lethargic_man | "End Hamas Terror: Peace for the people of Israel and Gaza" rally in Trafalgar Square

After some soul-searching, I attended the Israel peace rally today in Trafalgar Square. I went to one of these several years ago, and it turned out to be undiluted apologetic for Israel's actions—nothing for those of us who support Israel but disagree with the Israeli government's actions, and who stand for justice for the Palestinians as well. After that, I did not go to the next big Israel rally, but this one was titled "End Hamas Terror: Peace for the people of Israel and Gaza", so I went along, with some trepidations.

At the beginning, I was disturbed by the fact that the banners were all (barring a large Indian flag and a few others) blue and white (bearing the text above): there were no banners combining the Israeli and Palestinian flags. After a few minutes I saw a few tens of people marching bearing "Jews for Justice for Palestinians" banners, and I considered going to join them, but then I saw they also included people bearing banners calling for Olmert and others to be tried at the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague, and heard (though did not see) they also included Neturei Karta, so rapidly changed my mind. (They went over and joined a small pro-Palestinian counterdemonstration.)

The main rally turned out to be reasonably well balanced. They pointed out that Israel could not do nothing, when Hamas' rockets had been raining down on them, year after year, with ever-increasing range. They pointed out how Hamas use women and children as human shields, and schools and hospitals as military bases, in contravention of all codes of conduct of war. They talked about the soul-searching the Israeli military action has caused in Israel, and how Israelis and Jews all over the world grieve at the casualties this is causing on both sides.

But primarily, they talked about peace. Here's a quotation from what the Chief Rabbi said:

All it took to avoid this suffering was for Hamas to stop firing rockets on Israeli citizens.

Let a voice go out today from here in Trafalgar Square, and other gatherings being held, that we want peace.

We say to those who criticise Israel: You want Palestinian children to grow up with hope, so do we.

You want Palestinians to be able to live with dignity, so do we.

The day will come when Israelis and Palestinians will live together in peace.

It could be hundred years away, or it could be today, it is up to Hamas and the people that give them arms, for the sake of Israeli children and the Palestinian children, we say, let it be today.

And they urged everyone to text "LIFE" to 81400, which would donate £1.50 to a hospital in Israel, and a hospital in Gaza.

I'm not posting here to try and foist my views on anyone; I know better than to debate the politics of the Middle-East. But if you want to make a difference, rather than shouting "Shame on you!" to either side, this strikes me as a very worthy cause.

The organisers of the rally claimed at the time there were 35,000 people present, which was, frankly, ludicrous. By the time the BBC reported it online, that was down to 15,000. The police estimate 4000, which seems a little low to me, but not by much.

There were a series of emails flying around on Friday just before Shabbos purporting to be from the Board of Deputies claiming the rally had been cancelled; announcements were made in my shul on both Friday night and Saturday morning debunking this.

This afternoon, I discovered who was responsible for these emails. It turned out not to be a Palestinian organisation, but a Jewish individual. (He was supposed to be leyning in shul on Shabbos, but wasn't due to being grilled by the police at the time...) This person has a reputation for being a bit radical and left-wing; however, I think he's gone way too far, this time. One can but wonder how many people didn't discover these emails were a hoax, and failed to turn up as a result.