Peace activists protest beach massacre
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 6/12/2006

Jewish, Palestinians and international peace activists on Sunday protested the extermination by the Israeli occupation army of an entire Palestinian family who were picnicking on the Gaza beach on Friday.

Protesters, wearing white T-shirts dyed in red to signify Friday's killings, lied down outside an Israeli checkpoint at Kalandia, 10 kilometers north of Jerusalem.

Abdullah Abu Rahma, head of the Committee against the Separation Wall in Ramallah, who took part in the protest, described the Israeli army as "a Nazi army made up of thugs, hoodlums and common criminals."

"We call on all peace-loving people around the world to pressure Israel to stop this slow-motion genocide against our people. They are killing us one baby at a time, one family at a time. We rely on international public opinion for protection against this evil occupation of our country."

Israeli soldiers scuffled with the protesters, preventing them from going through the checkpoint after declaring it "a closed military zone." The protesters demanded that Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz resign his post which he assumed only a few weeks ago.

In addition to scores of Israeli peace activists, more than two dozen foreigners, many of them affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) took part in the protest.

One placard carried by the protesters read "stop killing the children, prosecute the child-killers." The protest against the latest bloodshed in Gaza is the second of its kind in the past 24 hours.

More than 300 Israeli peace activists, most of them affiliated with the Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc) held a sit-in outside the Tel Aviv Home of Israeli Chief of Staff Dan Hallutz Saturday night.

The protesters, who included at least two leftists Knesset members, called on the Israeli public to speak up against the "crimes of the occupation in Gaza." Dov Hanin, a Leftist MK condemned the killings, saying "the Israeli army was killing children in our name." Among participants in the protest in Tel Aviv was Dana Olmert, the Zionist Prime Minister's daughter.

However, the relatively small number of protesters in both protests in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv seems to reflect the appalling weakness of the Israeli peace movement in Israel where the right-wing and religious camps have been in control of the streets for many years.

Previous Stories:
  Israeli bombing leaves child parent-less   (6/10/2006)
  Israel kills a Palestinian security chief   (6/9/2006)
  US professor on how Zionism and apartheid are alike   (6/9/2006)

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