Saudi blogger wins Sakharov rights prize, sparking pardon calls

Yahoo – AFP, Arnaud Bouvier with Bryan McManus in Brussels, October 29, 2015

An Amnesty International activist holds a picture of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi 

during a protest against his flogging punishment on January 29, 2015 in front of 

Saudi Arabia's embassy to Germany in Berlin. The 30-year-old Saudi has been

 sentenced to 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam and is serving a 10-year jail term - a 

case which has drawn widespread international criticism. (AFP Photo/Tobias Schwarz)

Strasbourg (France) (AFP) - Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for insulting Islam, was awarded the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize on Thursday.

The 31-year-old, who was arrested in 2012, is an outspoken advocate of free speech whose public flogging in January triggered international outrage when he was subjected to a first round of 50 lashes.

European Parliament head Martin Schulz

 called on Saudi King Salman to 

immediately release blogger Raif

Badawi (AFP Photo/Thierry Charlier)

Announcing the award, parliament chief Martin Schulz called on Saudi King Salman to immediately release Badawi, denouncing his sentence as "brutal torture" and demanding that Riyadh live up to Europe's standards on human rights.

"This man has had... imposed on him one of the most cruel penalities which can only be described as brutal torture," Schulz said. "I call on the Saudi king to immediately free him."

Watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) echoed the call, urging King Salman to pardon the father of three.

Badawi, who co-founded the Saudi Liberal Network Internet discussion group, was detained in 2012 on cyber crime charges.

Like most Saudis, Badawi is a Sunni Muslim but his network had announced a "day of liberalism" and called for an end to the influence of religion on public life in the kingdom.

He was arrested and the website shut down on grounds it criticised Saudi Arabia's notorious religious police.

He was initially charged in 2013, and last year a Saudi court sentenced him to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail.

Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, 

photographed in 2012

(AFP Photo)

His wife Ensaf Haidar, who fled to Canada with his children, hailed the award as "a message of hope and courage" which came just two days after she warned that her husband's flogging was expected to resume.

"I hope that this prize is going to help advance" Badawi's cause and allow him to rejoin his family, Haidar told AFP.

She said she had not spoken to him in six days and was not sure if he even knew that he had won the prize. "When I last spoke with him his morale was low, so I hope this news gives him hope," she said.

'A message to his torturers'

The award was also hailed by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) which said he had played a major role in promoting freedom of expression and attempting to foster public debate in Saudi Arabia.

"Raif has spoken up for all Saudis who simply dream of enjoying the same rights as other human beings. He has paid dearly for his commitment and this Sakharov Prize sends a clear and strong message to his torturers," said FIDH president Karim Lahiji.

Born on January 13, 1984, Badawi studied economics then went on to run an English-language and computer learning institute, says Haidar, who married him in 2001.

He eventually found his calling as a writer, focusing on free speech.

The network that he co-founded was described by Paris-based RSF as "an online discussion network whose aim is to encourage political, religious and social debates in Saudi Arabia".

Supporters of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi protest in Paris against his sentence of 

1,000 lashes for "insulting Islam", on May 7, 2015 (AFP Photo/Stephane de Sakutin)

In a blog posting last year which was translated into English, Badawi wrote: "It requires courage to respect others' views, to appreciate others' beliefs and choices along with their right to believe them."

RSF named Badawi as one of three winners of its press freedom prize last year.

Sentence upheld

After his arrest, a court in the Red Sea city of Jeddah sentenced him in 2013 to seven years in jail and 600 lashes for insulting Islam and setting up the liberal network.

An appeals court overturned the original verdict, sending Badawi's case back for retrial with his sentence increased last year to 10 years and 1,000 lashes. The sentence was upheld by a Saudi court in June.

Citing an informed source, Badawi's wife on Tuesday said Saudi authorities had "given the green light to the resumption of Raif Badawi's flogging", saying it would take place "soon" at the prison where he is being held. The information was posted on a website dedicated to her husband's plight.

