Anti-Zionist Jews and Supporters in Protest and Rally on Montgomery Street

On Monday March 6, observant Jews and supporters protested Israeli apartheid and what they see as the genocidal oppression of Palestinans since the Nakba. The Nakba was the expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians from their land in 1948. The protesters, many wearing prayer shawls, held a service and declared actions of the Israeli government as not in their name.

The reascension to power of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to head a extreme Zionist government has provoked huge protests in Israel and has even spread to the Israeli military.

However, these protests are principally against Natanyahu's moves to eviscerate the power of Israel's courts in favor of the legislature and right wing politicians. The court's independence has occasionally allowed it to rule in favor of Palestinian rights. Many Israeli see Netanyahu's attempt as destroying Israel's democracy (for Jews) without much concern for the years of annexation of Palestinians lands, destruction of their homes, support of settler terrorism and brutal military attacks.

As nominally secular Israel, having declared itself as the "home" of the world's Jews and therefore not of the twenty percent of the population that is Palestiinan or Arab, Israel has tilted ever more in the direction of theocracy.

The protest which attracted a handful of flag waving counter protesters, was to remind the world that many Jews, including observant ones, reject Zionism. The action was one of many similar protests around the world.

See all high resolution photos here.