Massive demonstrations against Gaza war planned in Tel Aviv: BE THERE
Gush Shalom, Israel’s premier peace activism organization, has organized a big demonstration in Tel Aviv to protest the ongoing war in Gaza. Be there, voice your opposition to the killings and urge the Israeli government to bring it to an end.
The killing in Gaza continues. Hundreds have been killed, thousands injured, air-strikes have caused utter devastation and entire families are left homeless.
Civilians in the south of Israel are being held captive by a government which lies to them and abuses them. Destruction and death in Gaza will not ensure their future, but rather lead to more violence and killings.
Join us in protest this coming Saturday, 3.1.2009, in Tel Aviv. Together we will call out:
Stop the Killing! No to the Siege! Yes to life for both peoples!
In these dark days, let us stick to our message:
Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies!
Our demand: A full truce and the lifting of the siege on Gaza NOW!
We meet at the corner of Frishman St. and Khen Boulevard at 18:30
* Information about transportation from across the country will be published shortly.
Please note: For the past week mass arrests have been carried out amongst Palestinian citizens of Israel who are exercising their democratic right to protest. On Saturday, at 13:00, before the Tel Aviv demonstration, a mass protest rally will be held in Sakhnin by the High Committee of Arab Israelis against the killing in Gaza. Please make an effort to join – your presence is of the essence!
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For donations, crucial for our demonstration, please send checks made out to “Matte Hacoalitsia” at PO box 1335, Kfar Saba 44113
Join the Conversation
Why not take your protest to Sderot, where you can dodge the rockets coming from Gaza while you are protesting? No, you go into the heart of Israel where you know you will be safe from terrorist rocket attacks. Tell me, why did you not ever even one single time organize a protest against those rockets coming from Gaza into Israel? Why not? Never one time did you ever speak out against that. Why is okay for the rockets to come from Gaza but not okay for the rockets to come to Gaza?
Linda,
Obviously you don’t listen to what we’re saying in our protests. And by the way – there will be a big demonstration also in Sderot (with people living there) on Monday. Maybe you have never heard about the bonds that have been created between Sderot and Gaza in the last few years. If you didn’t hear about it, check out:
Other Voice, Gaza Sderot: Life in spite of everything, and a recent article from one of the founders of the Other Voice, Julia Chaitin, a senior lecturer in the Department of Social Work at the Sapir Academic College and program developer at the Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development: War Will Not Bring Peace to Gazans and to Israelis in the Negev
Maybe this will make you understand that your questions are devoid of sense.
How are rockets fired from Gaza any different from Gazing (sic) Jews in the ovens of Treblinka or Dahau ? but I bet morons like you would be demonstrating against the allied forces killing nazis responsible for these dastardly deeds !!!
The members of your organization, instead of protesting in Tel Aviv, should hightail it over to Gaza and become human shield for the paleshitin turds wearing soiled diapers!!!
I dare you to go and hold your protest right in front of the hamuses’ headquarters … I am willing to send you $$ after you have gone and provided you make it back in one pieces, you dumb pieces of crap.
Sorry Eva. Your website is pretty, but it sits there in cyberspace and does nothing and I have not seen you on the street protesting the Hamas rockets aimed directly at Israeli homes and schools and playgrounds and cities and towns. I have not heard your cries of outrage, your demands for sanctions or for international action. In fact, the rockets have been falling in Israeli towns for years, raining down on Israeli schools and homes and playgrounds, and not once have I seen you organize a massive protest like this, ah, but only six days of Israeli rockets into Gaza and look at you! Ranting and raging at the audacity of Israel for daring to protect its citizens.
Go Eva, and stand in solidarity with the Palestinians and when the chanting begins, you can say “Itbach al Yahud” right along with them.
Wow, it’s always so disconcerting to see so much hatred coming from fellow Israelis when you stand up for the human rights of their dismissed “enemies,” whose lives they do not respect and whose children they want to see dead.
Eva, you are making a difference. Play no attention to what Linda and her ilk are saying. The irony of her comment is that she herself is sitting here justifying the death of innocent lives while you’re out physically demanding justice for your neighbors in Palestine.
Well done. Let us know how these rallies go.
Ah, looking Linda up, I should note that in her own blog she has referred to Palestinians as “dogs” whose “flees” you will get if you support them.
I will not provide a link promoting such filth but I can direct you to the post in question if anyone requests it via e-mail to see the incessant racism that is so prevalent in many Israeli blogs today.
I admire you Eva, and you’re doing the right thing. You’re a strong woman, to stand up to all the pressure and follow your conscience. The sterling ones always stick out, in a sea of mediocrity.
