[GushShalom] Enormous crowd "Get out of Gaza and start talking"

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - www.gush-shalom.org/

International release

[] The rally - enormous crowd, contradictions on the podium

[] 'If I may be permitted a prophecy' - the new optimism of Uri Avnery

[] Supreme Court injunction puts temporary halt to mass demolition of     
  houses in Rafah

				###

[] The rally - enormous crowd, contradictions on the podium

Saturday night, May 15, Rabin Square Tel-Aviv. For the first time in 
years, peaceminded Israelis were out on the street in force - not in an 
event masquerading as a memorial and apologizing for making political 
statements. Still, we were in an event with whose program (rather, an 
uneasy compromise between two different programs) we had fundamental 
disagreement.
The huge square started filling long before the scheduled time, and by 
8pm the crowd was spilling off into the adjacent streets. These people 
were motivated by two major events of the past two weeks: the so-called 
referendum, held by Sharon among the registered members of the Likud 
Party, which had the intolerable result that some fifty thousand people - 
less than one percent of the Israeli citizen body - decided a major 
national issue, and that the settlers and extreme right acquired an 
effective veto even over a partial and half-hearted withdrawal such as 
the one proposed by Sharon. Hard upon this came the shock of the 
unexpected blows suffered by Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip.
The army learned the hard way that invading Palestinian towns and refugee 
camps inside armoured vehicles does not always render the Israeli forces 
completely immune. The general public came up with the word "Lebanon", 
which for Israelis carries the same connotations as "Vietnam" for 
Americans. 
All in all, the planned rally was being treated as a major event even 
before it took place. The rightwingers who demanded that it be canceled 
out of "respect for the fallen soldiers",  merely helped to publicize the 
event.

While striving very hard to present a common front, and declare itself 
"the voice of the majority"  the coalition of political parties and 
mainstream extraparliamentary groups which initiated the rally had a 
fundamental difference to cover up. Some accepted the basic framework of 
Sharon's "unilateral withdrawal from Gaza"; others advocated renewal of 
negotiations with the Palestinians touching upon the West Bank as well as 
Gaza, and aimed at achieving not only withdrawal but also peace. The 
compromise slogan eventually chosen: "Leave Gaza and Start Talking".

Still, on the podium covered with this slogan, the difference immediately 
became evident whith speakers contradicting each other. 
- Ami Ayalon, former Shabak head turned peacemaker: "I believe in the 
sincerety of Sharon.  We must not treat the settlers as enemies. 
Settlements can only be evacuated by one who feels great pain and 
empathy." (This did not go well on the audience, and there were some 
angry mutterings.)
- Tsali Reshef of Peace Now: "We have not the slightest trust in Sharon. 
We know that he wants to withdraw from Gaza in order to keep the West 
Bank. But just as he was forced to give up Gaza, we will force him to 
give up the West Bank. Ofra and Beth-El [near Ramallah] and Kedumim [near 
Nablus] will be evacuated just like the Gaza settlements! Yes, they will!"
(applause).
- Reserve General turned businessman Yom-Tov Samiya: "Our armed forces; 
bought a lot of time for the political echelon to make a plan, but they 
can't do it forever. I support Sharon's concept of limited withdrawal 
from Gaza and a small part of the West Bank; the alternative is headlong 
flight like from Lebanon, which will encourage terrorism." (He got a very 
scattered applause, quite a few people felt that such a person - who 
initiated the concept of destroying Rafah houses to widen the "security 
belt" - should not have been on the podium.)
- Yosi Beilin, initiator of "Geneva" and head of the Meretz/Yachad Party: 
"Those who refuse peace have tried everything, targeted killings which 
are not always very targeted; re-invading the West Bank and Gaza; 
destroying fields and groves and houses - 1800 houses destroyed; burning 
the fact of defeat into the other side's consciousness and doing it again 
and again and again. The one thing which they did not try is to make 
peace. Those who say that there is no partner are those who don't want to 
talk!" (The biggest applause of the evening.)
- Amir Peretz, trade-union leader and head of the One People Party: "In 
1977, the electorate toppled the Labor Party rule, and brought the Likud 
to power; but they did not do it in order to help the Greater Israel 
ideology; they did it because they felt second-class citizens. But the 
money did not go to the slums; it went all to the settlements. We should 
end the cruel occupation, we should disengage from Gaza, but that is not 
all; we should re-engage with Israeli society, with the values of 
humanity and social justice."
- And of course, the inevitable Labor Party leader, Shimon Peres: "There 
had been very much talk of a Unity Government [no mention of his own 
eagerness to become once more Foreign Minister!]. But what is needed is a 
Unity Policy. We are not here a demonstration of the left. We are a 
demonstration of the majority. The government represents only a minority."
- And then, a surprise speaker: "My name is Eliezer Bidu, I live in the 
settlement of Omarim, south of Hebron. I went there fourteen years ago 
because I was promised 'quality of life' for my family. What a quality of 
life! A few months ago our car was shot at. A bullet passed near the head 
of my baby son. I can't sleep at night, I want to get out of there. Not 
to live guarded by soldiers day and night, on disputed land among 
neighbors who hate me. I want to live in the real Israel, and I am not 
the only one." 

