoples accept that. As a model of liberal nationalism, Zionism proves that the better term is “nationaliberalism” – that’s how integrated liberal-democratic ideas are into Zionism and into most healthy forms of nationalism.

Zionists imagine the world as a honeycomb. Bonding tribally, nationally, can generate sweet ideas and great achievements, not just xenophobic poison. Rooted in our ancient past and traditions, Israel is what Zionism’s founder Theodor Herzl called Altneuland: old-new land. Gali Atari won the Eurovision in 1978 with “Milk & Honey,” singing an old, particularist call with an expansive vision, delighting in “Hallelujah, sounds of love, Hallelujah, the sunshine above.”

HAVING ESTABLISHED Israel, Zionism now seeks to perfect it. While telling outsiders challenging our legitimacy: “Judge us like any normal country,” as insiders debating our future we strive to be exceptional. These aspirations aren’t about being better than others – just trying to better ourselves, then others.

The boycotters single out Zionism as somehow illegitimate – despite our 3,500-year history here. They often try negating nationalism itself – while somehow supporting Palestinian nationalism and feminist, racial and LGBTQ particularisms. And, characterizing the conflict in black-and-white terms, they cast Israel as “the oppressor” with the Palestinians as “the victims.”

Just as European history is more than all of you squabbling with one another, Israel is much more than the Palestinian conflict. And while we’re not perfect, we’ve repeatedly taken risks for peace. Consider this: Israel withdraws from Gaza in 2005 completely, yet Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and others still claim Gaza’s “occupied.” Then, Hamas unleashes 698 rockets – and Israel is supposed to tolerate these war crimes peacefully, while apologizing for existing.

Unfortunately for the haters, we’re not going away. Remember Ofra Haza’s 1983 second-place entry “Chai” – Alive – a timely reminder to contestants that winning songs sometimes lose Eurovision. “Many are my thorns, but also my flowers,” she sang: patriotically, maturely, acknowledging complexity.

Capturing Israel’s altneu old-new nature, dancing between the universal and particular, emphasizing Jews’ miraculous continuity and never-ending hopes despite oppression, she sang delightedly, not just defiantly: “I’m still alive... The Jewish people live/ This is the song Grandpa sang yesterday to Papa/ And today it’s me.”

But not just “me.” While affirming Jewish vitality, she vowed: “I’ll reach out my hands... To my friends from across the seas.”

So welcome from across the seas – enjoy. If you choose to correct the record back home, please tell everyone that we aren’t just alive: but, having returned to our natural habitat, our homeland, ever improving and stretching, still being self-critical – we’ve figured out how to thrive.

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