[GushShalom] Thousands in Tel-Aviv rally anti War march & raally

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

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     Gush Shalom
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International release
Feb. 15, 2003 - Tel-Aviv

Rally against the War on Iraq

[1] Adam Keller's report on the Tel-Aviv demonstration
[2] Concluding communique of the organizers
[3] Jerusalem Post internet edition reporting the event
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[1] Adam Keller's report on the Tel-Aviv demonstration

The setting was familiar. We have done this many times 
before, in moments of crisis when the need for a mass protest 
was evident: gathering in front of the Tel-Aviv Cinematheque, 
with contingents arriving by bus from all over the country; 
marching in our thousands down the wide Ibn Gvirol Street; a 
living forest of colorful banners and placards and hand-painted 
signs, Jews and Arabs together with slogans chanted 
alternately in both languages and occasionally in English; 
reaching the Museum Plaza for a prolonged rally,  with 
speakers addressing the crowd from the steps of the Public 
Library (as always, the allocation of speaking slots had been 
accompanied by some undignified infighting between the 
various participating groups...)

Still, tonight was also different and new: never before had 
Israeli peace activists found themselves so much an 
integrated part of a world-wide movement of protest; never 
before did our particular concerns, in this miserable torn 
country, mesh so closely with the anxiety and alarm and 
anger of so many people in so many countries around the 
world.  Somebody had taken the initiative of producing an 
Israeli version of the "No War" sticker, familiar from CNN 
reports of the protests in Europe and the US; it was avidly 
taken up and placed on clothes together with Gush Shalom's 
Two Flags or the competing emblems of the Hadash and 
Balad parties. The veteran slogan "Shalom Ken - Kibush Lo" 
(Peace Yes - Occupation No") needed only a slight change in 
order to be transformed into an anti-Bush chant. And 
demonstrators accustomed to sending Sharon to the 
Hague War Crimes Tribunal tonight consigned Bush to the 
same destination with the same cadence. "Bush, Blair and 
Sharon are the true axis of evil" was an improvised new 
slogan, chanted as the banner "Israelis and Palestinians 
oppose the war" was unfurled.
It was not just a slogan. Underlying the cheerfulness and 
some ribaldry was a deep anxiety about what this country 
may face in the coming months if Bush does launch his 
attack. Daily the papers fill with dire predictions of deadly Iraqi 
missiles landing in spite of all the official reassurances of "a 
low 
probability", or of a new upsurge of suicide bombings, more 
terrible than ever, starting concurrently with the attack upon 
Bagdad. And a worry widespread in this evening's  crowd, is 
that in such circumstances Sharon would find a pretext and 
opportunity to carry out his barely-secret true agenda: mass 
expulsion of Palestinians and destruction of their leadership.

"What plans are already prepared in meticulous detail at some 
headquarters, just waiting for Bush to provide the smoke 
screen for their implementation? How many trees are already 
slated for uprooting? How many houses are to be 
demolished? How many people have already been placed 
under a secret sentence of expulsion or death?" cried Haim 
Hanegbi of Gush Shalom. 

"The darkness is fast approaching, threatening to engulf us 
all" said the feminist writer Rela Mazali, on behalf of the 
Women's Peace Coalition - part of "An open letter to a 
friend who did not come to this event", addressing the very 
many Israelis who share our abhorrence of the coming war 
and whom we nevertheless failed to bring to our "too radical" 
or "too Arab" event. 

Indeed, some of the Tel-Avivians seemed a bit alienated when 
long speeches in Arabic followed each other from the podium - 
the kind of feelings usually preserved for the Arab participants 
in Israeli events... Haneen Zuabi and Aida Toma, two young 
and fiery women spoke Arabic while representing respectively 
Balad and Hadash, giving only a summary in Hebrew.

Dr. Haidar Abdel Shafi, old and respected Palestinian 
statesman, addressed the rally in surprisingly strong and 
confident words of solidarity, in Arabic and English, by phone 
from beleaguered Gaza. 

There was much cheering when Yesh Gvul speaker Dan 
Tamir, a reserve captain and refuser of service in the occupied 
territories, read a letter written this morning by the young 
refusniks incarcerated at Military Prison 4 and calling upon 
American and British soldiers to follow on the path of refusing 
service in oppressive and aggressive warfare.

Azmi Bdeir of Ta'ayush, who moderated the event concluded: 
"This coming war which looms over us is not a natural 
disaster. It is man-made. Human beings planned it, human 
beings intend to carry it out. Human beings can also stop it. 
We, among very many people all over the world". 


[2] Concluding communique of the organizers

Over 3,000 Israelis Demonstrated Today Against 
the War on Iraq in Partnership with a Palestinian 
Demonstration in Ramallah and Over 600 
Demonstrations Worldwide


Today, Saturday February 15th, over 3,000 Jews 
and Arabs demonstrated against the war on Iraq 
in Tel Aviv Museum’s square.  The 
demonstration was held in partnership with a 
Palestinian demonstration held in the center of 
Ramallah and simultaneously with over 600 
demonstrations worldwide.