All this time, the radical groups who have been excluded from the podium, 
were busy among the enormous crowd, adding the points which none of the 
speakers made.  On the day before the rally, organizers announced that 
signs advocating refusal will be banned - but in practice nobody stopped 
Courage to Refuse and Yesh Gvul from holding up "It will not end if you 
don't refuse!", while the Refuser Parents Forum collected a considerable 
number of signatures in support of the six imprisoned refusers. We 
ourselves were busy distributing Gush Shalom leaflets: "It should be said 
in clear words: Arafat is the partner; an agreement without his signature 
has no value; he is the only one who can convince his people to a 
compromise." And people were flocking around the Gush Shalom stall, 
taking up the "Truth Against Truth" brochure (now alo available in 
English!) as well as last-minute stickers "Destruction of Rafah - War 
Crime" and "Philadelphi Route - a Death Trap." 

The whole spectrum of moderate and radical groups were there with stalls 
and stickers: Women's Peace Coalition, the Geneva Initiative, the 
Communist Youth, the Ayalon-Nusseibeh plan, the Labor Youth, Ta'ayush, 
Yachad Youth, Socialist Workers League, MachsomWatch, the Working and 
Studying Youth,  Chadash, the Anarchists ("two states for two people is 
two states too many"). The newly-founded "Shuvi" women were collecting 
signatures on their petition for withdrawal from Gaza (reportedly they 
already flooded the email of the PM's office). The "Daber" initiative 
told about collecting testimonies of soldiers who had served in the 
territories, while "All for Peace" are initiating a peace radio, to begin 
with through the internet. 

And there was a forest of signs, official and unofficial; printed and 
hand-made: Evacuating settlements is choosing for life / Get out of ALL 
the territories / The Likud is disengaged from the people - Elections 
Now! / Stop the Apartheid Wall / The Likud is Against Peace and Against 
the Poor / There is a partner / Life is cheap - settlements are expensive 
/ Right or Left? History will prove that we were RIGHT to have LEFT [this 
one originally English] / We buried our sons - save those still alive / 
The life of our sons is more important than the settlements / Dear 
settlers, come back home. 

A man in a wheelchair was wheeling himself energetically through the 
crowd, on his chest a sign: "More money for the handicapped - less for 
the territories. How long will we get 1201 shekels (appr. $250) per 
month? A young Yachad supporter collected signatures against the plan of 
the Tel-Aviv municipality to turn the Rabin Square into a parking lot. 
"If you don't sign, where will you demonstrate next year?"


For photos and what the press wrote:
<http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/427546.html>
Hebrew
<http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/427334.html>

<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&
cid=1084599616754&p=1078397702269>

<http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=7372>
Hebrew
<http://www.maariv.co.il/channels/1/ART/712/658.html>


[] 'If I may be permitted a prophecy' - the new optimism of Uri Avnery

Uri Avnery
15.5.04

Hebrew at request &  soon at the site:
http://www.gush-shalom.org :òáøéú òì ôé á÷ùä àå á÷øåá áàúø


