Posted on 05/12/2002 6:31:08 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Tel Aviv -May 12,2002- Wafa - Challenging Sharon government's policy of brutal occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, Israelis crowded Tel Aviv's central square Saturday night in the biggest rally by Israel's resurgent peace camp during nearly 20 months of the ongoing barbaric aggression.
About 60,000 Israelis turned out for the demonstration, waving flags and banners reading, "Leave the territories, for the sake of Israel."
Amid heavy security and police cordons that diverted traffic several blocks away from the square, the event attracted a broad mix of Israelis from all over the country, including families with small children, hippy characters carrying guitars and many of Tel Aviv's cafe-culture residents.
Zeev Hertzog, 60, felt that as the aggression on the Palestinian escalates, eventually more Israelis would come out on the streets to protest the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. However, "Unfortunately it must get much worse before it will get much better," he said.
The rally featured Israeli entertainers, literati and politicians, who expressed sharp criticism of Sharon leadership.
Singer Yaffa Yarkoni, who performed at the rally, said she received death threats beforehand but still decided to participate. As Yarkoni, 76, an icon of five decades of Israeli song who set off a firestorm recently by expressing solidarity with reserve soldiers refusing to serve in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, came on stage, she was met by a cheering crowd.
Yarkoni, who was weeping as she left the stage, told Israel Radio she felt emotional because of the words of the song she performed, which called for the end of war.
"Is it possible, I hope it will be, that it will happen already, I am tired of these things," she said, echoing the words of a song. "I am tired of these wars. Let (peace) come already," she said.
On his part the writer Amos Oz called for the immediate establishment of a "peace party." Oz described Ariel Sharon as "miserable leader" and called for his replacement.
In a plea to Jewish settlers living in the occupied Palestinian territories, Oz called on them to leave the settlements and relocate to needy towns inside Israel. "Come home," he said, "we will accept you."
"I believe this occupation is very bad for us as Israelis," said a 44 years old Tali, who came with her two sons from Kibbutz Gazit, a collective farming village near the line between Israel and the West Bank. "We've become a violent society," she complained.
Obviously, none of these leftist fools have ever read the Koran, Hadith or actually listened to a speech or sermon that calls for the destruction of Israel and the killing of all Jews and infidels in the name of "holy jihad." After the Palis use any infidel morons for propaganda purposes and complete their ultimate goal of annihilation, they will then happily kill them...unless they convert to Islam. The chances of conversion from what I believe to be mostly agnostic and/or atheist socialists is pretty slim. Of course, some of the self-hating, communist Jews and leftist Westerners might reconsider with a sword or gun at their throat...
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