I spent the majority of the day on the beach in Tel Aviv - it's a rough life, I know! We went swimming a few times and relaxed, and I fell asleep for a few hours. We really needed a little R&R after the days we've been having.
The remaining Codepinkers who haven't left the country yet then headed down to Bar Ilan university where Netanyahu was presenting his speech in response to Obama's speech in Cairo. We set up shop in our pink t-shirts, pink banners and pink signs across from signs that read "Barack Hussein Obama: Anti-Semetic Jew Hater" and "Palestinian State = The Destruction of Israel." Immediately we had police officers surrounding us and barricades put up in front of us. While the other side eventually had barricades erected as well, the police consistently faced and monitored us.
The protest quickly grew violent as we were not permitted to beyond where the police seem to have haphazardly decided where we could go (the boundaries were rapidly changing). If we went somewhere where it was deemed we couldn't go, which was sometimes literally a few steps to the left or right, we would be pushed quite forcefully. There was one police officer that was most often the peretrator of these pushings. Eventually, the pushings subsided as they were attracting significant media attention and we were given a great space in which to roam. Don't worry, mom, I was never pushed :)
The protest continued and we had one incredible moment - a Palestinian family exiting the university joined us in our songs. It was beautiful. We would also sometimes get waves from people in cars passing by, surprisingly not all Palestinians. There was a man in the opposing protest who, throughout this moment and afterwards, got on the megaphone and started yelling "Mother f*ckers, piss on you" "Kikes" and "No peace now." It's important to understand that these were extrememely right wing individuals, some followers of Kach, and I don't believe to be representative of the majority of the Israeli population. But the juxtaposition against us singing "This little light of mine" in bright pink was quite astounding.
Again the protest continued into the evening. Peace Now, an Israeli peace group, soon joined us and tripled our numbers. Our photographer, with a valid press pass, had attempted to cross the street to take photos of us, however she was told she wasn't allowed to. She took off her pink shirt to try once more, and was arrested. This created an uproar among our group who ran to the barrier and began yelling "Let Flor go." This didn't last very long, however, as the police officer who was earlier pushing members of our group began pushing several very violently, and at some point amidst the scuffle one of our leaders, Tighe, was hit in the head with the butt of a rifle and left bleeding quite profusely on the ground. To make things worse, he had an asthma attack after being hit. An ambulance was called and he was rushed off with a neck brace, and later had a CT scan and spent the night in the hospital. There were several other members of the group with bruises and cuts.
And still, Flor was in a police car. We were told by the Codepink lawyer that they would more than likely wait for the protest to end and then let her go. However nearing the end of the portest they drove her away. We found out which police station she was going to and Sascha and I went to be with her, while others went to be with Tighe and others went back to the hostel to wait for updates. It took us about two hours to get to the station because of the difficulty of finding a taxi, however luckily when we did she had already been released. We met her back at the hostel and everyone, minus the few at the hospital, spent the night eating chinese food (the only thing open that late) and toasting to Flor's freedom. Tighe was eventually ok, as far as I had heard. What an incredibly emotionall draining day to end my final delegation.
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