Ensaf Haidar, wife of jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, in Berlin on May 21,

 2015 prior to the Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience Awards 

2015 ceremony (AFP Photo/John Macdougall)

Britain on Wednesday announced that a Briton facing the threat of flogging in Saudi Arabia for being caught with home-made wine is to be released from custody.

The prestigious Sakharov human rights prize is given every year to honour individuals who combat intolerance, fanaticism and oppression.

Last year, it was awarded to Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege for helping victims of gang rapes by soldiers.

Past winners include Pakistani education campaigner Malala Yousafzai, late South African president Nelson Mandela and Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

Related Articles:

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Saudi Arabia postpones flogging of blogger Badawi for third week

Saudi blogger Raif Badawi’s case referred to supreme court, says his wife

Saudi postpones blogger lashing on medical grounds

Protesters call for the release of Raif Badawi outside the Saudi embassy

in The Hague, Netherlands. Photograph: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto/Rex

Israeli MPs vote to make Arabic compulsory in schools

Yahoo – AFP, Joe Dyke, 29 Oct 2015

Students listen during class in the Israeli Arab village of Jish on May 1, 2009

(AFP Photo/Ahmad Gharabli)

Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli lawmakers voted Wednesday to make Arabic classes compulsory for students from the age of six, in a move backers hoped would help improve ties between Israeli Jews and Arabs.

The vote came amid increasing tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, with a wave of deadly attacks on Israelis and clashes at protests in the occupied territories.

Israel's parliament, the Knesset, voted unanimously in favour of the bill in first reading on Wednesday, with about half of all deputies in attendance.

It will now be studied in committee before returning to parliament for a second vote.

Both Arabic and Hebrew are official languages of Israel, but while the vast majority of Israeli Arabs speak Hebrew, Arabic is not widely spoken among the Jewish population.

The bill was introduced by lawmaker Oren Hazan, of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightwing Likud Party, who said it was meant to reach out to Arab Israelis.

"Language is a door to culture," he told AFP. "I am looking reality in the eyes and I understand there is no possibility to walk to peace without understanding each other."

Arab Israelis, the descendants of Palestinians who remained on their land after the creation of Israel in 1948 and who are citizens of the Jewish state, make up about 18 percent of its population.

However they often complain of discrimination.

Hand in Hand, a centre for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel, welcomed the vote, with its chief executive Shuli Dichter calling it "a good and important decision".

'Basis for living together'

"Daily communication is the basis for living together in a shared society. However, it is only the first step. Knowing the other side's culture and its core narratives are no less important for achieving that end."

The surge in violence in recent weeks has seen nine Israelis killed in attacks.

Many of the attackers have been shot dead, including one in Hebron on Wednesday. Along with those killed in anti-Israeli protests, 60 Palestinians have died in the unrest, as well as one Arab Israeli.

Some have compared the wave of violence to the two previous Palestinian intifadas, or uprisings, the last of which took place in the early 2000s.

Members of both the Jewish and Arab communities say they are fearful of the other.

Hazan said the classes could help ease such concerns.

"In the last few months the intifada is rising in Israel," he said.

"When people stand in the bus station and they hear (Arabic) next to them, automatically... they maybe think that somebody is going to do something bad to them -– just because they don't understand."

He pointed out that the ancestors of many Jews in Israel, himself included, came from the Arab world.

One potential sticking point may be around ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools which have a different curriculum to mainstream Israeli schools.

However Hazan said every official school in Israel would be bound by the law.

An Israeli activist holds a banner during a rally demanding fresh Israeli-Palestinian

peace talks, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the killing of Prime Minister

Yitzhak Rabin, in Tel Aviv on October 24, 2015 (AFP Photo/Jack Guez)

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Saudi tells UK it 'won't be lectured to' on human rights

Yahoo – AFP, 26 Oct 2015

Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (R), Saudi Arabia's 

ambassador to the UK, speaks to Britain's Prince Harry during a Jubilee lunch 

at Windsor Castle, west of London, on May 18, 2012 (AFP Photo/Dominic Lipinski)

London (AFP) - Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Britain criticised Monday the breaching of "mutual respect" between the two countries, adding that the Gulf kingdom "will not be lectured to by anyone".

