American journalists whose outlets covered ANTIFA demonstrations wondered aloud whether in fact they can describe the Tel Aviv rallies as “peaceful.”
Washington, February 2 – The weekly rallies in Tel Aviv and elsewhere demonstrating against the Likud-led government’s stated intention to fundamentally alter the relationship between the judiciary and the other branches of government have featured little or no violence, fires, or other unrest, causing American journalists whose outlets have covered ANTIFA-linked demonstrations in America to wonder aloud whether in fact they can describe the Tel Aviv rallies as “peaceful.”
CNN reported Tenn Denschuss included a voice-over segment in his piece today on the anticipated protest this coming Saturday night, stating, “American viewers might wonder how this network can refer to this ongoing series of demonstrations as ‘mostly peaceful’ when we do not stand in front of burning buildings or cars when using the term,” he acknowledged. “It is one of the strange features of the Middle East, where assumptions and vocabulary that describe the western model of behavior do not apply as automatically or broadly to the local context.”
New York Times journalist Tokken Djiu noted that his experience jived with his CNN colleague’s. “I seldom have trouble zeroing in on the Palestine-flag-toting fringe at any public event,” he observed. “This past week there must have been close to a hundred thousand protesters in Tel Aviv alone. Probably a handful of them were trying to make it about Palestine. But it’s my duty as a New York Times correspondent to support the Palestine-central narrative, so I find them. Not so for the arson and looting, which you’d think would be easier to find – but I can’t. I know it has to be there, somewhere, because that’s what a peaceful protest is. Antifa and our coverage of American protests over the last several years have taught us that. Maybe this coming Saturday night I’ll succeed in locating some.”
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his coalition partners have vowed to overhaul the court system to inject more responsiveness to the will of the people in the judicial selection process. His opponents worry that he is attempting to compromise judicial independence. Neither side in the debate accepts the other’s underlying assumptions regarding the very definition of democracy, and therefore of the function of the institutions entrusted to safeguard it; each accuses the other of placing democracy under the control of an undemocratic few. The demonstrations against the move have featured no violence of note, also placing Western journalists in the unfamiliar position of not feeling compelled to ignore or justify violence against Israelis.
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