Theperiod of calm dramatically changed the lives of the inhabitants ofSdrerot, Ashkelon and the communities around Gaza, and enabled us allto re-experience a normal and sane life. Continuing the period of calmis crucial and critical for the inhabitants of the areas from every possible angle: physical, psychological, mental and economic.

Anotherround of escalation could break down our psychological strength,fragile as it is, and bring all of us into another round of selfdestruction and pointless bloodshed. We will not necessarily surviveit, and you should be aware of that, if you really care about theinhabitants of the area. We've been in this movie for too many years,and the results speak for themselves - a feeling of no way out,abandonment and a loss of hope for us and our children!!

Onthe other side of the border a million and a half Palestinians live inan unbearable reality, and the majority of them, like us, want quietand a future for themselves and their families.

Wefeel that you wasted the period of calm, instead of using it to promoteunderstandings and the beginning of negotiations, as well as continuingto fortify the houses of the inhabitants, as you promised.

Wecall on the Prime Minister and the Defense Minister not to lend yourears to the voices of incitement, and to do whatever you can to preventanother round of escalation, to promise the continuation of the periodof calm and to work quietly for direct or indirect negotiations withthe Palestinian leadership in Gaza in order to achieve a document oflong term understandings.

Weprefer an option of a cold war in which not a single rocket is fired toa hot war with tens of innocent victims and casualties from both sides.

We ask that you offer us an option of a settlement and political hope, and not an endless cycle of bloodshed!!!  

"KolAcher" - A Different Voice is a group from Sderot and the communitiesaround Gaza, which has been engaged for the past year in conversationswith people from the Gaza Strip that represent "a different voice". Inthe conversations, the suffering and hardship on both sides of theborder come up, as well as the mutual will to break the continuingcycle of violence, and to offer a political option that will givecivilians on both sides of the fence a true hope for a better future.

http://www.haokets.org/mail-message.asp?ArticleID=2902

 Some photos from Thursday, 8 January rally in London (written synopsis of IJAN participation in ongoing demonstrations and pickets below):

Demonstrations outside the Israeli Embassy – always noisy anddemonstrative – have ranged from a few hundred to five thousand; the march andrally on Saturday was, the organisers say, 60,000 people, the biggest rally insupport of Palestine that we’ve seen in this country.

On Sunday 28^th – the first of the pickets -- therewere at least 2,000 people.  We were behind the barrier on one side of thestreet while the Israeli embassy side was lined with people.  There was ascuffle of some kind on the embassy side (we found out later it was an arrestof a Palestinian), and we all burst out of the barrier, hundreds blocking theroad.

Later, people again claiming to be the organisers calledpeople to march and most went.  When asked to where, we were told, justmarch.  But some of us stayed at the embassy gate, and when the marchcould not go further because they police blocked the road further on, themarchers, mostly young people, came back and again filled the road, blockingthe traffic.  

From Monday 29^th onwards we brought the IJANbanner – we were always very warmly welcomed as Jewish people standingunequivocally with Palestinian people against Zionism.  IJAN was one of the sponsors of the Embassypickets that continued outside the Israeli Embassy all week, except for Fridaywhen we moved to the Egyptian Embassy. 

Saturday’s demonstration was huge, perhaps 60,000 people: aswe passed 10 Downing Street, a thousand shoes were thrown in front of itsgates; the march rallied in to a completely packed Trafalgar Square whereprominent people had their say – Tony Benn,Bianca Jagger, Annie Lennox (singer), Ken Livingstone (formermayor of London) who said that the silence of the British government, and mostWestern governments is “obscene”.

Later that evening 5,000 of uspicketed the Israeli Embassy, which was heavily policed – too many police andpolice helicopters had been at every demonstration.  Roads were closed and police in riot gearused barriers to contain us and keep us away from the embassy itself. 

We will be part of the continuing pickets each evening nextweek, leading up to another national demonstration on Saturday outside theIsraeli Embassy: the demand will be Stop Israel'scrime against humanity.

IJAN UK