Uri Weltmann reports from Tel Aviv
Standing Together’s National Field Organiser, who was arrested on a recent anti-war protest, reports on recent events.
Last weekend we called for an emergency demonstration in Tel Aviv, titled “Either We End the War – Or the War Will End Us All”.
The call for the demonstration read:
“We won’t stay quiet facing the horrors. We call for an emergency demonstration against the Far Right’s War and against the plan to deport Palestinians from the northern part of the Gaza Strip, in order to make way for building new settlements.
The Far Right drags us all into a war against humanity and for settlements. They want more killing, more hunger and more destruction, in order to expand the settlements project to the Gaza Strip. They don’t care for the return of the hostages, nor do they care about our lives…
We can’t remain quiet faced with the terrible testimonials and documentations that comes out of the Gaza Strip, faced with tens of thousands of killed, orphaned and wounded, faced with the terrible hunger and deportation, and knowing that all of this is meant to serve an Extreme Right-wing government, that thinks only about itself and the minority it represents.
We won’t be captive in the hands of a handful of extremist settlers. We won’t be silenced about hunger and death in the Gaza Strip. We will convene in Habima Square in Tel-Aviv calling clearly to stop the war, stop the war crimes in Gaza, return the hostages, and advance towards a peace agreement, which is the only way to guarantee us all security”.
More than one thousand convened in a short notice in Habima Square, to carry bilingual purple placards that read “No To the War of Settlements in Gaza”and “Accept the Deal, End the War, Out of Gaza!”, and listen to speeches from leaders of Standing Together, Women Wage Peace, and Combatants for Peace.
Listen to the speech at the demonstration (with English subtitles) of Alon-Lee Green, National Co-Director of Standing Together:
And a shorter version on Instagram:
Listen to the speech (with English subtitles) of Rula Daood, National Co-Director of Standing Together:
A thread with videos from the demonstration:
After the speeches in Habima Square, we began to march towards the weekly demonstration of the families of the hostages. As we were marching, two policemen detained me and I was taken to the police station, where I was handcuffed and held in a cell for seven hours, until questioned and released at 3am at night.
Haaretz reported about my arrest, as well as about the police harassment of Alon-Lee.
After my release, I gave a short interview to Standing Together’s publication Rosa Media. It is in Hebrew, but an English translation was made available.
A video of my arrest can be found here:
Much appreciated solidarity statement from the Die Linke (The Left) party in Germany:
Alon-Lee’s video about how the police harassed him:
Posted 8 November