A joint Palestinian Israeli petition was read at the 
demonstration calling: “No to the war against 
Iraq! End the Israeli occupation! For a life of just 
peace in the Middle East! We, Israelis and 
Palestinians, are opposed to this war. This is not 
a war for the sake of security or justice, but rather 
a war for power, hegemony, control and greed. 
We are determined that security and freedom for 
the sake of all the people of the Middle East will 
not be achieved by war, violence and death.”

Speeches were held during the vigil by 
representatives of the Israeli organizations who 
coordinated and participated in the 
demonstration as well as by Heider Abdel Shafi, a 
Palestinian peace activist from Gaza, who spoke 
by way of telephone from his home in Gaza.

Participating organizations include: 
Balad, Gush Shalom, Israeli Committee Against 
House Demolitions, Hadash, Yesh Gvul, Black 
Laundry, Mada, Taayush-Arab Jewish 
Partnership, The Alternative Information Center, 
Coalition of Women for Peace: Bat Shalom, 
Machsom Watch, Noga-Feminist Journal, Nalad, 
Women in Black, New Profile, Tandi, WILP and 
Fifth Mother. 

For further information, please contact:
Ronni: 054-700640, 02-6241424, 02-6241159

[3] Jerusalem Post internet edition reporting the event

Protestors in Tel-Aviv join millions worldwide in anti-war 
demonstration

Matthew Gutman	Feb. 15, 2003	

As many 1500 people calling for the US to abort its planned 
attack on Iraq marched in Tel Aviv Saturday night joining for a 
rally at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art that was as much a protest 
against the Israeli government as it was against the putative 
American targeting of Iraq. 

The demonstrators joined millions of anti-war protestors 
around the world in their efforts to pressure the American and 
British governments to halt plans for a war to unseat Saddam 
Hussein. "It isn't good for anyone that the US control the 
entire region. America's attempt at a new regional order,' will 
only cause instability and violence," MK Muhammed Barake 
chairman of the Hadash Party, explained to the Jerusalem 
Post during the rally. 

The march was conducted peacefully, but under heavy police 
guard. The marchers gathered outside Tel Aviv's 
Cinematheque where they waved the orange banners of Balad 
and the red flags of the communist Hadash party. They 
chanted
anti-American and anti-Israeli [sic!] slogans to the well known 
rhythm of Israeli-Palestinian peace demonstrations. But the 
tone of some of the chants were hardly pacifistic: "Nassar 
taught us well, America is the head of the snake," chanted 
Balad activists in Arabic while waving a Palestinian flag. 
Some of the protest leaders tried in vain to convince the 
activists to lower the Palestinian flag. 
"Bush, Powell and Sharon, terrorists in power," went another 
one catchy slogan which rhymes in Hebrew. Other banners 
called for UN inspectors to investigate Israel's weapons of 
mass destruction, while others still focused on the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict. "Sharon is more dangerous than 
Saddam," read another popular banner. 

Gush Shalom icon Uri Avnery told the Jerusalem Post that it 
is vital that Israel be part of the world-wide protests against the 
war. He warned that Israel would be blamed and held 
responsible if America gets bogged down in Iraq or too many 
civilians die.

The rally was coordinated with a similar rally in Ramallah. 
"Your brothers in Ramallah, who were also protesting tonight, 
could not be here tonight because of the closure," said Azmi 
Bdeir of the Israeli and Arab run Ta'ayush Palestinian human 
rights group. The crowd which was comprised of about half 
Israeli Jews and half Israeli Arabs. "This is a war for oil and
for the American exploitation of the entire world," stated one of 
the speakers, Haneen Zoabi, a Nazareth based 
communications teacher who came with hundreds of other 
Arab-Israelis from across the country to protest the war and 
the Israeli government. "[Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon will
use this war to eliminate the Palestinian issue by installing a 
puppet Palestinian leader and even by transferring some 
Palestinians." 

The connection between the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the 
war on Iraq was not clear to all the demonstrators. Helle 
Meister, 22, and Adrian Faftek, visiting Israel from Hamburg 
Germany joined the protest to identify with their friends who 
joined the hundreds of thousands of other Germans marching 
in Berlin Saturday. "But this is not a war against the Arabs," 
said Meister not identifying with some of the protester's 
message, "but a capitalist war, a war for oil, power and 
regional hegemony. There should be no connection to the 
elimination of the Palestinians." 

Many Israeli bystanders looked at the protestors incredulously 
not exactly understanding what the protest's message. 
Others, like Shlomo Yosef, who watched the procession from 
a nearby kiosk agreed with the basic message of the protests. 
"I don't really understand why we are fighting this war.
What I do know is that when the scuds start landing here in 
Tel Aviv, no one is going to be happy." 

Just outside the museum a half dozen Likud activists staged a 
ragtag counter-protest. "The extreme left has gone crazy and 
is supporting a murderer," their signs read. 

This article can also be read at:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPA
rticle/ShowFull
&cid=10452 98486857


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