To celebrate April Fools Day, we (I&I and the rebel clowns i've been training with in Tel Aviv) decided to make a smal public outing in what were the community gardens outside Habimah, the National Theatre.

Our reasons for this were that very close to the gardens is the site of the Occupy Tel Aviv encampment that was evicted last year and that Habimah is one of the big cultural apologists for the Zionist project, touring all over the world promoting Isreal.

We had sketchy cunning plans to maybe resettle a tiny hillock of the occupy encampment as clown settlers or be alien clown researchers collecting data on the crazy humans......most importantly we wanted to get out and play together in a public space but not in a demonstration.

Actually things turned out a little differently. The gardens have been a popular place for the local community, especially families with children for a very long time. From 2007 - 2011 the new theatre building turned the area into a building site, with lots of fences and restrictions, as well as dusty stink. Last summer there were big social protests in Tel Aviv, including a large tent encampment which bordered the nearly finished theatre :-) As you can imagine they weren't so pleased with this development but' fortunately' by the end of the summer the encampment was evicted and the theatre opened.

Now the families could return to their community playground / garden. Except now it wasn't really theres' anymore it was part of the surrounds of the theatre and jobsworth theatre security were on hand to say NO a lot. Don't touch the trees, the flowers, go on the grass, skateboard on the slope, go in the lido, settle on the hillock.... People were getting pissed off.....

Then the clowns came out  to play and say YES a lot :-)

We knew some of this but not all of it. We soon found out. though.

The Seven of us bimbled and galloped our ways to the garden and proceeded to put up our tent (a rope between 2 trees with a sheet over it) and then started to explore. There were over 100 adults and children sitting and playing in the sunshine and they were very pleased to see us.

Within seconds 2 security guards were there demanding we took down our tent because it would damage the trees. Unfortunately  we only speak gibberish and we have no leaders so it was very difficult for them to find someone to take them seriously. In fact some clowns were busy tieing other clowns and passersby up with the tent ropes, some clowns were busy taking samples of such a strange place, some were happily playing chase with children but none were really focussed on security concerns. So the guardians of security did what any right minded citizen would do, they went to the side and called the police.

After 5 minutes a riot cop in full gear arrived, clearly perfect for the job. His advice to the security guardians was to take down the tent, confisicate it and that would force the clowns to speak Hebrew and behave in a more serious fashion.

The clowns had kind of forgotten about the security issues because they were having too much fun; and before they knew it the tent was being  taken down and snatched away.

What to do? The clowns were so upset, their precious sheet and rope was gone. They did what anyone would do in such a situation - they cried and bawled and sobbed and screamed and rocked back and fore and crawled along the floor in tears begging for their tent to be returned.  

Now the parents and their children started to become involved protesting that the guardians and the riot police shouldn't be making clowns cry. Especially not such lovely friendly clowns who were making the children sooo happy. 

So the riot police ordered the securities to return the stolen tent and they all went to stand at the side and think very hard what to do next, while all around cheering and celebrations exploded and the clowns dried their eyes.

 More play happened before a last attempt by the forces of law and order to impose control. They tried to grab the tent which was now just lieing on the floor to confiscate it for good.

Fortunately we noticed just in time and as one we all leapt on the tent on the ground in a massive pile on and protected it. The securtiy stood stupidly scratching their heads while parents and children gave them a piece of their minds and a right rollicking.

They then made a tactical withdrawal and were not seen again.

More play including water based naughtiness followed before we toddled off into the dusk - tired happy clowns.

MORE OF THIS SORT OF THING  :-)

30th March 2012.

Land Day marks the date in 1976 when 6 Palestinians were murdered by IDF / Israeli Police during mass protests against yet another land expropriation plan announced by Israel earlier in March 1976. A plan to take 5,000 acres (about 1,000 acres of which was still legally owned by Palestinians) in order to build 8 new Israeli industrial settlements in the Galilee region in the north. This in itself was part of a wider plan to judaise the Galilee.

This was one of the biggest acts of collective Palestinian resistance since 1948 and was met with the brute force you would expect from Israel - more than 4000 police and soldiers in the villages of Galilee alone. Protests also took place in the West Bank, Gaza and throughout the diaspora.

Since then Land Day has been marked by demonstrations demanding justice for Palestinians - especially around issues of land, the refugees and their right to return. The last 2 years have seen attempts to breach Israels' borders by returning refugees met with live firee by the IDF and dozens of people have been killed on the borders of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza and the West Bank. For more background info check out the links below. They're not live so you'll have to cut and paste :-)

This year the Global March to Jerusalem was also organised on Land Day and protests were organised all over the world.   