When you lie down with dogs you get fleas is a common expression in America, and your objection to it is somewhat disingenuous given the all too common Palestinian protest sign that reads “Falastin balad’na w’al Yahud qalab’na.” Of course, it is generally in arabic, so we are not to know that it says “Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs,” but some of us know. Oh yes, some of us know.
You post a comment wishing a rocket land in someone’s ass, yet you have not the balls to post my comment counter to your view? Interesting, and revealing.
I thought I was at the grown-ups table.
Elvis
like we arab said on something like u, MONKEY
You want the war to end? You want there to be peace? Here’s how you do it. But first, something I’ve noticed about the groups crying for “peace”.
Hamas has rained Katyushas down on Israel for years. And no cry from the peace activists for the Palestinians (specifically Hamas) to stop. No cries against them using disproportionate force against the schools and homes of Israelis.
These “peace” activist don’t want peace, they want Israel gone. They don’t say it in words, but there lack of action and protest against the Palestinians aggression speaks volumes. In fact, the silence is deafening.
Now how to achieve that elusive peace. All peace activists need to shut up and get out of the way. Hamas has shouted from the rooftops that they are going to remove the stain of Israel. They don’t want peace – period. As long as they are in the driver’s seat, there won’t be any either. So step aside and let Hamas have what they’ve been saying they want. At some point, the rest of the Palestinians will tire of it all and turn Hamas out (and quite possibly over).
Only after the stench of war has permeated everything will they earnestly (truly) seek peace with Israel.
it was refreshing, to an extent. bad news covering my life within past few months caused me think that news should be bad, unless proven otherwise… and this piece of news was Otherwise.
thanks.
Urgh, so many pathetic racists in this thread! We can expect so many of them on the internet, because it’s only Israelis who can afford to have internet connections when their occupied neighbors don’t even have electricity and clean water.
In Israel there aren’t only hateful expressions, unlike in Palestine. In Israel, some of you continue to wipe out an entire population. Oh yes, some of you do. Indeed, most of you.
Has anyone seen the video of the protests in Tel Aviv, and the policemen who were getting violent and threatening the peaceful protestors? So much for democracy. Israel is perhaps one of the most brutal dictatorships in the Middle East, and understandably, the entire world thinks Israel is the biggest threat to peace.
Your petty justifications of this criminal behavior and paranoia do not fool anyone, I should add. Peace activists are fighting for justice, incomparable to wanting Israel destroyed, when in fact many Israelis themselves are protesting this grave injustices.
If you think you’re “earning” your existence by sitting on the corpses of others, you’re frankly delusional and violently paranoid. I really pity you. No one I know respects Israel, no one. And because of this, no sane person ever will.
Please please please
Do not call it WAR,
call it anything you want but not war, because it is not.
And also don’t say “Hamas rockets have been raining down on civilians”. 20 Israeli people died in 8 years from those rockets, much less then people who died slipping in the bathroom, or choking on a peanut. ISS on the other hand murdered 250 in a single day. So please don’t try to create the illusion that the weather in Israel is bad when there is a typhoon going on in occupied territories.
Yes we can have peace only when both sides, both terrorists if you like, are persuaded to stop, but isn’t it logical to start with the more violent and aggressive side rather than the one who is fighting for mere survival and seems to have no other choice? Isn’t it plain nonsense to expect people to surrender to a murderous foreign dictatorship and give up any struggle in hope that there will be peace in the end? Could you have given up?
Agree. I once saw fotos of a protest in Israel and how police violently beat people there.
BTW i would like to see the video of this new protest too.
If you go to my Facebook profile you’d see it shared there. I haven’t seen a YouTube version yet, I got this from Eva.
We should support these protestors as much as possible against the abuse they often get in Israel.
Shahrazad, If you claim Israel is one of the most brutal dictatorships in the Middle East than name me a country in the Middle East that is better.
I’ll appreciate if you name me a country of the mideast that is as brutal as Israel! There is no country in the mideast thousands of massacres in her history in just 60 years..
in the mideast with*
Correct there have been thousands of massacres. Only thousands of suicide bombers and not millions. Thank God for the Israeli army so many innocent people living in the ONLY DEMOCRATIC state in the middle east haven’t been killed.
Joey your argument is pathetic. Firstly, Israel earns its “modern” lifestyle because it’s getting funded by the millions from the USA on a weekly basis, and is the proud owner of the region’s strongest, most abusive military, which it uses for the purpose of terorism.