The envoy's comments come after Britain this month cancelled a bid to provide training to Saudi Arabia's penal system, as criticism mounts over the absolute monarchy's human rights record.

Saudi Ambassador Mohammed Bin Nawaf Bin Abdulaziz spoke of his country's economic importance to Britain, and of the value of Saudi cooperation on security matters.

Saudi Arabia's legal code is based on

Islamic sharia law (AFP Photo/Taha Saleh)

"We want this relationship to continue, but we will not be lectured to by anyone," Abdulaziz wrote in an opinion piece in Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper.

"To further our shared strategic interests in the years ahead as we confront a variety of threats, it is crucial that Saudi Arabia be treated with the respect it has unwaveringly afforded the United Kingdom."

The ambassador's blunt and public criticism is unusual for Saudi Arabia, which has in the past preferred closed-door diplomacy in its relations with allies.

The kingdom has become more vocal in recent years with the intensification of conflicts in Syria and Yemen, and in response to the US nuclear deal with Iran.

There has been growing concern in Britain over several Saudi human rights cases in the last few months.

The family of a septuagenarian Briton caught with home-made wine in Saudi Arabia have pleaded for the government to intervene following reports that he is going to be flogged.

A prominent Saudi blogger has been sentenced to the same punishment.

The kingdom also plans to execute young pro-democracy activist Ali al-Nimr, sparking a global outcry.

New leftist opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn raised Nimr's case with Prime Minister David Cameron, urging him to intervene.

"One recent example of this mutual respect being breached was when Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition, claimed that he had convinced Prime Minister David Cameron to cancel a prison consultancy contract with Saudi Arabia," Abdulaziz wrote.

"If the extensive trade links between the two countries are going to be subordinate to certain political ideologies, then this vital commercial exchange is going to be at risk."

Saudi Arabia is Britain's most important trade partner in the Middle East and was its biggest market for arms exports last year.

Cameron also says Saudi Arabia is a key partner on security issues, and has claimed Saudi intelligence has helped saved British lives.

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Matthew message (Channelled by Suzanne Ward, October 19, 2015)

Matthew Ward - October 19, 2015

Matthew Ward

With loving greetings from all souls at this station, this is Matthew. Earth is orbiting in astral planes wherein vibrations are impacting your society at a quickening pace. As linear time is “crunching up,” everything in your world is being pushed more swiftly toward remedy, resolution or final moment, and third density karmic experiences are moving faster toward completion.

This acceleration is causing the Illuminati to take irrationally desperate measures to cling to their remnants of control in New York City and Washington, DC. Often fingers have pointed at the United States for self-serving interference in other countries’ affairs, and with justification—all significant federal actions from Day One have been the work of individuals in the Illuminati’s Rockefeller faction within that nation’s government and military forces, all without the knowledge of the citizenry, who mistakenly thought their voices and votes counted.

Let us tell you what evolved civilizations have long observed about your world. People ruled by other corrupt governments knew they were captives of their political systems; however, only recently and only some United States citizens are realizing that they’ve been duped into believing they lived in “the land of the free” and what they’ve been told generation after generation: We must fight our enemies who want to destroy our freedoms and democratic way of life.

Thus, as your world reels from aerial strikes on Doctors without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, a tragedy stemming from Illuminati madness, the blame falls on the United States via the wrongful assumption that the country’s Commander-in-Chief authorized the unconscionable attack. The fact is, behind the scenes President Obama and others in positions of influence—primarily individuals in the US and in China; Israelis who know Netanyahu’s dark intentions to foment WWIII; Russian President Vladimir Putin; Prince William, Duke of Cambridge; and Pope Francis—have been collaborating to uproot all of the far-reaching tentacles of the Illuminati’s Rockefeller and Rothschild factions.

