Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forum'No more deaths': Thousands of Israelis protest the Gaza war
Some 5,000 Israelis on Saturday evening protested the war in Gaza under the banner, No more deaths Israeli-Palestinian peace, now. The protest took place at Rabin Square in central Tel Aviv.Speakers included Hadash MK Dov Khenin, an Israeli and Palestinian veteran from the organization Combatants for Peace, and Yifat Solel, the head of the Meretz partys anti-occupation forum. Meretz, however, did not back the demonstration as a party. Ben Kfir of the Parents Circle, whose daughter was killed in a Hamas suicide bombing in 2003, also spoke, refuting the governments claim that there is no partner for peace among the Palestinians. The speakers criticized the government for its attitude toward peace negotiations, and for resorting to war as a default policy. Demonstrators chanted Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies, called for an end to the occupation and the siege on Gaza, and lit candles to commemorate the victims.
Roughly 300 right-wing counter-protesters were on the scene trying to reach the main demonstration. A large police presence circled the square in order to keep the sides separate. Four were arrested.
Some two hours before the protest was set to begin, police canceled it over what they said was fear of a rocket attack. The permit for the demonstration was reinstated only an hour before it began by which time busses of protesters en route for Tel Aviv had turned back. Police ended the protest at around 10 p.m., citing resumed rocket fire from Gaza, two hours before a humanitarian ceasefire was set to expire.
The invitation to the protest read:
On Saturday, the peace camp takes a stand at Rabin Square
The war is taking a heavy toll in lives and injuries on both sides, in destruction and horror, in bombings and rockets. We answer this by taking a stand and making a demand: end the war now!
We must end the war and start talking with the recognized Palestinian leadership of the West Bank and Gaza to end the occupation and the siege and to achieve independence and justice for both peoples in Israel and Palestine.
Instead be being drawn, again and again, into more wars and more military actions, it is now time to lead the way to dialogue and political settlement. There is a political solution. What price must we pay the people of the South and the other residents of Israel, and the people of Gaza and the West Bank until we reach that solution?
Together, Jews and Arabs, we will overcome occupation and war, hatred, incitement and racism and offer a path to life and hope
http://972mag.com/no-more-deaths-israelis-protest-the-gaza-war/94380/
Israeli
(4,132 posts)Israelis protesting the Gaza war in Tel Aviv light candles to commemorate the victims. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
At anti-war protest in Tel Aviv "Forgive us" written in 1043 candles marking the number of ppl killed in Gaza &Israel
Police stand between the anti-war demonstration and rightist counter-protesters, Tel Aviv, July 26, 2014. (photo: Activestills.org)
Thousands protest the Gaza war in Tel Aviv, July 26, 2014. (photo: Activestills.org)
Rightist counter-protester arrested at a demonstration against the Gaza war in Tel Aviv, July 26, 2014. (photo: Activestill.org)
Police keep rightist counter-protesters away from an anti-war demonstration in Tel Aviv, July 26, 2014. (photo: Activestills.org)
Violet_Crumble
(35,954 posts)A lot of DUers don't venture down here
ReRe
(10,597 posts)Israeli
(4,132 posts)I just had a look ..... I think I will stay where I am ....nice and cosy and more like a family here .... up there I'm afraid they might lynch me........
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)but the ones that might 'lynch' you would down here too and sometimes they venture down so far so good
Israeli
(4,132 posts)by both sides azurnoir.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)... didn't hear about this. Thanks for posting...
K&R
R. Daneel Olivaw
(12,606 posts)be careful if you join any protests.
Israeli
(4,132 posts)....I was there with my daughter on Saturday evening ....but I get your point
R. Daneel Olivaw
(12,606 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Haaretz Editorial | Jul. 28, 2014 | 3:01 AM
An internal war over the rule of democracy and law is underway now in Israel. That war is drowned out by the roar of the cannons and the pictures of soldiers funerals and of the destruction in Gaza. Its harshest and most frightening manifestations are violent assaults by extreme right-wing activists, mainly on Arabs but also on leftists and people who express opposition to the war.
On Friday, about a month after the abduction and murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Shoafat, two young Palestinians from Beit Hanina were beaten and seriously injured. According to their testimony and that of passersby, they were attacked by a group of Jews only because they were Arab.
A man came from the direction of [the Jerusalem neighborhood] Neveh Yaakov, one of the victims, Samer Mahfouz, told Haaretz. He said give me a cigarette. I told him I dont have any, and he heard Im Arab and went away, coming back with his friends, maybe 12 people. They had sticks and iron bars and they hit us over the head, he said.
The incident shows that the murder of Abu Khdeir was not a lone horrific incident, but part of a wave of violence that is becoming the norm.
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.607516
Israeli
(4,132 posts)yeah right
Just like he spoke out against the incitement towards Rabin .....
The only democracy in the Middle East ....
'Unprecedented' violence stalks anti-war demos across Israel
The recent demonstrations in Tel Aviv and Haifa against the Gaza war have largely failed to reach the global media. And while the end of the bloodshed still seems far from sight, there is a different, violent confrontation being held inside Israel one that targets Arab citizens and left-wing activists on the internet, and uses physical violence against anti-war demonstrators.
By Omer Raz
The second weekend of Operation Protective Edge saw the first bout of physical violence at Habima Square the cultural heart of Tel Aviv. At around 8 p.m. a crowd of several hundred people gathered to protest against Operation Protective Edge, and called for a ceasefire. A second small group, comprised largely of teens and young adults draped in Israeli flags, began harassing the anti-war demonstrators, shouting slogans against their protest and accusing them of treason. The protest got tense as the right-wingers became physically violent.
A few minutes after 9 p.m., air raid sirens began blaring after Hamas shot multiple long-range rockets at Tel Aviv. The leftist protest scattered to find shelter, while the rightists chased them into dark alleys and cafes, where several leftists were beaten. Shortly after, +972s Haggai Matar wrote the following: When the sirens sounded into the night, only one thing was obvious to all of us: the fascists in front of us are more dangerous than the rockets on the way.
continue reading @
http://972mag.com/unprecedented-violence-stalks-anti-war-demos-across-israel/94530/
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)cede any land for the Palestinians to have a viable state. If this was not clear to anyone
before the Kerry initiative, then they should know it now.
Israeli
(4,132 posts)...the night of November 4, 1995..... when they murdered Rabin .