'Where were you on Sept. 3, 2011?'

The signs all over Tel Avivleading up to the big demonstration read: "Where were you onSeptember 3, 2011?" Well, I was together with 450,000 Israelison the streets, over 300,000 in Tel Aviv alone, with another 50,000in Jerusalem, and 100,000 in Haifa and the north.

Bibi: 'You're fired'

As I headed out for HabimaSquare, I felt a slight anxiety attack: there seemed to be too fewpeople heading towards the Rothschild Blvd. Tent City headquarters. But the people kept coming. When I arrived at the "commandheadquarters", everyone was in the midst of making makeshifthomemade signs to carry, alongside the professional placards.

Faces of 'revolution'

The main attraction was a French   artist who set up a photographic studioon the square, and lines of people were entering to have their phototaken and then converted into a placard which presented the face ofthe revolution – you and me, every one of us. The placards wereplastered above the nearby banks and supermarkets which are among thetargets of the demonstration, on the square itself, and later held onhigh by some of the model/demonstrators, some carrying their ownimage, some carrying images of others.

In this digital age it washard to tell the formal media from the citizen digitaljournalist/artist/documentarians since everyone was taking picturesof everyone else. People seemed to want to have a record that theywere there on this historic day.

Among the attractions at thestarting point was a protester proudly waving a Che Guevera flag, aman in an Israeli flag mask and costume, and even a life-sizemannequin on the back of a motorcycle of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, now pasthis fifth year in captivity in Gaza.

There were clusters oforganized demonstrators: from the Israeli student union wearingblue shirts, green flags and "Bring Back the Welfare State"placards among the Meretz people, red flags and placards from theHadash (Communist) people, the City for All of Us faction and theArab-Jewish proletarian Da'am party, and the National Left peoplewith a placard of a smirking Netanyahu with the slogan "You'reFired!"– but mainly just plain people with their home-madesigns.

My favorite was a toddlerwho obviously just learned to walk (more or less), who had a sloganon the back of his shirt saying "I cost a whole months' salaryfor upkeep". I complained to his mother that the slogan didn'tstand still long enough to take a clear photo, and she smiled: "What can I do? I'm just his mother."

And then there were the twoguys wearing a "We don't need sex/we're fucked enough byNetanyahu" t-shirt, who complained that my flash didn't go offwhen I photographed them. " Don't worry," I said.

The march headed out withdrums, whistles and slogans, placards and flags held high, and turnedleft on Ibn Gvirol Street. The most popular slogans were "ThePeople Demand Social Justice (Ha'am doresh/tzedek chevrati","Hoo, hah, look who's coming/ the welfare state (Hoo ha, mizeh bah/medinat harevacha)" and "The state iscrumbling/get off your porches (Ha medina koreset/t'zu minhamirpeset)", the latter two rhyming in Hebrew.

Truth is, even the porcheswere participating, with groups of people with pots and pans bangingout their solidarity.

Inspiration from Tahrir Square

As the throng neared theimposing Tel Aviv Municipal building overlooking Rabin Square wherethe prime minister was assassinated 16 years ago, a big whooshingprotest noise was heard – perhaps because this was the onlyestablishment symbol along the route. This, despite the fact thatMayor Ron Huldai, who declares that he is a social democrat,allowed the Tent City to squat on Rothschild Blvd, making no attemptto remove it. Opposite the stairs where Rabin was shot, I see aprotestor carrying a sign – "Walk like an Egyptian."

Among the hundred ofthousands of unfamiliar faces, most of them young, I see a few that Irecognize: Muki Tzur, the philosopher/preserver of the kibbutzmovement heritage; Prof. Nissim Kalderon, the social-democraticliterary critic who seems to pop up at every demo; Meretz Member ofKnesset Nitzan Horowitz; Hanoch Sa'ar, a young education officer inthe IDF back in the late '70s who dreamed of establishing a publishinghouse (and did) who included my daughter Rama's teenage poetry in hisfirst publication; Prof. Galia Golan, a colleague at thePalestine-Israel Journal who is co-coordinatingour next issue on Women & Power; and even Marc Berthold, thedirector of the Israeli office of the Heinrich Boell Foundationassociated with the Green Party, a direct link with DanielCohn-Bendit (Danny the Red), now co-president of the Green Party'sEuropean Parliament faction, who was one of the leaders of the 1968protests in France. The only identifiable member of the Labor Party Isaw was Yariv Oppenheimer, Secretary General of Peace Now.

Yair Yanov, who was togetherwith me on the Peace Now national leadership forum in the mid-'90s,explains all of the mistakes that the organizers have made. Theroute is too long and people are tired, and how could the NoarHaoved V'lomed (Habonim) youth decide to go directly to thesquare rather than participate in the march? He's skeptical andsomewhat pessimistic. My response: just remember that two weeksago with the attack in the south and the security crisis, people wereafraid that the protest would end; they never imagined that it waspossible to revive it and have so many people participate. Andbelieve me – this will have a profound, long-term impact.

All photos by H. Schenker in Tel Aviv

We pass Arlozoroff Streetnear the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor) headquarters, thestreet named after Chaim Arlozoroff, one of the militant leaders ofthe pre-state labor movement who was presumably assassinated byfollowers of right-wing Revisionist leader Jabotinsky, the nextstreet that we turn into towards our goal, Kikar Hamedina,the State Square, surrounded by Heh B'Iyar Street, the Hebrew datefor the day that State of Israel was declared in 1948 – Zionisthistory in a nutshell. And someone is carrying a placard – "TheWar for Independence 2011".

