By Meir Margalit, former Elected member of the Jerusalem City Council for the Meretz Party and a founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.
More than three thousand Israelis participated in a peaceful demonstration last night demanding an immediately cease fire, under the slogan “Jews and Arabs refuse to be
enemies “, another everyday events held throughout the whole country.
We are certainly a minority, but our cry resounds throughout the country. For many,
we are “traitors”, “agents of Hamas”, “anti-Semitic-Jews”, but despite the threats, we shall not be intimidated and will continue demonstrating until the government understands that the killings make no sense and are unforgivable.
We are demonstrating not only for Gaza, but to try and save the human condition. Edgar Morin writes in his “Brief History of Barbarism in the West that “Humanist democratic conditions must be regenerated permanently, otherwise they degenerate … thinking about barbarism is to contribute to recreate humanism. Therefore it is to resist such barbarism”. Therefore we cannot be silent, since there so much is at stake. And he who is silent consents, he who does not raise his voice in these hellish hours becomes an accomplice of barbarism.
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In a country that has lost all moral values, we must stand firmly against right-wing nationalism and repeat that symbolic slogan “They shall not pass!” We will not allow savagery to emerge victorious.
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Together – pacifist Palestinians, Israelis and you – people of goodwill throughout the planet, we will end the violence, because although Israel has sophisticated weapons, we rely on justice, and she is more powerful than all the Israeli weapons.
Dr Meir Margalit (Center for Advancement of Peace Initiatives) from Jerusalem, July 18.
