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60,000 Israelis Take Part in Largest Peace Demo Since Start of Intifada
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Rally
organized by Peace Now movement |
TEL
AVIV, May 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - More than 60,000
Israelis turned out Saturday, May 11, for the largest peace
demonstration in the 19-month-old intifada (uprising) as the Israeli
occupation army held off a planned offensive in the densely-populated
Gaza Strip, news agencies reported.
Israeli
police said 60,000 Jewish and Arab Israelis urging the government to
end the occupation of the Palestinian territories attended the Tel
Aviv peace rally. The Peace Now movement, which organized the rally,
put the figure at 100,000.
The
demonstration gathered in Rabin Square, named after the assassinated
Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin.
"This
is radical. This turnout is on the basis that one day we will return
to the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as the capital of two states and
the elimination of the settlements," Peace Now spokesman Arye
Arnon told Agence France Presse (AFP).
The
demonstration was attended by scores of Israeli left-wing figures,
including the leader of the main opposition Meretz party, Yossi Sarid,
who said the turn-out was a sign that "there is a peace camp in
Israel and it is raising its voice."
"From
tonight, [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon can be assured there is
no consensus for a military operation" in Gaza, he added.
The
demonstration piled domestic pressure on top of reported U.S. efforts
to prevent Sharon from launching a large-scale military operation in
the Gaza Strip.
As
Israel's peace camp made its biggest showing since the outbreak of the
intifada which has cost more than 2000 lives, hopes that regional
tension might ease were also boosted by a mini Arab summit gathering
the leaders of Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea resort of Sharm
El-Sheikh.
A
statement issued after the meeting between the region's main players
said the leaders, often at odds over the path to follow for Middle
East peace, "restated the Arabs' sincere determination to achieve
peace and their rejection of all forms of violence."
At
the Tel Aviv rally, Israel's parliamentary speaker Avraham Burg,
famous for his public condemnations of the occupation of Palestinian
territories, called for his Labor party to withdraw from Sharon's
mainly right-wing government coalition.
The
protest, organized by the Peace Now movement, also called on the
Israeli government to pursue the Saudi peace plan which specifies a
full withdrawal in return for full peace with Arab countries, reported
BBC’s online news service.
On
Monday, May 6, former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu
addressed tens of thousands of Jewish demonstrators who gathered for a
protest in central London's Trafalgar Square in support of Israel.
The
Israeli solidarity rally, held on a bank holiday, was the largest of
its kind ever staged by the Jewish community in Britain and numbered
more than 30,000 people, according to police estimates, reported AFP.
Protesters
waved blue-and-white Israeli flags and banners reading "Yes to
peace, no to terror" and "Suicide bombers kill people and
peace."
"Britain
stands before another road now and it must choose between two opposing
paths. The path of appeasing terror or the path of confronting
terror," Netanyahu told the rally.
Calling
on other nations to support Israel, Netanyahu added: "Israel is
determined to fight. The question isn't whether Israel will fight but
whether we will fight alone."
Amid
loud cheering, he labeled Palestinian President Yasser Arafat a
terrorist and said: "The path to peace does not go through
Arafat, it does not go around Arafat, it must go over Arafat."
The
former Israeli leader said the only route to peace would be with the
ousting of Arafat and putting a new leader in his place.
At
a rival demonstration on the other side of Trafalgar Square, on the
same day, in support of the Palestinian people, police said about 300
protesters showed up, some carrying a banner which read "War on
terrorism is war on Israel."
Police
initially put the pro-Palestinian crowd at 3,000 but later lowered
their estimate.
Massoud
Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said:
"We simply felt the Israeli rally was provocative and felt we
needed to campaign against that.
"We
feel that in the light of recent massacre in Jenin it's extremely
insensitive to organize a rally and blatantly say they support the
state of Israel. It is offensive."
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