(Update – the video is now fully subtitled.)
Today is October 15 – the day slated by dozens of local social justice and democracy movements to try and hold a worldwide, truly global demonstration. Protests are taking place in an astonishing 951 cities in 85 countries, including, obviously, New York, Tel Aviv, Cairo, London. But the most heart-warming images so far today come from the small, crisis-stricken town of Kiryat Shmona.
Kiryat Shmona, Israel’s northernmost city, is effectively a frontier town, usually in the news either as a habitual target for Hezbollah rockets or for its rather dismal socio-economic state; and it also boasts one of the most steadfast and vocal outposts of the J14 social justice movement, holding on to its tents even as protest camps around the country were evicted or forced to regroup. Early (very early) this morning, the Kiryat Shmona activists decided to launch their global protest day by expressing solidarity with the Syrian protesters. They marked sunrise on the Syria-Israel border, released balloons with messages of support into Syria, and have just uploaded the video below.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMesHgaND64[/youtube]
I want to highlight the very first Hebrew statement made by one of the activists in the film:
“We want our regimes to stop putting barriers between us, because we want to link up with our brothers and sisters in Syria, and finally achieve peace and justice for the region.”
Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war – the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel and the massive retaliatory Israeli attacks on Gaza. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing violence.
We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed unleashed by these events has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Hamas’ murderous assault in southern Israel has devastated and shocked the country to its core. Israel’s retaliatory bombing of Gaza is wreaking destruction on the already besieged strip and killing a ballooning number of civilians. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to escalate their attacks on Palestinians.
This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 13 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, the entrenched occupation, and an increasingly normalized siege on Gaza.
We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives.
Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is the leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists and activists can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.