United, Jewish and strong was the narrative projected on the May 8th Independence Day celebrations, where massive military pageants in Tel Aviv had an unfortunate interactive element, as a falling paratrooper missed his mark, injuring onlookers at the city's waterfront. However, the sensitivity of the rhetoric and the strong hand needed to maintain it was clear the next day as Tel Aviv police confiscated and then dissected a giant pink penis featured in a demonstration that mockingly celebrated 60 years of militarism.

Dubbed a "salute to the national erection," 150 queer and anarchist Israelis gathered on Tel Aviv's swanky Rothschild street to confront the city's mainstream about the memory of Nakba - Israel's 1948 creation of over 750 000 Palestinian refugees. With chants like "I don't shoot, I don't give birth, I'm a traitor to the national erection," "Homophobia and racism, thank you Zionism" and "Penis yalla, yalla, get out of Ramallah," the activists tied what they see as the current face of Israeli apartheid to a history of expulsion.

Leftist demonstrators mocked old Zionist songs and slogans, creating new verses that reflected the daily violence of Israel's military in the occupied territories. True to contemporary Israeli left form, the chants connected heterosexism and Zionism, and tied present inequalities of rights between Arabs and Jews to their origins in the Nakba, and the Jewish settlement of Palestine.

Linking the present situation to 1948 comes at a pivotal time, as the power of such displays challenge's the further entrenchment of a narrative that erases the indigenous character of Palestinian identity and experience within Israel's pre-1967 territory. Israeli authorities are incredibly sensitive to the power of such exercises, and how they help to undermine Israeli arguments for Jewish dominance in land rights.

It explains why police were so aggressive in confiscating the giant cock, the most engaging and poignant part of the protest, which mocked the penetrating invasiveness of Israeli jingoism. Not only did the demonstration make a strong argument on behalf of the validity of the Palestinian narrative but the pink penis illustratrated the power dynamics involved in maintaining the Israeli narrative.

However, the four burly cops charging and then wrestling the giant phallus from its bicycle drawn stand to perform what appeared like a crude briss was not the only measure police took to keep dissenting imagery out of the celebration's limelight. The day before, hundreds of riot police armed with teargas and stun grenades were deployed to the highway near the city of Nazareth, while thousands of Palestinian-Israelis marched from Arab city to the sight of the 1948 destroyed village of Saffuriyya.

As people left the sight of the cedar tree covered village to disperse along the highway, they were met by a handful of West Bank settlers, who had returned to Israel, and were under heavy police protection. As the settlers shouted Zionist slogans, groups of riot police tried to provoke a confrontation, demanding that demonstration leaders order the Palestinians to disperse while crossing the highway to shove and intimidate protestors.

Things quickly escalated when young Palestinian-Israelis began throwing stones at the cops. There was a quick and violent response as police immediately fired back volleys of tear gas and stun grenades, chasing the demonstrators into the trees, beating anyone they could get their hands on.

However, despite the provocation, the image of Palestinian-Israelis throwing stones was not one they wanted broadcast. Nor was the image of Arab youths in kaffiyas being dragged from the forest and beaten by soldier-like Israeli police in riot gear. As a result, the police attacked a line of media; severely beating several journalists and photographers in an attempt to disrupt coverage of the event.

The security officials were antsy about the impact of coverage that displayed similarities between the resistance of Palestinian-Israeli's and Palestinian's in the territories. "Israel sees us as a strategic threat," Palestinian Israeli Knesset member, Jamal Zahalka, told me as the tear gas cleared. "What we are is a strategic threat to racism, discrimination and apartheid," added the Balad party member that demands a single, secular, democratic, bi-national state to provide historical justice and a solution to the conflict.