Thousands March in Jerusalem against the Occupation

Thousands of Jews and Arabs took part in a Jerusalem march against the occupation on Saturday night, April 1. The demonstration’s organizers and media estimated that some 2,000 people marched from west Jerusalem to near the Old City’s Jaffa Gate to a platform adorned with Palestinian, Israeli and red flags.

A broad coalition of left-wing opposition parties Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) and Meretz, peace movements and NGOs organized the event. Slogans such as “Jews and Arabs are not enemies” and “No to a government of annexation” were among chants heard in Hebrew and Arabic.

Hadash MK's Aida Touma-Sliman and Dov Khenin, leading members of the Communist Party of Israel, during the Saturday night march in Jerusalem, April 1, 2017

Hadash MK’s Aida Touma-Sliman and Dov Khenin, leading members of the Communist Party of Israel, during the Saturday night march in Jerusalem, April 1, 2017 (Photo: Zo Hederech communist weekly)

The protest came at a time when those who back the creation of a Palestinian state find it harder for their voices to be heard under the most right-wing government in Israel’s history. Saturday night’s event is the first in a series organized by Standing Together, an umbrella movement consisting of pro-peace organizations and left-wing parties, marking 50 years since the 1967 Six Day War. The rally is meant to “protest against the continued Israeli control over the territories and especially East Jerusalem, and in favor of a peaceful solution and justice for both peoples,” the movement wrote in a statement.

The march began at Moshe Baram Square (Menorah “HaSus” [the horse] Park) in the city’s center and concluded in the Old City with a rally near Jaffa Gate.

The first of the speakers in the rally was Mohammed Abu Hummus, the head of the popular committee of Isawiyah in East Jerusalem, who urged “anyone who believes in the Palestinian people to stand against the racist Israeli government…The left needs to step up and help, take to the streets and demand change”

MK Zehava Galon, the chairperson of Meretz, addressed the rally, saying: “We can’t keep the conflict with the Palestinians on the back burner, when the flame is on top of a barrel bomb. The stabbing attack in the Old City exposes the illusion that it’s possible to deprive an entire people of rights and sovereignty without the desperation turning into horrible hatred and violence.”

Avi Buskila, director of Peace Now, expressed hope for unity: “The rightist settler government and the occupation want hatred to take over hearts and control the streets, with Jews hating Arabs, Mizrahim hating Ashenazim, rightists despising leftists, Ofakim hating Tel Aviv. They are afraid because they know we will win, all of us, Jews and Palestinians, Jerusalemites and Tel Avivians, Mizrahim and Ashkenazim, Ethiopians and Russians, men and women, all of us together will win.”

Hadash MK Aida Touma-Sliman stressed that an Israeli-Palestinian peace is an absolutely necessary condition for advancing the cause of social justice; such a peace includes: evacuation of all Israeli settlements and withdrawal from all the territories conquered in June 1967; establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem, alongside Israel; and solution to the refugee problem in accordance with UN decisions.” “Experience shows that there are close ties between the struggle for a just peace and a popular campaign for social justice,” she said. “A partnership in the struggle, between Jews and Arabs, between women and men, is vital for the campaigns for a just peace and social justice and the defense of democracy, for equality of civil rights, for national rights for the Arab-Palestinian minority in Israel, for equality of women and against any manifestation of racism or discrimination.”