LOOKING AROUND : Demonsration on my street

By Barbara Sofer
Dec. 19, 2002

My Jerusalem neighborhood is known for the battle for the San Simon Monastery, part of the three-pronged Jebussi Operation to secure Jewish Jerusalem in the months before the 1948 War of Independence.

Called both Katamon and Gonen, our part of town is usually quiet, a model of moderation and tolerance, with both observant and non-observant residents, and a variety of synagogues that attract young people from all over the city. Streets are open on Shabbat, but traffic is minimal.

One landmark on Rehov Hahish, now a private home, was the old Hotel Semiramis, blown up by the Hagana. Another house dates from the Turkish era. These sites attract walking tours of Israelis devoted to Jerusalem history and architecture.

But the group that has been gathering on my street for the past several weeks isn't seeing a history lesson. Placard-carrying protesters, mostly women, are positioned outside the home of neighbor Rivka Glatt.
A police officer and lawyer, Glatt serves as prosecutor for the Judea-Samaria Region. Protesters claim that her recommendations to the court are draconian.

Oddly, this isn't the first act of dissent on our short street. Last summer, protesters accosted Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein, praying in the Shtiblach Synagogue, close to Glatt's home.

My negative visceral reaction to demonstrations at the homes of public servants derives from a friend's traumatic childhood memories of demonstrations against her pathologist father for a hospital's position on autopsies. I would rather see demonstrations at places of work.

But that's not the reason I'm hearing alarm bells over this small and mostly orderly demonstration on my street.
Glatt has been targeted for calling for what the demonstrators perceive as harsh and unfair treatment. They believe that the residents of Judea and Samaria are being hounded, so they are exercising their democratic right to hound back. Women for Israel's Tomorrow leader Nadia Matar, among the demonstrators, blames Glatt for causing unnecessary suffering to the families of the accused.

In particular, these protests address a ruling concerning Hebron political activist and Knesset candidate Baruch Marzel. Accused of striking a police officer in the demonstrations over the Gilad Farm in October, Marzel was prohibited from returning to his home in Hebron during the pretrial period.

This is not the place to argue the rights and wrongs of Marzel's case. Because she's a uniform-wearing policewoman and public servant, Glatt is prohibited from giving interviews. Regional police spokesman Ch.-Supt. Rafi Yafe insists that Marzel's lawyers consented to the pretrial arrangements.

What alarms me after listening to the demonstrators and those who oppose them is the depth of frustration and resentment on both sides. The demonstrators' complaints are not aimed at Glatt alone. They believe the Israeli police and legal system are rigged against them, that they are unfairly blamed for the ills of the country, that they are harshly penalized for offenses waved away for other interest groups.

More than that, they believe the police and justice systems are carrying out a campaign to embroil activists in debilitating legal cases and to frighten away potential supporters. And remember, these right-wing activists feel downtrodden under the most right-wing government in Israel's history.

Are they being paranoid?

Not if I can gauge by the reaction of a sample of my neighbors, who are mostly religious, university educated, and not particularly politically active. Nearly everyone I surveyed felt sympathy for Glatt and antagonism toward the demonstrators. Marzel was not the issue.

The demonstration touched off more generalized resentment over the actions of settlers, particularly anger over the recent incidents in the Gilad Farm. Said one neighbor: "The settlers are endangering the country. They're able to manipulate the government to act against the national interests. They simply can't conceive that others don't see issues from their perspective."

These reactions were elicited at a time when no peace talks are on the table and there was no struggle over evacuating settlements.

This conflict is not between religious and non-religious. Both Rubinstein and Glatt are observant. Glatt grew up in Kedumim, in Samaria. I reject the insulting claim by the demonstrators that these public figures are harsher to their own because they need to impress non-observant overlords.

What is shaping up is a dangerous fight laced with anger, frustration, smugness, and a feeling by both sides that the other is manipulating democratic institutions to suit its own non-democratic agenda. We had a bitter taste of such a clash in the ill-considered Gilad Farm demonstration and the government's ill-considered reaction. Instead of recognizing the destructive power of such conflicts, both sides are digging in their heels instead of looking for channels of communication.

"Rivka Glatt is one link in a chain of justice. We won't let the demonstration deter us from enforcing the law," said police spokesman Yafe. Dissatisfaction and irritation at not being heard rankles one side, while an escalating anger at being manipulated festers in the other.

We simply cannot afford to implode.

Palestinian terror keeps us distracted from resolving troubling issues.

Ironically, the holding pattern has given us time to address the conflict brewing in our own society. When and if we get beyond the war with the Palestinians, if we need to consider those "painful concessions" Prime Minister Ariel Sharon so frequently talks about, we need to be sure we can avoid civil war while making peace.

Any new government needs to immediately address the discord between those who are willing to compromise on settlements to achieve peace and security and those who believe that only additional settlements will bring peace and security. This needs to be done before the possibility of withdrawal fans tensions to a blaze. Voices of moderation need to be cultivated and a modus vivendi for hearing both sides needs to be nurtured. Private and public institutions with experience in conflict resolution - places like the Peres Peace Center and the Shalom Hartman Institute - should be enlisted to create bridges over the growing rift.

In 1948, the battle for the St. Simon Monastery and the Katamon neighborhood was commanded by a young Palmah fighter named Yitzhak Rabin. His memory will be well-served if the demonstration on my street wakes us up so that we extinguish the bonfires before they become infernos.