[GushShalom] Thousands in Tel-Aviv rally anti War march & raally
Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)
info at gush-shalom.org
Sun Feb 16 02:09:37 IST 2003
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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 Museums 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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