Saturday protest rally against Sharon in Tel-Aviv
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Saturday protest rally against Sharon in Tel-Aviv |
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Posted by Adam Keller on January 28, 19102 at 12:16:34:
[1] The demo of Saturday, Tel-Aviv - How to help make it real big
[2] 56 officers say: ENOUGH! full text of ad in Ha'aretz Jan. 25.
[3] Tu Bishvat vigil
[4] Tuesday Tel-Aviv, New Profile Concert
[5] Avnery article: Napoleon at the Gates of Ramallah
[1] The demo of Saturday, Tel-Aviv
We can already announce that Shulamit Aloni, Uri Avnery and Yehudah
Sheinhav will be among the speakers.
What you can do:
a) invest some hours
b) SEND YOUR CONTRIBUTION (we got some but more is needed)
c) spread the word
a) People who are willing to help with distributing flyers, putting
posters and making signs please contact Keren, 064-465650 or Ofer,
053-501364 email: ,
b) Only if we get enough contributions in advance will we able to
advertise it prominently. If you intended to send a check and didn't
do it yet PLEASE DO IT NOW. Checks should be made out to "Ezra
Humanitarit" (a bank account was opened by Yakov Manor specifically
for the purpose of receiving contributions for such occasions); on a
separate paper should be written "for demo Feb'2". Send the envelope
to Beate Zilversmidt, pob, 2542, Holon, 58125 and N.B. email that you
did so to
c) Inform your friends by phoning them, and print out the attached
Hebrew leaflet for distributing it at events in your environment.
English translation follows:
PROTEST RALLY - Saturday night, 2/2/2002, Tel-Aviv
THE OCCUPATION IS KILLING US ALL!
The Sharon government is perpetrating terrible acts, acts on which the
black flag of illegality flies. Continuation of the occupation is
drowning us in rivers of blood - Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Continuation of the occupation leads to loss of hope, to despair on
both sides.
Stop the "liquidations" which lead to suicide bombings!
Stop the killing and bereavement!
Stop the closures and siege!
Stop the uprooting of olive trees and orchards!
Stop the occupation!
Stop the silence! For those who keep silent at such a time are
accomplices. Those who do not raise their voice in protest bear part
of the responsibility for the mutual destruction!
Coalition of Women for Peace
Gush Shalom
Israeli Committtee Against House Demolitions
Kvisa Sh'hora
Ta'ayush
The Campus is not Silent
The Monitoring Committee of the Arab population in Israel
Yesh Gvul
The protest rally will take place on Saturday, February 2, 2002, at
7.30 PM, at the Museum Plaza on Sderot Shaul Ha'melech, Tel-Aviv. For
organized transportation from other parts of the country call
053-501364, 050-733276, 064-465650
[2] 56 officers say: ENOUGH! full text of ad in Ha'aretz Jan. 25.
We, being officers and soldiers in the combat reserves of the Israel
Defence Force, having been brought up on Zionism, self-sacrifice and
contribution to the Israeli people and the state of Israel, having
always served in the front line, having always been the first to
carry out any mission, easy or difficult, to defend and buttress the
state of Israel;
we, combat officers and soldiers who serve the state of Israel for
many weeks each year, regardless of the heavy personal cost, have
rendered reserve service throughout the occupied territories and
received orders and instructions that had nothing to do with the
security of the state, and whose sole purpose is perpetuation of our
domination of the Palestinian people;
we, having witnessed with our own eyes the bloody toll that the
occupation takes on both sides of the divide;
who have sensed how the orders we received erode every value we have
imbibed in this country;
who understand today that the price of the occupation is loss of the
humane image of the IDF and corruption of the entire Israeli
society;
who know that the territories are not Israel, and that the Jewish
settlements there will ultimately have to be evacuated;
We hereby declare that we will no longer fight in the war for the
welfare of the settlements in the territories. We will not continue
to fight beyond the Green Line [Israel's pre-'67 border] for the
purpose of dominating, expelling, starving and humiliating an entire
people.
We hereby declare that we will continue to serve in the Israel
Defence Force in any assignment that will serve the defence of the
state of Israel. The assignment of occupation and repression does
not serve that aim - and we will have no part in it.
52 signatures, specifying the signatories' reserve rank (ranging
from first sergeant to major) and combat unit (paratroops, armour,
engineers, artillery, navy, military intelligence, airforce, Golani
brigade, Givati brigade, Nahal brigade).
www.seruv.org.il; ph: 03-765-1002
[3 ] Tu Bishvat vigil
------- Forwarded message follows -------
From: "TAADAM Jerusalem"
Dear friends,
Please join B'Tzelem demonstration in front of the Knesset's official
planting ceremony, under the title "shotlim kan - okrim sham"
(planting here - uprooting there).
Meeting today (Jan.28) at 14:30 infront of the Israel Museum,
Jerusalem.
[4] Tuesday Tel-Aviv, New Profile Concert -- Thanks to Objectors
------- Forwarded message follows -------
From: "Rela Mazali"
New Profile would like to invite you to a festive evening of thanks to
men and women objectors. We’ll offer: readings, classical music, rock,
rap, wine and – most of all – an opportunity to mix and meet, to
exchange thoughts on education, peace, objection, conscription and
resisting militarism.
