But surprise cannot be warmed up again like coffee.
This time, the authorities were prepared. Lengthy -- if secret -- consultations have obviously taken place. The Prime Minister was determined not to be humiliated again -- not after TIME magazine crowned him "King Bibi" and the German vulgar mass-circulation paper, BILD, followed suit, enthroning his wife, Sara, too. (Sara'le, as she is generally called, is as popular as Marie Antoinette in her time.)
The orders of Netanyahu and his minions for the police were evidently to put down any protest forcefully and right from the beginning. The mayor decided to turn the boulevard into a fortress against the tent-dwellers. (The French word "boulevard" is derived from the German "Bollwerk" which means fortification, because citizens loved to stroll atop the city walls. They still do in the beautiful Tuscan town of Lucca.)
It seemed that Netanyahu learned a lot from Vladimir Putin, who paid him a courtesy visit this week. Weeks ago, last year's protest leaders were summoned to the police and interrogated about their plans -- something unheard of in Israel (for Jews within the Green Line). The legality of this procedure is doubtful, to say the least.
SO WHEN Daphni appeared on the scene, everything was ready.
Mayor Huldai's "inspectors", who have never before been seen in a violent role, attacked the few dozen protesters, shoved them roughly around and trampled on their tents.
When the protesters did not cede their ground, the police were deployed. Not just ordinary police officers, but also the specially trained riot police and police commandos. The photos and videos show policemen attacking protesters, hitting and kicking them. One policeman was shown choking a young woman with both his hands. Daphni herself was thrown to the ground, kicked and beaten.
Next day, the pictures appeared in the papers and on television. The public was shocked.
When 12 protesters were brought to court, after spending the night under arrest, the judge sharply criticized the police and sent them home.
The next day, a second demonstration took place to protest against the treatment of Daphni. Again the police attacked the protesters, who reacted by blocking central thoroughfares and smashing the glass doors of two banks.
The government, the police chiefs and the mayor were horrified. "A well-prepared riot by violent thugs!" the commander of the country's police force called the event in a specially convened press conference. "Vandalism!" the mayor chimed in.
AT THE time these events occurred, a group of Palestinian, Israeli and international activists were holding a protest in Sussia, a small Arab village on the edge of the desert south of Hebron.
For a long time, the occupation authorities have been trying to drive the Palestinians from this area, in order to enlarge the neighboring settlement (which bears the same name) and in future annex the area. After the Arab houses were destroyed, the inhabitants found refuge in ancient caves. From time to time the army tries to drive them out, blocking the wells and arresting the people. All of us in the peace movement have taken part in protests there at one time or another.
Compared to what happened there, the Rothschild events were child's play. The police employed tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets, water cannon and "skunk water" -- a stinking substance that clings to the body for days and weeks.
There is a lesson there. Police officers who are routinely employed to put down the protests in Bil'in and other places in the West Bank and then are sent to Tel Aviv cannot be expected to become London policemen overnight. Brutality cannot be stopped forever on the Green Line. Sooner or later, Bil'in was bound to come to Tel Aviv.
Now it's here.
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