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Demonstration against the Madness On the third Saturday of the war, while the Israeli cabinet was in session, discussing the cease-fire proposal, 3000 Israeli citizens marched from Tel-Aviv to Jaffa in protest against the war. The demonstrators marched from the Etzel Museum on the Tel-Aviv seashore to the center of Jaffa. A drizzle, the sound of drums and a large police force accompanied them all along the way. “Barak, Barak, Minister of Defense / You will not buy power with blood”, “In the election campaign / the graveyards won”, “Enough is enough / Talk with Hamas” - shouted the protesters, who demanded an immediate cessation of the war, the lifting of the blockade on Gaza, the opening of the crossings between Gaza and the outside world and a dialogue with Hamas. “A unilateral cease-fire is a stupid idea,” Gush Shalom activist Uri Avnery told the reporters, “This is an oxymoron. The very essence of a cease-fire is an agreement between the two fighting forces. The unilateral cease-fire is the idea of Olmert, Barak and Livni, and it makes sure that there will be soon another war.” While in the earlier large demonstrations against the war the number of Jewish and Arab protesters was about equal, this time there was a marked majority of Jewish demonstrators. While in the earlier demonstrations the members of the various peace groups were dominant, this time the outstanding feature was the number of demonstrators who had come spontaneously, some for the first time, to express their horror of the events taking place in Gaza. Among the protesters was a large group of students from Sapir College near Sderot, which is exposed to the Qassam rockets, as well as a group from Beersheva, which is also exposed to the rockets. Israeli radio reported about “dozens of right-wing protesters” and “a protest of hundreds of supporters of (the captured soldier) Gilad Shalit,” but did not mention with a single word 3000 anti-war marchers. Haaretz devoted a few well-hidden lines to “1000 to 1500 leftist demonstrators”. Saturday, 19:30 Ministry Of Defense, Tel Aviv Peace Now demo - "End it Now!" (more on www.peacenow.org.il) Thursday, 5.00pm Ministry of Defence, Tel Aviv (Ometz Lesarev - reservists refusing to join the Gaza War) Wednesday, January 7, 2009, 6.00pm Corner of Ben Zion Blvd. and King George St., Tel Aviv Stop the Massacre in Gaza! Stop the bloodshed and destruction! Stop the war crimes! Bring back the soldiers from Gaza! Ceasefire now – with no further delay! Remove the siege, open the crossings, let Gaza breathe! |
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