Tuesday, January 29, 2002 - 8pm
Tzavta, Ibn Gabirol 30, Tel-Aviv
Tickets: 50.- Shekels; For young people: 30.- Shekels
Any added contributions will be welcomed.
[5] Avnery article: Napoleon at the Gates of Ramallah
Uri Avnery
26.01.02
*** Napoleon at the Gates of Ramallah***
In his epic "War and Peace", Tolstoy describes the battle of
Borodino, one of the cruelest in history, in which Napoleon opened the
way to Moscow. In the middle of the terrible battle, the hero of the
book looks for the Russian commander, Kutusov. He finds him sitting on
a chair on the top of a hill, looking calmly at the battle and doing
nothing.
The hero is, of course, amazed by this inactivity, until the
Russian general explains that at this stage he has nothing more to do.
The battle is a clash between two great human masses, and the stronger
and more determined mass will win.
I was reminded of the scene from the book this week when I
visited Yasser Arafat in Ramallah. His office was quiet, activity
low-key. The Palestinian leader was calm, more so than I have seen him
for a long time. The trembling of his limbs has disappeared, and so
had the tired look. He reminded me of our first meeting in besieged
Beirut, July 1982, in the middle of the battle. He was in a jovial
mood when he led us to the window and showed us the Israeli tanks
which are stationed a hundred meters away, their cannons targeted at
him.
Some of the dozen senior journalists who accompanied our Gush
Shalom delegation got the impression that he has given up, that he
"has resigned himself to his fate". If they had met Kutusov in that
battle, they would probably also have said that the he was finished, a
beaten general resigned to defeat.
The Israeli-Palestinian war, now 120 years old, is reaching one
of its decisive stages. Two great masses are confronting each other:
an irresistible force and an immovable object.
The Israeli commander, Ariel Sharon, knows exactly what he
wants. All the columnists who tell the public that he is temporizing,
that he doesn't know what he wants, that he has no plan etc. just do
not know the man. A normal person like Yossi Beilin is quite unable to
grasp his way of thinking.
Sharon is acting in a consistent, determined and logical way to
execute his master-plan. For decades now he has thought that he is
ordained by history to implement real Zionism - one that aims to
conquer all of Eretz-Israel, to cleanse it of the local population and
to cover it with settlements.
In pursuing this historic mission Sharon is ruthless and
merciless. Rivers of blood do not deter him, the number of casualties
(theirs and ours) is just one item in his calculations. He acts
cautiously, uses ruses and does not shrink from committing war crimes.
He knows that he does not have much time left, and that he must
use the remaining time in order to destroy the Palestinian people as a
political factor. To achieve this, he has to break their leadership,
defeat their armed forces, smash their will and ability to resist.
What is the final aim?
The minimum: To imprison the Palestinians in several enclaves,
each one cut off from the others and from the world at large, each one
surrounded by settlements, by-pass roads and the army. In these big
prison camps, the Palestinians will be allowed to "manage their own
affairs," supplying cheap labor and a captive market. He does not care
if they are called "a Palestinian state".
The maximum: To exploit a war situation or a world crisis to
expel all Palestinians (including those who are Israeli citizens) from
the country. Sharon is quite capable of instigating a war to create
such an opportunity. He has only contempt for the people around him,
who are unable to think in such historic terms.
Under the leadership of Sharon this great mass is confronting
the opposing mass - the Palestinians. They cannot compete with the
attacking force in any field but one: the capability to absorb
punches. The Palestinian national strategy is summarized by one word:
Summud, steadfastness. After the terrible lesson of 1948, the
Palestinians know that this is a fight for their life - the life of
the Palestinian people and the life of every single Palestinian man
and woman. This generates a force of resistance that amazes Sharon's
generals, as the Russian resistance amazed Napoleon's marshals.
Yasser Arafat symbolizes this ability more than anyone else.
Even those Palestinians (mainly Western educated members of the
intelligentsia) who used to criticize his style of management know
that there is nobody like him in an existential crisis. The man
sitting in Ramallah facing the tanks is the personification of the
Palestinian determination to defend their national existence in their
homeland, whatever the price.
The Israeli Napoleon does not understand the Palestinians, as the
original Napoleon did not understand the Russians. He and his
followers believe that Arafat is an isolated, crippled, "irrelevant"
figure. They cannot understand that precisely in such a situation,
Arafat is stronger and more influential than ever.
A propos the original Napoleon: he won the battle of Borodino and
entered Moscow as a glorious victor. But a few weeks later the same
Kutusov defeated him decisively. Napoleon had to flee back home,
leaving behind him the remnants of a beaten army, dying of hunger and
cold.
[The author has closely followed the career of Sharon for four
decades. Over the years, he has written three extensive biographical
essays about him, two (1973, 1981) with his cooperation.]
N.B. Uri Avnery's computer crashed and his address list was damaged.
Anyone who used to get his articles and the ads (in English) directly
from him and doesn't anymore, should write to avnery@gush-shalom.org.