A Quiet Fight
Mishmeret 101 and Other Protest Movements
A scene from Seven Years in Tibet, the 1997 biographical war drama starring Brad Pitt, keeps replaying in my head. In the scene, a group of robed, Buddhist monks sit cross-legged in a monastery courtyard, sprinkling the last grains of colored sand onto a giant mandala they have been laying for weeks, when suddenly, Chinese army generals march in and stomp across it.
I rewind the scene in my mind every time a Mishmeret 101 protest I attend winds down. After sitting quietly in a circle of women dressed in white, and holding the hostages and their families in my thoughts for an hour or more, I remember those monks, peaceful and apolitical like us, and those generals, callous and power-hungry like members of our governing coalition. I think about how we express solidarity, while they sow divisions; how we practice non-violence, while they lash out with aggression after aggression—sacking upstanding civil servants, manipulating the State budget, and wresting control over the appointment of judges. (And that’s just this week.)
Mishmeret 101 is one of several protest movements that has emerged to oppose the government’s immorality and slide toward authoritarianism. I find its protests meaningful and grounding, though I know they do not have the power to change the behavior of the thugs in office. I like that they have a single aim: to support the hostages and their families, whom the governing coalition has sidelined, and whom much of the political right—including the so-called national religious camp—has abandoned. I like that they are quiet. We sit in silence, except for the occasional talk by the relative of a hostage, a group song, the recitation of the names of the remaining 59 hostages, and the concluding chant: “We are with you. You are not alone.”
Though I choose to attend these quiet protests, I recognize the need for more formidable ones. I appreciate the protesters who are more forcefully reminding those who seek to divide us that there is no contradiction between being committed to Israel’s long-term security and caring deeply about the hostages, or between wanting the government to be able to act effectively and insisting that its powers be checked. I am also encouraged by news this week of the largest anti-Hamas protests in Gaza since October 7, 2023. According to a US-based researcher from Gaza, those ongoing protests are, “organic, popular-led, and entirely authentic expressions of frustrations, anger, rage, fury, and exhaustion by a people being held hostage by Hamas’ ruthless terrorism and criminality.”
I hope that all the peaceful protests continue, and that anyone who wishes to participate in them finds the one that suits him or her best, knowing that these rallies for morality using soul force over brute force will likely need to last a long time—perhaps as long as seven years in Tibet.
Peace.