That attack on the hospital; explosions at a peace rally in Ankara, Turkey; clashes between Israelis and Palestinians; the situation in Syria; and shootings in the United States have caused some to view deadly violence and other prevalent conditions globally as “unsolvable problems.” Dear ones, none of the issues of your concern, which also include effects of climate change, lack of clean water, deforestation, near extinction of some animals, diminishing bee population, widespread surveillance, unjust legal and justice systems, enforced vaccinations, massive impoverishment and rampant pollution as well as war mentality, bigotry, greed and ignorance of truths is unsolvable!

Everything happening in your world is due to Earth’s ascension into increasingly lighter energy planes wherein negatively-based activity is more quickly and emphatically running out its energetic course. However, in some circles this is deemed evidence that “end times” are at hand. We know this isn’t your belief, but we think you will enjoy knowing what God told my mother about that concept several years ago:

“Those souls who are intent upon having an Armageddon, so they shall! But for you who aren’t intent upon having that sort of ‘future,” you WON’T! You can stay within the light and rise into higher and higher dimensions of closeness, understanding, awareness. There are no strict rules that are so complex or rigorous that you and anyone else aren’t capable of adhering to them. All that is required is to live within the light! Or in simplest terms: BE KIND.”

And, with thanks to the light—the same energy as love and the most powerful force in the cosmos—your world is overflowing with kindness and godly works as more and more people are “seeing the light.” Joyously greet this unfolding of consciousness connecting with soul-level knowledge—this, not bodies rising into the skies, is personal ascension—the shedding of all of third density’s negative characteristics and harmful behavior to self and others.

As for other aforementioned issues of concern, first we say, do not be fearful about anything! We cannot say too often that the energy of fear refuels those with dark tendencies and the universal law of attraction is in constant operation!

Now then, to address those issues. Harsh effects of climate change will ease as Earth gets closer to attaining her once-moderate climate worldwide; if necessary, residents of sea-level island areas will be relocated in plenty of time to avert danger. Ongoing assistance of your universal family includes neutralizing or ameliorating harmful effects of toxic elements in vaccines and all sources of pollution; and, added to your own technologies that are emerging from Illuminati suppression, your family will introduce advanced technologies that can remedy environmental damage so quickly that you will be astounded. Bees will return and eventually wildlife will rebound to sustainable numbers except for the few species in arctic climes that will not adapt to those areas’ rising temperatures. Peaceful, trustworthy behavior in your society will end the need for surveillance; all unfair or injurious national laws, justice systems, regulations, and cultural traditions will end incrementally; and, as your world’s resources are fairly allocated, poverty will be eliminated.

It is Gaia’s desire and intention that her planetary body be restored to its original health and beauty and Earth’s humankind flourish in abundance and live in harmony with each other and all of Nature. And so it shall be! Planetary ascension—the world transformation process that you went to Earth to assist in—is assured! Personal ascension is a choice that each person makes, and part of attaining spiritual and conscious enlightenment is knowing the soul you are. Most heartily we have welcomed all of your relevant questions and now shall answer those for which there was no space in previous messages.

“How do I ‘go within’ to ask a question and how will I know if the answer is from soul level or my conscious thought?” In solitude and comfort, visualize yourself in the midst of golden white light, think or say aloud what you want to know, then quiet your mind and simply BE. You may want to see if meditative music is relaxing or a distraction, and it could be helpful to ask first a question that can be answered “yes” or “no.” The answer may come immediately or take a few moments, and when it does, it may be a word, phrase or sentence, which may be audible or appear as a printed sign or move in tickertape fashion; or one or more mental images; or a sensation that clearly indicates “yes” or “no.”

If what you see, hear or strongly sense is similar to what you had been thinking, or hoping for, prior to “going within,” it doesn’t mean that the answer is your own thought; it could be confirmation that your conscious thought and soul knowledge expressed as intuition are closely connected. And, please don’t be disheartened if nothing happens at first try, or even a few times—like every other worthwhile endeavor, practice leads to improvement.

“Was it the person Jesus or his soul who knew how to walk on water and turn a few fish and bread loaves into enough food for the multitudes or were those stories made up to substantiate the claim that he is ‘the only son of God’?” Jesus and his soul were one and the same being, just as every other soul-self is. He knew that everyone has the innate capacity to manifest whatever the person desires and can visualize; that’s why his teachings included that whatever he could do, everyone else could, too. He did walk slightly above water on an occasion when there was a need to do so, and one time there was a need to turn a small amount of food into enough for a hungry crowd. I noted both in my journal.

