Photo Credit: YouTube
Am Yisrael Chai written under Freedom to Speak, led to 3/13/13 assault on an Israeli woman in Oakland

“The ultimate goal of the leadership of groups like the International Solidarity Movement is the complete elimination of Israel,” David

International Solidarity Movement banner in Oakland Park, March 13, 2013

told The Jewish Press.  “There are many people involved with the group – maybe Tristan was one of those – who are naive and are indoctrinated by the leaders to believe that Israel is the root of all the problems in the Middle East, and if only Israel was gone it would usher in a new golden age of humanism.”

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David pointed out that one of the people in another one of the videos from the March 13 Oakland event was Paul Larudee, a leader in the ISM and Free Gaza Movement, who “…recognize[s] that violence is necessary and it is permissible for oppressed and occupied people to use armed resistance and we recognize their right to do so.” Larudee has been involved with several well-publicized efforts to defeat the blockade of Gaza, supports Hamas, and obtained official approval from the United Nations for his nongovernmental organization, the Free Palestine Movement, which is a pro-Hamas group.

TRISTAN ANDERSON AND NI’ILIN PROTEST

Silverman is the girlfriend of Tristan Anderson.  Anderson was severely wounded in 2009 as he stood in solidarity with Arab Palestinians who regularly protest the security fence Israel has built to deter terrorism.  This protest took place in the Arab town of

Ni’ilin village, the green line shows the 1949 Armistice line, the red line is the separation fence, the blue areas are Jewish towns, the yellow areas are Arab towns

Ni’ilin.  The security fence, as can be seen in the map, runs mostly along the 1949 Armistice lines (the “Auschwitz Borders, as Abba Eban described them) but jut into the disputed territories in certain locations so as to protect Jewish majority towns from terrorism.  Most of Ni’ilim is outside of the fence, but a small portion of it falls within.  Anderson came to Israel to visit Silverman, whom he had first met as a fellow protester at the IMF and World Bank protests in 2000, in Washington, D.C.  The IMF protest was organized by the anarchist group A16.

Anderson told an interviewer two years ago about his life prior to his injuries: “Sometimes it’s solidarity, sometimes it’s like we’ve all got to fight against something. I did everything there is to do: bicycle activism, gardening activism, anti-globalization activism, [US political prisoner] Mumia [abu Jamal] activism, tree-sitting.”  Mumia abu Jamal is a convicted murderer who killed Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981. And in 2009, Anderson went to the Middle East to be with Silverman.

IRONIES ABOUND

Not only did Silverman physically assault Channa on March 13, but the ISM/Occupy Oakland event on the day of the assault was to protest

Gabrielle Silverman, mug shot from Oct 9, 2012, San Francisco Police Dept.

the devastating injury of her boyfriend caused by the throwing of a non-lethal weapon, yet Silverman was arrested just a few months ago when she and others in a militant anarchist group did what?  Hurled “non-lethal” (but potentially lethal nonetheless, just like tear gas canisters) projectiles at police and other people.

Further irony: the message Channa wrote for which she was attacked?  A message of peace: “Am Yisrael Chai” – The Jewish People Live.  Yet another irony: Channa, when attacked violently and verbally and removed from a public place, was writing her message right below the clearly marked message, in bold letters: FREEDOM TO SPEAK AND ASSEMBLE. And a final one: the park, the public space from which Channa was ejected by Silverman and her comrades, was named for a legitimate civil rights activist but was renamed to “honor” a convicted felon, now considered a martyr because he was killed while resisting arrest.

WARNING: EXTREMELY FOUL LANGUAGE IS AUDIBLE ON THIS VIDEO

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Lori Lowenthal Marcus is a contributor to the JewishPress.com. A graduate of Harvard Law School, she previously practiced First Amendment law and taught in Philadelphia-area graduate and law schools. You can reach her by email: [email protected]