<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">George Papanikolaou</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:georgepapani@gmail.com">georgepapani@gmail.com</a>></span><br>
Date: Mon, Sep 5, 2011 at 9:05 PM<br>Subject: Fwd: [NomadicUniversality2] FW: Daphni Leef's speech September 3rd 2011<br>To: Michael Bauwens <<a href="mailto:michelsub2004@gmail.com">michelsub2004@gmail.com</a>><br>
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From: <a href="mailto:moshe.machover@kcl.ac.uk" target="_blank">moshe.machover@kcl.ac.uk</a><br>
To: <a href="mailto:moshe.machover@kcl.ac.uk" target="_blank">moshe.machover@kcl.ac.uk</a><br>
Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2011 07:43:24 +0100<br>
Subject: Fwd: Daphni Leef's speech September 3rd 2011<br>
<br>
Daphni Leef is a leader of the Israeli social protest
movement. This is her speech at the mass rally (estimated at
300,000 protestors) in Tel-Aviv.
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">Daphni
Leef's speech September 3rd 2011</span></div>
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<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">Something
massive, something huge happened this summer.
Summer 2011 is the big summer of the new
Israeli hope. This hope was born, like many
hopes, out of a feeling of despair,
alienation, inequalities that became
impossible for all of us, inequalities that
almost became impossible to overcome.</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�The
Israeli society that stands here � and also,
it�s important to note, also the Israeli
society that chose to stay home this evening �
reached its red line. And then it stood up and
said: Enough! No more! You can cheat some of
the people some of the time, but you can�t
cheat everyone all the time. This summer we
woke up and refused to keep walking with our
eyes shut towards the abyss.�</p>
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<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">� We are
choosing to live. We are not invisible. If
they only understand numbers, let us remind
them that there are more than 7 million people
here, and every one of these people has a
heart. There was a sign on Rothschild that
said: �Every heart is a revolutionary cell.�
It�s true. Every one of us is the protest
headquarters of one person.</p>
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<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�This
summer was a wonderful obstacle course. What
hurdles didn�t they put before us? What didn�t
they say about us? How they tried to break us
up. The first thing they said about us was:
spoiled brats. Sushi and nargilas. From this
we learned that the automatic response of the
publicly elected is to give not respect to our
actions. Their first priority was to say �
it�s nothing, zero, just a group of kids. At
that point there was only the tent camp on
Rothschild Boulevard. They called us vague and
deluded. The result: tent camps began to be
set up throughout the country. They had no
choice but to understand that this was
something bigger, something of our own.</p>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">My
generation grew up with the feeling that we
were alone in the world. It�s us versus the TV
screen. That the other is our enemy, that he
is our competitor. We grew up with the feeling
that we are in living in a race we have no
chance of winning, that we mustn�t rely on
anyone else. They taught us that it�s either
you or him. That�s capitalism � unending
competition. The fact that this generation �
the loneliest and withdrawn generation � stood
up and did something is nothing short of a
miracle. The miracle of the summer of 2011.
There you have it � everything that we
thought, all they taught us � was wrong! What
happened here was exactly what needed to
happen.</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">We were
closed up each of us in his own cycle, a cycle
of dissatisfaction, of a feeling of absurdity.
And suddenly we began to talk, and more
importantly: We began to listen.</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">So they
called us the extreme left. They tried to
define us. How on earth do they know who I am?
How do they know who you are? Where do they
get the chutzpah? The best answer to their
assertions came not from me of from my
friends, it came from the tent camps that
sprang up in Hatikva neighborhood, in Jesse
Cohen, in Kiryat Gat, Kiryat Shmona, Modiin,
Rahat, Kalansawa, Jerusalem, Haifa, Bet Shean,
Yerucham, and in tens of other places. All of
us, the whole country, realized that there is
no right or left � we are all servants/we all
serve.</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">They
told us � go to the periphery towns. What a
terrible and condescending thing to say. What
is that � �go to the periphery�? It�s
something you say as if � there, there are no
people. That there is a wasteland. Silence.
And you know what? How lucky it is that they
sent us to the periphery. Because we
discovered there what we already knew � that
this country is full of beating hearts. I went
there and found friends for life.�</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">And
anyway � what is that � �go to the periphery�?
The State of Israel screwed over and continues
to screw over its periphery systematically and
methodically from the moment it was
established. In education, health,
infrastructure, housing, welfare, culture � to
say �go to the periphery� is unprecedented
hypocrisy. To talk of �periphery� is to
perpetuate the old discourse that cuts out
human beings, that tells them: You are put
aside. You are remote. Your needs are less
important and your demands are worth less.