			Busharon: The Countdown

      The strange creature named the Busharon is in serious trouble.
      The front half of this animal - George W. Bush - is having trouble 
with nude photos. Not only those of the hapless Iraqi prisoners, with the 
exuberant female soldier pointing at their genitals, but also of Bush 
himself, whose nakedness was exposed for all to see.
     The savior of the Iraqi people from a cruel tyrant, the gallant 
leader bestowing democracy on Mesopotamia, the representative of Western 
civilization fighting against barbarism - has himself been exposed as a 
cruel barbarian.
     Let no one kid himself: this is not a case of a few sadists, male 
and female, who happened to find themselves in one place. It is already 
clear that there was systematic abuse of prisoners - keeping them naked, 
humiliating them sexually, sending in vicious dogs which probably bit 
them, preventing them from sleeping, keeping them shackled in painful 
positions for a long time, covering their heads with filthy hoods, 
threatening them with electrocution - all these were photographed. But 
there can be little doubt that with such an attitude towards the 
prisoners, much worse torture was applied but not photographed.
     It is now quite clear that this is applied as standard procedure for 
"softening" up prisoners. Not only in this prison, not only in all the 
other prisons in Iraq, but also in Afghanistan, in the devil's island of 
Guatanamo and all the other places where such defenseless victims, most 
of them quite innocent people who were picked up by accident, are 
imprisoned. Meaning: this was a matter of policy, coming from the highest 
level.
     The soldiers, male and female, who happily let themselves be 
photographed in these pornographic scenes are certainly detestable, but 
anyone familiar with military life knows that this was not a private 
initiative. Such acts cannot go on for a long time, with many hundreds of 
pictures shot, without the whole chain of command being involved.
     Every simple soldier is influenced by the spirit of his commanders, 
at least up to the level of the brigade. Its commander in turn is 
influenced by the spirit of his superiors, up to and including the Chief- 
of-Staff. In this case, it has been proven that the Pentagon chiefs and 
the Secretary of Defense knew the facts long ago. The investigating 
general did not find any written order, but such orders are always 
conveyed orally, and sometimes by a mere gesture or a wink.
      These soldiers, most of them from decent homes, behaved as people 
do in lynch mobs, and for the same reason: the denial of the humanity of 
other races, which are considered sub-human. Racism turns the members of 
the master-race themselves into sub-human beings.
     George Bush lost his world with the publication of these photos. He 
could have fired the whole chain of command, from the Secretary of 
Defense down to the prison commander. He didn't, of course. 
     All the moral arguments attempting to justify his war against Iraq 
have come crashing down. No democracy, no liberation, no civilization. 
Nothing is left except the naked aggression of cynical and cruel robber 
barons, just like the henchmen of Saddam Hussein. 
     If I may be permitted a prophecy: this week starts the countdown to 
the end of the career of George W. 

     The animal's rear end - Ariel Sharon - is also in great trouble.
     This started with the rejection of the "Unilateral Disengagement" 
plan by the Likud members, a tiny part of the population, manipulated by 
the settlers. Since then Sharon has been prowling around like a caged 
predator. He has no majority among his ministers and members of 
parliament (they are bound by the party referendum), he is unable to form 
another government (the MPs of his party will not allow it), he is unable 
to fulfil his promise to President Bush (and has made Bush look 
ridiculous).
     He has begun to blabber about "other plans" that he is forming - 
reminding one of Groucho Marx's joke: "Those are my principles. If you 
don't like them, I have others."
      If Sharon had really intended to leave Gaza, he would have done it 
at once and without the hullabaloo, fixing a strict timetable and without 
changing the details every few days. He would have including in his plan 
the evacuation of the "Philadelphi Axis", the narrow strip a few hundred 
yards wide between Gaza and Egypt, which demands a human sacrifice almost 
every day.
     A week after the Likud referendum, two terrible blows were 
delivered. An armored vehicle carrying a large quantity of explosives 
entered Gaza city in order to blow up buildings, and was hit by a 
roadside bomb planted by Palestinian guerillas. It exploded, tearing the 
six soldiers to pieces. The day after, the very same thing happened on 
the "Philadelphi Axis": an armored personnel carrier full of explosives, 
which was sent there to blow up tunnels under the border, was hit by a 
Palestinian rocket and blew up with its five crew members. 
     The power of each of the two explosions was such that body parts 
were scattered over hundreds of meters. The whole country saw on TV how 
Israeli soldiers crawled on all fours, filtering the sand with their bare 
hands in order to gather the body parts of their comrades. The media 
competed in the orchestration of a necrophile hysteria, with endless talk 
about "body parts" interlaced with scenes of funerals. 
     It was impossible to ignore the direct connection between the Likud 
referendum's rejection of the withdrawal and the death of the soldiers. 
This was expressed in the most simple way by the actor Shlomo Vishinsky, 
whose son Lior was killed in the second vehicle, when he blamed the 
members of Likud for the death of his son.
     For the first time, the Israeli public saw the real picture of Gaza: 
not "terror", not "terrorists", but a classic guerilla war, with the 
whole population taking part in the struggle against the occupation 
forces. Today's Gaza, tomorrow's West Bank.
     In such a struggle, we cannot win. One can kill Palestinians 
wholesale, destroy whole neighborhoods, as is happening now. But one 
cannot win. The public is beginning to understand that. The "Zionist 
Left", so it seems, is also waking up from its 4-year coma. 
     Israel will leave the Gaza Strip, as it left the "Security Strip" in 
South Lebanon. The similarity between the two strips is so obvious, that 
banal headlines proclaim it in all the media.
     If I may be permitted a second prophecy: this week starts the 
countdown to the end of the career of Ariel Sharon.

