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Demonstration: Stop the killing and destruction! Cease the fire, lift the siege, move towards peace!

Stop the killing and destruction!
Cease the fire, lift the siege,
move towards peace!
Demonstration
Saturday, July 19, 2014 at 8:00 pm
Habima Square, Tel Aviv

It is forbidden to shoot at civilian populations. It is forbidden and still it
happens. Both sides do it. Hamas shoots on the population of Israel. The IDF
shoots at the population of Gaza.

Two equal sides? Far from it. The State of Israel has enormous military and
economic strength. With massive financial assistance from the United States, the
State of Israel built the `Iron Dome` system, a great technological achievement
which protects us. Therefore, the missile attacks on Israeli cities are mostly a
nuisance. The air raid alarms are irritating, a bit disruptive to the routine of
life, sometimes frightening – but not much more.

Gazans have no Iron Dome, no protection whatsoever against the death which falls
down on them from the air and the sea and the land. The State of Israel is
pounding Gaza, killing and killing and killing. True - The State of Israel has
no premeditated purpose of killing innocent civilians, women and men and the
elderly and children playing football on the beach. There is no premeditated
purpose – but there is a reality. The killing of unarmed civilians in Gaza is
going on, day by day and hour by hour. More than two hundred Palestinians have
been killed. A large part of them were unarmed civilians, dozens of them were
children. And it goes on.

`Why are they shooting at us?` Wondered righteously the outgoing President of
Israel, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. `Why did they not make of Gaza a flourishing
Singapore?`. But Shimon Peres forgot to mention that the city state of
Singapore, whose population and size are comparable to those of the Gaza Strip,
has one of the largest ports in the world. There is no one to block thousands of
ships from all over world sailing in and out of that port, maintain the flow of
trade on which the wealth of Singapore is built. The minuscule port of Gaza is
closed and blockaded. The Israeli Navy is ever vigilant to prevent even the
smallest vessels from reaching it, and shoots at Gazan fishing boats which
venture more than a few kilometers from shore.

Gaza is a big prison for its residents, nearly two millions of them. The State
of Israel and its neighbor Egypt – with whom relationship has tightened
considerably since General Sisi seized power - cooperate in imposing the siege
on Gaza and holding its population effectively incarcerated, unable to come and
go to the outside world. Gazas live on a seashore. They can swim and play on the
beach (on days where lethal shots don’t come at them out of the sea). But they
can’t get on a boat and sail into the sea, nor on a plane flying to any
destination anywhere in the world. Also the land crossings are almost completely
closed. For years, millions of people are locked up in the little, narrow and
extremely crowded piece of land called the Gaza Strip.

`We imposed a siege on them because they are shooting at us,` say the leaders of
Israel. (By the way, the siege on Gaza began long before Hamas took power
there). `We shoot because you impose a siege on us. We will not agree to a
cease-fire which does not include the lifting of the siege,` say Gaza residents
this week (not all of them Hamas members).

There is no point to a ceasefire which would simply restore the situation that
existed two weeks ago. The situation of two weeks ago was unbearable - a
situation of a tight siege over the Gaza Strip, causing suffering and economic
suffocation and extreme poverty for the majority of its inhabitants. The siege
of Gaza has spawned several rounds of conflict. Continuation of the siege is a
sure recipe for another round in a year or two.

Only the lifting of the siege on Gaza, enabling its residents to come and go by
land and sea and air, export and import goods and develop their economy, can
open up for them a hope for the future. Only the lifting of the siege can give a
chance for peace and quiet on Israel`s border with the Gaza Strip.

On Saturday night Gush Shalom will join with peace and human rights
organizations in a protest against the cruel and unnecessary war called
`Operation Protective Edge`. Last week, an earlier demonstration on the same
location was attacked by extreme right thugs. Organizers of the current protest
have taken precautions to make sure this is not repeated - and of course, what
happened will not deter us from expressing our position on an issue vital to our
future.

As we were informed, demonstration marshals and stewards will be present on the
spot, and anyone intending to come should follow their instructions regarding
location, conduct of the demonstration and its dispersal, and refrain from
taking any violent action from our side.

Contact: Adam Keller +972-(0)54-2340749

Transportation from Jerusalem:
Parking lot, Liberty Bell Park
Registration: Connie 052-6375033
connie.hachbart@alternativenews.org

Stop the killing and destruction!
Cease the fire, lift the siege,
move towards peace!
Demonstration
Saturday, July 19, 2014 at 8:00 pm
Habima Square, Tel Aviv

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Saturday night protests: No to Netanyahu`s war!