Here’s a story that got lost in the madness of last week but I want to catch it before the moment is gone.
(And I have to say…I thought I would get straight to the point, but as I’m writing there are so many side moments that I feel need a mention…so please stay with me for the actual point I’m attempting to make)
A vigil was organised here in Melbourne outside the State Library for October 7th, marking three years since the genocide amplified.
I’ve chosen my words carefully because nothing ‘‘started” on October 7, 2023.
But yes, since then how Israel has always treated Palestinian people has become even worse and we now have the official classification: genocide.
I knew that the vigil would attract a lot of negative attention and would be accused of being antisemitic. So I decided to take the day off work so that I could be there as proof that there are Israelis who stand with the Palestinians. (This is in no way trying to say that I represent Israelis because a MAJORITY of us are racist, revengeful and Jewish supremacists)
Within minutes of arriving I was able to use my privilege:
Anyways…back to my story.
Towards late afternoon I was checking out a woman handing out free drinks that seemed really dodgy. Just then Avi Yemini rocked up. If you’re not familiar with this scumbag…you’re lucky. He really is the worst of the worst. Avi first became known in Melbourne for attempting to create a sense of fear in the Jewish community by claiming there was all this “African gang” violence. Truth was that he was a Krav Maga business owner. Krav Maga is an Israeli “martial art” that is used in the IDF. Avi wanted new customers. So by making the Jewish community scared, they signed up to his “self defence” classes. Genius.
Avi came up and tried to interview me. I told him that there would be no interview. The organisers had specifically requested no one speaks to any form of “media”. (Oh, I forgot to mention that Avi now has his own YouTube channel and attempts to get free content by rocking up to events and creating trouble. )
He insisted he wanted an interview. So I replied in Hebrew that I wouldn’t speak to him. Which of course made him call me a ‘kapo’ (Jews who helped the Nazis during the holocaust were called kapos)
Anyways…back to my story.
So I noticed a man that had rocked up EXACTLY when Avi arrived. And he was filming everything that was happening. I don’t know for sure, but it definitely seemed like he was part of Avi’s gang. (Avi is always surrounded by body guards and film crew) He stood a couple of meters away from the action.
It got violent almost immediately because of the “body guards” and I went over to help a woman who was vomiting from becoming so scared.
Once she had settled down I saw a woman who I knew from a few years ago and she was bawling and looked shell shocked and she fell into my arms sobbing.
I eventually managed to go and stand near the top of the steps to the library - wanting to be as far away from Avi and his gang.
When I noticed the man from before. The guy who had rocked up exactly when Avi did and was filming everything.
HE WAS STILL FILMING.
And not just from a distance. It was really bizarre behaviour. I decided to stand next to him until marshals would arrive and ask him to leave. By now other vigil attendees had noticed his strange behaviour and were asking him to leave.
HERE IS THE POINT OF MY STORY:
The guy starts saying that he’s being attacked and it’s only because he’s Jewish. (He’s wearing a kippah - a Jewish scull cap) He starts walking up to people and filming them straight in the face - trying to provoke - and then repeating how he is being targeted. Thankfully the cops come up and I thought this would be the end of it.
But no, after a couple of minutes he’s back. He walks straight up to me and starts filming my face. So I decide to go and ask the cops why this schmuck is allowed to provoke like this and that he’s clearly upsetting people at the vigil.
And sure enough, the cops start repeating the exact same thing the schmuck was saying.
“We can’t discriminate. He’s Jewish. He’s allowed to film people. We can’t take sides.” Etc etc.
I explain that I’m also Jewish and Israeli and that has nothing to do with it. The guy is clearly attempting to cause trouble and surely it’s not legal to go up and film people straight in their faces.
The cop starts saying that everyone here is causing trouble…but then corrects himself…and says that no, not everyone is, many are calm…but no, there is nothing illegal about what the guy was doing. And again repeats: we can’t take sides.
It was so infuriating.
Because honestly, even the most peaceful person would want to punch this guy. So there was a very high risk of someone getting violent in this very loaded setting. The self control and restraint from those attending the vigil was next level.
And what pisses me off the most is that this guy rocks up to a vigil looking for trouble. He told me that he was just shopping and happened to see the vigil across the street. Which I call bullshit on. But it’s besides the point. He was clearly using his “Jewishness” as a shield to be an asshole. Knowing full well that the cops in Australia are very much under the influence of the Zionists. (I have heard this DIRECTLY from cops who told me this during a conference before they realised that I’m an anti-Zionist)
I’m curious to know if this is something you have noticed yourself…and if you have examples of it too. I really believe it’s important that we call it out.
