Gush Shalom: After Gaza Atrocity

Gush Shalom: After Gaza Atrocity

After Gaza Atrocity:
demonstrations in Tel-Aviv and Haifa against bloodthirsty government

International release

After yesterday's "end of the Beit Hanoun operation" - we now know it was not the end. The army withdrew only its troops from the town itself, to place them around it, immediately starting a nightly artillery bombardment which erased a whole family. As it now stands 19 people among them old and young, men, women and children were killed in their beds. Withdrawing to attack more strongly - it's like a metaphor for the Disengagement of the Gaza Strip.

Here follows the translation of our Hebrew press release, and after that links to English-language reports in the Israeli press as well as the Peace Now communique.

The following press release was sent out today by Gush Shalom, representing the Gaza Coalition

Nov. 8, 2006
Protest against Gaza Atrocity
Today (Wednesday, Nov. 8) in Tel Aviv and Haifa

We reject with disgust the lame apologies offered by government speakers. Even if there had been no explicit intention to perpetrate a massacre and kill civilians and children sleeping quietly in their beds, this massacre was the inevitable result of the army's uncontrolled rampage in the Gaza Strip, fully authorized by the government.

In supposed "retaliation" for the shooting of missiles which killed nobody in Israel during the entire past year, the army killed nearly a hundred Palestinians in just the past week. We call upon the government to end the carnage and enter immediate talks with the elected Palestinian government in order to achieve a complete cease- fire and prisoner release, on the way to full negotiations for peace and an end to the occupation.

We further call upon all who care for peace and human decency everywhere – including, and especially, those who consider themselves friends of Israel – to raise their voice in protest at the war madness which seized those who hold power in Israel, and to hold protest vigils outside all Israeli embassies and consulates.

In Tel-Aviv, Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc) and the other peace movements in the Coalition Against the Gaza Siege will join the protest demonstration organised by Peace Now, scheduled for 5.00 pm today outside the Defence Ministry gates (Kaplan Street, Tel-Aviv) . (We were there only yesterday at the call of the Anarchists...)

In Haifa, a protest rally will take place at 6.00 pm at the junction of Allenby St. and el-Jabal (Ha-Tzionut) St. (near Iskander Restaurant).

See also:

Sources: Most of the dead are women and children 19 Palestinians killed in IDF shelling in northern Gaza
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785380.html

Palestine's Qana Massacre
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3325489,00.html

18 members of extended family killed by IDF fire in Gaza
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1162378349443&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

Peace Now press release: 8/11/06

"THIS GOVERNMENT HAS BLOOD ON ITS HANDS"
PEACE NOW CALL TO DEMONSTRATE TODAY

In light of the events this morning Peace Now will be holding a demonstration condemning the actions in Gaza.
Today, Wednesday, November 8, 2006 at 17:00 opposite the Defense Ministry, Kaplan St, Tel Aviv

Yariv Oppenheimer, Peace Now General Director:

"This government has blood on its hands. Instead of searching for political solutions, the government is only interested in pursuing military options"

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