Tel Aviv demo against crackdown says “Acts of oppression are not about finding the boys. Free all political prisoners!”
“The army, under government instructions, is embarking on hundreds of arrests and detentions, nightly raids on homes, closure of entire regions, arrests of journalists and Palestinian Parliamentarians, the collective punishment of the residents of Hebron, Nablus, Bethlehem, Jenin and many other locations, the detention of children and minors, threats of cutting off electricity and phone networks, and further acts of oppression. The true aim of all that is NOT to locate the abducted boys.
We hope with all our hearts that the boys will be found and safely returned to their homes. In practice, though, Netanyahu and his government are cynically using them as a pretext for an all-out offensive. The government states openly and bluntly that they shall continue with the same tactics, regardless of the current search.
For the Government of Israel, this is merely an excuse to crack down on Hamas, and break up the Palestinian Unity agreement.
The military budgets were about to be cut — now it’s quite obvious that they are going to be increased yet again. We shall gather, to call for an end to the daily violence and killing. Enough with the abuse and collective punishment of a civil population, living under military occupation!
The demonstration is initiated by grassroots activists, involved in various organizations. We call upon all groups and movements to join in and endorse this initiative. Every day that goes by, is one day of silence too many!”
Demo at Kiria, Sat 21st at 20.30 at Ministry of Defence, Caplan Street, Tel Aviv
Meanwhile an impassioned plea from Avraham Burg, ending:
“It seems once again that Israel understands nothing but violence. What does that say about us? This response of ours … says more about us than it does about them. Despite the enormous and inspiring success of Breaking the Silence (an NGO that collects testimony from soldiers who’ve served in the West Bank), our own total silence is still the loudest thing around us. We are willing to go out of our minds over … three kidnap victims, but we are incapable of understanding the suffering of a whole society, its cry, and the future of an entire nation that has been kidnapped by us.”
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