Under the banner “Netanyahu said ‘no.’ Israelis say, ‘yes,’” peace and Left movements, parties and groups plan to rally for a Palestinian state on Saturday night, June 4, 7 p.m. in Kikar Rabin in the center of Tel Aviv.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke in Washington, Tuesday, about “recognizing a Palestinian state achieved through negotiations, but he put forward so many pre-conditions that he made such talks impossible”, said MK Dov Khenin (Hadash, the Democratic and Peace Front – Communist Party of Israel). “Netanyahu shut the door in front of peace, the Palestinian people and the Palestinian Authority,” Khenin said.
“The outcome is that we won’t see any negotiations, the ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories and a new war real danger in the Middle East” warned Khenin. Instead the Palestinians must continue to pursue statehood at the United Nations, Khenin said.
The Chairman of Hadash, MK Mohammed Barakeh, also attacked the speech. “The extremist position that Netanyahu presented in Washington, wrapped in rhetoric and cliché’s, constitutes a final closing of the door to renewed negotiations and an embarkation on a course of collision with the Palestinians and the entire world, towards the inevitable ‘diplomatic tsunami’ predicted by Defense Minister [Ehud] Barak. In the longer term it may actually turn out that Netanyahu – the very man who demands of the entire world to recognize the principle of ‘A Jewish State’ – will be the one who drives the Palestinians to despair of achieving their own state and into demanding a vote for the Knesset instead,” he said.
The Communist Party of Israel (CPI) and Hadash initiated the protests against continuing of Israeli occupation and for a massive Jewish and Arab rally for an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as Arab-Palestinian capital.
Peace groups like Peace Now and Gush Shalom are among a wide coalition of peace and Left groups and who are organizing the rally in June 4, along with members of the CPI – Hadash, Meretz and Labor parties.
