Members organized a fake Hamas rally near the Dizengoff Mall in the center of Tel Aviv Tuesday. Students and activists dressed up in green Hamas T-shirts, held fake rifles and covered their faces in masks – marching while yelling, "Death to the Jews!" They held signs in Arabic and Hebrew, one of which read, "You promised a dove - you gave us Hamas."
"We see that one of the main problems before the elections is that people are trying to make Hamas friendlier and more polite, and they are not. Hamas is not a peace party," said Liron Zaidin, who heads the Faculty of Zionism. The group is an off-shoot of the Orange Cell campus activist network, which handed out anti-disengagement orange ribbons and staged creative demonstrations in Tel Aviv and on campuses last summer. "People need to know what Hamas really is," Zaidin said.
Last week, the Faculty of Zionism walked around the city handing out postcards with a view of Tel Aviv from Ramallah, with the foreboding message that if Israel withdraws from Judea and Samaria, Tel Aviv will not be immune to rocket attacks.
Zaidin and his fellow Hamas pretenders hoped that by shouting and marching the Hamas message in the street of Tel Aviv, passers-by would remember Hamas's nature as a terrorist entity which advocates the murder of Jews and the destruction of Israel. Activists handed out the Hamas manifesto, which states clearly the Hamas objectives of destroying Israel, and a flyer which presented the pro-withdrawal Kadima party as one that strengthens and rewards Hamas. The group did not promote any one particular party, although the flyer read: "Moving Right: Kadima is Left."
Regarding the method of alerting the public to the dangers of Hamas, Tel Aviv University student Yonat Ben-Baruch said: "We had to find a different way to make people stop and look and see what it means to talk with Hamas, negotiate with them, and to give them money."
However, many people on the street who watched the rally were not sure what message the students were trying to bring.
"This is more appropriate for Purim," said Chava, who was taken off guard by the students. "It's not serious or effective. You don't understand what they are at first glance. But their purpose is great."
A few arguments broke out with some of the activists and passers-by. "You're scary," said one of them, in a deprecating tone.
"I don't understand them," said another man. "If I didn't see the flyer, I wouldn't know. In the end it just scares people and it's more depressing. They want me to go more to the left?" He seemed disturbed by the image of men and women dressed in green, holding rifles in the air.
Zaidin was not discouraged by the responses. "It's good if we scared people," he said. "That's great. That's Hamas. I also think Hamas is scary." He said that several people who approached them and figured out what the rally was about encouraged them in their Hamas parade.
By Orit Arfa, for Israel National News