This summer we proved to everyone that there
is no such thing as periphery � we are all
central! Every single one of us! We reduced
the physical distance between us and we found
out that it�s good that way, that we want to
remain close. That they will no longer manage
to distance us and to divide us.</div>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">And then
came the security escalation. But even the
missiles that fell did not ruin this protest.
The opposite � they showed how strong and true
it is. The fact that we didn�t fold then was,
I�ve already said this, the most moving aspect
of this protest. The time has come for the
concept �Security Situation� to stop being a
value and return to being what it is � a
situation. And a situation that must change.</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�Missiles
fell, and we were silent for a few days. We
marched in silence. And then what did they
say? They said that the protest was fading
out. Instead of recognizing that it pained us
that a million Israelis were living under the
threat of missiles, that we were hurting for
the people injured, killed, and whose houses
were ruined. But instead of appreciated that
we were with them, instead of seeing how our
silence came from love, they said �the protest
is fading out�. They tried to turn our
solidarity into retreat.</p>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">The
truth is, it was sad. How on earth does the
government of Israel dare to make such an
attempt of divide and rule? A government that
abandoned its residents; that abandoned its
elderly, its sick, its immigrants, its weak.
How can is now come to us with such an
assertion? Israeli governments have divided us
for years, and when finally we come together,
when we showed that we are not willing to
carry on sitting in front of the TV, they said
that we are not showing solidarity. We don�t
show solidarity? Look at what�s going on here!</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">When
they talk about security they come to protect
human lives � how does that line up with the
Israeli government�s policy of recklessness?</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">I�m 25
years old. What are my biggest memories of
this country: the 2nd Lebanon War, the period
of terrorism, friends who were killed then,
the assassination of Rabin, Gilad Shalit. And
that�s even without going into that I�m 3rd
generation Holocaust survivor. This was my
consciousness. Moments and memories laced with
death, loss, pain, fear, and the feeling that
everything is temporary.�</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">At the
demonstration in Afula I saw a sign: �For 31
days I have been proud to be Israeli�. I stand
before you and I am now proud to be an Israeli
for 7 weeks. I feel we are together building
here our self-worth as a society. To say �I
deserve� means that someone else also
deserves, that we deserve. This summer brought
with it many good moments and memories � of
hope, of change, fraternity, listening.</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�A
discourse of life has been created. It�s the
most important awakening there has been here.
We are not here just to survive, we are here
in order to live. We are not here just because
we have nowhere else. We are here because we
want to be here. We choose to be here, we
choose to be in a good place, in a just
society, we want to live in society as a
society � not as a collection of lonely
individuals who each sit in front of one box,
the TV, and once every four years put a slip
in another box � the polling box.�</p>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�We are
here, not because we have no other land. We
are here because this is the land we want.
Without our even noticing, people have begun
to return from abroad, suddenly there�s a
feeling that something�s happening here that
mustn�t be missed.�</p>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�We�ve
created �a new discourse here. This is the new
discourse: We�ve replaced the word pity with
the word compassion. We�ve replace the word
charity with the word justice. We�ve replaced
the word donation with the word welfare. We�ve
replaced the word consumer with the word
citizen. We�ve replaced the verb �to wait�
with the verb �to change�. We�ve replaced the
word alone with the word together. This is the
greatest thing that we�ve done this summer. I
don�t know about you, friends, but it�s
already irreversible. We�ll not agree to go
backwards! We are striding forwards, to a
better future, to a more just country. Social
Justice!</p>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">We�re
all of us imprisoned somehow in our social
status, in our neighborhoods, in our religion,
our gender. And then I realized that we�re not
imprisoned � it�s that we�re imprisoning us!
We all have an overdraft, but the overdraft is
in the interest of the banks, it�s in the
interest of the entire financial system of the
state. They want to keep us constantly at a
certain level of distress. Because where there
is distress there is no hope, and where there
is no hope there is no chance of change, and
where there is no chance for change there is
nothing to live for. But this summer, day
after day, week after week, we went out to the
streets and clarified not just to the
government, but also to ourselves, that there
is something to live for! The moment we
realized this, the moment we began to think
about a shared tomorrow, we all set out to
freedom!</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�What
will tomorrow bring? We�re all asking what
tomorrow will bring. What will happen to the
tents, what is happening with the protest,
where next and what to do and all that. All
this demand for the fateful day, for the
victory photo, for the decisive moment �
there�s no such thing, my friends. Was there
one fateful day when the social gaps became
unbearable? Did swinish capitalism mark a
particular moment of victory? Can we put our
finger on that one privatization too many?
