PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Activists Picket/Listen to Sharon Advisor
by Daniel Papasian Friday, Mar. 14, 2003 at 4:54 PM
dpapasia@andrew.cmu.edu (email address validated)

On Thursday, March 13th the Palestine Soldiarity Committee organized an informal picket in front of the building in which Ra'anan Gissin, advisor to Ariel Sharon, was speaking. Several of the anti-war and pro-Palestinian justice went inside to hear exactly what Mr. Gissin had to say.

Ra'anan Gissin, advisor to Ariel Sharon, addressed students and community members Thursday night. While the event was initially scheduled to be held at University of Pittsburgh's Scaife Hall, it was then rescheduled to Soldiers' and Sailors, and finally Hillel/Jewish University Center, all due to "security concerns." Doors opened at 6:30, speech started at 7:30.

I arrived at Hillel (Forbes near Craig) around 6:20ish. There were already several picketers there, and far more police watching us. We were instructed by the police to cross the street and picket across from Hillel, so we would not be near those who were trying to enter. Although some in the group insisted that they were not going to attack anyone and didn't see why they had to move, we discussed it and came to the consensus that it was a real possiblity that we'd get attacked, and of course we didn't want to piss off the police (who, I remind you, seemed to outnumber us)

So we picketed for awhile, and a bunch of us who had registered decided to go in to see Mr. Gissin speak. We crossed the street to enter the Hillel building, and were quickly informed that we would not be allowed to take any signs or flyers into the speech. Fair enough. There was an elaborate security checkpoint set up for everyone who wanted to see Mr. Gissin speak to go through. My "no war on Iraq" button had to be checked with security as a potential weapon. I noticed people, including other dissenters, go through with larger pins and buttons however, and nobody stopped them.

The checkpoint was a little annoying, but it is understandable given the number of enemies that the Sharon administration has made for themselves. Someone remarked to me while the metal detector wands were being passed over us (for what seemed like an eternity) that passing through a checkpoint was such an inconvienence and felt like such a violation they couldn't imagine what it would be like to pass through several of them just to travel a few miles.

After I made it through the checkpoint, we had to present our IDs to prove that we had registered to see Gissin speak. Having been confirmed registered, I decided to wait in the lobby for a few minutes for the rest of my group to catch up. I was wearing my Voices in the Wildneress "No War On Iraq" t-shirt which was partially obstructed by my jacket. A man in a suit who had been watching the whole security and registration process take place approached me at this time, demanding to see my shirt. I showed it to him, saying nothing. He read the message- "No war on Iraq" to me, and I said simply, "Yeah." He went back to his position, but for as long as I was in that lobby I noticed him looking right in my direction. It was certainly an interesting feeling to just stand in a room and realize that you're already a suspect.

Everyone who was travelling with us had at least one question we wanted to ask Gissin, ranging from topics such as UNSC Res 242 to Israel and the NPT, to the everyday effects of the deadly Israeli occupation. Before getting into the lecture, I had advocated submitting the question per procedure (all questions had to be submitted in writing) and shouting out the questions only if and when it became apparent they would not ask Gissin any of our difficult questions. When the night started, however, they layed out groundrules such as not being disruptive and no heckling, and threatened all of us with removal from the building and possibly arrest if we violated them. Certainly a sobering start to the evening.

The speech that Gissin gave was not very surprising, he stuck to typical Likud and Israeli lines regarding war with Iraq, that Saddam was a threat, that Saddam and Arafat are two of a kind, that this is a war against our values, and that this is a war that must be fought. He also said more than once that "Being a Jew is hard, but being a Palestinian is harder" but whenever the Palestinian plight was discussed he always emphasized that it was solely at the fault of the Palestinian leadership, describing Israelis as "frustrated" and "saddened" to have to observe a situation that, according to Gissin, came about through no fault of any Israeli policies.

When it came time to Q&A, it was surprising to see that several questions- my own included- were indeed presented to Gissin. Like any good politican, he managed to respond to all of the questions and answer none of them. This was a little frustrating, and a University of Pittsburgh professor who was with us left in contempt before the evening was over.

It was an interesting night, and it was honestly a little surprising to me to see such turnout for an event where many may feel uncomfortable. It was very pleasing to see the night go off without, as far as I could tell, without incident.

My question, for the record, was "If Israel is a democracy, why do millions of Palestinians live under Israeli rule without full and equal Israeli citizenship?" He responded by saying that a few years ago, Palestinians were under Arafat's rule, and most Palestinians would say that Arafat's occupation was far worse than Israel's. Although he did use the term occupation repeatedly through the night, at one point he did say that they were not "occupied" they were "disputed" - but it was clear that even he did not believe that, because just one or two sentences later he referred to them as occupied. He then continued to criticize Palestinian leadership for a few minutes.

A response? Sure. But not an answer.

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