JERUSALEM: Hundreds of Israelis gathered on a grassy hill overlooking parliament on Thursday to smoke marijuana in an act of communal defiance of current laws.
Sitting in small groups on mats shaded by trees in the Rose Garden just across from the Knesset, participants lit up as the clock struck 4:20 p.m. for the local version of the traditional worldwide April 20 pro-marijuana events, known as “420” rallies.
In the afternoon, revellers were mostly men in their early 20s but organizers expected thousands more people to join the event, set to continue till the early hours of Friday.
Guitar music hung in the air with the smoke wafting skyward and the sound of conversation.
Police did not intervene.
To Itamar Yitzhakov, nearly 22 years old from Holon near Tel Aviv, the smoking event — known locally as the Big Bong Night — was already “a tradition.”
“Once a year we celebrate cannabis day. We forget all our troubles, gather here — all the brothers who smoke — and we bond,” he said.
Yitzhakov said he has been smoking for a few years but he only came out of the “cannabis closet” to his parents and employers a few months ago.
“I don’t smoke huge quantities,” he said. “After a hard day’s work, I want to roll myself a nice joint.”
Last month, the government approved a plan partially decriminalyzing marijuana use in public in favor of fines and treatment, but cannabis advocates are calling for full legalization.
' I like to smoke'
The Big Bong Nights were founded by Amos Dov Silver, a legalization activist who organized the first such event in 2014 and a second one in 2016.
Silver was imprisoned for his role in the 2014 event, following which he left Israel for California where he has been living for the past 18 months.
Speaking with AFP from his American exile, Silver said the event was not a demonstration or a protest as much as it was a way to challenge the authorities’ mindset on marijuana by bringing together thousands of smokers at once, whose numbers would be too great for the police to hand everyone a ticket.
“The more people present, the more the awareness will rise and we’ll be able to start advancing legalization,” Yitzhakov said as he held a smoking mango-scented joint.
Legalization might take time, but decriminalization was welcomed by Tal Ofer — “43 years old, a father to a 16-month-old child, totally normative, employed as a programmer — and I like to smoke,” he said.
Ofer, from Gan Yavne, near the southern coastal city of Ashdod, who brought his non-smoking wife and baby to the event, described it as “a physical act of totally peaceful protest” pertaining to his personal liberties.
“I want to smoke. I know it’s good for me. I know how good the material is,” he said.
As a “very hyperactive person,” for Ofer smoking marijuana was mainly a way to calm himself down and enable him to focus.
“This is my healthy Ritalin,” he said, referring to a drug for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
While Ofer acknowledged the legal and procedural complexities of full-fledged legalization, Yitzhakov was undeterred in his hopes it would happen soon.
“I believe there will be legalization this year. It’s always good to hope — what harm can it do?“
The code 420 is most often used in North America, attributed to a group of young pot-lovers in the 1970s who met up at 4:20 pm.
Israel marijuana addicts hold mass pot protest by parliament
Israel marijuana addicts hold mass pot protest by parliament
Iranian strikes kill two in UAE, injure eight in Qatar as regional conflict escalates
- UAE defense ministry said Iran fired 137 missiles and 209 drones at the territory
- Qatar intercepted most of the 65 missiles and 12 drones launched by Iran, said officials
ABU DHABI: Explosions rocked cities across the Gulf on Saturday, killing two people in Abu Dhabi, while smoke and flames rose from Dubai landmark The Palm as Iran launched waves of attacks in retaliation for US and Israeli strikes.
The attacks hit airports in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Kuwait, as well as Gulf military bases and residential areas, raising fears of a wider conflict and rattling a region long seen as a haven of peace and security.
Across the UAE, Iran fired 137 missiles and 209 drones at the territory, the country’s defense ministry said, as projectiles streaked across the skies of every Gulf state but Oman, a mediator in the recent US-Iran talks.
The UAE defense ministry said most of the missiles and drones were intercepted but at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport officials said at least one person was killed and seven wounded in an “incident.”
Earlier, falling debris killed a Pakistani civilian in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates’ capital, officials said.
At Dubai International Airport four people were injured according to airport authorities and four others were also hurt at the luxury Palm development.
In Qatar, officials said Iran launched 65 missiles and 12 drones toward the Gulf state, most of which were intercepted, but eight people were injured in the salvos, with one of them in critical condition.
“We are scared of what the future is for us now, and we can’t say how the next few days are going to be,” Maha Manbaz, a nursing student in Doha told AFP.
Terrified’
Smoke poured from US bases in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain’s capital Manama, home of the American navy’s Fifth Fleet, witnesses saw.
A drone struck Kuwait’s international airport and a base housing US personnel was targeted. Three Kuwaiti soldiers and 12 other people were wounded, authorities said.
After Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reported missile strikes, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on X that no American naval vessels were hit, damage to US facilities was minimal, and no US casualties had been reported.
Residential buildings were also targeted in Manama, with officials saying firefighters and civil defense teams had been dispatched to the scene.
“The sound of the first explosion terrified me,” said a 50-year-old retiree living near the US base in Manama’s Juffair area, where residents were quickly evacuated.
The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar warned they reserved the right to respond to the attacks.
The oil-and-gas-rich Arab monarchies, lying just across the Gulf from Iran, are long-term American allies and host a clutch of US military bases.
“The Gulf states are sandwiched between Iran and Israel, and have to bear the worst inclinations of both,” said Bader Al-Saif, an assistant professor at Kuwait University.
“Iran’s attacks on the Gulf are misplaced. They’ll only alienate its neighbors and invite further distancing from Iran,” he added.
Conflict is unusual in the Gulf, which has traded on its reputation for stability to become the Middle East’s commercial and diplomatic hub.
‘Significant damage’
The unprecedented barrage targeted Qatar’s Al Udeid base, the region’s biggest US military base, as well as Riyadh and eastern Saudi Arabia.
The UAE, Qatar and Kuwait all announced that their airspace was closed.
An AFP journalist in Qatar saw one missile destroyed in a puff of white smoke, while another in Dubai saw a volley of Patriot interceptors taking off.
Iran fired missiles at Al Udeid last June after US strikes targeted Iranian nuclear facilities during a brief war with Israel.
The escalation also saw Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed speak for the first time since a public row in late December.
The Saudi de facto ruler called the Emirati president and the pair discussed Iran’s retaliatory strikes on the Gulf and expressed solidarity and sympathy.
In Kuwait, an Iranian missile attack caused “significant damage” to the runway at an air base hosting Italian air force personnel, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani was quoted by the ANSA news agency as saying.
Late on Saturday, Kuwaiti officials said a drone targeted a naval base there with air defense forces intercepting the projectile, according to a post by the defense ministry on X.
For many residents in the Gulf, which has drawn a cosmopolitan, largely expat population, the reaction was one of shock.
“I heard the explosions, I don’t know what I felt,” a Lebanese woman living in Riyadh told AFP.
“We came to the Gulf because it’s known to be safer than Lebanon. Now I don’t know what to do or how to think really.”
