OVER 10,000 MARCH FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN TEL AVIV

10/12/2010

Updated 12/12/2010

Ma’an News Agency

TEL AVIV

Around 10,000 Israelis, Palestinians and refugees demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Friday in protest at a rising tide of extremist sentiment in Israel that they warn is posing a growing threat to democracy in the country.

The protest march moved under the headline "Demonstration (since it's still possible) for democracy".

The march, which organizers said included almost 1,000 refugees and asylum-seekers from Sudan, Somalia and other parts of Africa, was timed to coincide with International Human Rights Day.

"This is one of the most important demonstrations in years. It is important for our message to be heard by the government," one of the organisers, Yariv Oppenheimer, told AFP. 

More than 120 Israeli rights groups and NGOs joined the second annual Human Rights March, organized by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).

On January 5, MPs voted to form a parliamentary inquiry to investigate the funding of rights groups allegedly helping to build war crimes cases abroad against Israeli military personnel.

The parliamentary probe focuses on Breaking the Silence, a group of army veterans who bear witness to abuses they have seen or taken part in during their military service in the occupied Palestinian territories.

As they marched through the streets to Rabin Square, demonstrators raised flags emblazoned with "Human rights apply to everyone" and "Let me live with liberty and dignity," while others read: "Asylum seekers are not criminals."

"It was a show of force by the human rights community in Israel marching in support of human rights, democracy and equality for all of Israel's citizens," ACRI's executive director Hagai El-Ad told AFP.

"It was also an expression of protest against the rising tide of racism and about the government's inaction in advocating equal rights," he said.

"What has happened over the last 18 months is very serious. Wherever you look, there is discrimination," he said, adding it had been "a bad year for human rights" in Israel with increasing attempts to push through racist and anti-democratic bills.

"Democracy is under attack on every front. And attacks on democracy are coming from within the government itself."

At the rally, organizers read out a letter of support from Abdullah Abu Rahmah, a Palestinian activist serving time in jail on charges of "incitement" for his role in organizing non-violent protests against Israel's controversial West Bank separation barrier.

They also read out a letter from a Jewish Israeli from the northern town of Safed who has received threatening letters after having rented out his property to Palestinians.

Peace Now Director-General Yariv Oppenheimer said during the rally that "the Lieberman threat" is more serious than the Iranian threat. 

"The Lieberman threat should worry us all. It is a greater threat than Iran. We must go out and protest," said Oppenheimer.

The move took on national resonance this week after several hundred rabbis signed a paper urging Jews not to rent or sell property to non-Jews.

Meretz MK Nitzan Horowitz spoke during the rally and said that no one should be surprised if the inciting words against Israeli human rights groups will turn into actions and that the persecution will turn into knife blades and bullets. 

"We are here in opposition to religious radicalization, racist laws, and sickening incitement against foreign workers and against those who are not loyal to Lieberman. And now they are putting human rights organizations in the crosshairs. They don't want to investigate the Carmel fire, so what do they investigate? The free people." 

The call was widely slammed as racist and prompted a chorus of condemnation, including from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But there has so far been no move against the signatories, most of whom are state employees.

Any protest from Netanyahoo counts for less than nothing, it is purely for show. That creature would not know truth if it hit him in the nose: his international track record is proof of this.

Horowitz added that Netanyahu is to blame, since he is "encouraging the racist celebration in the Knesset." He addressed Labor chairman Defense Minister Ehud Barak, asking "How are you not ashamed Mr. Barak? You and your party are supporting and enabling the existence of the most racist government in the history of the State of Israel. You are responsible just as Liberman, Yishai and Netanyahu." 

ACRI's El-Ad said the government's lack of action spoke volumes.

"Israel's foreign minister speaks at the UN General Assembly about the removal of Arab citizens from Israel and he doesn't lose his position, the chief rabbi of Safed, a state employee, tells people not to rent to Arabs and he doesn't lose his job," he said.

"On these occasions, the silence and inaction of the government is seen as giving legitimacy to these actions. We want the government to take action," he said.

Israeli rights groups and organizations which push for social change are regularly accused by Netanyahu's right-wing government of disloyalty to Israel.

Yes, they think and can see through the sham.

At the same time, the government is doubling its efforts to stem the flow of African economic immigrants into Israel, most of them from Sudan and Eritrea.

Brown and black Jews! Whatever will we do with them? And how can we say we are ALL the “chosen” ones if they are from Africa and Jewish?

And Israel's extreme right is continuing its crusade against Israel's Palestinian minority, regularly accusing them of "terrorist" ties and disloyalty to the country.

Among the groups participating in the rally were the Public Committee against Torture in Israel, Palestinian rights group Adalah, settlement watchdog Peace Now and many group which fight for the rights of Bedouins and foreign workers.