A conversation with my mother soon after we started communicating in 1994, when I was still living in Nirvana, answers a number of queries about the soul’s origin and its relationship with the cumulative soul, and I’ve asked her to copy those parts.

The soul is the very essence of life as it first sprang from Creator. It is an indestructible living entity of light energy that may have a physical body, etheric body or astral body, or it may exist in free spirit only. Our souls, manifested by God through His co-creating powers with Creator, are expressions of the love and light of God and contain in microcosm every essence of God. In any of its forms, the soul is an inviolate independent being at the same time it exists inseparably with God and Creator and all other souls.

The soul is the power behind everything that exists on Earth. It is the life force of all its parts that it creates for ever-greater experiencing. At every level of evolvement, each soul part is an independent self with intelligence, characteristics, choices, goals and all the other life elements that make each person a unique being.

Each individual lifetime of a soul is its personage. The sum of a soul's personages is the cumulative soul, and all knowledge gained by each personage is available to all. Thus, as each one melds into the cumulative soul, bringing the wisdom of that lifetime’s experiences, every individual personage evolves just as the cumulative soul does. I believe the simplest explanation of the cumulative soul is this: It is the composite of all its parts starting with the very first division of itself into an independent lifetime for diversity in experiencing.

Where do cumulative souls reside?

There is no specific place of residence because a cumulative soul is not an individual entity, but rather the indivisible sum of all its personages wherever they are living, and it grows as each one adds its lifetime experiences to the ever-changing composite. Actually, a better description of a cumulative soul than I first gave you is that it is a force field that derives its entire essence from all its aspects wherever they are throughout the universe.

Do you personally know the other personages in your cumulative soul or do you only have access to their knowledge?

I know those who are in this realm and some of us have become friends. Some are spending a lifetime on Earth, and I know very well who they are! Some have moved so far toward the light that our energy densities are incompatible, so a meeting isn’t possible, and others have regressed far from the light into lower densities, and I’m surely not interested in going there! Some have chosen lifetimes out of this galaxy, where I don’t travel often, so I’m barely acquainted with them.

Each has its own soul growth to accomplish, Mother. Wherever the other personages are experiencing for their individual growth, we’re always within the familial bonding of our cumulative soul. But it isn’t necessary that we meet or share lifetime interests or know all the details of each other’s lives. What we do share is the essential knowledge of our collective awareness, otherwise all the individual souls’ learning would be wasted.

The cumulative soul can advance from its station toward the light only by the advancement of its personages. Therefore, each one not only has the benefit of the cumulative soul’s composite knowledge, but it is continuously given encouragement at soul level to master its chosen lessons so the cumulative soul can evolve. However, that is not self-serving—with that soul’s advancement, all of its personages also have the opportunity to evolve. But, depending upon the free will choices of each, the personage can either grow toward the light or regress so far as to become trapped in base energy.

If a personage becomes trapped, how does that affect its cumulative soul's energy?

The lifetime energy registration that consigns a personage to the base energy placement does not affect its cumulative soul because that personage's unique energy stream made its own way entirely by its free will choices. The cumulative soul may encourage its personages, but it can't ever interfere with their free will. However, out of love for all its personages, the cumulative soul may request divine grace to assist any that become trapped in base energy.

Are the individual souls always aware of everything their cumulative soul knows?

Let me compare this with your memory, Mother. Nothing you have learned or experienced is ever lost in your memory system, but you can't remember everything at the same time–it would be overwhelming! Furthermore, many of your experiences were so trivial that they were irrelevant to subsequent happenings and never returned to your conscious mind, yet all are in your memory bank. It's the same with the personages of the cumulative soul as they experience their respective lifetimes.

That makes sense. Matthew, with all these parts of your cumulative soul, I just want to be absolutely sure that you are ONLY my Matthew and nobody else!

