At-Home with Gila Svirsky

Jerusalem
17 July 2001
Subject: The News Tonight

Friends,

Some of tonight’s headlines from Israel and Occupied Palestine:

First, a terrorist bomb went off in the Israeli town of Binyamina, killing two persons and injuring ten, two of them seriously.

In retaliation, Israeli army tanks shelled a village in the West Bank from where, the army said, the terrorist had come. The Israeli news did not report how many deaths or injuries resulted from the shelling. Many of us are hoping that this is not the harbinger of a more large-scale attack.

While all this was happening, the gala opening ceremony of Israel’s Maccabiah (“Jewish Olympics”) took place in Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium, with thousands of spectators and the full range of media (though most of the invited athletes never came to Israel, out of concern for their safety). And then, just as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon got up to speak, what he found facing him were ten women who held up signs “War Criminal” and “Stop your support for ethnic cleansing,” as they chanted “Poshaya Milhama” – “war criminal” in Hebrew. Eight of the women were dragged away with considerable force by the security guards, arrested, and are currently being detained at the police station. They are Micheline Bat Levi, Galit Gelbard, Neta Golan, Gali Greenstein, Liad Kantorowicz, Hava Keller, Allegra Pacheco, and Penny Rosenwasser.

I held off this report to see the midnight news on Israel’s Channel 2. Everything was reported except the demonstration. So much for objective reporting.

Gila Svirsky
Jerusalem