There was no such moment. There was a process.
Likewise now there is no moment � there�s a
process. This process of ours is just
beginning now. We have demands of the
government and its head because things must
change.</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">If you
are a resident of Yerucham � things must
change.</div>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">If you
are a child whose parents have no money to pay
for your school trip � things must change.</div>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">If you
are a pensioner or holocaust survivor � things
must change</div>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">If you
are a Gaza evacuee � things must change</div>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">If you
are Bedouin � things must change.</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�40% of
us are defined as �financially fragile�. That
means that 40% of us can�t cope with an
unexpected outlay: dental care for the kid, a
burst drain, injury. We are all living on the
edge, by the skin of our teeth, pushed to take
out another loan, to need more, to save less.
Our lives have become a financial war of
survival, while the state abandoned our
pensions to games on the stock market, and
privatized more and more of the basic
services.�</p>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">You know
what�s the worst phrase? The small citizen.
There are laws against insulting a public
servant, but there are no laws against
insulting the citizens. And they�ve insulted
us enough over the past few years. They�ve
pushed us towards poverty, played with us,
split us from each other. Don�t know about
you, but I don�t like it when they laugh at
me, and I don�t like it when they play me
along.</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�The
citizen is not small! The citizen is the
largest there is! To be a citizen, a large
citizen, and to understand this, is the
greatest challenge that stands before us. The
demands of this protest are exactly based on
the understanding that we are not willing to
be small citizens any more, consumers, we are
not willing to be a target audience any more,
just a sector, just a tenth. We will no longer
hole up in our tiny bunkers and wage our war
of existence alone.�</p>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><br>
</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">That era
is over.</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">From now
on something new: From now on we are together.
We demand change, and we demand to be part of
that change.</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">We have
begun a new discourse, a discourse of hope, of
sharing, of solidarity and responsibility. I
want to ask the Prime Minister, to ask all the
politicians: Look at what happened here, at
what is happening here � is this what you want
to defeat? Is this something you are able to
defeat? You are the People�s representatives.
Listen to the People. This protest, that gave
so much hope to many people � do you want to
break this hope? Is that what you want? To
melt down the hope? You will never succeed!</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">And
after we jumped all the hurdles and all the
spin didn�t succeed, what did they have left?
To attack me. This thing started with one
person who did something. I set up my tent on
Rothschild out of a personal feeling of to be
or not to be. A person very close to my heart,
Alex, put an end to his life. He was a poet.
He wrote that even if you have a heart of
gold, you will not manage to change the world.
Two months before all this started up, he
couldn�t be here any longer, and he chose not
to be.�</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">How can
a person like that, a dreamer and an idealist,
feel that he no longer has a place in this
world? If he has no place in this world then I
suppose I have no place here either. And my
heart hurt. My heart was broken. What kind of
a world is it that has no room for dreamers,
idealists, poets? What kind of world cuts them
out? A world of poverty. Because all of us are
dreamers and we all have the right to dream.
To be poor isn�t only not managing to make it
to the end of the financial month or to be
homeless. To be poor is to be troubled by
these things, fundamentally, to such an extent
that you are not able to dream, to think, to
learn, to hug your children.</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">So I
started this thing. But just because I started
it doesn�t mean it�s mine only. It�s not just
my story, it�s the story of many people who
stood up and started walking, stood up and
began to do something. We all decided to be.
We decided to be here. Here we are.</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">This
summer we learned that we all of us have a
place. That tomorrow will be what we make of
it. We don�t need them to define us, we know
full well who we are. And after this summer we
know that it�s okay to dream. More than that.
We understood that we must dream! To dream is
to be.</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">7 weeks
ago I was a 25 year-old who was struggling
alone with her private dreams � to make
movies. In the past week I�ve been attacked
from all sides, and they almost managed to
make me feel alone again. Don�t know about
you, but I�ve just started my protest�</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">I�ll be
here as long as necessary. I want to show Alex
that yes, you can change the world, that
everyone can. You only need to believe, get
up, and do something. The responsibility is on
each and every one of us. To stand up and move
and talk and do and not give up.�</div>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">�</p>
<div style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">In
taking to the streets, we found home!</div>
<br>
<br>
�<br>
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<hr>
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