Oh, Mother, absolutely I am Matthew and no one else! Every personage is its own soul and no one else! The cumulative soul is the synthesis of all its independently functioning soul-selves.

But it sounds as if every soul that divides itself becomes a cumulative soul, so you could do the same and become one, too.

Mother, I realize that in my eagerness to answer your questions, sometimes my efforts result in confusion rather than clarification. The terms I've given you for the various aspects of soul expression—cumulative soul, personages, soul fragments or sparks and such—are meant only to show the soul's long journey striving through multiple lifetimes to return to its beginning in the perfect love and light of Creator.

In this realm we don't need differentiation of terms, as the soul's energy registration in the universe is evidence of its evolutionary station. Since each soul is its own inviolate self regardless of its station or the number of its progeny, we think of each simply as "soul." And that is how we speak of each one to you unless we are trying to explain the soul growth stages through its independently functioning aspects, or the inextricable and eternal connection of each soul with God and all other souls in the universe.

Thank you, Mother, and yes, I see that once again must leave remaining questions about the soul for the next message. We hope that our answers thus far have been convincing: You are limitlessly powerful, unconditionally loved divine beings in the eternal Oneness of All.

LOVE and PEACE

Suzanne Ward

Website: The Matthew Books

Email: suzy@matthewbooks.com..

Joko Cuts Short US Trip to Deal With Fire, Haze Crisis

Jakarta Globe, Basten Gokkon, October 27, 2015

President Joko Widodo inspects a firefighting operation on burning peat forest in
Pulang Pisau district, Central Kalimantan, on Sept. 24. The president has cut short
 his inaugural visit to the United States to coordinate a response to the worsening
forest fires. (AFP Photo/Romeo Gacad)

Jakarta. President Joko Widodo has decided to cut short his first official visit to the United States as a forest fire crisis blazes out of control back home.

“The president has received recent updates from the minister for politics, legal and security affairs minister regarding the haze that has affected more Indonesian people,” Arrmanatha Nasir, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, told the Jakarta Globe late on Monday.

He said Joko and part of his delegation would immediately return home on Tuesday after attending scheduled events in Washington, D.C., where the president met with President Barack Obama, congressmen and US executives on Monday.

Joko’s return means he will not attend much-anticipated meetings with technology executives from Apple, Google and Microsoft, among others. Representing him in Silicon Valley instead, Arrmanatha said, will be the communications and trade ministers, as well as the head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM).

Arrmanatha said the president would fly to either South Sumatra or Central Kalimantan once he arrives back in the country. Both provinces are among the hardest hit by forest fires generating intense volumes of health-threatening haze.

A top legislator earlier on Monday lashed out at the president for going abroad just as the fire and haze crisis worsens. Up to three-quarters of Indonesia is affected to varying degrees by the haze.

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Thousands of Israelis rally for peace talks with Palestinians

Yahoo – AFP, Laurent Lonzano, 24 Oct 2015

An Israeli activist holds a banner during a rally demanding fresh Israeli-Palestinian 

peace talks, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the killing of Prime Minister

Yitzhak Rabin, in Tel Aviv on October 24, 2015 (AFP Photo/Jack Guez)

Tel Aviv (AFP) - Thousands of Israelis rallied Saturday for fresh Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the killing of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The demonstrators chanted "Jews and Arabs don't want to hate each other" and "Israel, Palestine, two states for two peoples" as they came together amid a new upswing in violence which makes prospects for peace in the decades-old conflict look deeply gloomy.

They gathered at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square, the site where the Nobel peace laureate was gunned down by a rightwing Jewish extremist at the age of 73 on November 4, 1995.

Then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin 

lights a flame on Jerusalem day at a 

memorial for soldiers who fell, on May 19, 

1993 (AFP Photo/Menahem Kahana)

Activist group Peace Now -- which organised the rally along with the left-wing Meretz party and others -- estimated there were some 6,000 people attending.

Daniel Dojon told AFP he came "because the situation is crazy. I am not talking about safety but the lack of (political) progress, the lack of hope. Israeli politicians are becoming more and more extreme."

