|
|
| By israelinsider staff May 3, 2007 |
|
| |
 Bookmark to del.icio.us |
| |
Well over 100,000 citizens braved a hot and muggy night in Tel Aviv to deliver a clear message to Israel's Prime Minister: if you don't go of your own will, as one reservist on the podium vowed, "we will expel you!" Others adopted the idiom of Donald Trump and said: "Olmert, you're fired." The protest rally, one of the largest in Israel's history united left and right, religious and secular, in calling for accountability and new elections.
Organizers put the number of protesters closer to 200,000. A banner reading "Failures, Go Home!" hung behind the podium at one end of the square.
Bereaved parents were the first to address the crowd. Asnag Vishneri, mother of a soldier killed in Gaza, said, "We demand a leadership that is not cut off from the nation and that isn't led by egos and political calculations. I call on the government to look into the eyes of the real losers of this failed war, the bereaved families, and ask us for forgiveness."
Uzi Dayan, the chairman of the Tafnit (Turnaround) Party and organizer of the rally, called on the prime minister to stop clinging to power and "to do the right thing: Resign."
"This square has seen happy and sad days and many demonstrations, but there have never been so many Israelis from across the spectrum, religious, secular, right, left, from the cities and from the countryside, the old and young. We are all brothers," Dayan said.
"The eyes of the enemies of Israel are also fixed on this square. Don't touch us. The fact that people have gathered here does not testify to Israel's weakness but rather its strength. It shows that our society is determined, full of hope and democratic," he added.
"Today this democracy faces a danger. A committee appointed by the prime minister has told him, 'Mr. Olmert you failed.' But our prime minister refuses to resign, thereby undermining the democratic foundation of the country."
"Stop clinging to your chair. We will forgive you if you break your promises. Olmert, do the right thing and resign."
Addressing the prime minister, Dayan said, "Do you think that after what the Winograd Committee said, you can send soldiers to battle and take fateful decisions? The only answer is you can't. The spins are over, the manipulations are over, don't stall for time. You can no longer lead the country."
The crowd responded repeatedly with chants calling for Olmert to resign and "go home."
"The Israeli people don't trust Olmert and we can't go on like this. What you hear tonight is the voice of the people and you would need to be deaf not to hear a voice this loud," Dayan told Reuters.
Ronny Zvigenbaum, representing a grassroots movement of reserve soldiers, said Olmert's failures were "unforgivable and written in blood."
"Today you are trying to keep your job, so we have to keep our lives. Every day you are in power you endanger the state. Look at this full square, prime minister, it says it all. We are not spin doctors for the government but ordinary citizens -- and we call on you to resign," he said.
"Look us in the eyes and pay close attention to what we are telling you, Olmert: Go home! All the tricks and shticks and corrupt 'combinot' [tricky deals] that you try to pull will not help you," Roni Ziegenbaum says from the podium. "You have been indicted by every one of us.
"Every second that you stay on as prime minister you endanger our lives! We will not give you the oppurtunity to endanger our lives again. Our lives are not worthless. If you don't leave, we will expel you!"
"We're here to tell Olmert ... to go," protester Yigal Armoni said. "He's on the edge of a cliff. All he needs is a small push, but tonight we'll give him a big one."
Olmert adviser Tal Zilberstein said the prime minister would not reconsider his decision not to resign.
|
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
