Gaia Dan here. I am 23 years old, from Haifa and an anti-occupation and anti-war activist. I would like to share a message with you about the resistance movement here in Israel/Palestine.
The situation in Haifa has become even harder since the beginning of the war. From the seventh of October until January there were a number of attempts to organize protests here. Folks from various anti-occupation groups and I wanted to bring a strong and clear voice against the war on Gaza. Every protest ended with arrests. Some ended very violently, and some were dispersed before we had an opportunity to collect ourselves and protest, as the police were there, waiting for us.
On the 13th of November, myself and a group of activists decided to organize a silent protest against the absolute silencing and suppression of Palestinians and Israeli human rights activists in Israel/Palestine. It was a small and peaceful action. We put black masking tape on our mouths in order to emphasize forced silencing. We were there with posters saying- “no to gag orders” and “Hunger in Gaza will not bring security- ceasefire now!”. We sought to protest against the alarming rise of fascism growing since the beginning of the war.
There were maybe 30 police officers and 15 activists. Although we weren’t blocking traffic, we were protesting silently, and abiding by the customs of a legal protest, the officers declared the protest illegal. They asked us to leave and threatened to begin arresting us. Of course, we decided to stay and within a few minutes they arrested a fellow activist who held a small sign written, “genocide”.
The police were pushing us around and onto the ground. One officer yelled at me to “get out of here” and began to hit me. I found myself being dragged by a number of officers on the sidewalk. My legs scraping against the asphalt, I tried to pick myself up and heard my friends yelling, trying to stop my arrest. All of a sudden I found myself being passed from one officer to the other and then I was violently pushed into the police car. They also brutally arrested my friend. She is asthmatic and they wouldn’t allow her to get her inhaler from her backpack. During the ride to the police department they cursed us and called us traitors and profane names. They ask us how we are not embarrassed and ashamed of ourselves and said they should send us on buses to Gaza..
It is important for Jewish Israelis to continue to protest and stand in solidarity with Palestinians as we may be arrested from a few hours to an evening, maximum. Palestinians experience much worse. Since the beginning of the war the police have arrested thousands of Palestinians without evidence of any illegal activity. If arrested at a protest, they can be charged with incitement of violence, supporting terrorism and can be arrested or put under house arrest for months at a time.
The very real violence and arrests that both Israeli and palestinian activists experience has made everyone fearful of speaking out and joining protests, but slowly people are beginning to gain the confidence to speak out against the war. My hope is that we will raise our voice, one voice, against the war.
With your help, we can bring this war to an end. Together we will continue to resist.
In solidarity,
Gaia Dan