Friends,
We knew there would be a big turnout for the
peace demonstration last night just from the deluge of pro-peace ads
in Ha'aretz the day before - page after page of statements and petitions,
all critical of the occupation.
Some excerpts:
*** "There is a choice!" An expanded
new list of 200 combat officers and soldiers who refuse to serve in
the army of occupation.
*** "There's a limit!" Support for
the new soldiers, and the names of others who have consistently refused
to serve, placed by Yesh Gvul.
*** "We support the soldiers who refuse
to serve the occupation" - a petition placed by civilian supporters.
*** "Peres, you are a collaborator in war-crimes!"
placed by Gush Shalom.
*** "Do not say 'we did not see, we did
not know' - the price of keeping the territories" - placed by the
Israel Committee Against House Demolitions.
*** "A Recipe for National Suicide"
- placed by a private citizen.
And a huge, blood-red ad, "The Occupation
is Killing Us All", signed by the 28 organizations that came together
to hold last night's impressive rally in Tel-Aviv (full list below).
This was the largest pro-peace rally since this
Intifada began in September 2000, with an estimated 10,000 participants
- Jews and Arabs from all over Israel filling the large Tel-Aviv Museum
plaza. The mood is clearly swinging in Israel, and the homemade signs
of people who had not attended a demonstration for years reflected the
new thinking - "Stop Sharon before he kills us all", "More
conscientious objectors!", "Occupation itself is a war crime",
and all permutations of "Share Jerusalem", "Dismantle
Settlements", and "Bring our soldiers home".
By the time veteran peace activist Yehudit Harel
opened the ceremony, the crowd was a mass of people amazed and buoyed
by each other's presence, with a great deal of hugging by people glad
to be sharing the moment. And then Yehudit's opening words in fluent
Hebrew and Arabic set the tone for the entire evening - we Israeli Jews
and Arabs together will no longer abide the crimes that the Israeli
government is carrying out.
"There is only one flag held aloft here
today," said Yehudit, "and it is the black flag of pain, mourning,
death, bereavement, and the immorality of war crimes that are being
committed in our name." At her words, hundreds of black flags were
raised high by the crowd, symbolizing the statement made years ago by
an Israeli court that if a military order has "a black flag of
immorality" hanging over it, the order must be refused.
This was a rally in which the young men who refused
to serve in the army of occupation were the heroes of the evening, receiving
ovation after ovation at every mention. "I once disagreed with
refusal to serve in the army," said Uri Avnery to the crowd, "but
today I salute those who will not serve. Refusal is the beginning of
the end of the occupation."
Some of these brave young men have been stripped
of their command, demoted, and face court martial, but continue to answer
to their conscience. "How can we serve in an army that kills children?"
asked Yishai Rosen-Zvi, an Orthodox tank corps sergeant in the reserves,
"How can we serve an army that demolishes homes, does not allow
the sick to get medical attention, seeks to humiliate an entire population,
and reduces them to hunger and poverty?"
Between speakers and sometimes during them, the
crowd broke into chanting of familiar slogans: "Fuad, Fuad, Minister
of Defense, How many kids did you kill today?" "Occupation,
No! Peace, Yes!", "Money for the poor, not
for settlers!"
It was a rally in which the stage was shared
by Arabs and Jews, women and men, Mizrahim and Ashkenazim, young and
old, religious and secular.
Distinguished elderly author Sammy Michael pointed
out the futility of the ongoing occupation: "Death is not a threat
to people who willingly give their lives for a cause." And Shulamit
Aloni, former government minister and perennial conscience of Israel,
called out her message of hope, "All of you here today are the
harbingers of a mass movement that already has
begun. You will be the teachers of democracy to this government. You
will set an example of morality. We shall clean out the crimes of this
country and fill it with peace!"
There were many moments that brought tears to
my eyes last night. I will tell you of two: Famed singer Ahinoam Nini
(known as "Noa", I believe, to her American fans) took the
risk of alienating her Israeli right-wing fans, and sang to the crowd
a Hebrew, Arabic, and English version of "Imagine" by the
Beatles: "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one;
I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one."
And the other was the transformation of a beloved
Zionist song "Ein li eretz aheret". Reciting this song in
two languages, Hebrew and Arabic, suddenly infused it with new meaning:
"I have no other country to go to. And even if the land is burning
under my feet, this is my home."
For the Arabs in the crowd, the song suddenly
became theirs, too, and for the Jews, it meant a land we both love deeply.
I hope someday you'll join us, and the world
will be as one.
Gila Svirsky
Jerusalem
Sponsoring organizations:
Association of Arab University Students / Baladna / BANKI / Bat Shalom
/ Coalition of Women for a Just Peace / Druse Initiative Committee /
Du Siach / Gush Shalom / HaCampus Lo Shotek, Tel-Aviv University / Hadash
Youth / Israeli Committtee Against House Demolitions / Kol Aher BaGalil
/ Kvisa Sh'hora: Lesbians and Gay Men Against the Occupation / Left
Forum, Haifa University / MachsomWatch / Meretz Youth / Monitoring Committee
of the Arab Population in Israel / NELED / Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salaam
/ New Profile / Noga / TANDI / Ta'ayush: Arab-Jewish Partnership / Tajamu
Youth / WILPF / Women and Mothers for Peace (formerly Four Mothers)
/ Women in Black / Yesh Gvul
_______________________________________________
Coalition of Women for a Just Peace:
http://www.coalitionofwomen4peace.org