Former Likud Minister Yuval Steinitz was a philosophy student when he participated in a Peace Now demonstration in Jerusalem in 1983, which ended in the murder of left-wing activist Emil Grunzweig when a grenade was thrown towards participants in the rally.
Steinitz, currently a lecturer at Reichman University, said in an interview with the Yediot Aharonot newspaper, which was published on Friday, "To this day, I still have shrapnel in my left leg from that demonstration. Back then I identified with Peace Now, with the formula of two states for two peoples, and the thought that if we only make compromises with the Palestinians we will have peace, tranquility and cooperation. I was a young student and I identified with the thesis, which turned out to be a fantasy, that if we just stop the occupation there will be no incitement and hatred."
"In 1992 I even voted for Rabin. I thought they were doing the right thing with the Oslo Accords. Only two years later I began to recognize that these are not peace agreements, but incitement and terrorism and arms smuggling from Iran. After the Oslo Accords, I finally smartened up," he recalled.
When asked what he remembers from that demonstration, Steinitz replied, "The violence. All the way there was an attempt to hurt. Demonstrators spat, cursed, threw rocks. Later, when I moved to the right, I absorbed it from the other side. I think that when the photo was taken, I was actually in the last row or in one of the last ones. At the end of the evening, they asked for volunteers to help clean the area and collect the signs, and based on the shrapnel, I assume that Emil was next to me at that moment, because the range of a grenade does not exceed 7-8 meters. It is not a bomb."
"I knew him only partially from the activity in the Jerusalem cell," Steinitz said of Grunzweig. "At one time I participated in the meetings that took place before demonstrations in some basement. The discussions focused on how to demonstrate and whether to allow the representatives of the extreme movements like Yesh Gvul to hold up signs at the demonstrations and take advantage of the demonstrations."
Being on the left in the past helped Steinitz understand that there are good people on both sides, he said. "It's easy to delegitimize all sides. It always gave me the advantage of remembering that people on the other side also meant well and are patriots. When I moved to the right, there were those in academia who tried to keep me away because I became a supporter of Likud and Netanyahu. The atmosphere was difficult, especially after the murder of Rabin."
To the question of whether he goes to demonstrations today, Steinitz replied, "No. Only to political rallies. Unfortunately there is violence, but in my opinion, contrary to what people think, the level has decreased compared to the 1980s. That is my impression."