[] Supreme Court injunction puts temporary halt to mass demolition of     
   houses in Rafah

<http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/427462.html>
<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&
cid=1084599617096>
<http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=7374>

# Sharansky and the New Antisemitism, by Adam Keller - 
  http://otherisrael.home.igc.org/sharansky.html

  (more articles of The Other Israel May issue accessible via 
  http://otherisrael.home.igc.org/contents.html)

*** Ongoing struggle ***

   how to link up with anti-Wall struggle, refusnik news etc.

#Against the Wall 
 contact addresses daily struggle / eye-witness reports 

#Refusniks (prisoner addresses & links to constantly updated sites)
 updated refusniks lists / support to five long-time incarcerated 

 
#Against the Wall

*
ðåëçåú éåîéåîéú áëôøéí îàéîéí ò"é äçåîä ìúàí òí 
àééáé 064-604172 isichel at netvision.net.il
àøé÷ 050-607034  info at rhr.israel.net

Day to day presence at villages threatened by route of wall.
Contact:  
Ivy Sichel 064-604172 isichel at netvision.net.il 
Arik Asherman 050-607034  info at rhr.israel.net 

*
Daily eye-witness reports from the Occupied Territories: 
http://www.machsomwatch.org 
  (Israeli women monitoring the checkpoints)
http://www.palsolidarity.org/pressreleases/pressreleases.php
  (internationals throughout OT)


#Refusniks

Constantly-updated refusniks lists:


English - http://www.yesh-gvul.org/english/prison/
Hebrew / òáøéú - http://www.yesh-gvul.org/prison/

English - http://www.newprofile.org/default.asp?language=en
Hebrew / òáøéú - http://www.newprofile.org/

For the latest news about the five: 
http://www.refuz.org.il/News.html

 Letters of support to 
 Noam Bahat / Haggai Mattar / Matan Kaminer
 AGAF BET
 Ma’asiyaho Prison
 P.O.B 13
 Ramla - Israel

 Adam Maor / Shimri Tzameret:
 Hermon Prison
 P.O.B 4011 
 KFAR M’RAR - Israel


--
http://www.gush-shalom.org/ (òáøéú/Hebrew)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html (English)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/arabic/index.html (selected articles in Arabic)

with
\\photos of recent actions 
\\the weekly Gush Shalom ad 
\\the columns of Uri Avnery 
\\Gush Shalom's history & action chronicle  
\\position papers & analysis (in "documents")
\\and a lot more

N.B.: 
On the Gush Shalom website links for 
Articles and documents in German, French and Spanish

In order to receive Gush Shalom's Hebrew-language 
press releases mail to:
gush-shalom-heb-request at mailman.gush-shalom.org 
+ NB: write the word "subscribe" in the subject line.

If you want to support Gush Shalom's activities you can 
send a cheque or cash, wrapped well in an extra piece 
of paper to: 

Gush Shalom
pob 3322
Tel-Aviv 61033
Israel

or ask us for charities in your country which receive 
donations on behalf of Gush Shalom

Please, add your email address where to send our 
confirmation of receipt. More official receipts at 
request only.