Isolated and battered, Israeli doves hold protest

JERUSALEM - Israel's battered pro-peace camp is showing signs of life with a weekly Jerusalem protest by a motley collection of anarchists, intellectuals and radical rabbis, but they face a public increasingly hostile to their point of view.

Activists have gathered each Friday since November in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah to protest the eviction of Palestinians from their homes to make room for Jewish settlers. The demonstrations have become a rallying cry for the shrunken left and freedom of speech advocates who say their country has become increasingly intolerant of dissent since waging a bruising winter war in Gaza.

Activists point to a recent campaign vilifying a prominent human rights campaigner, arrests of protesters and attempts by government officials and right-wing groups to halt international funding of Israeli organizations they deemed disloyal.

"It's about time the left in Israel protest against the way the right-wing is kidnapping our future and our life," said Israeli author David Grossman, a leading dove, at a recent protest.

In the latest protest Friday, some 250 demonstrators assembled by a road blowing on shrieking whistles and loudly banging on drums. "You have no shame!" they chanted at Jewish settlers.

Several police officers watched warily across the road, backed by riot police wielding batons and assault rifles.

The weekly demonstrations in Sheikh Jarrah began after Israeli police evicted Palestinian families from the flash point neighborhood and allowed Jewish settlers to move into their homes.

Numbers swelled after police began arresting protesters. Activists shared protest videos on YouTube and Facebook. Anarchists mingled with rabbis, veteran activists, former politicians whose left-wing views have edged out of the mainstream and prominent Israelis like Moshe Halbertal, who helped draft the Israeli army's code of ethics.

Anger over the evictions and the apparent crackdown on freedom of speech inspired Holocaust survivor and veteran activist Max Moray, 84, to join a recent protest after years of shirking them. It was the first protest for Ariel Gommershtadt, 26. The only other demonstration he'd ever attended was one he helped disperse as an army conscript, he said. More