MORE than 60,000 demonstrators
turned out in Tel Aviv for the largest peace rally since the intifada
erupted 19 months ago and to demand that Israel withdraw from the
Palestinian territories.
"We believe there were about 60,000 people here tonight,"
Brigadier General Uriel Bar-Lev, head of the Yarkon police, told
AFP.
The square and all the surrounding streets were packed with demonstrators
waving placards and banners, bearing slogans such as "End the
occupation of the (Palestinian) territories" and "The
occupation is killing us all".
People in wheelchairs and mothers with babies in pushchairs mixed
with the elderly and crowds of young people, many of whom were dancing
to the popular music playing throughout the square.
A helicopter hovered overhead as a rock band, headed by popular
contemporary Israeli singer Aviv Gefen, entertained the crowds with
songs of love and peace.
Peace Now, one of the rally organisers, said the protest was the
biggest peace demonstration since the outbreak of the Palestinian
intifada in September 2000.
"This is the first time since the intifada that we have had
such a massive demonstration with people in clear opposition to
the government," Peace Now spokesman Arye Arnon told AFP.
"This is radical. This turnout is on the basis that one day
we will return to the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as the capital
of two states and the elimination of the settlements," Arnon
said.
"This is much bigger than expected," the leader of the
main opposition Meretz party, Yossi Sarid, told AFP at the rally.
"It is a very important message to the Israeli government,
the Arab world and the international community. There is a peace
camp in Israel and it is raising its voice," he said.
"From tonight, (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon can be
assured there is no consensus for a military operation" in
Gaza, he added.
Peace Now spokeswoman Gali Golan put the number of demonstrators
at over 100,000 but the figure was not confirmed by police.
Speaking from the podium, Sarid said there needed to be an "international
mandate for the (Palestinian) territories".
"If Israel attacks Gaza, they will do it without us,"
he added.
Former justice minister and leading Labour dove Yossi Beilin accused
Sharon of leading the nation into a tragedy.
"We are told Sharon is a man of peace but it is not true:
he doesn't want go to the negotiating table because he has nothing
to say," he said.
"Sharon is dragging us into a catastrophe."
"The main thing that killed the peace process happened here
seven years ago when Yitzak Rabin was killed," Beilin said,
his voice breaking with emotion.
"I promise Yitzak Rabin that we will finish the job."
At one stage, 12 parliamentary deputies and eight former ministers
climbed onto the podium and sang the the Israeli national anthem,
Hatikva, which is Hebrew for 'the hope'.
Emotions ran high as veteran singer Yaffa Yarkoni led the crowd
in a rousing rendition of popular songs from 1948, the year of Israel's
independence.
The rally was organised by the Peace Now movement and an umbrella
group of nine organisations called the Peace Coalition, under the
theme of "Get out of the (Palestinian) territories for the
sake of Israel".
Rabin Square is the site where Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin
was assassinated by a Jewish extremist on November 4, 1995.
Sarid and Beilin were just two of a line-up of seven speakers,
including Israeli author Amos Oz, and Arab-Israeli representative
Sharqi Ghati.
More than 1,000 police were deployed in the area to protect demonstrators
from attacks by either Jewish extremists or Palestinian militants,
a senior police official said earlier in the day.
The singer Yarkoni received death threats after announcing she
would perform at the rally.
An icon in Israel for her songs of war and the country's turbulent
history, Yarkoni caused an outcry recently when she denounced the
army's Operation Defensive Wall in the West Bank.
As the demonstration drew to its close at around 10pm, people began
leaving the square as John Lennon's "Imagine" was played
over loudspeakers.
As the people dispersed, all that remained were heaps of peace
banners, lying in in piles all over the square.
Earlier today, about 150 members of the Arab-Jewish group Taayush
("coexistance" in Arabic) arrived at the Kissufim crossing
point between Israel and the Gaza Strip in a fleet of three buses
calling on soldiers to return home.
Agence France-Presse (12may02)
