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| By: Israel Insider staff |
| Published: June 9, 2007 |
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It was supposed to be a "peace rally" to mark the 40th anniversary of the June 6, 1967 Six-day War in an unusual way: Palestinian groups inviting Israelis to join them in a call for a two-state solution in the village Anata near Jerusalem. A front-page advertisement in the Ha'aretz newspaper asked Israelis to come "so that at last we will see that among you and among us there are quite a few [people] ready for compromises for peace."
Israelis were understandably wary: in the past peaceful or unsuspecting visitors entering Arab communities have been attacked and killed. Perhaps they were not impressed by the security arrangement. "We have arranged with Fatah to secure everybody's safety," the ad said.
The promise was signed by Suliman Khatib, 35, a Fatah member who spent 10 years in an Israeli jail for stabbing a soldier. He now coordinates a group called "Combatants for Peace. "
Few Israelis, in any case, decided to come. They were the lucky ones, it turns out. According to the wire report, "The event seemed to be more a platform for raising Palestinian grievances and demands than a meeting of enemies eager to make up."
Organizational problems may have been partly to blame. The buses that were supposed to take Israelis from Jerusalem to the rally did not stop at the designated meeting point. Those few that did come, such as singer David Broza, who came to perform because he thought it was a "special occasion," left after the speeches droned on endlessly and people started leaving in droves.
Gershon Baskin, one of the event's promoters, admitted: "We could and should have been more people." He said that two days later there were 7000 Palestinians at a similar event just north of Tulkarem. Similar? Israelis were not allowed in.
The message in Anata was not particularly friendly. In bombastic propaganda style, "a three-story school building, with iron mesh screens covering its windows, was decked with a huge Palestinian flag and a yellow and black portrait of Barghouti in an Israeli prison uniform, holding his handcuffed hands high up, defiantly." He is serving several life sentences on multiple counts of murder.
The message coming from leaders who spoke was hardly one of reconciliation:
"Jibril Rajoub, who headed the Preventive Security Service in the West Bank and was later the Palestinian president's national security adviser, was applauded when he declared there would be no peace and no security for Israel unless the Palestinians have their own state.
Speaking in Arabic, he told Israelis not to rely on the wall to protect them. "There are a million ways to get to Tel Aviv," he said. Listeners might be forgiven for understanding this as a veiled threat.
And there were the usual calls to flood pre-1967 Israel with "refugees" and their offspring. "Amid applause and whistles he reiterated the Palestinians' demands for a return to the pre-1967 war lines; Jerusalem must be the Palestinian state's capital; and the refugee issue should be resolved in accordance with "international legitimacy." It was an allusion to UN Resolution 194 that says: "Refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so."
Or else. Unless the truce leads to "fair and just negotiations, we will never surrender," he declared. Gradually Israelis drifted away.
Public opinion surveys in Israel have shown that 60 percent to 70 percent of Israelis believe that if the Palestinians could destroy Israel, they would do so, Tel Aviv University professor Ephraim Yaar, who conducts a monthly Peace Index, said. These findings are "quite constant," he said. The Anata rally did not do much to change that impression, the wire reporter concluded.
Read the full report from UPI.
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