When I was on the kibbutz,every year the circus would come to town and set up a big tent inState Square. We would pile into a truck with the kids and come tothe city to see the animals, daredevils and clowns. Now there arecircuses without animals, animal right's groups are also among theprotesters, and State Square is surrounded by upscale shops and upperclass homes. It's also the biggest open space available in the TelAviv, which is why it was chosen to host "the mother of allprotests".

The old order is over – weare the "New Israelis" proclaims Yitzhak Shmuli (31), thearticulate and charismatic head of the National Student Union. In abrilliant if somewhat demagogic speech, he declares that we willcontinue the protest as if there were no Government TrachtenbergCommittee, and we will carry out a dialogue with the committee as ifthere were no protest. Careful not to mention the words 'peace', oreven 'social justice', he gives a powerful rabble-rousing speech, saysthat the protesters are in it for the long haul, and introduces thename of a potential new political party that may evolve out of theprotest movement, Yisrael Chadasha/New Israel. Shmuli rushedback from overseas to participate in the protest, and is reading JonLee Anderson's biography of "Che Guevera: A Revolutionary Life"in its Hebrew translation. I remember Anderson and his brotherScott, when they worked with us at New Outlook on aninvestigative journalism project on Israeli arms dealings withquestionable regimes in South America.

Cinema student Dafni Leef(25) is Shmuli's counterpart, and in many ways opposite. She beganthe whole process seven weeks ago when she announced an "Event"on Facebook and with a few friends set up the first tent onRothschild Blvd. People knew that Saturday night's demo would be asuccess because 350,000 people had already pressed the Facebookbutton 'Yes', not 'No' or 'Maybe', to the question of whether they werecoming to the 9/3/11 "Event". 

Images of Dafni Leef & Stav Shafrir, protest leaders

Leef gave a passionate, verypersonal speech. They tried to slander us, at first calling usspoiled brats, sushi and nargila (water pipe) lovers. Thenthey said we were left-wing extremists. And then they said theattack in the south would cause us to fold up our tents, and theydidn't understand that we were mourning for the loss of innocentlives, but were not giving up. And then they attacked me personally– referring to the fact that a right- wing organization haddiscovered that in 2002, when she was 17, she had signed the annual12^th graders letter declaring a refusal to serve in thearmy in the Occupied Territories, a variation on the letter my sonAdi and 250 other 12^th graders signed in 2005. 

Leefdefiantly declared that the reason she didn't serve in the IDF wasfor health reasons (epileptic fits), she would have served otherwise,and she volunteered for a year and half to help problematic youth indisadvantaged neighborhood, giving service to society. "I amin the center, and no one can push me into a corner!" They willnot cause us to stand down, or give up. She also dared to attack thecurrent form of Israeli capitalism as the root of all evil. A hushcame over the crowd when she recalled a poet friend who committedsuicide two months before the protest began, because he felt thatgiven the state of Israeli society, he couldn't dream, couldn't be apoet. We must create a society where young people can have the rightto dream, to be poets she exclaimed.

Motti Ashkenazi was there torecall the popular protest he started after the Yom Kippur War in1973, though most of the people around me seemed to be wondering whohe was. There was also an impressive 11^th grade teacher,leader of the teacher's protests, who spoke about Jewish-Arabsolidarity, and the right to quality education for all; a passionatesingle mother from a development town studying at the KibbutzMovement Educational Seminary who shouted "Wake up Israel!";Prof. Yossi Yonah, one of the heads of the advisory committees set upto advise the protest movement on policy; and even veteran stagepersonality/performer Rivka Michaeli, who said she was representingthe senior citizens.

There were a few signsstating "Social Justice = An End to the Occupation". Theissue of peace and security was not at center stage, but that willcome. There was also one lone sign held by two youth protestingagainst "Dafni Leef and her hallucinatory leftwing friends –this protest belongs to all of us", but they seemed to beignored by 'the masses'.

And of course there wasmusic, there is no revolution without music: Hayehudim(The Jews), one of the leading punk rock groups (clearly not toeveryone's taste); Dag Nachash, the popular Israeli hiphop/funk group led by Sha'anon Street who totally identifies with theprotest movement in word and song; and Mizrachi singer Eyal Golan,considered perhaps the most popular Israeli singer during the pastdecade, and also not a bad soccer player, who had the young peopleswaying in the square.

So what does it all mean? First of all, the 9/3/11demonstration was a tremendous success, against all odds. But it isnot an ad-hoc one time phenomenon. It is the climax of anextraordinary, unexpected Israeli summer of social protest, a link inthe chain of grassroots social protests sweeping the Middle East,Europe and Latin America in the spring and summer of 2011.

There will be no overnightrevolutionary transformation in Israeli life. But as Dafni Leefdeclared, the movement has initiated a fundamental change in theIsraeli discourse. And as all of the young leaders and most of thecommentators state that the events of this past summer will have aprofound impact on the long term direction of Israeli society. Therewere placards which read "We're Going into Politics – Registerfor a Party – Change from Within!" not calling for joining anyparticular party, but to simply get involved in the process. Duringthe past decade, the percentage of Israelis voting in nationalelections dropped from 85% to 62%. That is going to change,particularly among the previously apathetic, sometimes hedonistic andfatalistic younger generation and middle class, and also among the20% of the Palestinian-Arab citizens. Old parties will have to changeor step aside, and new forces may emerge.

And the TrachtenbergCommittee will come forward with its recommendations, and both thegovernment and the protesters will have to respond to them.  The summer of 2011 will be asummer to remember, a summer which has aroused a sense of forgottenpride in many Israelis.

Now the hard work continues.

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