25,000 people march in Tel Aviv in support of Palestinian state based on 1967 borders

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dimanche 5 juin 2011, par Efraim Davidi

Around 25,000 people took part in a march in central Tel Aviv on Saturday evening supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders.

The march end with a rally at the Tel Aviv Museum. MKs Dov Khenin (Hadash), Daniel Ben-Simon (Labor), Nino Abesadze (Kadima), Zahava Galon (Meretz), the Mayor of Nazareth Ramez Jeraisy, the editor in chief of Al Ittihad daily communist newspaper and well know feminist activist Aida Touma-Sliman and playwright Yehoshua Sobol give speeches.

Numerous political parties and peace groups - including Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality – Communist Party of Israel), Labor, Meretz, the Derech faction of Kadima, Peace Now, Combatants for Peace, Solidarity Sheikh Jarrah and Gush Shalom - participated in the march. Among the marchers several parliament members : MKs Khenin (Hadash), Galon (Meretz), Muhammad Barake (Hadash), Afu Agbaria (Hadash), Hanna Sweid (Hadash), Ilan Gilon (Meretz), Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz), formers MKs Issam Makhoul (Hadash), Tamar Gozansky (Hadash), Haim Oron (Meretz) and the Secretary General of the Communist Party of Israel, Muhammad Nafa’h.

Marchers held signs reading “Palestinian state - An Israeli interest”, “Bibi, recognize the Palestinians” and “Yes, we KEN [which means ’yes’ in Hebrew]”. The demonstrators carrying Palestinian, Israelis and red flags, reading “Yes to peace” and “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies.”

Several dozen rightist activists, wrapped in Israeli flags, held a counter-rally at the starting point of the march in Rabin Square. During the march, two leftist activists were arrested because police arbitrary.

A veteran Communist Party member, Prof. Yenina Altman, 80, came to attend the march all the way from Haifa. “It’s important to me to voice the desire to see the Palestinians independent,” she told. “I came from Poland after my entire family perished, I was in a ghetto and a concentration camp. I would like to have my country show tolerance and respect for the Palestinians and give them the right for an independent state just as we desired.”

A member of the Communist Party of Israel Central Committee, Rawda Murcus from the Galilee town of Kafr Yasif said, “We hope that such acts of protest will grow stronger and cause a change which will see an independent Palestinian state along 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as capital.”

Several streets in the area of the demonstration in Tel-Aviv were closed to traffic, causing a paralysis of circulation in the center of the city for hours.

(Dimanche, 05 juin 2011 - Avec les agences de presse)
Source Al-Oufok