Rallying against Israel’s judicial overhaul
'There will be no dictatorship here'
Former Tel Aviv District Police chief Ami Eshed, in his resignation speech, revealed that he had failed to provide what National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir expected from him, simply breaking protesters’ legs and arms and filling hospital emergency rooms with protesters.
Eshed said, “For the first time in three decades, I encountered a delusional reality – quiet and order are not the required achievement, but the opposite.
“I could have easily used unreasonable force and filled the emergency room at Ichilov at the end of every demonstration in Tel Aviv. We could have evacuated Ayalon in a matter of minutes, at the terrible price of breaking heads and crushing bones, at the price of shattering the covenant between the police and the citizens of the state. I pay an unbearable personal price for my choice to prevent civil war.”
In the spontaneous demonstration that followed Eshed’s resignation, there was an escalation in police brutality. Those who follow social media have probably seen video footage or pictures of police on horseback beating pro-democracy civilians with clubs. There are testimonies of people being brutally pulled out of the demonstrating crowd and taken for interrogation, trucks splashing water out of a pipe with high pressure on demonstrators. The police also started using auditory guns, which can create permanent damage to hearing and cause headaches and other symptoms.
Among all the wounded in that demonstration, all of whom are citizens who love peace and democracy, was a dear man named Udi Uri, a fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force who commanded a squadron during his military service and until recently was a captain for El Al.
At the beginning of March this year, he travelled to Victoria with his wife. Together they drove three hours to join the Melbourne branch of UnXeptable International, supporting the democracy movement in Israel on the second demonstration here – on the corner of Balaclava and Hawthorn Roads in Caulfield North. At that demonstration, Udi was asked to speak to the crowd.
Photo: Supplied
He talked about how important and heart-warming it is for them that we demonstrate here for Israel. He talked about fighting for Eretz Israel – our home, and about his terrible feeling that Israel was being kidnapped by messianic extremists.
But Uri also said that we will win. That we will not live in a dictatorship, so we cannot lose this battle.
Uri and his wife cut short their dream trip to Australia, and when they returned to Israel, Udi joined the “Brothers and Sisters in Arms” (reservist soldiers for democracy) movement in Israel. On a recent Saturday in Tel Aviv, as a result of police brutality escalation, Uri was wounded. He might lose his eyesight after a maktazit (water cannon) directed the high-pressure water straight into his face.
The day after he got injured, Uri was filmed, giving a speech from his hospital bed. The speech was screened on the main stage at a demonstration held at Kaplan Junction in front of 150,000 people. Uri said again, “There will be no dictatorship here. It won’t happen. We’re angrier than ever, we’re more determined than ever, and we’re mostly not afraid.
“In the annals of the State of Israel, women and men paid a much heavier price for events of the magnitude of the event we are in, and if I lose an eye, and I believe I will not – but we will win the struggle, the price is very small and worth it.”
Uri promised to demonstrate again as soon as he is released from the hospital.
Likud MK Dudi Amsalem saw fit to respond by shouting from the Knesset podium that Uri is a privileged person who had his eye scratched. A pathetic statement that expresses the hatred and the division that the Israeli government creates among its citizens.
We send our best wishes for a speedy recovery to Uri and wish for he and his wife to be able to return one day to complete their dream trip to Australia.
In the meantime, the UnXeptable movement will continue to support the restoration of democracy in Israel by rallying together each Sunday at 11am, along with over 60 other cities around the world.
Tal Silverstein is a local representative of the UnXeptable Global Movement.
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