Secondly, it’s not a democracy, and minorities within the country are harshly discriminated against. Arab Israelis face racism in every aspect of social life despite the fact that they’re actual citizens. Their free speech is not respected, and some have faced serious abuse for criticizng racist aspects of the government, which are apparent to any non-nationalist with a brain.
Protestors against Israeli aggression are abused, even if they’re proesting peacefully, which is a human right in actual democracies.
Young people who do not wish to serve in the military for moral reasons are imprisoned and publicly ridiculed.
Name you one country in the Middle East that is better? Every one. Because NONE of them earn their existence by performing a genocide on their neighbors, except for Israel, which is in fact a racist military state, the furthest thing from democracy, ever.
First, Israel’s modern lifestyle certainly comes from the 6 billion bucks a year the US hands it. The budget of the 2008 Israeli Government is only 140 billion, making the US contribution a VERY important figure. The Israelis don’t owe their prosperity to being a bunch of very hard working Jews and Muslims who don’t base 75% of their operating budget on oil revenues (like your country Esra’a). They aren’t the leader in the region in the fields of democracy, free speech, and respect for human rights ( who cares what Reporters without Borders have to say). Now, I know they have a hard time comparing to such paragons of human rights, respect for a free press and free, critical speech as Iran, Egypt and Syria, but they are trying…
Now, certainly none of Israel’s neighbors have ever participated in a genocide or massacre on their neighbors, minorities, or cultural groups living under their authority! Just ask a Kurd or an Armenian….
The Palestinians certainly have been badly treated by the Israelis, particularly in comparison to the warm welcome and enduring, respectful treatment by their Lebanese and Syrian (not gonna knock the Jordanians! Luv ya King Abdullah!)hosts, and are fully integrated, representated members of those societies, certainly after 60 years. They most certainly haven’t suffered any kind of discrimination, second class status or vicious, murderous attacks there…
Lastly, the administrator of this site would never indulge in a hysterical, inaccurate rant that smacks of racist hatred and throw around idiotic terms like genocide when REAL genocides are taking place in the Sudan, Zimbawbe and the Congo.
My comment would never be edited or banned due to personal feelings, because this is still a site where Muslims are not afraid of criticism.
Right?
Victims become the very thing they were victim of is usually the way things go. Every study psychology? Nazi kill Jews, Jew kill Palestinians. Great… keep it up, you make Hitler happy.
60 years ago Iraq, Iran and few other nations in the ME was working toward that. If the Westerners didn’t put an end to it, we’ll have a different angle on things right now. eric, I know in Canada history classes don’t teach this, but learn a few things before you prove everyone how stupid your comment is.
This is not a Muslim site, FYI. It’s a common misconception for those who love to jump to inaccurate conclusions, but there are Jews and Arab Christians and Iranian Baha’is and many others posting alongside. You are targeting me specifically with your comment and not any other authors, whom I do not represent and who often disagree with me on many occassions.
How many people here have actually justified that? We run a campaign for Kurdish Rights, as well as the human rights of many other minorities. We realize previous problems; bad history doesn’t justify modern times. It’s absolutely false to claim that because Iraqi dictatorship has committed genocide in the past, that Israel can get away with committing the same atrocities to other innocent civilians. The fact that you’re using this as justification, is really as disturbing as the rest of your comments here where you make similar, illogical excuses for an equally failing argument on behalf of Israel. If you actually read this site instead of making repeated personal attacks, you would notice that we criticize our own governments here just as much as we do Israel in terms of crisis, and some authors, who are Israeli, do not even criticize their country at all and jump to our defense when we do so as you may have clearly noticed.
Criticizing a country and its policy doesn’t make us racist, which is ironic coming from someone who often makes offensive blanket statements concerning this region. Injustice is injustice regardless of the abuser, which in this case, is Israel. Am I racist against Iranians because I think their government is entirely corrupt?
If we were truly racists, do you think we’d invite Israelis, some of whom are ardent Zionists, and some of whom even served in the IDF, to be a part of this website? We have criticized many attacks against Israel in the past, even within the media here. But not right now when Israel is causing a major offense. If you’re truly outraged that we’d speak up on behalf of Gazans at such a critical time, you’re expecting PR and unmatched bias from the wrong group of independent people.
This site is about the Middle East. Such issues are awful, but are beyond the scope of what we cover. I thought the domain name of this site would give that away, unfortunately I find myself having to explain this in detail to you at every given opportunity.
Concerning Darfur, we have many posts regarding that and also a whole campaign site. If you bother searching, you will find us comparing Darfur vs. Palestine’s coverage and criticizing that aspect of our media. However, other conflicts do not change the reality of this specific issue, so your usage of it as a diversionary tactic is not working. Common tactic, but fails all the time.
