An interesting year indeed:
- Days before the US presidential election, it turned out that 19 of my short reports on government corruption, both in the US and in Israel, were incorporated by chance in the Podesta leak, and are now permanently part of the Wikileaks archives (an earlier report on corruption of the US federal courts is there since 2010). A couple of weeks later, I was grabbed on the street by Israel police, held for hours in Tel-Aviv Center police station, kept in an isolated bomb shelter, stripped, beaten, all in an unsuccessful effort to extract from me my passwords for the laptop computer (which they seized) - all with no warrant and no legal foundation at all.
- The Israeli protest movement and local media adopted me as kinda funny "anarchist" (I stick to avoiding any isms in my discourse, and I am not sure that those who use the word "anarchist" in Israel have good understanding of its meaning). There is universal agreement that I am a "radical", but ongoing confusion regarding the question, whether I am a right-wing or a left-wing radical...
- In the international arena, i am increasingly adopted by the "establishment" - a presentation in June in the Portuguese Military Academy for the European Conference on E-government, and now on the agenda - a presentation in December for the permanent diplomatic missions in the UN Headquarters in Geneva.
- Later in the year, Israeli authorities (Petah Tikav Police Chief and the Prosecutor) informed me in person (in detention) that I have been defined a "Provocateur" - and therefore would not be detained, arrested, or prosecuted anymore. It was entered into my permanent record in police IT systems.
- Israel Police Storm Unit launched my singing career (nearly 35,000 views and 200 shares on one clip alone), when they jumped on me and arrested me in January, while I was standing alone, singing in the street in the rain (a song about corrupt judges)... Two of my hits have been adopted as anthems of the protest movement. Many in Israel believe that they are my original creations, but they are only Hebrew adaptations of a pre-revolutionary Russian protest song and a US counterpart from the 1960's.
- Continuing my career as the agogo player in a samba batucada - 'Beat of the Revolution".
- A couple of Israeli flags as a head decoration have become my trademark - a chance gift from German couchsurfers. Haaretz daily described them as "antennae of a bee on a high"...
- Arabic translation of Shami's stories is now under final proofreading by a world-renowned Arabic literature scholar, who found interest in the project.
- I decided to shed some extra baggage, and recently gave away hundreds of books and most of my clothes, including suits, jackets, ties - some never worn.
- In a 3:00 am mid-June special operation (video recording was produced nevertheless) by over a hundred law-enforcement agents my Tel-Aviv landmark tent was demolished.
