Dozens
proclaim support for Palestinian bid outside Independence Hall, sign
declaration; Israel Prize laureates among protesters.
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Photo by: REUTERS/Ali Jarekji
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Dozens of
Israeli artists and academics on Thursday proclaimed their support for the
Palestinian United Nations statehood bid, outside of Independence Hall in Tel
Aviv.
The setting
was symbolic, held outside the same building where former Prime Minister David
Ben-Gurion proclaimed the independence of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948.
Earlier on Thursday, the group of 82 intellectuals and artists published a
declaration supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the
1967 lines. At the demonstration on Thursday, the public was invited to sign
their names alongside the declaration.
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The
declaration reads “we, the undersigned, call on all persons seeking peace and
freedom, and upon all nations to join us in welcoming the Palestinian
Declaration of Independence, to support it and to work and act together in
order to encourage the citizens of both countries to live together in peace,
based on the '67 borders and mutual agreement. A final and complete end to the
occupation is a basic condition for the freedom of both peoples, for the
realization of Israel's Declaration of Independence and a future of peaceful
coexistence.”
The
undersigned include actress and Israel Prize laureate Gila Almagor-Agmon,
former Education Minister and Israel Prize laureate Shulamit Aloni, former head
of the IDF education branch Maj. Gen (Ret) Nehemiah Dagan, former Chief
Education Officer, and author and Israel Prize laureate Amos Oz.
Former
Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and one time Israeli Ambassador
to South Africa Alon Liel told the crowd that Israelis must support the
Palestinian statehood bid and ignore Washington’s impending veto of the
initiative.
Liel called
US President Barack Obama’s speech at the UN General Assembly the day before “a
knockout punch to [Palestinian Authority President] Mahmoud Abbas. A clearly
anti-Palestinian US campaign speech. A speech where he said the US supports the
rebels in Tunisia, in Libya, in Egypt, in Bahrain, but in Palestinian? No. The
Palestinians are something else because they are facing Israel.”
“It hurts
to see a president like Obama, who caused us to feel such great hope, dismiss
Abu Mazen who has spent three years working on the diplomatic track,” Liel
said, adding “Obama and the US of today are no longer running the world today,
there is a larger international community that can run the world. The US
doesn’t have the power to deal you this blow.”
The gesture
was in a sense a repeat of a similar effort this April, when a group that
included many of the same Israelis proclaimed their support for a Palestinian
state outside Independence Hall. Thursday’s effort was significantly more
subdued and low-key than the one in April, in which large numbers of
passersbies began booing and shouting the protestors, and a number of shoving
matches broke out.
On Friday,
the left-wing organization Peace Now will also hold a series of demonstrations
in support of the Palestinian statehood bid. Entitled “Israel says yes to the
Palestinian state,” the event will include rallies in north Tel Aviv at the
corner of Arlozorov and Namir, in Jerusalem under the Strings Bridge, in Kiryat
Ono, and in Haifa.
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