-Veronica
I know you know it because you were there, but this was the case in Sydney on 9 February - the crowd was so thoughtful and peaceful; there was a lovely community feel to the evening. On that occasion, it was the cops that were spoiling for a fight and everyone I saw did everything in their power to avoid any kind of confrontation. People were polite and good humoured despite many a provocation. And yet, on multiple occasions, I had to correct the ABC's reporting of the rally the next morning because they insisted on portraying the protesters as the aggressors
I am not Jewish and haven't experienced what you relate. However, I am a close follower of local, national and international affairs in many fields but not least that of human interaction, socialisation, (or indoctrination), repression, persecution, discrimination and disadvantage.
So, because of that and the necessary reading, following of news and engaging in online forums, discussion and news - particularly that of competent and independent journalists and individuals, I have no doubt of what you report and have read many other such examples.
The reality is that, at least according to polls, most of the Israeli population *do* support the reprehensible brutality and persecution of Palestinians by the Zionist administration of the criminal Netanyahu.
That reality is one of highly selective control, exclusion, assault, denial of goods and services, restrictions on movement, actual physical assault, emotional molestation and, effectively, attempts at genocide against the Palestinians whose very land on which Israel stands was taken from them by a foreign power: Great Britain, at that time, (with approval from other mostly European nations) and *without any consultation with Palestinians. Immediately following that perfidious carving up of Palestine, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were dispossessed of their homes, businesses and land. Ever since that time, successive Zionist Israeli governments have continually and since the Six Day War increasingly imposed severe and outrageous restrictions on Palestinians.
The result of that 7 decades of repression was the explosion of feeling to remove their people from brutal occupation by Israel which was the appalling attack of 7 October 2023. Appalling and not what any rational person would condone but *understandable* given the many years of torment which the Palestinians had suffered.
That attack, despite its cruelty and meaning no disrespect nor denial of the trauma and loss to individuals of families in Israel, whether supporters of their government or not, was as nothing compared with the reaction of Netanyahu's brutal Zionist regime. Hamas, (originally established and funded by Israel (in order to oust Fatah), killed just over 1200 and abducted around 250. Netanyahu's administration have overseent the killing of over 75,000 Palestinians by the IDF and illegal settlers, since that incursion by Hamas.
It is also of note that Netanyahu knew of the impending attack approximately 2 weeks before it happened and took no action to prevent it.
Inevitably, because hypocrisy is so ubiquitous in the declarations of governments and their representatives or officer, there has been condemnation and blame thrown at Hamas and, by definition, the Palestinian people, by western governments. I doubt that hypocrisy and false notion of reality will stop, not least because there is an arroganat buffoon pretending to be the president of the USA, the nation that has funded Israel since its creation and, indeed, increased its funding, (and armaments), on every occasion that Israel has been involved in conflict with other nations or players in the region, even though mostly these conflicts have been started by Israel, caused by their inhuman excursions into or treatment of other nations.
Of course, there remains great sympathy for the Jews as a result, in the main, of what happened to them at the hands of the National Socialist regime during the 1930s and 1940s across Europe. The Israeli administrations have used that sympathy ever since to curry favour and support from other nations, particularly the 'developed' nations of the west. It is time that their treatment at that time *stopped being an excuse for their brutal & perfidious actions today.* Yes, let us remember it but that memory should be an incentive for us to avoid ever letting there be a repeat of such events. Instead, and incredibly, *the very relatives of those who suffered then are now precisely those who are imitating the style of the National Socialists.*
That anyone can credibly defund the activities of the Israeli administration of Netanyahu since 7 October 2023 Is beyond belief - at least for anyone with an intelligent and disinterested (non-biased) view. Indeed, in my 60 years of adulthood, I have witnessed nothing akin to this calamity, either directly or through the media. It almost certainly couldn't have been as lengthy and devastating as it has been and is, without the funds and armaments supplied by the USA and the protection of both their might and their veto at the United Nations. The USA is therefore complicit in this criminal persecution and Donald Trump, its president, ought to be declared a criminal by the ICC and indicted for crimes against humanity, alongside Benjamin Netanyahu.
It is no wonder, therefore, that the US Adminstration and that of Israel, (i.e. Trump & Neanyahu, for both are effectively dictators), are together attempting to dismantle the ICC, both having shown a complete disdain for the rules-based world order and done possibly more than any other nation to. dismantle it and send humanity back almost a hundred years to a time of 'might is right' on the world stage.
"Jesus wept", they say. Well in my heart, I bleed for the disadvantaged everywhere and as much as most, the Palestinian people who have suffered, in my view, although not by being killed in gas ovens, just as seriously as the Jews of Europe 70 to 80 years ago.