From Challenge No. 78
March-April 2003

alternative media

Ongoing Platform Against the War

Nir Nader

ON FEBRUARY 15, about 1500 Jews and Arabs marched on the streets of Tel Aviv to protest America's preparations for war against Iraq. The demonstration had no sequel.

Perceiving a need to continue, the Organization for Democratic Action (ODA) has founded an ongoing platform to encourage voices against the war. We see it as a local chapter of the worldwide anti-war movement. We stage weekly events, which we coordinate with ideas stemming from that movement.

The platform is literally a stage set up at the new headquarters of Hanitzotz Publishing House in Jaffa. In addition to the weekly program, the hall hosts a dynamic exhibit of thirty artists opposing the war. We hope to spread it to additional galleries and offices in Tel Aviv.

The first event at the Platform, on February 24, brought together singers, actors, ODA representatives, workers and an audience of 150. One was Ze'ev Tenet, musician. Five times last year he lent his voice to the forces opposing the Occupation. "Most Israelis think this war is a good thing," he said, "and apparently the artists think so too. But there are no good wars, and this one is beyond all reason. It is not a war of 'no alternative'.

"I was happy to take part this evening and to feel that I belong to a group of sane human beings. It's a shame that the nucleus of those who think this way is so very small."

Guy Assif, journalist and cultural editor for Walla, Israel's most popular internet site, also took part in that first night. He said that artists in Israel live in an absurd combination of ignorance and false consciousness. "In one of our major websites, an article appears under the title, 'Make Love and War'. This is an Israeli innovation. The artists here are cowards, apart from which their ignorance is very advanced. They do not understand the basic moral deformity of the West: the division into good and bad, the good being America and its adjuncts, the bad being the Arabs. It's a consciousness formed by deceit."

In the plans: lectures; a CD of Israeli songs against the war; and an evening in which actors will present scenes from fifteen of the best anti-war plays ever staged in Israel.     n

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