When Nadav Weinberg, a soldier who had served with the Israeli Defense Forces, spoke at Arizona State University last week, the room was filled with protesters. Rather than disrupt his speech, which is often the tactic taken at such events, the demonstrators found a much more powerful way to voice their dissent: silence.
After taking their seats, the demonstrators took off their jackets to reveal red t-shirts with signs bearing the names, ages and dates that civilians were killed by Israeli troops. They then took red tape and covered their mouths with it.
Folks in the back of the room held a sign that read: “Giving Voice to Civilians Silenced by IDF Policy.” (I like the emphasis on policy rather than on the individuals within the military, which I think is always an important distinction for nonviolent activists to make.)
Part way through Weinberg’s speech, the group proceeded to stand up and slowly walk out of the room, leaving it close to empty.
A similar action took place at the University of Michigan recently, which is a hopeful sign that IDF soldiers will not be able to share their viewpoints on American campuses uncontested. (h/t Mondoweiss)
Amazing. How inspirational.
Silence says is all, without imposing violently. The hope of the future, lived in the moment. This action, for me, embodies the heart and soul of nonviolence. No matter how folks (including the speaker) chose to react or not react, they were confronted in a non-threatening way.
Truth was displayed in a way not marred by hysteria.
Powerful. Thank you, students at ASU.
I for one wanted to hear what the guy was saying. I’m sure he could splice together pictures of IDF soldiers/civilians killed by Palestinians/Hamas/Hezbollah with a background of “death to Israel” or some similarly anti-semetic rant from Hamas, Hezbollah, or the Iranian President.
Too bad those kids (and the old guy, not sure if he is a student) didn’t stick around and actually learn something.
Diluting a complex issue into a simplistic stunt is not amazing, inspirational or powerful. It is vapid, naive and impotent.
Killion,
Though I couldn’t find a video showing the rest of the lecture (after the walkout), here’s a link to Nadav Weinberg blogspot:
http://nadavweinberg.blogspot.com/
There’s a lot that can be said about Weinberg’s warped views from reading his posts, but just to point out a couple in the July 30st section: for someone who believes that there is “no humanitarian crisis” in Gaza is completely brainwashed. For someone to say “One of the largest problems Israel faces from Palestinians in the West Bank is shabachim, or illegal aliens crossing the border into Israel” has little if any capacity for understanding that the Israeli’s are illegally occupying the Palestinians land.
I do not think the kids could have learned anything new, except maybe his personal experiences like how holding and pointing a gun at another human being made him “feel an overwhelming power, knowing that with the flick of your index finger, you can end a life”. To me, Nadav Weinberg has a very diluted view of the Israeli-Palestine situation.
Perillo,
I read through his blog before I posted before.
Warped? Not really. It’s a kid from Cleveland recounting some of this thoughts and experiences.
Brainwashed? The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports there is no shortage of most basic commodities in the Gaza Strip. Gaza is not Somalia. “Shabachim” would be a problem for Israel, considering some of the “Shabachim” have a tendency to blow themselves up in crowded cafes or buses… We can go round and round on who’s land’s who’s. Hamas, Hezbollah, and their proxies have no interest in land or a Palestinian state. They want the destruction of Israel.
Of course the kids wouldn’t learn anything…. They, like you, must have personal experience in Gaza.
No wonder there will not be peace anytime soon. No one can sit down and listen to the other.
Kudos to the students and to the filmmaker. Excellent job.
Saudi Arabia is one million square miles, 1/3 size of the United States. Jews were eliminated from it centuries ago and none may return. There are another five million square miles of Muslim countries where NO OTHER RELIGION may be publicly offered without fear of incarceration or DEATH. Ask the few Zoroastrians left on the planet, or the Bahais whose founder was beheaded in Iran. Israel is 10,000 square miles, hopefully a refuge for those knowing about the holocaust, and fleeing current and typical anti-semitism in ‘Cultured’ Europe, home of the Holocaust. I sat next to a Muslim representative in a small conference who emoted loudly how Islam is a religion of peace, but he could not tell me why it would not make a little room for Jews struggling to maintain their place on the planet in their ancestral neighborhood to which they have returned with humane help from an ambivalent U.N. The ‘Silent Treatment’ student body are naive children who together believe that they are a magnanimous body helping the ‘Poor Palestinians’, who are being used as a Public Relations Tool by the violent few who keep ALL MUSLIMS in bondage with threats of death for Apostasy; and it all is authorized in writing in the Sira, Hadith and Koran. Cost to ‘Silent Team’ in their Safe Haven: few cents for red tape which they value more than red blood. Sgt Nadav risked his life, every cop knows what a target he becomes when he wears a uniform.
A serious scholar must ask: How did Islam grow from one man in 622 A.D., to 1.5 billion people in 1,400 years. Certainly it was helped by Class Warfare in India, where promises of Instant Paradise lured many outcasts. But others, not so willing came under The Sword, or were offered Dhimitude Status if they paid a special tax for living in Muslim land. It is well known that warm countries, where nature does not threaten survival so much, allow inhabitants more impulsive behavior. However, the behavior gets so threatening at times, those getting the brunt of punishment crave a strong leader, as in modern day Singapore, or like the founder of Islam. Ego drives people to wish for revenge; and fear makes them want that revenge through a third party: A big brother, a cop, an Imam, or a brain-washed young warrior willing to give it all in a suicide.
A lot of the video spliced into this clip is disingenuous; no context is shown, just the most emotionally provoking aspect is shown. Obviously, this is the point of the video, to stir emotions; this however is done at the cost of the representation of the truth. While I acknowledge that the IDF has caused civilian casualties in high numbers, this cannot be debated, the shameless use of editing that has become all too common by the pro-palestinian supporters.