This a report about a flyer created for a rally in Amsterdam, April, 2002

Yesterday I went to a demonstration to support Israel. I struggled both with fear - there were a lot of anti-Semitic incidents at a demonstration to support the Palestinians last week - and with how I could present a rational voice there?

In the night before the rally I wrote this:

IN FAVOR OF COOPERATION
BETWEEN PALESTINIANS AND ISRAELIS
BETWEEN JEWS AND MUSLIMS

We will not be set up against each other any longer.
The real enemy are greed, hypocrisy, racism, anti-Semitism.
Also in Palestine and Israel.
No more violence - not in any form - violence is a little old-fashioned -talking to each other is what we need. Between Arafat and Sharon. Between Peres and Abu Ala. Between an inhabitant of Kalqilia and an inhabitant of Herzlya.
Between the parents of a Russian Jewish girl who was kiled at the discotheque and the parents of a Palestinian boy who was killed in Jenin.
The same tears, the same emptiness. How do we put our two countries back on their feet again.
How do we make sure that we don't act on old fear any longer.
The emotions about all that happened do have to come out - but as emotional discharge - not as a guideline to act on the basis of.
New, fruitful strategies - hand in hand.

Committee for rational solutions in Israel and Palestine.
jumako@hotmail.com

Page last updated may 7th, 2002