Its What I'm Here For

I was sitting in my apartment today getting ready to work, flipping through the news sites, and I came across Arutz7 live broadcast of the roadblockings (little background, they announced like two or three weeks ago that today at 5 is roadblock day to protest disengagement). Anway, so I was listening to them go on and on about Bar ilan street in Jerusalem being blocked, and I said to myself, for sure the entrance to the city has more action then little Bar Ilan street. Its like sports, everyone has their favorite team, my favorite team is the City Entrance Blockers. So I went to check it out. I walked down the hill toward the city entrance junction, but couldnt even get close. The streets where open, and the police had blocked off the whole sidewalk area. Anyone wanting to actually cross the street had to go one by one past the cops, who then escorted them across. All the people where either crowding on top of the hill (Gival Shaul street), or were hanging out on the mountain overlooking the city entrance street. You can jump the stone wall on Givat Shaul street, walk down the mountain, get to another little dead end street, and then jump down onto the highway. I got there around 5:15, traffic was flowing, the cops were all over, everyone was yelling, but nothing was really happening. there was a little scuffle with a reporter but that was all. I sat down on my stome wall and just waited. I think they tried to block the highway, cuz the cops got angry and started pushing us up the hill. I slowly made my way up, getting slightly pushed by the cops behind me, but nothing more. Then all hell broke loose. The cops, in their infinite wisdom, were guarding the crosswalk at the end of the highway. But like two hundred meters into the highway, the dead end street ends, and theirs steps that go to the highway. So they ran their and blocked the highway. Imediately, everyone, cops and protestors together, ran to the action. I sat on my stone wall for a bit longer, but they didnt come back, so I went to check it out. I climbed down the mountinside and found a good spot, overlooking the highway, like 10 feet up. This was good for me, as I look at this as more of a spectator sport. The cops started bringing people back, one by one, it took like 3 kids per kid to drag them to the cop vans. In the meantime, they managed to block both sides of the highway. There were 3 guys on motorcycles wearing Peace Now shirts and waving blue ribbons (the color of the disengagement) It put a nice twist to things. Anyways, the cops then brought in the riot tank, a huge white tank thing with a hose on top. It took up a line of traffic, so even when cars could get thru, they were sill beign stopped by the tank thing and all the cops around it. The first spray from the tank (I think its called zarnuka) hit a ranking policeofficer, which I just found hysterical. After that, they got the aiming correct and started spraying the crowd. Then they sprayed the spectators on top. I ducked, and only got hit by a few drops. The guy next to me said its a hot day and he didnt mind, so he stood up and got soaked. meawhile, they were grabbing bunches of people, mostly kids. One guy it took four cops to carry him, one of the cops was undercover. He was wearing a red and white tshirt. They jsut kept stuffing people into the same police van, then I think the people tried to get out cuz there was a whole fight over there. meanwhile, the sprayer kept going, but it moves really slow so you have time to run or duck before it gets to you. At this point, there was no more cars. Cars coming into the city had been rerouted to another entrance, and cars leaving the city I think were stuck at another protestor block further in. So everyone was sitting in the street with no cars coming anyways, and the cops still chasing em down. there was a little girl taken with her backpack on, couldnt have been more then 10. She still fought the coppess, suddenly falling every few steps. Like in any game, I cheered for my team, but didnt do much else. I've become a stronger fan of Gush Katif since the last protest, but I still dont believe in highway blocking. Another thing I noticed was the amount of cops with camcorders. Of course there was like 20 papparazi filming the event, but there was at least 4 cops also filming. I smiled and waved at one. I wonder if I'm in a database somewhere now...At that point it was almost 6 and I had to go home, so I left. End Score Protestors 17, Cops 8. The cops got points cuz when they were pushing us up the hill, they let people to stop to get their kippot. I thought that was nice. Also, the water gun truck was cool. I jsut wish I'd brought my Super Soaker...Protestors got points for accomplishing their goal of blocking the highway, getting arrested, and just making the cops crazy. One protestor got a lot of points for breaking free from the two cops pulling him, and runnign away. They started chaing him, but then they gave up. charaidim also scored well in this, they were well represented. And Chabad. After the road was entirely blocked, two Chabadniks started walking down the middle with Mashiach flags and a big mashiach poster. It was good to see their yellow flags after so much orange. As last time, I dont know what was accomplished, but I had fun.