60,000+ at Tel Aviv Peace Rally Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit AFP via Times of India - May 12, 2002 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_ID=9606726 More than 60,000 turn out for Tel Aviv peace rally AFP [ SUNDAY, MAY 12, 2002 1:40:14 AM ] JERUSALEM: More than 60,000 demonstrators turned out in Tel Aviv for the largest peace rally since the intifada erupted 19 months ago and to demand Israel withdraw from the Palestinian territories, Israeli police said on Saturday evening. "We believe there were about 60,000 people here tonight," Brigadier General Uriel Bar-Lev, head of the Yarkon police said. The square and all the surrounding streets were packed with demonstrators waving placards and banners, bearing slogans such as "End the occupation of the (Palestinian) territories" and "The occupation is killing us all". People in wheelchairs, mothers with babies in pushchairs, mixed with the elderly and crowds of young people, many of whom were dancing to the popular music which playing throughout the square. A helicopter hovered overhead as a rock band, headed by popular contemporary Israeli singer Aviv Gefen, entertained the crowds with songs of love and peace. Peace Now, one of the rally organisers, claimed the protest was the biggest peace demonstration since the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada in September 2000. "This is the first time since the intifada that we have had such a massive demonstration with people in clear opposition to the government," Peace Now spokesman Arye Arnon said. "This is radical. This turnout is on the basis that one day we will return to the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as the capital of two states and the elimination of the settlements," Arnon said. "This is much bigger than expected," the leader of the main opposition Meretz party, Yossi Sarid, said at the rally. "It is a very important message to the Israeli government, the Arab world and the international community. There is a peace camp in Israel and it is raising its voice," he said. "From tonight, (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon can be assured there is no consensus for a military operation" in Gaza, he added. Peace Now spokeswoman Gali Golan put the number of demonstrators at over 100,000 but the figure was not confirmed by police. Speaking from the podium, Sarid said there needed to be an "international mandate for the (Palestinian) territories". "If Israel attacks Gaza, they will do it without us," he added. Former justice minister and leading Labour dove Yossi Beilin accused Sharon of leading the nation into a tragedy. "We are told Sharon is a man of peace but it is not true: he doesn't want go to the negotiating table because he has nothing to say," he said. "Sharon is dragging us into a catastrophe." "The main thing that killed the peace process happened here seven years ago when Yitzak Rabin was killed," Beilin said, his voice breaking with emotion. "I promise Yitzak Rabin that we will finish the job." At one stage, 12 parliamentary deputies and eight former ministers climbed onto the podium and sang the the Israeli national anthem, Hatikva, which is Hebrew for 'the hope'. Emotions ran high as veteran singer Yaffa Yarkoni led the crowd in a rousing rendition of popular songs from 1948, the year of Israel's independence. The rally was organised by the Peace Now movement and an umbrella group of nine organisations called the Peace Coalition, under the theme of "Get out of the (Palestinian) territories for the sake of Israel." Rabin Square is the site where Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist on November 4, 1995. Sarid and Beilin were just two of a line-up of seven speakers, including Israeli author Amos Oz, and Arab-Israeli representative Sharqi Ghati. More than 1,000 police were deployed in the area to protect demonstrators from attacks by either Jewish extremists or Palestinian militants, a senior police official said earlier in the day. The singer Yarkoni, received death threats after announcing she would perform at the rally. An icon in Israel for her songs of war and the country's turbulent history, Yarkoni caused an outcry recently when she denounced the army's Operation Defensive Wall in the West Bank. As the demonstration drew to its close at around 10:00 pm (1900 GMT), people began leaving the square as John Lenon's Imagine was played over loudspeakers. As the people dispersed, all that remained were heaps of peace banners, lying in in piles all over the square. Earlier Saturday, about 150 members the Arab-Jewish group Taayush ("coexistance" in Arabic) arrived at the Kissufim crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip, in a fleet of three buses calling on soldiers to return home. Chanting "Soldiers Come Home", and "End the Occupation", the protesters also referred to Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer by his original name, calling out "Fuad, Fuad, how many children have you killed this morning?" Police blocked the group about 50 yards from the checkpoint. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytact-05.12.02-19:47:14-29954