I was at the protest in Qalandiya, the main checkpoint between Al Quds (Jerusalem) and Ramallah. Other protests were organised in Bethlehem, Gaza, Nablus, East Jerusalem,  towns and villages throughout the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and all over the world. In 48 Israel the main focus was the village of Deir Hanna in Galilee where thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel protested.

I turned up on me tod to the meeting point about half a km from the checkpoint but quickly met up with friends from jenin and ism. After a little bit of waiting around for prayers to end and then quite a lot of faffing around we started to move down the road towards the checkpoint.

While we were still 200m from the checkpoint suddenly violence erupted in the crowd just in front of me. Gradually it was clear that it was interfactional violence and one large group of men was attacking a smaller group of men. I later found out that this was over who headed the march. Sadly I've witnessed interfactional Palestinian violence before but this was of an intensity I'd never seen. Most of the smaller group managed to run away finally. But two individuals were isolated and badly beaten by a large circle of men. Seperately both managed to escape into passing ambulances which were then surrounded and smahed in an effort to continue beating those inside. Ambuance drivers were beaten as they put themselves in the way. Really a lynchmob, it felt like they would have killed those hiding in the ambulances if they could have got to them. Depressing and shameful but many people are filled with impotent rage and this is how it can be expressed.

Respect to the paramedics, ambulances drivers and others (mainly women) who were brave enough to intervene in the situation.

Respect to the paramedics and volunteers all afternoon in fact.

Many people didn't come out to demonstrate because:-

"They weren't political, it was a waste of time"

"they were busy with their own endeavours and that was a good thing"

"They'd been to the last 3 Land Day demonstrations and go shot with rubber bullets every time and it didn't change anything and was a waste of time"

Factional violence added to the pointlessness felt by some.

Low numbers (less than a thousand) added to the feelings of  impotency which.....

So the last 100m before Qalandiya checkpoint (a herding pen of multiple turnstiles) a  few stones fly from the front as we advance and straight away we are met with volleys of tear gas fired straight and skunk water. We retreat and hug the sides of the road, becoming familiar with nooks and crannies and shuttered store fronts that normally only get explored through the window of a bus if at all. 

Ambulances are everywhere going in both directions on both sides of the road. Surreal scenes as lorries, scooters, taxis even an israeli car displaying israeli flag inside meander through the stones and teargas as if it is a 'normal' day. 

And so the afternoon continued, the shebab would find some good stone throwing positions for 2 minutes and then the whole street would be met with teargas and bursts of rubber bullets fired randomly and straight - at everyone within range. After every barrage medics wold get called to 3 or 4 places as people went down with bullet and tear gas injuries. People around me would suddenly drop with a scream of pain or a silent thud depending on who and where they were hit. Pings echoed from all around. Ambulances and staff targeted.

This went on all afternoon. 30 or 40 Israeli soldier police containing a crowd of several hundred people by virtue of being prepared to use their vastly superior weapons without giving a fuck. I didn't see one Israeli soldier hit by a stone; in fact I saw several Palestinians hit by badly thrown stones and gassed by attempts to return teargas at the soldiers.

This too adds to the impotency.

At least half the people present stayed far back and none of us got within 50m of the checkpoint even.

Between 100 and 200 people were injured at Qalandiya, depending who you listen to. I personally saw 50 people being injured that day, easily.

Very frustrating and a bit depressing, but better than nothing?

Refusing to allow the occupation to become normal is really important.

If you can, (not sure?) click on the picture above to zoom in and see the paramedics running to reach the injured in small breaks in the firing.

One person was killed in Gaza where they used live rounds.

One person was badly hurt in Bethlehem - hit in the face by teargas cannister. Other people were hurt all over Palestina.

I heard from a friend that one person injured at Qalandiyah died a week later but not managed to get that confirmed.

Palestinian police beat back protestors at the Bethlehem protest on behalf of the Isarelis and in other places in the West Bank. Hamas did the same in Gaza.

There were no religious groups at the protest in Qalandiya.

I'll post more pics and links in the coming days

 Links:

 http://chroniquespalestine.blogspot.com/2012/04/land-day-qalandiya-and-beyond-journee.html

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfSpHfwyj2M

 http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=472506

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Day