People's Democracy

Tel Aviv Rally Protests Against Sharon

THOUSANDS of Left-wing Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday, February 9, to protest against right-wing prime minister Ariel Sharon’s government, and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, reports AFP.

Organisers of the demonstration from the radical Left-wing Gush Shalom coalition of peace movements, estimated the crowd at 10,000 activists, many of whom were brought in by bus from Arab villages around the country.

Uri Avnery, leader of the Gush Shalom movement, told the crowd: "The Israeli public has been in shock because Sharon, his servant Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz, and ministers Shimon Peres and Binyamin Ben Eliezer, have brought us to despair - from one grave to the next…. "Until now, the Israeli public has been keeping silent, but no more," he said, referring to Israeli military action during the 16-month Palestinian uprising.

Protestors chanted, "Back to the 1967 Borders," referring to the Israeli borders before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, when Israel took the West Bank and Gaza Strip from Jordan and Egypt. Slogans in Arabic, English and Hebrew said: "The occupation is killing us," and "The occupation creates war crimes."

Among those present were members of a group of 52 reserve army officers and soldiers, who refused to serve in the occupied territories, the first of such a group since the Intifada erupted.

A Reuters report from Jerusalem adds: prime minister Ariel Sharon returns to Israel on Sunday (February 10,) after obtaining a US pledge to pressure Yasser Arafat on militants, but failing to obtain Washington’s agreement to cut ties with the Palestinian leader.

Meanwhile, a rift between the European Union and Washington on Middle East policy grew when EU foreign ministers said after a two-day meeting in Spain, there should be less stress on security and more on political aspects of the conflict.

The EU has given momentum to its own diplomatic drive to revive deadlocked peace negotiations, despite spiralling violence in which over 1,000 people have been killed since a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation began in September 2000. They also criticised Israel’s isolation of Arafat who has been confined to the West Bank city of Ramallah, by Israeli tanks, since a spate of militant attacks in December.

"It is very important that we go back to putting politics in the centre of our discussions on the Middle East," said Josep Pique, foreign minister of current EU president Spain.

He said Israel could not ask Arafat "to make 100 per cent effort but at the same time limit and weaken his freedom of movement". The EU ministers’ view differs from those of Israel and the United States, which want a halt to violence before negotiations can resume.

During a joint news conference with Sharon after their meeting at the White House on Thursday February 7, Bush said that he would continue demanding that Arafat "reduce terrorist activity". The American president side-stepped a reporter’s question on whether the United States, Israel’s staunchest ally, would sever links with Arafat as Sharon had demanded ahead of his Washington visit.

The EU has often urged Arafat to clamp down on militants, but rejects Sharon’s attempts to sideline him and has been irked by US reluctance to deter Sharon from pursuing this line. British foreign secretary Jack Straw said he and his German counterpart Joschka Fischer, would travel separately to the Middle East next week to assess the situation.

France and the United States also had differences over a French call for a clear acknowledgement by Israel of the need for a Palestinian state, and elections in Palestinian territories that would give the winner a mandate to negotiate peace.