Gush Shalom

This morning British Airways announced the removal of its advertising billboard placed at the entrance to the settlement of Ariel. These billboards had been at the focus of a short but intensive campaign. Gush Shalom (the Israeli Peace Bloc) had been alerted to the placing of the billboards by activists monitoring settlement activity. Thereupon, Gush Shalom sent a letter to the British Airways administration, asking for the billboards removal, and informing its network of international contacts of the addresses where they could add their voice.

We just come back from a fiery demonstration — in protest at yesterday’s shooting at peace activists. The story of the seriously-wounded Gil Na’amati continues to make headlines. The 22-year-old kibbutznik had to be raced to hospital after he lost consciousness because of his heavy bleeding. Bothlegs were operated on to remove bullets. Two weeks ago Gil finished his three years of military service. His father reported on TV that what he had seen and had to participate in at the roadblocks in the West Bank had led him to protest. A Gush Shalom press release.

“I am willing to put myself at risk and serve as a human shield, in order to foil Prime Minster Sharon’s intention to murder the leader of the Palestinian People. So are many of my my fellows in the Israeli peace movement” declared the veteran peace activist Uri Avnery of Gush Shalom (the Israeli Peace Bloc) upon his arrival at the Presidential Compound in Ramallah. “To a person like me, who deeply cares about Israel’s future, there is nothing more important to do at this moment than do everything — and I do mean everything — in my power to prevent such a calamity. PM Sharon, Defence Minster Mofaz and their generals should know that if they send their soldiers in here, there will be Israeli peace activists here to bar their way” said Avnery, who mentioned that already last year, a group of Gush Shalom activists had spent the night at this compound, during a previous round of threats by Sharon against Arafat.

“The government of Israel has tonight resolved to commit a cold-blooded murder, with the implementation deferred — the cold blooded murder of the elected president of the Palestinians. Let there be no mistake about it. Let no one be fooled by the talk of ‘deportation’. There is no intention that Arafat will survive the encounter with Sharon’s soldiers. I know Sharon, I have followed his career for decades, ever since he was a young commando officer carrying out brutal cross-border raids. He has not changed in any essential, only in the amount of power held in his hands. He means to do it, he means to kill Arafat. He will watch for his chance, wait for a moment when the Amercians look elsewhere - and then he will pounce.”