The name-calling does not work very well for you, I should add, especially at your age where I’d expect you to be a bit more understanding and less disrespectful.
Ahmed,
I don’t believe a second that you’re Muslim or Arab. You would be a shame on your religion and your people. You’re probably Israeli – one of those who follow our government like a herd of blind sheeps. Right?
Have a nice day “Ahmed”!
If I were a Palestinian of the right age, I’d eventually join one of the terrorist organizations.
Ehud Barak
He’s already a part of one.
The Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip represent severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law as defined in the Geneva Conventions, both in regard to the obligations of an Occupying Power and in the requirements of the laws of war
Even the most naive American voter cannot be expected to see the morally, legally and politically questionable death sentence given to Saddam Hussein a milestone in the Bush Administration’s illegal war in Iraq. As the milestones pile up, so do the bodies.
Those violations include:
• Collective punishment: The entire 1.5 million people who live in the crowded Gaza Strip are being punished for the actions of a few militants.
• Targeting civilians: The airstrikes were aimed at civilian areas in one of the most crowded stretches of land in the world, certainly the most densely populated area of the Middle East.
• Disproportionate military response: The airstrikes have not only destroyed every police and security office of Gaza’s elected government, but have killed and injured hundreds of civilians; at least one strike reportedly hit groups of students attempting to find transportation home from the university.
Earlier Israeli actions, specifically the complete sealing off of entry and exit to and from the Gaza Strip, have led to severe shortages of medicine and fuel (as well as food), resulting in the inability of ambulances to respond to the injured, the inability of hospitals to adequately provide medicine or necessary equipment for the injured, and the inability of Gaza’s besieged doctors and other medical workers to sufficiently treat the victims.
Certainly the rocket attacks against civilian targets in Israel are unlawful. But that illegality does not give rise to any Israeli right, neither as the Occupying Power nor as a sovereign state, to violate international humanitarian law and commit war crimes or crimes against humanity in its response. I note that Israel’s escalating military assaults have not made Israeli civilians safer; to the contrary, the one Israeli killed today after the upsurge of Israeli violence is the first in over a year.
Israel has also ignored recent Hamas diplomatic initiatives to re-establish the truce or ceasefire since its expiration on 26 December.
The Israeli airstrikes today, and the catastrophic human toll that they caused, challenge those countries that have been and remain complicit, either directly or indirectly, in Israel’s violations of international law. That complicity includes those countries knowingly providing the military equipment including warplanes and missiles used in these illegal attacks, as well as those countries who have supported and participated in the siege of Gaza that itself has caused a humanitarian catastrophe.
I remind all Member States of the United Nations that the UN continues to be bound to an independent obligation to protect any civilian population facing massive violations of international humanitarian law–regardless of what country may be responsible for those violations. I call on all Member States, as well as officials and every relevant organ of the United Nations system, to move on an emergency basis not only to condemn Israel’s serious violations, but to develop new approaches to providing real protection for the Palestinian people.
March in Exeter on Saturday 17th January 2009 at 12.30.
Meet at Odean Cinema, Sidwell Street
Also, march in Central London on 17th January at 12.30
The bottom line is these crap apples that are defending the murdering hamas are simply liars. These hamas defenders are no better than nazis no matter how much they yell. All that needs to be done to stop the fighting is for the killers in Gaza to lay down there weapons or at least stop shooting them at Israel. This talk of perpotionality is absurd. These bastard started the fight now the cowards hide behind women and children and in hospitals under the bed of the injured? Never in the history of the world has there been such murdering cowards who flee from there own actions. Also the people of Gaza are not innocent they elected these cowardly scum they are now receiving the consquences of there cowardly vote..
with regard to jack hampton:
I hope u know what u r talking about. Before churning out such crap u may better read your history books, I hope you have not bunked your lessons at school.
It must be amazing for you to hear, that it was actually Israel that created Hamas to drive a wedge between the PLO under Arafat and the Islamists in the late 70′s.
And the famous (or rather infamous) double standard always amuses me: on one hand honchos like jack want to export and spread democracy to all people over the world, notably the Arab countries. It’s fair, the backward Arabs shall know about verry abstract conceptions such as Human Rights, freedom of speech, freedom of movement etc etc. All nice and fine.
However, when REAL democracy occurs, these very advocats of Freedom and Democracy simply shy away. Now why?! Well…it does not serve Western interests, when Hamas gets more than 60% in last elections by free and fair polls. Arrgh I smack hypocrisy!