by MN State Rep. Frank Hornstein

Forty years ago today, in February 1983, I participated in a Jerusalem march and rally organized by Israel's Peace Now movement. The  purpose of the event was to call attention to an Israeli Commission of Inquiry’s findings that Palestinian civilians in Beirut's Sabra neighborhood and nearby Shatila refugee camp had been massacred by the Lebanese Phalangist militia on September 18, 1982. The area was under Israel's military control at the time.

The Commission concluded Israel's then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon was not directly involved, but complicit in the killings. Peace Now was demanding the government implement the report's conclusion to remove Sharon from his cabinet position.

I joined the Peace Now contingent at dusk in Jerusalem's Zion Square, and we walked toward Israel's parliament building some two miles away. The event started peacefully, but as the march ascended the Ben Yehuda Street Pedestrian Mall, right wing counter protesters appeared. They punched, kicked, and tore placards from the marchers. Some chanted and sang "Sharon melech yisrael." A few feet from me was Meir Kahane, the racist leader of the virulently anti-Arab Kach movement. He was perched on the shoulders of one of his minions-fists in the air--and yelling epithets at the protesters.

We reached the Knesset and some of the peace activists carried large torch-like candles. Right-wing thugs continued to scream at Peace Now members. The intensity and barrage of their verbal harassment portended a violent escalation. I left the protest early and headed toward a bus stop. A loud boom pierced the night air and echoed around nearby government buildings.

I thought it was a sonic boom, heard often above Israel’s skies from air force jet patrols. I learned quickly that what I heard was an explosion only a few hundred yards from where I was standing. A right winger had thrown a grenade into the crowd, killing Emil Grünzweig, a Peace Now member, and injuring several others.

Like many Peace Now members, Grünzweig had served in Israel's army. He was a father, and at the time of his death, worked on various projects to promote peace and coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. The soldiers who founded Peace Now in 1978 recognized that Israel's occupation of the West Bank threatened the country's democracy and security. They also advocated for peace treaties with surrounding Arab nations.

After the attack, The Jerusalem Post opined "When hooligans are organized to bust political meetings, when critics are called traitors, when Jewish vigilantism on the West Bank is made legitimate, and when ethnic differences are deliberately enflamed for political gain...there is indeed cause for worry."

The February 1983 editorial warned that the threat from the right was significant, and the need for civil political discourse in Israel "must be taken seriously by the entire nation. But it must [also] be translated by those politicians and political parties who until now have been pleased to fan the flames of domestic hostility, polarization, and mob emotion for personal and partisan advantage."

Forty years ago, The Post was describing political leaders who were ideologically aligned with people who had fomented the  violence on the streets of Jerusalem. Now, such leaders comprise an integral part of Israel's new government. At least two government ministers engage in the very tactics the Post found so alarming.

A broad protest movement has emerged in response to the extremist government's plan to curb the role of the nation's judiciary. Every Saturday night for the past five weeks, tens of thousands of Israelis have gathered in streets across the country in a nascent pro-democracy movement.

The Peace Now protest that claimed the life of Emil Grünzweig was an early indication of the fragility of Israel's democratic institutions. The warnings regarding mob violence and hooliganism have gone unheeded for four decades, and now the fruits of that neglect are ripening: Israel is headed in a decidedly anti-democratic, extreme direction.

We can honor the lives of Emil Grünzweig and his fellow Peace Now marchers by supporting the current generation of Israeli peace and justice organizers. They are demanding change; nothing less than the future of Israel's democracy is at stake.

 State Representative Frank Hornstein represents a district in Minneapolis. He is a longtime APN supporter.