Protest and the Removal of Yamit: Ostentatious Political Action

Abstract

This article discusses the relationship between protest activity and news coverage, focusing on three major groups that resisted the Israeli government as it evacuated Jewish settlers from Yamit, Sinai to fulfill the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. Two of these groups-the business persons and the farmers-consisted of long-time Yamit residents seeking compensation for their losses; the other, the Movement to Stop the Withdrawal (MSW), consisted of persons from outside Yamit and had ideological motivations. From participant observations and interviews with group leaders and news reporters during the resistance (December 1981-April 1982) and one month later, the author obtained several lessons and conclusions. In particular, the author found that a symbiotic relationship exists between the press and action group leaders, that groups more sophisticated in dealing with the news media have more experience, resources, and organizational structures, and that groups with ideological goals rather than materialistic ones devise different strategies for exploiting the press and must decide between political expediency and substantive considerations.