Another protester, who identified himself only as Zeev, 67, blamed the lack of a peace process for the current violence.

"It will further deteriorate if we think that being passive is the answer."

Dov Kredo, 60, who attended the peace rally where Rabin was killed, came from Galilee in northern Israel, and said he feels "very pessimistic" about the current situation.

"It is much easier for people to answer the call of fear and hatred," he said.

State memorial

Rabin's killer, Yigal Amir, had hoped to derail the 1993 Oslo accords signed by Rabin and the Palestinians, a landmark agreement aimed at resolving the decades-old conflict.

He is currently serving a life sentence.

According to the Hebrew calendar the anniversary falls now, rather than in November.

On Sunday President Reuven Rivlin hosts a candle-lighting tribute in Rabin's memory and on Monday there will be a state memorial ceremony alongside his grave in the national cemetery on Jerusalem's Mount Herzl.

A picture taken on September 13, 1993 shows US President Bill Clinton (C) 

standing between PLO leader Yasser Arafat (R) and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzahk 

Rabin (L) as they shake hands for the first time, at the White House in Washington DC

 (AFP Photo/J. David Ake)

"The path that was stopped in 1995 is very much the path that needs to be taken today," Peace Now spokeswoman Anat Ben Nun told AFP.

Israeli-Palestinians tensions, always simmering, have surged recently in a wave of Palestinian knife and gun attacks, as well as clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.

Since the start of this month, 52 Palestinians and one Israeli Arab have died in clashes or while carrying out attacks.

Eight Israelis have died in attacks. One Israeli Jew and one Eritrean have been killed after being mistaken for attackers.

"What we see now is very much related to the path not taken since 1995," Ben Nun said, adding that Saturday night's protest was aimed at the policies of the incumbent right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The most recent attempt to resolve the conflict collapsed in April 2014 amid bitter recriminations on both sides.

A woman visits the statue of ex-Israeli PM #Rabin on 20th anniversary of his assassination https://t.co/GNuv1QlUCx pic.twitter.com/pnA0jf5kQD

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) October 25, 2015

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Pea-sized gesture: Arabs, Jews who share hummus get discount

Yahoo – AFP, October 21, 2015

Kobi Tzafrir, serving diners on October 21, 2015, offers half off regular menu 

prices when Jewish and Arab patrons share tables at his Hummus Bar restaurant

in the central Israeli town of Kfar Vitkin (AFP Photo/Jack Guez)

Jerusalem (AFP) - Call it a pea-sized gesture, but the Israeli owner of a hummus restaurant cooked it up anyway.

Kobi Tzafrir, an Israeli Jew who runs the Hummus Bar in Kfar Vitkin near the Mediterranean coast, said he was offering 50 percent off for any table where Jews and Arabs sit together.

It is a bid to encourage co-existence even in the most difficult times, with a wave of violence and unrest since the start of the month having raised fears of a full-scale Palestinian uprising.

Many Palestinians, Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews weary from violence would likely look upon the effort with a great deal of scepticism.

But Tzafrir said: "I heard and saw many cruel and harsh things from both Arabs and Jews in these difficult circumstances, and I saw the stress and tension. But I believe that we must live together."

He said a number of groups had already taken advantage of the deal, but did not give a number.

At least one other similar effort has occurred. In the old city of Acre in northern Israel, the owners of the Al Marsa restaurant, Moussa Alaa and Marwan Sawaed, invited the owners of nearby Jewish restaurants to join them for dinner.

"Acre is a mixed city, and the situation in the country affects the Arabs and Jews," Sawaed told AFP.

When violence starts, "the Arabs go with the Arabs and the Jews go with the Jews, and this affects Acre."

"We must live together for the solution. Sitting around a table eating and talking in a civilised manner is the best way to live a common life."

Arab Israelis make up around 17.5 percent of the population of Israel and are largely supportive of Palestinians in the occupied territories.

They are the descendants of Palestinians who remained after the creation of Israel in 1948, and they hold Israeli citizenship.

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